abandoned trains?

[scharnhorst]

could this stuff be in a nuclear test area ?? or Chernobyl ??

There is a an Abandoned Railroad Yard to the West of the Chernobyl Power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine thats loaded with cars and locomotives that were used in the clean up of the area that are abandoned. The main line tracks are vary much still active and see trains crossing back and forth between Ukraine and Belarus in the area. For the recored the city of Chernobyl is to the south of the power plant. The power Plant its self is in the City of Pripyat, Ukraine which is where the Power plant workers and there family's lived. The city of Pripyat is named after the Pripyat River which is a tributary of the Dnieper River which flows south to the Black Sea. Chernobyl is named after the Chernihiv Oblast which is where the now closed power plant is located.

When The Soviet Union came to an end in 1991 solders just up and left there posts leaving billions of dollars of equipment to rot. There are many abandoned city's all over the former USSR. Many City's had an important's for the Soviet Mining, science, and military defense chain during the cold war. When the USSR came to an end these city's were no longer needed so all the utility's were cut stranding thousands of people in the middle of no where to find there way to civilization. I have been to many locations with in the former USSR and its not uncommon to still find bunkers filled with abandoned military supply's, fully furnished houses that have fallen in, whole city's built to support 60,000+ people with belongings left behind. Its not uncommon to find Trains that were killed on lines where they were when the power was cut hundreds of miles out in the middle of no where.

As far as Nuclear Tests sites go 90% of them were carried out in the Far Northern uninhabited areas of the Soviet Union close to the arctic circle and underground or near the Chinese boarder sent's both sides were not vary friendly with each other..

[Shirehorse]

The other three reactors of the CNPP continued to produce power until being finally decommissioned in 2007. The equipment you see sitting is irradiated from its use in the cleanup process.

[scharnhorst]

The other three reactors of the CNPP continued to produce power until being finally decommissioned in 2007. The equipment you see sitting is irradiated from its use in the cleanup process.

After the explosion at reactor four, the remaining three reactors at the power plant continued to operate. In 1991, reactor two suffered a major fire, and was subsequently decommissioned. In November 1996, reactor one was shut down, followed by reactor three on December 15, 2000, making good on a promise by Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma that the entire plant would be closed which is no longer on line. Even after the last reactor shutdown, people continue to work at the Chernobyl plant until reactor units 1, 2, and 3 are totally decommissioned, which is expected to take years. The first stage of decommissioning is the removal of the highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel, which is placed in deep water cooling ponds. However, storage facilities for this are not suitable for long term containment, and those on site do not have the capacity for all the spent fuel from units 1, 2 and 3. A second facility is planned for construction that will use dry storage technology suitable for long term storage and have the required capacity. Removal of uncontaminated equipment has begun at unit 1 and this work could be complete by 2020–2022.

Only a maintaince crew remains on site to do inspections of the grounds to see that there are no cracks and to take air samples to see that there are no radiation leaks. A crew also sees that a sprinkler system is running 24 hours a day 365 days a year to keep the dust down in the complex as well. This was the last of the tv news I got from my last trip in August to Ukraine 2010.

[slchub]

well then I think that answers my question. Any railroad cars or rails/row, is/are owned by someone. If a boxcar is overgrown with weeds sitting on a rusty old siding in the woods, that just means whoever owns it, they just haven't gotten around to fixing it up, or scrapping it, whatever the case may be.

When I hired out for the UP in 2004, they were using contract employees for some of the initial Conductor training. The gentleman we had in our class was from the CSX in South Carolina. He said that for some reason an old auto rack had been discovered out on a spur track with autos in it (early 1970's autos which had pretty much been "parted out" as the auto racks back then were not enclosed) which had been grown with weeds and kudzu. This came about when we were discussing train lists, car set-outs, proper documentation, etc.

[scharnhorst]

I found a video on youtube showing abandoned Railroad equipment in the former USSR its not all in or around Chernobyl according to the person who made the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKPE7ohwXXY

[v8interceptor]

well then I think that answers my question. Any railroad cars or rails/row, is/are owned by someone. If a boxcar is overgrown with weeds sitting on a rusty old siding in the woods, that just means whoever owns it, they just haven't gotten around to fixing it up, or scrapping it, whatever the case may be.

When I hired out for the UP in 2004, they were using contract employees for some of the initial Conductor training. The gentleman we had in our class was from the CSX in South Carolina. He said that for some reason an old auto rack had been discovered out on a spur track with autos in it (early 1970's autos which had pretty much been "parted out" as the auto racks back then were not enclosed) which had been grown with weeds and kudzu. This came about when we were discussing train lists, car set-outs, proper documentation, etc.

I guess that could have happened but it does sound suspiciously like a variation of the old "abandoned boxcar full of mint Packards(Deusenbergs, ect.)" Urban Legend that pops up on rail forums every so often...

[airman00]

With big railroad companies like CSX, NS, UP, etc., they probably have a rolling stock roster of thousands upon thousands of cars of all kinds. What are the chances of one empty boxcar left forgotten on an old abandoned siding? My guess is slim chance of seeing that but still possible. Now what are the chances, in those thousands of cars, that a loaded boxcar (with whatever's being delivered inside) gets accidentally lost or forgotten? Probably slim and none, but again still possible when you deal with thousands of cars on a daily basis.

As an example I once had a package lost by UPS only to be found by the guy who shipped it 3-4 days later. Even with a tracking number and with everything computerized these days that package somehow still got lost only to be found, by accident.

Now with the way things are done these days, perhaps one wrong keystroke on a computer could in theory send a car to destination "A" instead of perhaps it's intended destination "B".

[scharnhorst]

With big railroad companies like CSX, NS, UP, etc., they probably have a rolling stock roster of thousands upon thousands of cars of all kinds. What are the chances of one empty boxcar left forgotten on an old abandoned siding? My guess is slim chance of seeing that but still possible. Now what are the chances, in those thousands of cars, that a loaded boxcar (with whatever's being delivered inside) gets accidentally lost or forgotten? Probably slim and none, but again still possible when you deal with thousands of cars on a daily basis.

As an example I once had a package lost by UPS only to be found by the guy who shipped it 3-4 days later. Even with a tracking number and with everything computerized these days that package somehow still got lost only to be found, by accident.

Now with the way things are done these days, perhaps one wrong keystroke on a computer could in theory send a car to destination "A" instead of perhaps it's intended destination "B".

There was a story published in Trans Mag a few years back about a GWI taking control of an Old Southern Pacific line in Texas in the ealy 90's. A Sugar company there was approached by GWI to restart shipping by rail again the company had first told them that SP was a bad operator with crappy service. but was willing to try rail service one more time. So GWI being connected to SP requested 3 Boxcars when the cars arrived 1 car was sent back because it was missing a door and never came back nor was a replacement car dropped the other 2 cars were loaded 1 car made it to where it was supposed to go and the 2ed never arrived it vanished some place on the Southern Pacific RR. Its from my understanding that near the end of the Southern Pacific's life span they had the worst on time pick up and delivery next to Penn Central in the country according to what was published in the Trains Magazine.

[justalurker66]

As an example I once had a package lost by UPS only to be found by the guy who shipped it 3-4 days later.

It is easy to get a tracking number without actually shipping an item. The biggest black hole in the small package shipping system is between when the shipper gets the number and when it is first scanned by the carrier. Until that first scan there is no proof that the shipper ever shipped anything.

Now with the way things are done these days, perhaps one wrong keystroke on a computer could in theory send a car to destination "A" instead of perhaps it's intended destination "B".

Perhaps. There is also a lot of RFID tracking in place where the system can see where a car was last seen. Once the system realizes that the car has not been delivered finding it shouldn't be too hard. Having multiple carriers involved will slow the process ... especially if one claims they handed off the car and the next claims they never got it.

Pre-electronic tracking I would not be surprised what got lost ... especially during the dark days of railroads where it seems many were fighting being bankrupt.

[scharnhorst]

As an example I once had a package lost by UPS only to be found by the guy who shipped it 3-4 days later.

It is easy to get a tracking number without actually shipping an item. The biggest black hole in the small package shipping system is between when the shipper gets the number and when it is first scanned by the carrier. Until that first scan there is no proof that the shipper ever shipped anything.

Now with the way things are done these days, perhaps one wrong keystroke on a computer could in theory send a car to destination "A" instead of perhaps it's intended destination "B".

Perhaps. There is also a lot of RFID tracking in place where the system can see where a car was last seen. Once the system realizes that the car has not been delivered finding it shouldn't be too hard. Having multiple carriers involved will slow the process ... especially if one claims they handed off the car and the next claims they never got it.

Pre-electronic tracking I would not be surprised what got lost ... especially during the dark days of railroads where it seems many were fighting being bankrupt.

I wonder how confusing it got during the Conrail Split between NS and CSX with conflicting car numbers and cars that had yet to be remarked to NYC and PRR Marks? There were 2 Coal Hoppers in Geneva NY 1 Norfolk Southern and 1 Conrail both had the same car number the Conrail Car went to NS but had not been remarked PRR. As a result the NS car was pulled and set on a siding where it sat for almost 2 years before NS picked it up.