CSX Charlotte Runner

When walking to work this morning, I heard the whistle for I presume Ridge Rd at about 7:20. ( heard it from Seneca Rd. about halfway between Titus Ave and Ridge Rd East.)

Probably servicing the box shop before shoving back to Kodak.

I happened to be at the mini mart at the McCall Rd crossing and saw a CSX maintenance truck cross McCall Rd. He was traveling northbound and stopped shortly after he crossed. The crossing lights and gates were still activated. He then got out of his vehicle and went to the crossing to wave vehicles across until another rail mounted vehicle came up to the crossing. The attached pictures are of that second vehicle. I assume it is doing some type of inspection given that it had the Sperry name on the side. If you look under the rear frame you can see white lights illuminating the rail bed. It was going 4 or 5 mph and continued north across Dewey Ave along with the CSX truck as its escort. I find it interesting how much attention this section of the Charlotte runner is getting. Does anyone know what this vehicle is looking for?

I would think more than likely that it's just required inspection......

Charlie

It's looking for internal rail flaws - cracks, etc. It uses various equipment to detect these flaws. The track can be marked to indicate where the flaw is.

For more info - http://www.trainweb.org/elso/SPERRY.HTM and even more info is available at the official Sperry site - http://www.sperryrail.com/

Many railroads have these checks performed annually - some are based on miles travelled on the rails.

Gil, known as Bill somedays ...

Thank you, Gil. Those sites were very informative. I would guess that CSX is making a conscious effort to keep this line in service.

Hojack One wrote:Thank you, Gil. Those sites were very informative. I would guess that CSX is making a conscious effort to keep this line in service.

It's a required periodic inspection for in-service track. The Charlotte Runner is not abandoned, there's just fewer trains using it than in the past.

That Sperry truck has been all over the place the last few months, seems like I saw it parked at a hotel in Batavia that train show weekend, and there's a hotel here they always stay at that I see it in front of frequently.

New user here/ first post!
I don't know about you, but this look pretty active to me...
Considering I took this photo with my cell phone about 3:00 today (thursday 5/19)
River street, Charlotte...
Moving a big line of coal cars and chemical tanks.....

Sorry about the size of the photos...still getting the hang of this.....
Taken from the Lake Ave bridge

Car storage perhaps?

Coal hoppers are priority cars. I suspect that the night job outlawed and the day job went down, cleaned out the rest of Kodak's outbounds and ran around the train at the West Yard, doubled it together and departed Southbound.

Why would they take the train all the way to Charlotte to run around it instead of running around at Kodak?

Mountainbiker wrote:New user here/ first post!

Welcome and thanks for sharing your photo with us!

Kodak full for some reason?