This would be a good trick for the "Flex-Seal" guy to do on TV ..
As I recall (without checking carefully), there are 6 grade crossings along the car's trip: 31st St. near the Allentown - Emmaus line, 12th & Vultee Sts. in Allentown, Auburn St. at CP Burn also in Allentown, a couple of private crossings approaching Bethlehem, and then Riverside Drive which is the one just west of the Hill-to-Hill Bridge in Bethlehem in the video. I believe they're all protected by at least flashing signals - the 4 named streets all have gates, too.
More interesting is the profile: According to the reports, this car started at Emmaus Jct. (milepost about RV-31.5) where the East Penn RR's Perkiomen Line joins the NS Reading - Allentown - Bethlehem main. Notably, the East Penn track is about 8 ft. higher than the NS main, so that drop would give the car a pretty good rolling start.
(Some of us will be wondering why the derail didn't stop it. I'll bet some serious money that the junction is now protected by a single or double switch point derail . . . . - or else it got away from an interchange switching crew? )
Anyway, once it got onto the main it had a grade of -0.31% to -0.27% to a short piece of -0.84% to CP Burn - see page 038 (45/548) here:
http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/NS/NS%20Track%20Charts/NS%20Harrisburg%20Division%20Track%20Chart%202000.pdf
Those grades are just about right to keep a car rolling at about a constant speed, maybe speeding up a little bit.
At CP Burn* - Allentown (pg. 039) it likely took the turnout at RV-35.11 to EN-93.00 at East Penn Jct. (pg. 041) towards Bethlehem (pg. 040) - the grade is almost entirely flat at 0.00%. From EN-88.59 = LE-88.59 Lehigh Line (pg.040 and then go to pg. 162) = CP JU it went past CP Bethlehem to wherever they got it stopped - the stated 11 miles would be to about LE-85.5, Freemansburg - on shallower grades of -0.21% to -0.14% to 0.00% to -0.07% to 0.00%.
(*By the way, don't believe the +4.51% grade at the lower right of pg. 038 / lower left of pg. 039. That's over 225 ft. vertical per mile! - for the indicated 1.8 miles would be about 400 ft.! All that's happening there** is a flyover which for this track is about 30 ft. lower vertical separation, so I could believe -0.45% or -0.51%, etc. I'll leave it to others to comment on why that obvious blunder wasn't caught . . . )
**N 40.59844 W 75.45895
- PDN.
Paul_D_North_Jr As I recall (without checking carefully), there are 6 grade crossings along the car's trip: 31st St. near the Allentown - Emmaus line, 12th & Vultee Sts. in Allentown, Auburn St. at CP Burn also in Allentown, a couple of private crossings approaching Bethlehem, and then Riverside Drive which is the one just west of the Hill-to-Hill Bridge in Bethlehem in the video. I believe they're all protected by at least flashing signals - the 4 named streets all have gates, too. More interesting is the profile: According to the reports, this car started at Emmaus Jct. (milepost about RV-31.5) where the East Penn RR's Perkiomen Line joins the NS Reading - Allentown - Bethlehem main. Notably, the East Penn track is about 8 ft. higher than the NS main, so that drop would give the car a pretty good rolling start. (Some of us will be wondering why the derail didn't stop it. I'll bet some serious money that the junction is now protected by a single or double switch point derail . . . . - or else it got away from an interchange switching crew? ) Anyway, once it got onto the main it had a grade of -0.31% to -0.27% to a short piece of -0.84% to CP Burn - see page 038 (45/548) here: http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/NS/NS%20Track%20Charts/NS%20Harrisburg%20Division%20Track%20Chart%202000.pdf Those grades are just about right to keep a car rolling at about a constant speed, maybe speeding up a little bit. At CP Burn* - Allentown (pg. 039) it likely took the turnout at RV-35.11 to EN-93.00 at East Penn Jct. (pg. 041) towards Bethlehem (pg. 040) - the grade is almost entirely flat at 0.00%. From EN-88.59 = LE-88.59 Lehigh Line (pg.040 and then go to pg. 162) = CP JU it went past CP Bethlehem to wherever they got it stopped - the stated 11 miles would be to about LE-85.5, Freemansburg - on shallower grades of -0.21% to -0.14% to 0.00% to -0.07% to 0.00%. (*By the way, don't believe the +4.51% grade at the lower right of pg. 038 / lower left of pg. 039. That's over 225 ft. vertical per mile! - for the indicated 1.8 miles would be about 400 ft.! All that's happening there** is a flyover which for this track is about 30 ft. lower vertical separation, so I could believe -0.45% or -0.51%, etc. I'll leave it to others to comment on why that obvious blunder wasn't caught . . . ) **N 40.59844 W 75.45895 - PDN.
If there was a hop-toad there before, then there will be an alligator there now to ensure that gravity works. If the ground monkey failed to egage the derail, then the FRA operating guy is going to be handing out $10K code ones like candy... and the bubbas with the PTC responsibility will be pointing fingers.
On the track chart issue, was just shown a new BNSF track chart with a blunder in it. The dumbsizing/ PSR disease must be contageous. Oh for the days when the guy drawing those 1"=3000' PITA's actually worked on the territory. (and watching an operating guy interpret what the track chart is telling him is hysterical - GIS is not gonna help with that problem.)
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