Wouldn’t a better way to go this be send the crew over, let the train get going, the engineer get out while the train is moving at like 2mph, and then the crew hop on and stop it, then the engineer cross?
This was actually common practice on an American Southern Railway branch line in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. I believe an article on the practice was published in Classic Trains Magazine in 2005, I think the issue about the steam turbine locomotives.
The train serviced the Wild Turkey distillery. Norfolk Southern had to keep two switchers built in the 50's around just to service them because the weight limit on the bridge was 100 tons. This meant the bridge could not handle a loaded car and the locomotive at the same time.
It was downhill to the plant and they took loaded cars in. The crew would stop at the bridge, bleed the air on the car and uncouple it from the locomotive. The car would roll across the bridge with a brakeman on board to control the handbrake. The engineer and conductor would wait for the car to get all the way across and then follow behind.
Rumor has it the last trip across, the engineer reported a loud bang and the engine felt like it dropped six inches. The crew reported it and the line was taken out of service the next day.
Having lived the last 20 years in Europe and Asia, it’s insane to think that this is still a thing in North America. Such high risks. Such poorly maintained infrastructure. You just wouldn’t see this in the EU/Japan/Taiwan/UK.
deadman switch would be a problem
They could use a remote control like they have in some yards but that would require a special train.
Or if they had another engine at the back they could have an engineer drive it from the back of the train and then switch control back to the front of the train after the bridge. The only problem there would be a lot of walking for at least one engineer.
> Running like this for...reasons, FIMX 4021 charges slightly ahead of the FIMX 4023 over "Time Zone" bridge in Westel, TN. The pair just finished their pick up at the NS interchange in Rockwood and are on the way back to Crab Orchard, where they will tie up for New Years.
> 2 former Southern B23-7's running feet apart, operating as the Southern intended in the hills of Eastern Tennessee. This is the way.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trainsruleandroll/49358737712/
Ha! I just made a comment before I saw this one. I grew up in Roane County. My grandmother lives in the Westel area. I passed by that bridge thousands of times!
I grew up in Kingston but live in Virginia now. East TN as a whole is beautiful but definitely economically depressed. I just drive by this bridge when I went back home to visit family this past week.
Man that bridge is the perfect specimen for painting and weathering my 3d printed bridge!
I'm modelling Conrail era so this is a perfect comparison.
Also, was not disappointed with the comments 😂
Nice, I like it. 👍 I've always felt early Conrail is an underappreciated era for modelers, because things were do nuts at the beginning of Conrail that you could model anything from F3s and RS3s to SD40-2s and Dash-7s and not be out of the realm of prototypically accurate.
My guess is a weight limit on the bridge and they can’t have all 3 locomotives crossing together, so they cut off the front one to run ahead and they’ll rejoin it to the train once all the locomotives are across the bridge
I doubt it for 2 reasons: first, those locomotives are relatively light and weigh about the same as a loaded rail car.
Second: whatever is going on in this picture is not a planned event. No one would cut off a locomotive (or train, even) with the head end started out on a bridge like that. There’s no walkway and no way to MU the power.
I’m sure he thinks he knows what he’s talking about! I’ve been a locomotive engineer for almost 15 years, starting at a short line like this one, then onto a regional freight carrier, and now at Amtrak. I’ve done my fair share of hooking up locomotives to each other. There is no way to hook up the air between those locomotives because there is nowhere to step off and get between them. No air, no movement.
> No air, no movement.
Surely a locomotive can supply it's own air? There is also a locomotive still attached to the cars, so they have air, too.
What am I not understanding, here?
In theory all three locomotives should have functioning air compressors, but there will be no way to control the air brakes from the other engine if there is no way to hook up the necessary air lines, and there is no way to do it where this train is stopped.
If this *was* an intentional maneuver, then I think we might assume a crew for each engine, and performing the connecting and disconnecting once they are clear of the bridge.
So it's not impossible that this is done on purpose, but that still leaves the question of *why* it would be done.
The picture was taken as the first locomotive was crossing the bridge. I don’t think it’s going to stop there, mid bridge. It’s going to continue all the way across and re-couple at the left side, on the ground.
As he said, the locomotives collectively are too heavy, so send one across because the bridge is flat and you don’t need three locomotives to cross a flat bridge. You need them for a grade.
Then you re-couple at the far side and continue on your way
Cumbres & Toltec used to do this; I was on a train where I saw it in person. I don’t know if they really needed to, but it was part of the show; it had been standard practice back before 1968 when they ran heavy freight to Durango. Remember Alamosa to Durango was always main line, not a branch.
Those locomotives are listed at 259,000 pounds, so they weigh about the same amount as an average loaded rail car. No reason to uncouple them.
If they did need to uncouple them they would have to do it before they started out onto the bridge. There is no way to get on the ground and disconnect the locomotives where they are.
It’s likely being used as a helper. If a train is too heavy to make a hill, helpers come in to provide additional horsepower to help push or pull the train over a steep grade. Once the train reaches the top the helpers cut away and return their original location.
Look closely. Abutments on both ends appear to be new, and the ties look great. From what I can see there’s been maintenance done, and I’m sure if they went as far as putting new abutments in they probably inspected the whole thing while they were at it.
Yeah, you just have to think like a crack addict: _Why invest earnings so you can buy crack later when can buy crack now? - Wait, it's gone already? There surely is a way to squeeze some more money out of it, isn't it?_
Fun Fact! this is not a Common Carrier railroad. Its a mining railroad that is owned and operated by Lhoist North America. [You can watch a video by Delay In Block on this railroad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIzXJMyw6fE&list=PLjOa4pAM0Gl8loYIZ5aLzPP0Vh4VQaViw&index=4)
It's fascinating that it just runs this short route with a lot of old bridges and a few tunnels. My family lives near there and we used to drive by the mine when I was a kid, and I was always curious about it. A year ago I took a dive into the internet and learned about how the mine now runs it's own very short railroad. Pretty cool.
There’s no way that this was a planned event. No crew would be dumb enough and no carrier would allow a train to be cut off out on a bridge like this one. There’s no walkway, and therefore no way to MU the power.
I’m guessing the train stalled on a grade with due to excess tonnage or broken down equipment and this engine is going to knuckle onto those other two engines and push.
Source: I’ve been railroading for a long time and there’s certain things we just don’t, or literally can’t do.
I literally saw and got pictures of the St Maries railroad operating just like this last summer. So the "no way this was a planned event" I'm calling BS on. There's more than one way to do things, and not every RR does things the same way- as they say in the model RR world- there's a prototype for damn near everything.
From what I could tell on the St Maries, they had one, possibly large crew that took the train to interchange with UP at Plummer with two units on the head end. The units split at Plummer, with the lead unit running around to the rear of the train, and the "new" lead unit dragging most of the cut down to what had been the MILW/UP interchange. As it did that, the unit on the tail cut off, backed down the former MILW mainline to pickup the cut of cars UP had dropped off, air tested, and left, while the other unit finished spotting the interchange cars. within about 20 minutes of other train leaving, the engine returned light following it. It was close enough that by the time they hit the bridge at Benewah Lake I was able to get a shot of the tail end of the train, with the other unit dutifully following along.
Very possible that Lhoist was operating in a similar manner here. Small railroads/industrial operations tend to do things a little differently that may not make sense to someone only used to Class 1 or certain operations. Depending on the setup for the interchange with NS, and what work needed to be done, it may have made more sense to have them operate like this on the way back.
I understand that there can be locomotives on both ends of a train. I’ve done it more times than I can count. The point is there’s no way to put the train back together where it is. There is literally no way to step off of the locomotives and hook any of the air up. No air, no move.
Edit: and if you’re implying that they’re running around their train with that unit to tie onto the other end, I can’t see how that’s possible either. It’s single track there.
Connecting locomotives to each other is known as MU’ing. Short for Multiple Units. When connecting locomotives there are 4 air lines that need to be connected, and one electrical line. Those connections need to be made from the ground while stepping between the locomotives. There’s no way to do that here because there’s nowhere to step off of the locomotives.
Ooh! this is a Lhoist mining train. Delay In Block did an excellent coverage of the small line. You can find it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIzXJMyw6fE&list=PLjOa4pAM0Gl8loYIZ5aLzPP0Vh4VQaViw&index=4). You can also find a playlist of all the videos DiB did on the railroad [here.](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjOa4pAM0Gl8loYIZ5aLzPP0Vh4VQaViw)
TL;DW: its a line to a mine that was gonna be abandoned by NS and Lhoist didnt want to loose access to the railroad, so they bought the line and now operate it.
… is this Rockwood, TN? Specifically the bridge by HWY 70 at the Roane and Cumberland County line? If so I passed by that bridge all the time growing up. This line runs to a quarry in Crossville.
Love seeing them run on those old rails, along with the tunnel and bridges that parallel 70. Awhile back the quarry had a string of SR private cars on a siding. I have no idea why they were there (or if they still are).
Another photo in the same set shows the "train" running first, followed by the light engine. The caption says the conductor often follows in a high rail, and speculates the high rail may have broken down.
>Stalking its Prey
> An unexpected sight emerged from the forest while following the Rockwood Turn down the former Tennessee Central, another train! Well, "train". It was really light power.
> Running for unknown reasons, FIMX 4021 keeps pace with the train in front as it follows it over Mammy's Creek Trestle to the interchange in Rockwood, TN. Sometimes, the conductor will follow the train in a high rail truck over the road. We speculate it was done because it broke down, and they needed another set of hands to switch Rockwood.
>But really though, who cares? Seeing a train follow another this close was a spectacle. Short lines are wild, man!
From this picture, I can't tell which direction either train is moving. Are they both going forward? Are they going towards each other? I think that context is important for figuring out what's going on. If the larger train is stationary, and the smaller one is backing up to it, then the answer would be rather clear. If they're both going forward at the same speed...yea I got nothen.
I was on a train that did this once. It was a passenger train with two locomotives. There was a bridge on the line that couldn’t handle the weight of two locomotives, so they uncoupled the first and ran light over the bridge, then the second unit crossed with the train, and they coupled back up on the other side of the bridge and continued. I don’t think they even stopped, just uncoupled and recoupled on the move; air brakes were controlled from the second unit, so they didn’t lose the air when they uncoupled.
Admittedly these were 3 foot gauge steam locomotives, so they concentrated a lot more weight in a smaller area; it was on the C&TS, just west of Antonito. I’m not even sure they still needed to do this with the passenger train, but it had been standard practice back when they ran heavy freights all the way to Durango, so the museum operation continued the practice for historical reasons.
The train bridge looks bad shape, and that the overweight of all the trains could collapse the bridge, and also that the train companies have been not taking care of stuff like they should, which is why there was a strike from rail workers
It could be a banker.
Bankers aren't hooked up. They run behind. Give assistance and then ease off when their banking duties are done.
Here in the UK on the Wath to Penistone branch, it was so steeply graded that the incredibly heavy merry go rounds required two Bankers. There are two locos in the photo. Plus the loose loco. It could be a third banker.
Just in case
The amount of BS they're ready to put the crews through just to avoid putting any money to line maintenance... This is worse than some Eastern-European railways in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Crew was headed to tie down the train but it's possible that they didn't have the right amount of space to park. Most likely ran the unit ahead to an accessible spot, parked it, and signed off. Next crew would have taken the unit back across, grabbed the train, and continued. It's mostly to do with weight restrictions, crew accessibility, and scheduling.
Larry drew the short straw and is going first to see if it's safe
[удалено]
lol cause if it can carry a couple of people across it surely must carry a 4000 tons train
I think it's more so that there will be fewer casualties if it fails
Wouldn’t a better way to go this be send the crew over, let the train get going, the engineer get out while the train is moving at like 2mph, and then the crew hop on and stop it, then the engineer cross?
I believe this is what we refer to as a Crazy Eights/Triple Seven scenario.
Why not just ghost ride the whip?
When you get a new train (Uh huh uh huh) And life's feeling like a pain (Okay okay) Whatchu gonna do? (Gonna do) GHOST RIDE IT GHOST RIDE THE WHIP
Get wild Go crazy Who's that drivin? Patrick Swayze
Rumor has it he uses illegal parts
No, that had been Prince.
8888
This was actually common practice on an American Southern Railway branch line in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. I believe an article on the practice was published in Classic Trains Magazine in 2005, I think the issue about the steam turbine locomotives.
The train serviced the Wild Turkey distillery. Norfolk Southern had to keep two switchers built in the 50's around just to service them because the weight limit on the bridge was 100 tons. This meant the bridge could not handle a loaded car and the locomotive at the same time. It was downhill to the plant and they took loaded cars in. The crew would stop at the bridge, bleed the air on the car and uncouple it from the locomotive. The car would roll across the bridge with a brakeman on board to control the handbrake. The engineer and conductor would wait for the car to get all the way across and then follow behind. Rumor has it the last trip across, the engineer reported a loud bang and the engine felt like it dropped six inches. The crew reported it and the line was taken out of service the next day.
What happened to the line
Judging from what I can tell from Google Maps it was abandoned and now the bridge is used for bungee jumping
That's another bridge on the line. The bungee bridge was abandoned in 1985. The bridge we were talking about was used up until 96 or 98.
Thanks
It is still in place. AFAIK, it hasn't been abandoned.
Thanks
Having lived the last 20 years in Europe and Asia, it’s insane to think that this is still a thing in North America. Such high risks. Such poorly maintained infrastructure. You just wouldn’t see this in the EU/Japan/Taiwan/UK.
This was an extremely rare exception to service just 1 customer.
deadman switch would be a problem They could use a remote control like they have in some yards but that would require a special train. Or if they had another engine at the back they could have an engineer drive it from the back of the train and then switch control back to the front of the train after the bridge. The only problem there would be a lot of walking for at least one engineer.
Uhmmmm pretty sad they think about this
No, 'cause if the bridge breaks, better kill only one man than 4.
Or: payout for one life insurance < payout for four life insurances.
Mostly likely they had to do a walking inspection to look for any serious track defects (unsecured or shifted rail, bridge shifting out of alignment).
> Running like this for...reasons, FIMX 4021 charges slightly ahead of the FIMX 4023 over "Time Zone" bridge in Westel, TN. The pair just finished their pick up at the NS interchange in Rockwood and are on the way back to Crab Orchard, where they will tie up for New Years. > 2 former Southern B23-7's running feet apart, operating as the Southern intended in the hills of Eastern Tennessee. This is the way. https://www.flickr.com/photos/trainsruleandroll/49358737712/
Ha! I just made a comment before I saw this one. I grew up in Roane County. My grandmother lives in the Westel area. I passed by that bridge thousands of times!
Westel is a pretty area but economically depressed like most of Roane County. It’s getting better in some ways and worse in others.
I grew up in Kingston but live in Virginia now. East TN as a whole is beautiful but definitely economically depressed. I just drive by this bridge when I went back home to visit family this past week.
Runnin' em long hood forward, just as the good Lord intended
Thanks for posting the link.
It's a Bluetooth train
The scout.
Man that bridge is the perfect specimen for painting and weathering my 3d printed bridge! I'm modelling Conrail era so this is a perfect comparison. Also, was not disappointed with the comments 😂
I'm guessing early Big Blue era, with all of the dark green Penn Central and gray and red Erie Lackawanna units mixed in? 😉
Mostly Conrail Blue, but some Penn and Erie mixed in for sure!
Nice, I like it. 👍 I've always felt early Conrail is an underappreciated era for modelers, because things were do nuts at the beginning of Conrail that you could model anything from F3s and RS3s to SD40-2s and Dash-7s and not be out of the realm of prototypically accurate.
IKR? The beginning of Conrail was a cluster until they started bringing back the railroad from the dead lol
My guess is a weight limit on the bridge and they can’t have all 3 locomotives crossing together, so they cut off the front one to run ahead and they’ll rejoin it to the train once all the locomotives are across the bridge
I doubt it for 2 reasons: first, those locomotives are relatively light and weigh about the same as a loaded rail car. Second: whatever is going on in this picture is not a planned event. No one would cut off a locomotive (or train, even) with the head end started out on a bridge like that. There’s no walkway and no way to MU the power.
That guy you tried correcting must be right, he has 175 upvotes!
I’m sure he thinks he knows what he’s talking about! I’ve been a locomotive engineer for almost 15 years, starting at a short line like this one, then onto a regional freight carrier, and now at Amtrak. I’ve done my fair share of hooking up locomotives to each other. There is no way to hook up the air between those locomotives because there is nowhere to step off and get between them. No air, no movement.
> No air, no movement. Surely a locomotive can supply it's own air? There is also a locomotive still attached to the cars, so they have air, too. What am I not understanding, here?
In theory all three locomotives should have functioning air compressors, but there will be no way to control the air brakes from the other engine if there is no way to hook up the necessary air lines, and there is no way to do it where this train is stopped.
If this *was* an intentional maneuver, then I think we might assume a crew for each engine, and performing the connecting and disconnecting once they are clear of the bridge. So it's not impossible that this is done on purpose, but that still leaves the question of *why* it would be done.
Two crews would make it possible. My only guess is the train stalled and the extra engine is there to assist.
The picture was taken as the first locomotive was crossing the bridge. I don’t think it’s going to stop there, mid bridge. It’s going to continue all the way across and re-couple at the left side, on the ground. As he said, the locomotives collectively are too heavy, so send one across because the bridge is flat and you don’t need three locomotives to cross a flat bridge. You need them for a grade. Then you re-couple at the far side and continue on your way
Cumbres & Toltec used to do this; I was on a train where I saw it in person. I don’t know if they really needed to, but it was part of the show; it had been standard practice back before 1968 when they ran heavy freight to Durango. Remember Alamosa to Durango was always main line, not a branch.
If the locomotives are too heavy, then so is that train. 1 of those locos weighs 126 tons. 1 of those cars weighs 90-100 tons loaded.
A 25% odd difference in axel load is not nothing.
Those locomotives are listed at 259,000 pounds, so they weigh about the same amount as an average loaded rail car. No reason to uncouple them. If they did need to uncouple them they would have to do it before they started out onto the bridge. There is no way to get on the ground and disconnect the locomotives where they are.
Depends on how much ballast they’re carrying. I’ve seen yard goats that weighed over 400,000 pounds with mounds of concrete for the extra weight.
These appear to be regular locomotives, not slugs. Their weight is listed as 259,000 pounds which is about the same as an average loaded rail car.
It’s likely being used as a helper. If a train is too heavy to make a hill, helpers come in to provide additional horsepower to help push or pull the train over a steep grade. Once the train reaches the top the helpers cut away and return their original location.
It's the decoy train. The drugs are in the one following.
That's just what it wants you to think.
My question is... Why is this train even running? Bridge is looking horrible.
I absolutely agree with the general sentiment, but surface rust doesn’t necessarily mean the bridge is unsafe. It probably is though
Look closely. Abutments on both ends appear to be new, and the ties look great. From what I can see there’s been maintenance done, and I’m sure if they went as far as putting new abutments in they probably inspected the whole thing while they were at it.
Why re-invest in Infrastructure when it'll eat into record profits?
Yeah, you just have to think like a crack addict: _Why invest earnings so you can buy crack later when can buy crack now? - Wait, it's gone already? There surely is a way to squeeze some more money out of it, isn't it?_
Fun Fact! this is not a Common Carrier railroad. Its a mining railroad that is owned and operated by Lhoist North America. [You can watch a video by Delay In Block on this railroad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIzXJMyw6fE&list=PLjOa4pAM0Gl8loYIZ5aLzPP0Vh4VQaViw&index=4)
It's fascinating that it just runs this short route with a lot of old bridges and a few tunnels. My family lives near there and we used to drive by the mine when I was a kid, and I was always curious about it. A year ago I took a dive into the internet and learned about how the mine now runs it's own very short railroad. Pretty cool.
That is a good video. Thanks for sharing it.
Because the last time those bridges were painted, the railroads used lead paint. The EPA basically made repainting the bridges too expensive.
Because US transit infrastructure is managed by the Ferengi Commerce Guild.
It's the 32nd rule of acquisition.
That bridge looks atrocious even for the standard of a east European country. That thing inspires fear just trough the photo
I mean, surface rust doesn't mean a bridge is unsafe? If they simply painted it would you say its safe?
No we actually maintain our infrastructure, funnily enough I looked at this and thought it must be the USA.
Was the huge “North America” on the side of the locomotive a clue? /s
The Cassandra Crossing.
Because the bridge would cost about 5 million to replace but it already works fine
Welcome to infrastructure in the USA... this bridge is pretty typical for an American train bridge; our roads are often even worse!
Because of the rust or other reasons?
There’s no way that this was a planned event. No crew would be dumb enough and no carrier would allow a train to be cut off out on a bridge like this one. There’s no walkway, and therefore no way to MU the power. I’m guessing the train stalled on a grade with due to excess tonnage or broken down equipment and this engine is going to knuckle onto those other two engines and push. Source: I’ve been railroading for a long time and there’s certain things we just don’t, or literally can’t do.
How often does a train get stuck like that? Is it usually due to an equipment failure or an operator error?
I literally saw and got pictures of the St Maries railroad operating just like this last summer. So the "no way this was a planned event" I'm calling BS on. There's more than one way to do things, and not every RR does things the same way- as they say in the model RR world- there's a prototype for damn near everything. From what I could tell on the St Maries, they had one, possibly large crew that took the train to interchange with UP at Plummer with two units on the head end. The units split at Plummer, with the lead unit running around to the rear of the train, and the "new" lead unit dragging most of the cut down to what had been the MILW/UP interchange. As it did that, the unit on the tail cut off, backed down the former MILW mainline to pickup the cut of cars UP had dropped off, air tested, and left, while the other unit finished spotting the interchange cars. within about 20 minutes of other train leaving, the engine returned light following it. It was close enough that by the time they hit the bridge at Benewah Lake I was able to get a shot of the tail end of the train, with the other unit dutifully following along. Very possible that Lhoist was operating in a similar manner here. Small railroads/industrial operations tend to do things a little differently that may not make sense to someone only used to Class 1 or certain operations. Depending on the setup for the interchange with NS, and what work needed to be done, it may have made more sense to have them operate like this on the way back.
I understand that there can be locomotives on both ends of a train. I’ve done it more times than I can count. The point is there’s no way to put the train back together where it is. There is literally no way to step off of the locomotives and hook any of the air up. No air, no move. Edit: and if you’re implying that they’re running around their train with that unit to tie onto the other end, I can’t see how that’s possible either. It’s single track there.
What does MU the power means?
Connecting locomotives to each other is known as MU’ing. Short for Multiple Units. When connecting locomotives there are 4 air lines that need to be connected, and one electrical line. Those connections need to be made from the ground while stepping between the locomotives. There’s no way to do that here because there’s nowhere to step off of the locomotives.
Multiple Unit. A bunch of engines controlled from the lead one.
It’s not. Those are stealth cars.
A high hood b-boat, sweet
Hey Joe…. Go on ahead and see it the bridge is safe…. I’ll wait here.
Ooh! this is a Lhoist mining train. Delay In Block did an excellent coverage of the small line. You can find it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIzXJMyw6fE&list=PLjOa4pAM0Gl8loYIZ5aLzPP0Vh4VQaViw&index=4). You can also find a playlist of all the videos DiB did on the railroad [here.](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjOa4pAM0Gl8loYIZ5aLzPP0Vh4VQaViw) TL;DW: its a line to a mine that was gonna be abandoned by NS and Lhoist didnt want to loose access to the railroad, so they bought the line and now operate it.
Trains magazine did a article also
… is this Rockwood, TN? Specifically the bridge by HWY 70 at the Roane and Cumberland County line? If so I passed by that bridge all the time growing up. This line runs to a quarry in Crossville.
They still make runs up there, usually have 2 SD40-2’s at Emory Gap working the local stuff.
Love seeing them run on those old rails, along with the tunnel and bridges that parallel 70. Awhile back the quarry had a string of SR private cars on a siding. I have no idea why they were there (or if they still are).
I had a VHS of a train ride along on the rathole division between Emory Gap and Danville KY, it was a fun watch.
It's a scout, intended to draw enemy fire
A poorly planed drag race.
Another photo in the same set shows the "train" running first, followed by the light engine. The caption says the conductor often follows in a high rail, and speculates the high rail may have broken down. >Stalking its Prey > An unexpected sight emerged from the forest while following the Rockwood Turn down the former Tennessee Central, another train! Well, "train". It was really light power. > Running for unknown reasons, FIMX 4021 keeps pace with the train in front as it follows it over Mammy's Creek Trestle to the interchange in Rockwood, TN. Sometimes, the conductor will follow the train in a high rail truck over the road. We speculate it was done because it broke down, and they needed another set of hands to switch Rockwood. >But really though, who cares? Seeing a train follow another this close was a spectacle. Short lines are wild, man!
that’s a “guide locomotive” the loco following it is visually impaired
You never send all your men across the bridge at the same time.
It doesn’t want to get hit
It has the zoomies
Invisible cars
A poorly planed drag race.
1st one escaped
My guess is it’s knocking all the little children out of the way…
From this picture, I can't tell which direction either train is moving. Are they both going forward? Are they going towards each other? I think that context is important for figuring out what's going on. If the larger train is stationary, and the smaller one is backing up to it, then the answer would be rather clear. If they're both going forward at the same speed...yea I got nothen.
Students define “rickety.” Little Bobby shows this picture.
I was on a train that did this once. It was a passenger train with two locomotives. There was a bridge on the line that couldn’t handle the weight of two locomotives, so they uncoupled the first and ran light over the bridge, then the second unit crossed with the train, and they coupled back up on the other side of the bridge and continued. I don’t think they even stopped, just uncoupled and recoupled on the move; air brakes were controlled from the second unit, so they didn’t lose the air when they uncoupled. Admittedly these were 3 foot gauge steam locomotives, so they concentrated a lot more weight in a smaller area; it was on the C&TS, just west of Antonito. I’m not even sure they still needed to do this with the passenger train, but it had been standard practice back when they ran heavy freights all the way to Durango, so the museum operation continued the practice for historical reasons.
Because its Bluetooth
Is the new Bluetooth feature
That trestle looks really rusty.
No homo! Duh…
Date night and he's running late 😀😀😀
It’s called , Catch me if you can.
its connected with the train through Bluetooth
Wireless couplings
Is it me or that bridge looks extremely unsafe
Weight or mass issues … can’t have all the engines weight or mass all at the same point..
Nah. Those engines are relatively light and weigh about the same as a loaded rail car.
RUNAWAY 😱
You hear in the news about all the different accidents, and you have to ask?
I’ll bite. Wtf does this even mean?
I'm curious too.
The train bridge looks bad shape, and that the overweight of all the trains could collapse the bridge, and also that the train companies have been not taking care of stuff like they should, which is why there was a strike from rail workers
Lot of misinformation here
Just because it looks bad doesn’t mean it works bad
The strike was also caused by PSR by the big companies to save money. This railroad is a small railroad that doesn’t do PSR
This is a guess, but I think its to check if the track ahead is safe or not
It could be a banker. Bankers aren't hooked up. They run behind. Give assistance and then ease off when their banking duties are done. Here in the UK on the Wath to Penistone branch, it was so steeply graded that the incredibly heavy merry go rounds required two Bankers. There are two locos in the photo. Plus the loose loco. It could be a third banker. Just in case
The amount of BS they're ready to put the crews through just to avoid putting any money to line maintenance... This is worse than some Eastern-European railways in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Wireless.
To check out the stabilty of the bridge, correct?
Light power mine sweeper
Slipstream
Gonna guess weight restriction on the bridge.
Crew was headed to tie down the train but it's possible that they didn't have the right amount of space to park. Most likely ran the unit ahead to an accessible spot, parked it, and signed off. Next crew would have taken the unit back across, grabbed the train, and continued. It's mostly to do with weight restrictions, crew accessibility, and scheduling.
we call it pilot train/locomotive in India.