Richard's American Train Adventures

[richard carr]

The next 2 train were Metra an east and a west bound, but JB didn't take too many photos of these.







Next was a south bound CN manifest on the J complete with a DPU (Distributed power unit).



Another UP stack train arrived this time with 5 locos on the front.



JB just managed to squeeze them all in, there was also another pair of DPUs.





Then another southbound on the J with BNSF power



There were more metra but who wants to see photos of those even if it was in CNW livery.

The final train before we left was a west bound UP stack train






They really did look and sound impressive.

He's a link to the video

 

[richard carr]

Saturday was the show, we all spent the entire day there, spending far too much money on far too many things but thats why you go to the show.

But by Sunday of course, we are now broke, so we need something else to do, someone said lets go to Dolton Junction !

Dolton is a great place to watch trains, it's incredibly busy, but it's in the worst part of town, there is no way I would go there on my own and start getting loads of camera gear out, I would no doubt be the next murder victim in Chicago. So going there with 2 relatively young body guards, sounds like a good idea to me, I might not get another chance, and to put his into perspective, if you do a search for a starbucks there is nothing in a 4 mile radius, the nearest one is over a 10 minute drive away!

I spent most of the time filming, it was all action from the moment we arrived, there were 2 trains in the distance to the east, a huge CSX manifest and what turned out to be the Chicago Fort Wayne and Eastern daily train. The CSX manifest took over 45 minutes to pass through blocking the crossing for all that time, we saw at least 2 people climb over the cars and walk across !

There is even a bottle train on the video, (the liquid steel cars that weigh in at about 300 tons each) it was freezing cold but we didn;t notice any heat as they went past.

We did eventually go to Starbucks, that's how I know how far away they are, when we came back I took photos, here are a few of them









A hopper wagon with a CP logo we hadn't seen before



A new autorack that is wider at the ends and narrower in the middle




A battered old hopper



These were all part of the CSX manifest that must have been 2 miles long.




A BNSF stack train probably heading for north Baltimore in Ohio, just passed Deshler

 

[Jordan or Plymouth Mad]

A new autorack that is wider at the ends and narrower in the middle

That inevitably begs the question, why?

 

[richard carr]

According to Jim, and it makes sense to me, it is so that it goes round the corners with the centre overhang within the loading gauge. The wider ends make it easier to load the cars.

 

[richard carr]

Here's the final day of our trip.

We started off by driving down to Joliet and saw a couple of Amtrak services and a BNSF stack train. We then headed out to Minooka. There are 2 lines through the town, the Iowa Interstate line from Chicago via Joliet that heads west to Iowa and on to Nebraska and a CN line again from Joliet that runs as far as a very large chemical plant to the south of the town.
We got to Minooka and found where the lines cross and then stumbled on this place that was refurbishing locos, Motive Power Resources.
They wouldn't let us in but said we could stand by the entrance and take photos





A newly done up SD40



We then moved on towards the chemical plants and found this.





An Iowa Interstate train waiting to get a clear run to Joliet. Unfortunately it was still waiting an hour later.

We then went to Lorenzo, Transcon 2 passes through and there is a car distribution depot. We saw a few trains there and I did take a bit of video.

After that we headed to Seneca. A CSX line passes through the town and there is a branch off to another chemical plant. As we were driving past it we saw this.



A GP38-2 switching what I think are LPG tanks. We spent quite a bit of time watching this. When it finally departed it turns out that the train has to reverse to get back to Seneca. I expected the loco to run round it's train, but no it just pushed it back the 4 or 5 miles to Seneca.

The line crosses the Illinois river, you can just see the bridge here.



The train stopped before crossing the bridge





Finally we saw it in the yard at Seneca





This is the video from the afternoon about 15 minutes in total.

 

[Big Train James]

The blue and white tanks early in the video are cryogenic cars typically used for liquefied nitrogen gas. The long black tanks (haz UN1075) are indeed liquefied petroleum gas. The white tank (UN1230) is methanol. And the last black tank behind the loco isn't placarded, so it's tough to know the lading. But the lack of placarding means it's either carrying a non-haz material, or it's empty and has been cleaned.

Jim

 

[Big Train James]

I'm curious about this cabinet that has been added to the short hood of the gp38-2. I've never seen this done before.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the remote control hardware, but I've never seen an RC unit modified like that.

 

[richard carr]

Jim

I was about to ask you what this was.

Have you noticed the ditch lights are different design too, yet it is still marked as a dash 2


Richard

 

[Big Train James]

I'm going to post the photo to another forum I participate in. Somebody there can probably identify the cabinet.

I just did a quick and shallow dive through a photo archive site, and there are comments indicating that the cabinet is in fact for the RC gear. I'll still ask around though. The earliest photo that I've found showing the new cabinet is 2007. The earlier photos show non-louvered doors, so they must have been changed at some point.

The ditch light style doesn't indicate anything about the unit type. Dash 2 models began production in 1972, and ditch lights weren't mandated until something like 1994. Dash 2 generally has to do with the switch to modular electrical components boards, and improvements to adhesion and wheel slip control. The style of ditch light application was more down to each railroad or possibly down to the shops doing the work on the locos. In the case of these units, the light bracket appears to be tied into the handrail stanchion for one thing. The other thing is it appears to be consolidated into a single bracket with the MU housing. That kind of makes sense, since frequently the ditch lights on retrofitted units are fed by conduit from the MU outlet. I will concede that these ditch light mounts are unusual and not something I've seen before.

Jim

 

[Jordan or Plymouth Mad]

The blue and white tanks early in the video are cryogenic cars typically used for liquefied nitrogen gas. The long black tanks (haz UN1075) are indeed liquefied petroleum gas. The white tank (UN1230) is methanol. And the last black tank behind the loco isn't placarded, so it's tough to know the lading. But the lack of placarding means it's either carrying a non-haz material, or it's empty and has been cleaned.

Jim

One driving job I had years ago was delivering industrial alcohols. The 'UN' numbers are an international standard for Hazardous Goods, their transport and safety regs & such like. So for example 'UN1075' in the USA is exactly the same as UN1075 in the UK - or anywhere else!!
Bold added - yes the cleaning - or purging - part is very important!! A petrol tanker may be empty of liquid petrol, but if it hasn't been cleaned/purged, it is still full of vapour, so still a hazard risk and so still placarded.

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Jim

I was about to ask you what this was.

Have you noticed the ditch lights are different design too, yet it is still marked as a dash 2


Richard

Richard,

Excuse my lack of knowledge but what and where are the ‘ditch’ lights?

Ian.

 

[simond]

And do they illuminate ditches?

and if so, why?

 

[Stephen]

Richard,

Excuse my lack of knowledge but what and where are the ‘ditch’ lights?

Ian.

Hi Ian,

Here is a good overview of the history of Ditch Lights:

Time to Model: The Story of Ditch Lights

www.scaletrains.com

They were a concept I didn’t know anything about until I started getting into American O scale a few years ago.

Cheers,

Stephen

 

[simond]

Thanks Stephen.

 

[Jordan or Plymouth Mad]

And do they illuminate ditches?

and if so, why?

Exactly that, originally. Started in Canada - there's a lot of wilderness to travel through there.

 

[simond]

Yes, I’ve driven the Coquihalla Highway. It’s big!


I’d love to go back and do it again, on a Harley…

 

[richard carr]

Yes, I’ve driven the Coquihalla Highway. It’s big!


I’d love to go back and do it again, on a Harley…

I've driven that too Simon, it was fun.

So was doing the trans canada from Banff to Golden over kicking horse pass in February, as my wife had tooth ache and only the dentists in BC were open as it was a holiday in Alberta.

Richard

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Hi Ian,

Here is a good overview of the history of Ditch Lights:

Time to Model: The Story of Ditch Lights

www.scaletrains.com

They were a concept I didn’t know anything about until I started getting into American O scale a few years ago.

Cheers,

Stephen

Thank you Stephen. Every days a school day!

 

[djparkins]

I have just used Google Satellite to look over Elkhart... huge comes to mind. After looking at the satellite view I am not sure that I understand "to cross the mainline"... can you explain?

I noticed out to the west of the yard that there appear to be two 180 degree curves so that engines (+trains?) can make a reversal of direction - what operational purpose is served by those tracks?


Road slug? What does this mean?

regards, Graham

 

[Lancastrian]

Yes, I’ve driven the Coquihalla Highway. It’s big!


I’d love to go back and do it again, on a Harley…

I've driven that too Simon, it was fun.

So was doing the trans canada from Banff to Golden over kicking horse pass in February, as my wife had tooth ache and only the dentists in BC were open as it was a holiday in Alberta.

Richard

Done them both as well. Great roads to drive. Did either of you drive the Icefields Parkway as well ?
Morants Curve.