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Railroading at it's best....

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Railroading at it's best....
Posted by CMStPnP on Wednesday, January 12, 2022 7:20 PM

Damn, that is a lot of horsepower up front if all those locomotives are in use......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZrMH1yFfBs

 

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Posted by kgbw49 on Wednesday, January 12, 2022 7:42 PM

BNSF typically has 4 to 6 units on the head end of its hottest intermodal trains depending on the length. Maybe not the Super C, but perhaps the Super Z.

In a similar vein, this gentleman provides commentary as a westbound intermodal streaks by.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=olp0Aux8NuY

 

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, January 12, 2022 8:08 PM

The fellow in the second video needs to step back a few feet. 

The first isn't much better. 

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by kgbw49 on Wednesday, January 12, 2022 9:55 PM

Indeed. I would suspect the train crews were not thrilled to see someone that close to the loading gauge.

To the OP's point, BNSF certainly seems to know how to move their Z trains.

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Posted by 7j43k on Wednesday, January 12, 2022 10:56 PM

The guy in the second video was about a foot inside the signal bridge.

His risk was pretty much banding slicing him up.  How often does that happen?

A clever lad would have put a couple of cameras up facing fore and aft.  And thus maintain a goodly distance away from said banding.

But, statistically.  Mr. Risk Taker was ahead of the game.

I do like his enthusiasm, though it might get old.

 

Ed

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Posted by kgbw49 on Thursday, January 13, 2022 12:03 AM

Here is another example of BNSF putting 26,400 horses to work pulling one of their highest priority service offerings:

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/792409/

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, January 13, 2022 12:44 AM

Beautiful photo - thanks

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, January 13, 2022 7:36 AM

7j43k
His risk was pretty much banding slicing him up.  How often does that happen?

Don't know, but I don't really want to the the "bad example..."

Some years ago we were preparing for a Polar Express Trip in Utica.  Our track is right next to the CSX "Chicago Line."  As such, we have trains going by all the time.  

We usually keep at least a cursory eye on passing trains.  While we aren't really obligated to do so (as would be a CSX employee), it doesn't hurt.

That particular night we saw a large chain hanging off the side of a flat car, dancing off the ballast.  The damage that would do to a person would be incredible - they were moving at about the 50 MPH allowed there.

It was dangling low enough that it might have caught a switch stand or the like.

One of our crew members contacted CSX.  Unfortunately, it was about 10 cars from the rear of the train, so the conductor probably got a good walk out of it.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Gramp on Thursday, January 13, 2022 7:47 AM

CMStPnP

Damn, that is a lot of horsepower up front if all those locomotives are in use......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZrMH1yFfBs

 

 

How fast do you think that train was traveling?

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, January 13, 2022 7:53 AM

7j43k
The guy in the second video was about a foot inside the signal bridge.

His risk was pretty much banding slicing him up.  How often does that happen?

A clever lad would have put a couple of cameras up facing fore and aft.  And thus maintain a goodly distance away from said banding.

But, statistically.  Mr. Risk Taker was ahead of the game.

I do like his enthusiasm, though it might get old.

Ed

During my time as a Train Order Operator - handing up Train Orders as well as inspecting all trains passing my location even if I didn't have to hand up Orders - I would venture about one out of a hundred trains would have something 'dangling' outside the car's dimensions.  Be it banding or securing chains and in some cases lading.  Once you handed up to the head end, you moved away from the train until you coul see the markers of the caboose approaching and then move back to the train to hand up to the rear end crew.

Recall a incident of a Cat D9 dozer going to export at Baltimore had shifted to one side of the car it was loaded on and its track sliced a notch out of a through girder bridge.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Ulrich on Thursday, January 13, 2022 10:23 AM

Fantastic. Canada's equivalent would be CN's Kingston sub linking Montreal and Toronto. But sadly we nolonger have TOFC.. just general merchanise and double stack, and VIA trains.  

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Posted by MP173 on Thursday, January 13, 2022 1:27 PM

Watched the first video....great train.  I used to drive thru Ransom en route to Streator back in the 90s to service a customer.  

I counted 58 FedX trailers, not including FedX intermodal containers...plus quite a few UPS trailers and containers.

Does anyone know if the FedX containers (purple) handle the Fedx Ground or is that truly an Intermodal freight application?

FedX Ground service has suffered the last year.  They recently lifted their guaranteed 1030am delivery from Air service to "during the day" delivery.  Not sure if that has been changed back or not.

Nice video.

Ed

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Posted by MikeF90 on Thursday, January 13, 2022 3:43 PM

On the La Plata railcam every night I usually see multiple, short, very fast Zs and the next fastest (Q?). Perhaps 2/3rds are westbound. Not sure of the routing as I rarely see them on the Flagstaff cam.

I've been aware of the 'flapping banding' issue for a long time but I don't hear about issues with the loaded centerbeam cars recently.

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Posted by Backshop on Thursday, January 13, 2022 4:26 PM

MP173

Watched the first video....great train.  I used to drive thru Ransom en route to Streator back in the 90s to service a customer.  

I counted 58 FedX trailers, not including FedX intermodal containers...plus quite a few UPS trailers and containers.

Does anyone know if the FedX containers (purple) handle the Fedx Ground or is that truly an Intermodal freight application?

FedX Ground service has suffered the last year.  They recently lifted their guaranteed 1030am delivery from Air service to "during the day" delivery.  Not sure if that has been changed back or not.

Nice video.

Ed

 

FDX are changing all their divisions over to a single brand.  While Ground used to be green/purple, it's now orange/purple like everyone else.  Ground is a separate division from Air Express.  Air has different levels of "Overnight".  It all depends how much the customer wants to pay and when it needs to be delivered.  

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