The Latest from Outside the Strasburg Rail Road Shops...

SZuiderveen · **Posted:** Wed Apr 08, 2009 3:46 pm

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

With regards to 37/Strasburg: Congratulations. And now y'all have some sense of why British mainline steamers are getting transported from excursion line to excursion line by highway on occasion.

Brother Jordan's post is Exhibit A (actually, more like #745) in why I've been hired to "escort" passenger equipment moving over Class Ones. Now imagine what has to be done to prevent this kind of stuff:

* * * *

Somebody remind me again: why the *^&$%$&$#%$$ are we doing this (*&^%%$!@?!?!?!?!? (I guess I'm way overdue for a long-haul train ride or a mainline steamer....)

Quote:

"If you didn't want you passenger car humped, why did you send it to a hump yard?

Conrail 3rd trick Humpmeister
Enola Yard, PA
Circa 1991

Steve

Been there, done that, owns the Delorme's Atlas of Pennsyvania with all of the talking equipment detectors (with frequencies) clearly marked.

SZuiderveen · **Posted:** Wed Apr 08, 2009 3:53 pm

Kelly, another thought comes to mind. . . . .

At least while messengering all of those passenger cars in the early 90's I didn't have to take refuge in the hose drying tower of a fire company adjacent to the rail yard, and watch the waters of the Susquehanna swirl into the stack of the locomotive I was messengering!!!

Steve

Ed Kapuscinski · **Posted:** Wed Apr 08, 2009 5:10 pm

It's funny, I was just thinking the exact same thing!

That pic in the SRC books is indeed priceless.

JimBoylan · **Posted:** Thu Apr 09, 2009 1:28 pm

Actually, Amtrak and S.E.P.T.A. could probably and legally made the move from Coatsville to Leaman Place if they wanted to. It's been done before on other parts of their networks. If necessary, add a coach, sell tickets, and make it a passenger train. But, there's that 1/4 mile of Norfolk Southern in between. If NS wants to use their crew, etc. on their piece of track, it may be cheaper to let them keep going over Amtrak (which they legally can) as a freight train than start another set of charges with the passenger roads.
What position did the "expert" who advised the CSXT inspector hold?

JimBoylan · **Posted:** Thu Apr 09, 2009 1:45 pm

I was very happy back in my New Hope & Ivyland days that we connected with S.E.P.T.A. who connected with Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, and even some shortlines. We were able to arrange some moves that ConRail wanted wrecked. I did have problems because of the same 2 short stretches of track that this move had trouble with.

tomgears · **Posted:** Thu Apr 09, 2009 6:05 pm

The thing is some of the big class one railroads in the East don't want to handle ANY freight that is not in blocks or units. I used to work for a chemical company plant that was served by one of these guys and they did not want to deal with standard freight cars that were being shipped on a regular basis. We got two or three cars per week, there were standard cars that were just like the rest of the national fleet and they did not want to deal with us. They provided such poor service that we ended up switching to trucks. The truckers loved us and the railroad hated us. Ever wonder how much more freight would be rolling if they actually cared? So give them something different it's no wonder they run, they don't even want the regular stuff.

Afboone · **Posted:** Sat Apr 11, 2009 9:20 pm

Mr. Anderson,
Has the boiler been checked yet? Or is that part of your scope of work?