I realize the following isn't about model trains, but I wanted to share it with those that might find it interesting......
This morning found us in "Old Town Spring" - an antique/craft town north of Houston. We were stopped by the UP tracks that go to College Station (think President Bush's funeral train), northwest of here.
We heard the sounds of a locomotive horn and shortly two locos appeared - one a very dirty but very large UP and a similar model in Canadian Pacific road and brown in color. The train was going relatively fast for this area, a good 30 - 35 mph. At that speed, my guess it would go through UP's Spring storage yard and directly to the Houston yard.
I began to count the cars - a habit since I can recall. Keeping in mind the train was going fairly fast, and there were only two locos on the front end (albeit big ones), I didn't expect a long train. So I got to 50, and then 75, and then 100, and ended up at 124 cars.
Three things hit me.......
- this was the longest (most number of cars) train I can recall.
- there were only two locos - no others mid-train or pushing.
- it was an honest to goodness mixed car freight - with both loads and empties. There were "regular" hoppers and covered hoppers, various box cars, empty and full gondolas, wood product flats, several types/sizes of tank cars, regular flats with various loads, and so on. The only type of car I didn't see were container cars, TOFCs, auto carriers, or refrigerator cars.
This really made my day, for the typical train thru here is one type of car - auto carrier, hoppers, or tank cars.
Wish you all could have watched it go by.................
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
You're lucky. Here in Southern Delaware, we only have one rail line. They run relatively short trains of covered grain hoppers. They serve Big Chicken, the only large-scale business down here. I've been here almost 4 years, and have yet to see a moving train. The chickens are shipped out by truck, so no activity going out.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Was Heather Locklear sitting next to you in the car watching this? If so, I am sorry to inform you it was a dream. But a nice one to be sure.
Dave Nelson
All it needed was a caboose on the end and it would have been perfect.
Lots of mixed freight (manifest) trains around here on the CN, CP and WSOR.
The CN runs a north bound unit train of empty center beam flats, usually 80 to 100 or more cars, daily, which I thought was interesting.
Mike.
My You Tube
MisterBeasley You're lucky. Here in Southern Delaware, we only have one rail line. They run relatively short trains of covered grain hoppers. They serve Big Chicken, the only large-scale business down here. I've been here almost 4 years, and have yet to see a moving train. The chickens are shipped out by truck, so no activity going out.
I live near a branchline of the Ohio Central that runs from Newark, OH to Mt. Vernon. I used to think it only served the grain elevators there but have since been informed there are several customers in town. It's an old branch of the B&O and used to go all the way north to Sandusky. I live about 3 miles east of the line as the crow flies and can hear the horn tooting at every grade crossing as it passes through Utica. One one train a day goes up and down the line and every once in a while I'll come across it, maybe 2 or 3 times a year.
Here in Havre de Grace Maryland as the old B&O mainline crosses the mighty Susquehanna River, most of the CSX trains I see are mixed freight. Other include the Tropicana trains, trash trains, and solid intermodal trains.
Sheldon
The only trains that I see on the north-south NS and CSX mainlines near me in central Georgia are mixed freight trains. Lots of newer built freight cars too, clean without graffitti. The older covered hoppers look pretty beat up though.
The only unit trains I've ever really seen were on the East-West mainlines in Indianapolis, unit container trains; and in central Nebraska growing up in the 70's, unit coal trains.
- Douglas
Ya, I think it has more to do with where you are located than an actual 'thing' re trains. Long trains with mixed freight car types are really pretty normal most places, but if you live on a line that has a lot of unit trains you might not think that's the case.
I live near the BNSF double line to Powder River coal area, so probably 90% of the trains I watch are unit coal trains. The other 10% are covered hoppers and tank cars for the ethanol plants here.
Like Mobilman44 posted, it's very unusual to see any kind of mixed freight train.
The most unusual train I've ever seen here -- the BNSF line 30 miles south of me that carries Amtrak across the state was blocked by a derailment. Amtrak was rerouted onto the line here. I was lucky enough to be out early in the morning when the California Zephyr came through. Very neat sight for our town.
York1 John
I don't live near a busy rail line but I venture into Columbus quite often and right behind my favorite LHS running through north Columbus are parallel NS and CSX tracks. The CSX is an old NYC line. I see mostly unit trains but occasionally I'll see a mixed freight train. For the most part, I'm not a fan of modern railroading. I would never model a freight train that didn't have a caboose on the end.
John-NYBW I don't live near a busy rail line but I venture into Columbus quite often and right behind my favorite LHS running through north Columbus are parallel NS and CSX tracks. The CSX is an old NYC line. I see mostly unit trains but occasionally I'll see a mixed freight train. For the most part, I'm not a fan of modern railroading. I would never model a freight train that didn't have a caboose on the end.
Same here, I don't really know much at all about current locos or rolling stock. Railroading has always been a dirty business, but now it is rusty, dirty and ugly with the criminal "art". The whole thing leaves me cold and uninterested. Not to mention the limited number of railroads in these post merger times.
I just happen to live and work in a place were we see them nearly every day.
mobilman44This morning found us in "Old Town Spring" - an antique/craft town north of Houston. We were stopped by the UP tracks that go to College Station (think President Bush's funeral train), northwest of here.
Did you eat at Wunsche Brother's Cafe?
(former Asst Trainmaster at Spring, TX.)
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I live about a mile or so from the famous Rockville Bridge, where the former PRR mainline crosses the Susquehanna River, and is just north of Enola Yard. (Also CP controls the former D&H line which comes down the east shore of the Susquehanna River to Harrisburg.)
Although we see intermodal trains all the time, and unit coal trains, and solid blocks of 40 to 50 or even more 89' autoracks at one time, we also see plenty of mixed freight trains.
Motive power ranges from NS and CSX to UP, BNSF, CP, CN and even KCS and/or Mexican FXE. Anything and everything can show up at any time.
John
We were stopped right next to Wunsche's. It's reopened now, after a change of ownership and a fire that put it out of commission for a couple years. I used to be a regular in the '80s thru the early 2000s. Good food, great ambiance, and always a chance of a train to watch out the window.
I was Asst Trainmaster before there was a Lloyd (Spring) Yard. Originally there was a siding south of the wye with a pair of set out tracks on either side at the north end.
Right across from the Cafe, there was a temporary train order office that was a 15 ft aluminum travel trailer. The crews would phone food orders to the operator who would get them at the cafe and "hoop" them up to the crews as they went through. That's the location I learned that you can't "hoop" a milkshake to a moving train.
Originally Spring Yard was supposed to be a hump yard. The long tracks were supposed to be the recieving yard and where the SIT yard is now was supposed to be the departure yard, with the bowl in the middle and the hump down by Spring Creek. However they decided instead to rebuild Settegast in Houston and so the construction only got as far as it is now and the trim leads on the North end became the switching lead.
While they were rebuilding Settegast they moved 1/2 the switching up to Spring (by then renamed Lloyd yard after John Lloyd) and then rebuilt half of Settegast. When they completed the first half of Settegast, they just shifted the operation there to the rebuilt half and then redid the other half. About the same time they double tracked Houston to Spring. The old siding became part of the second main track. There was a dispute about rebuilding the grade crossings for the second main track, about who was going to pay for the road modifications. City Councilman McGowen wouldn't let the railroad put the 2nd main track through the grade crossings until the railroad agreed to pay for rebuildign the roads. That's why one of the crossovers between Houston and Spring is named "McGowen".
Dehusman,
Thank you for that info, it is appreciated. I moved here from Dallas in early 1981 and I believe the railroad thru Spring was the MKT (correction - it was the MP), which at some point was absorbed by the UP. Up until 25 years ago it was worth going trackside to train watch, but then (sadly) it became boring with the unit or almost unit trains.
Nope MP on both sides.
The line from Palestine was the former International Great Northern (IGN or Ginnie) and the line to Ft Worth was the Houston & Brazos Valley (the BV) the BV became part of the IGN which was part of the MP. The BV line ran up to Ft Worth via Waco and interchanged with the TP just east of Tower 55. The yard there was called the "Ginnie Yard". In the 50's, the MP got trackage rights over the MKT from Waco to Tower 55. The only thing left of the original line is a mile or two near Waco (the "Old Mart Main") and the Everman Industrial Lead just east of Tower 55. The BV side operates from Spring Jct to Bryan, then is on trackage rights over the SP to Navasota, then back on the BV to Waco, then on the MKT to Tower 55 and then over the former TP to Centennial Yard (now Davidson Yard) at Ft Worth. Back in the 1970's it took 7 dispatchers or control operators to get a train between Houston and Ft Worth. HBT RTC from Settegast to Belt Jct, MP Palestine Dispatcher Belt Jct to Spring Jct, MP Ft Worth Dispatcher Spring to Bryan and Navasota to Waco, SP dispatcher Bryan to Navasota, MKT dispatcher Waco to T55, Twer 55 operator, TP Baird Sub dispatcher Twr 55 to Centennial.
In the summer of 1970, I worked at an old fashioned ice house and they also did some cold storage. I remember one day I was assigned to unload a single reefer of boxed frozen meat. It was on a little spur track off the C&O line that ran through northwest Columbus, OH. I can't remember if that was the before or after the Chessie System had been created but definitely before CSX. I doubt the CSX bothers dropping off a single car anywhere along that line today.
I think my favorite part of running my layout is the peddler freight which is a turn that leaves the main yard with 12-15 cars to be spotted while picking up others along the way, turns around in staging and eventually returns at the end of the day.
Oh the beauty of watching trains.
The days of being at the trackside in hope of seeing a train pass. Many a time not seeing one at all.
Then the time a train passes. Nothing special, but the joy.
Watching trains from the same position over time the same types of train pass. Oh the excitement.
Santa Apolonia Train Station in Lisbon is a favorite place for me. Still the same locomotives and trains are seen. Then a train with graffitti along its side arrives.
Watching trains still brings the boy (or girl) out in us. Seeing something out of the 'normal' passing is magical.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Not being a fan of model railroading, I don't experience joy from a passing train, especially a long unit train. Container cars have largely replaced the boxcar. Just doesn't interest me much. Now if I happen to catch the short train that goes up and down the nearby branchline, I'll take a gander just to see what the consist is. Often it's about a dozen plug door boxcars which I'm guessing are carrying grain from the elevators at end of the line. Ocassionally I'll see a tank car or two or some covered hoppers. It's more interesting to see what loco(s) is on it. The last time I saw it, there was one at each end.
wjstix Ya, I think it has more to do with where you are located than an actual 'thing' re trains. Long trains with mixed freight car types are really pretty normal most places, but if you live on a line that has a lot of unit trains you might not think that's the case.
Yeah, I don't know why people think somehow that general "mixed" freight isn't a thing....
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
John-NYBWOften it's about a dozen plug door boxcars which I'm guessing are carrying grain from the elevators at end of the line.
In this day and age I would think that it would be highly unlikely that those cars are carrying grain, unless it is a bagged product.