train movies again

[richg]

As mentioned by Richg, about the movie "Unstoppable", this was common practice for the Pennsy RR, as they ran their diesel engines with the cab in the rear on the mainline service. 

Lee F.

But not at speeds approaching 70 mph.\

I ride a bicycle on a rail trail in Northampton, MA that is right along side the single track main for the Pan Am Railway and I see them always running the locos with the cab in the rear and pulling a freight south.
They return north pushing the freight but the max speed is about 20 mph, the tracks are so bad. I see a lot of spikes with the heads about 1/2 inch from the rail because of the flexing of the roadbed. The only track maintenance I have seen was a crew checking the gauge last summer.
But, this will become double track Amtrak also in a couple years at the most.
Delivery of coal to a nearby power plant was stopped for some time because of the track.

Rich

[phillyreading]

Like Rich mentions, you should see the track conditions on the CSX line here in West Palm Beach FL, the spikes are sticking up quite a bit almost two inches out of the cross tie, and to think that Amtrak comes through at over 50 mph is scary.

Also Central of Georgia RR near Camilla GA has some bad conditions but has lowered the max speed to about 15 to 20 mph on their freight line.

The best maintained tracks, that I have seen, belong to Florida East Coast RR.

Lee F.

[M1FredQ]

Classic Trains Magazine had a special issue of the top 100 Train films Number 1 was
The Train with burt Lancaster.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Today would be a good day to watch either "The General" (silent), with Buster Keaton, or Disney's "The Great Locomotive Chase," with Fess Parker and Jeffrey Hunter, as today is the 150th anniversary of the Andrews Raid. 

[the Bach-man]

Hey, Rich G!
Do you ever watch the Amtrak at Cushman's Market?
I go there often with my grandson George.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[richg]

Hey, Rich G!
Do you ever watch the Amtrak at Cushman's Market?
I go there often with my grandson George.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

Not in some time. I use to when I dated a woman in Amherst who became my second wife. She passed away some years ago.
I live in Easthampton and now ride my bicycle on the Manhan Rail Trail up into NoHo along the Pan Am Railway mainline. Amtrak as you know is supposed to be re-routed through NoHo in the future.
After I carry my bike across the Pan Am mainline, I get to Amherst on the Norwottuck Rail Trail but not to the Market.
Very interesting seeing where the railroads use to pickup and deliver.
Take care.

Rich

[the Bach-man]

Hi, Rich,
Next time I'm in Amherst I'll let you know. We can have lunch and watch the Vermonter go through!
Best,
the Bach-man

[jward]

The chase loco was running backwards so the loco engineer could not see right hand curves coming up. The conductor up "front" at the rear of the loco used hand signals to let the engineer know about right hand curves, Max speed for this type of loco unloaded is about 25 mph. They sometimes where doing 65 mph to catch up. Remember, the runaway loco was running at full throttle.
I have the article printed March 2002 if anyone is interested.

Rich

where did you get that information? prior to the conrail breakup, csxt 8888, originally cr 6410, often ran at speeds of up to 65mph on mainline trains. a diesel locomotivwe can run in either direction at whatever its gearing will allow, whether under load or just running light. similar locomotives ran light in pairs as helpers between pittsburgh and altoona for many years, until recently replaced by rebuilt sd50s.

while they may have gotten alot of things wrong in the movie, running an sd40-2 full speed in reverse isn't one of them.
n&w, for one, had the long hood designated as front, and running them long hood first was standard operating practice.

[richg]

The chase loco was running backwards so the loco engineer could not see right hand curves coming up. The conductor up "front" at the rear of the loco used hand signals to let the engineer know about right hand curves, Max speed for this type of loco unloaded is about 25 mph. They sometimes where doing 65 mph to catch up. Remember, the runaway loco was running at full throttle.
I have the article printed March 2002 if anyone is interested.

Rich

where did you get that information? prior to the conrail breakup, csxt 8888, originally cr 6410, often ran at speeds of up to 65mph on mainline trains. a diesel locomotivwe can run in either direction at whatever its gearing will allow, whether under load or just running light. similar locomotives ran light in pairs as helpers between pittsburgh and altoona for many years, until recently replaced by rebuilt sd50s.

while they may have gotten alot of things wrong in the movie, running an sd40-2 full speed in reverse isn't one of them.
n&w, for one, had the long hood designated as front, and running them long hood first was standard operating practice.

Read "Readers Digest" March Edition 2002 about what actually happened. That is where I got my info. I have the magazine article in PDF.
Picture of the chase loco, CSX6462, engineer, conductor and the CSX supervisor who jumped on the runaway loco at about twelve mph to shut down the loco, CSX8888. The chase loco had to run quite fast just to catch up with the runaway.

http://kohlin.com/CSX8888/z-final-report.htm

You can believe anything you want to.

Rich

[jward]

so....

do you think readers digest knows more about railroading than the people who actually worked there?

csxt 6462 is a gp40-2. conrail and others used them on mail trains when new. now they are reduced to local power, often running single in reverse with their train. at track speeds......

where readers digest probably made their mistake, and came up with the 25mph figure is that csxt 6462 is a slug mother. its slug will only provide traction up to about 25mph, then it cuts out and is just along for the ride. road slug sets are common on both csx and ns, and they operate at track speed as well. but the slug doesn't provide any pulling power except at low speeds. slugs draw power from the mother locomotive to run their traction motors. they need a power source as they have no diesel engines themselves (unlike b units which were a complete locomotive minus the cab)

in my own case, i've personally had trains where the lead locomotive, for whatever reason, had to run in reverse for significant distances. usually this was because there was nowhere to turn it, or it was the only one in the consist with cab signals. on certain lines, only cab signal equipped locomotives can lead a train.

running long hood first at high speeds is a very common practice.

[richg]

Not according to what the loco engineer knew at the time according to the rule book for this type of loco.

Rich

[richg]

Reader's Digest might have embellished the complete event.

Rich

[Pops]

Last night I watched "Silver Streak" on TV.  I forgot how funny it was.   Great cast plus the awesome "AMROAD" train.

[glennk28]

that was at least the second by that title--forst featyred the then-brand-new Burlington Zephyr and an unfinished Boulder Dam.  gj

[J3a-614]

Well, back again, and with a new old title--"Oh, Mr. Porter!" from 1937, a British film set on a railway in Ireland.  This is the complete movie, which wasn't available before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvvESEVKcHA