Single locomotive leading 100+ car trains?

The WC in its last few years wasn't afraid to put 1 SD45 on a 80 to 130 car ore empty. Train handling was easy: put her in 8 and put your feet up. One time I did have one crap out on me, just stopped loading while I was pulling out of the siding. I had a crossing (and the main) blocked for 2 1/2 hours before a relief engine got to me.

Sounds like you had one hell of a day there Blackdog,

I saw something like this happen once with an older Conrail B40-8 working along on a transfer run with 40 cars the crew crossed from Tack 1 to track 2 and was heading into a small yard. The engion died out after crossing the 7th switch point. 7 Switches blocked counting the double cross over on the main line thankfully it was on a Sunday and traffic was far from the seen and a local crew 5 miles away was able to help out in pushing while a short line operator 50 yards away stoped to help pull the train as well.

jg greenwood wrote:

emd_SD_60 wrote:

emd_SD_60 wrote:This evening, I happened to get caught by a train. Only this wasn't a regular train. This particular train had a single 4000 H.P SD70 (quite an oddity for IC) leading a northbound grain drag. As the first ten-fifteen cars passed, I looked down south and saw nothing but a long ribbon of grain hoppers (this was at North Carbondale) that must have stretched well past the two coal towers! This train had to at least be two miles long.

I guess with today's high-horsepower locomotives, running regular-length freight trains with a single locomotive is becoming more common...

Again saw the same thing about 45 minutes ago. A single BNSF Dash 9 (whoa!) leading nothing but grain cars. Must be the same train a few weeks back, but with a leased BNSF loco.

Within the next few days BNSF detour coal-trains are due to begin operating over the IC. Loads will run, via the BNSF, from Centralia to Metropolis Jct. BNSF crews will run over the IC from Metropolis Jct. to Memphis. The empties will run up the Centralia-sub. BNSF crews will man the empties from Cairo, IL. to Centralia, IL. IIRC, these are trains destined for, and returning from a power plant in Georgia. Maintenance work on the Thayer-sub is the likely reason for these detours.

Isn't the BNSF line that runs from south Centralia, runs through such towns/cities as Sesser, Christopher, Zeigler, east Herrin, Marion, and Goreville, at the Lake of Egypt power plant called the Beardstown sub?

emd_SD_60 wrote:

jg greenwood wrote:

emd_SD_60 wrote:

emd_SD_60 wrote:This evening, I happened to get caught by a train. Only this wasn't a regular train. This particular train had a single 4000 H.P SD70 (quite an oddity for IC) leading a northbound grain drag. As the first ten-fifteen cars passed, I looked down south and saw nothing but a long ribbon of grain hoppers (this was at North Carbondale) that must have stretched well past the two coal towers! This train had to at least be two miles long.

I guess with today's high-horsepower locomotives, running regular-length freight trains with a single locomotive is becoming more common...

Again saw the same thing about 45 minutes ago. A single BNSF Dash 9 (whoa!) leading nothing but grain cars. Must be the same train a few weeks back, but with a leased BNSF loco.

Within the next few days BNSF detour coal-trains are due to begin operating over the IC. Loads will run, via the BNSF, from Centralia to Metropolis Jct. BNSF crews will run over the IC from Metropolis Jct. to Memphis. The empties will run up the Centralia-sub. BNSF crews will man the empties from Cairo, IL. to Centralia, IL. IIRC, these are trains destined for, and returning from a power plant in Georgia. Maintenance work on the Thayer-sub is the likely reason for these detours.

Isn't the BNSF line that runs from south Centralia, runs through such towns/cities as Sesser, Christopher, Zeigler, east Herrin, Marion, and Goreville, at the Lake of Egypt power plant called the Beardstown sub?

The Centralia-sub is in reference to the IC. The BNSF line from Centralia to Metropolis is the Beardstown sub.

Also those coal cars (JHMX's I believe) are better maintained than any other railroad car I see. No "clickity clacks", bad flatspots, etc. You can barely hear them moving. Back on topic, last monday I saw yet another northbound grain empty, with new Dash 9 2700 leading. With those new higher H.P GEVO's and SD70M-2's on the way, the chances of seeing this will be bigger.

jg greenwood wrote:

emd_SD_60 wrote:I wonder why the IC had to order their earlier SD40's and GP40's with DB, only to have them removed later on... it just seemed ridiculous. Same with the ex-GMO units. Make up your mind IC! Also when they bought the BN units, half of them had their DB's removed, yet the ones in the 6200 series retained them. At least the SD70's DB's came standard. I thought with the merger they (CN)would be retrofitting the SD40's with DB's, since they're now part of the CN general freight pool.

Word is they didn't want the added expense ? of maintaining the dynamic brakes. Seems that expense would be miniscule compared to the current cost of diesel fuel.

And because the IC was fairly flat, like MoPac? I like DB's on the older EMD's, with the blisters. A lot better than seeing a piece of flat sheetmetal.

Bumping this back to the top...

Well I just saw the same thing again this morning, SD40-2 6110 pulling nothing but Cargill grain hoppers.

emd_SD_60 wrote:Also those coal cars (JHMX's I believe) are better maintained than any other railroad car I see. No "clickity clacks", bad flatspots, etc. You can barely hear them moving. Back on topic, last monday I saw yet another northbound grain empty, with new Dash 9 2700 leading. With those new higher H.P GEVO's and SD70M-2's on the way, the chances of seeing this will be bigger.

"Clickety Clacks" are usually from a wheel hitting a railjoint, correct? I believe the lack of such sound would indicate CWR, rather than a well maintained freight car.

TxBritt

txbritt wrote:

emd_SD_60 wrote:Also those coal cars (JHMX's I believe) are better maintained than any other railroad car I see. No "clickity clacks", bad flatspots, etc. You can barely hear them moving. Back on topic, last monday I saw yet another northbound grain empty, with new Dash 9 2700 leading. With those new higher H.P GEVO's and SD70M-2's on the way, the chances of seeing this will be bigger.

"Clickety Clacks" are usually from a wheel hitting a railjoint, correct? I believe the lack of such sound would indicate CWR, rather than a well maintained freight car.

TxBritt

I don't think the rail has anyting to do with it... I have been near a track that is CWR most of the way, I think it is flatspots on the wheels. This is what I know so far, maybe someone else can back up here. Believe me, the "clickety clack" of wheels going over joints sounds a lot different than flatspots.

Not to beat a dead horse, but...

"Clickity Clack" comes from railjoints. A deeper, bassier "clunk clunk" come from wheels crossing frogs at switches.

Flatspots make a "bam, bam, bam" sound everytime they hit the rail. There's no mistaking this sound for anything other than what it is. Some times if you have multiple flatspots on the same wheel you'll get a "ka-bam, ka-bam, ka-bam" It really sucks if its on the locomotive you're operating.

I spend 8-12 hours on a locomotive daily, I hear it all.

TxBritt

txbritt wrote:Some times if you have multiple flatspots on the same wheel you'll get a "ka-bam, ka-bam, ka-bam"

Now that you mention that, that's a sound I seem to always hear, if the train is moving at a moderately slow speed. I'll have to go back and review my train videos and see how they sound at track speed, as my mind ain't that clear right now... (they probably sound like what you previously mentioned, only faster) But that "ka-bam ka-bam ka-bam" of multiple flatspots is a sound I am very familiar with.

On Chessie's Toledo sub they'd sometimes assign as single GP40[-2] (read: four axle) to haul a 100-car mixed freight. I think on average the trains ran about 20 mph. Although if you had enough continuous flat track I'm sure it or even a GP15 could get it up to 65.

Last month I saw a single IC SD40-2 (6100 I believe), pulling a long string of Cargill grain hoppers. The train probably wasn't going over 30 I bet.

The Detroit & Toledo Shorline used to run consistently 150+ cars freights from Toledo to Detroit with 2 GP-7's the longest I heard of was 186 cars.

I guess since I like the D&TSL, DTI, NKP, and Wabash, I enjoy the look of flat sheetmetal versus dynamic brakes.

Rick

N. Todd wrote:On Chessie's Toledo sub they'd sometimes assign as single GP40[-2] (read: four axle) to haul a 100-car mixed freight. I think on average the trains ran about 20 mph. Although if you had enough continuous flat track I'm sure it or even a GP15 could get it up to 65.

The Florida East Coast (back before they retired the GP-9s) used to use a single one (even the old SW-9/SW-1200's too!) on transfer drags of 50-80 cars in Jacksonville. Again, all flat...you could put nearly the whole yard behind those Geeps and they'd manage to drag it around a 15 or 20 mph.