TotalLamer

I'd never even heard of these locomotives until I saw a pair of them at a customer's facility.  With most "new" switching/yard units these days being remanufactured on old frames, it's crazy to see a​ brand new, 2-axle, AC traction switcher.  Especially with how rare 2-axle units are in the US in general!  Don't think there's a model of them though.

www.republiclocomotive.com/rx500-industrial-locomotives.html

The BR-like red lamp stuck on the coupler is interesting too. Not common I would guess.

 

steve

It's basically for when you're going to be out at night but don't necessarily need an EoT, just a blinky light will do.  It's probably not on the rear at the moment because it's daylight, so a red flag is enough.

The practice of having locally-operated switches (hand-thrown points) to industrial sidings (spurs) within a signal controlled section is normal practice in North America. I've always found it to be quite terrifying. How you overcome it when the distances are so vast and the number of such locations is so great, I don't know. I have certainly read at least one Transport Canada accident report where a crew failed to re-align an industrial switch for the main line and an accident resulted. I once raised the subject with a friend who is a VIA Rail engineer. The best that she could come up with was that she always watched the rails as far ahead as possible. At high speed, I doubt that would be much help. (CJL)

In normal operations, such hand-throw switches aren't really unprotected as leaving one open would result in either a track light or the dispatcher being able to specifically see that the switch is open, I'm not 100% sure which one it is (as I'm not a dispatcher).  But either way, the main is protected because the result would be no one else being lined along that route.  It's just such a crazy thing, the likelihood of forgetting to line the switch back occurring during a short (usually 12-16 hours I think) signal suspension.

Google maps shows the siding as being double ended, although the imagery may be out of date or the switch at the other end out of use. (or the train was part way through switching the autorack loading site)

It's not that it's not double-ended, it's that it's not a siding.  It's a storage track.  A siding would have interlockings at either end besides being just classified as a different kind of track.  This particular track is called the Silica Storage Track.  Here's a snippet from the timetable for this location:

From news reports it’s looking like the CSX train was tied up (awaiting crew change) in a siding (passing loop) and the switch was wrongly set causing the head-on. Probably lucky the crew weren’t on board the CSX train, the lead unit is not looking good either.

The way things are looking now is that the CSX train that was hit had shoved back into a storage track (not a signaled siding, just a storage track accessed by a hand-throw switch off the main) on the other side of the mainline from an automobile unloading ramp facility.  It was during a signal suspension so track warrants were required.  So the CSX train shoves in the clear, thinks he lines the switch back but doesn't.  Calls the dispatcher, gives back his track and the switch.  Dispatcher gives track to Amtrak.  Wreck ensues.

This is signaled territory which would normally have alerted the dispatcher to the open switch and would have prevented him from setting a conflicting movement, however a signal suspension was in effect to cut in new PTC signals.

This is NOT a final story, this is ONLY an educated guess based on information both public and heard through the grapevine.  Again, an educated guess ONLY.

That does not sound good. Whilst the causes of such incidents inevitably stimulate discussion lets not forget those involved

 

Phil

The really interesting (not interesting as in good, just interesting as in a rarity) is that it seems like the accident occurred within the limits of a signal suspension.  Not good.

Going back over that previous thread, who switches all those spurs? I can see like.... 4 locomotives across the whole park. That seems like a LOT of work for just 4 crews.

 

Do CSX and NS use the road power to switch it? Surely not?

Everything that you see that seems to scream "chemical plant" there is Honeywell... well it was until earlier this year, now it's Advansix.  Anyways, they have their own switch crews that use these tiny little 2-axle (yes, 2-axle) modern switch engines... they're alternating current even!  I think they have 2 of them.  This is the only image I could find of one:

Sorry for the small size!  Anywho, Advansix switches their own plant, CSX and NS simply deliver (and pull) long cuts of cars.

Anyways, the paper plant in the back is WestRock, after RockTenn merged with MeadWestvaco recently.  Until -very- recently, CSX switched the facility on 1st shift and NS on either 2nd or 3rd, not sure.  However as of a few weeks back NS now switches them 1st and 2nd(or 3rd?) shift.

Those are the two BIG industries in the area.  There's a lot of smaller ones... Commonwealth Industrial Services (NS and CSX), Evonik Industries (CSX only), Praxair (CSX and NS can both get to it but I think only CSX switches it now), Airgas (CSX and NS)... I'm sure there's some NS only ones too but I don't know their names.

Also worth noting that the couplers don't always join at the first attempt...

 

Some of the things that KD users complain about are actually completely realistic!

I didn't watch most of the video but are you referring to the couplers coming together and closing but then coming apart when you try to pull away?  What happens is that the "pin" hasn't dropped in one of the knuckles.  This usually happens from either very gentle or very hard couplings.  I don't know about shortlines but this is why a lot of Class 1s have a rule about having to "stretch out" a coupling after you've made it to ensure it's good.

Fascinating video.

 

Good to see that they push their couplers around to get them to work on a curve too. I shall feel a lot less guilty about doing that with a skewer now I know it's exactly what they have to do in the real world too!

Oh yeah, it can be a huge pain in the rear to couple in a curve, especially coupling a long-drawhead car to another long-drawhead car.

Another point, as far as I can tell there's no rhyme or reason to why some places might use a derail and some might use a split rail.  Derails are surely cheaper and are probably less effective, so maybe it's a cost thing.  Also derails are much easier to add onto an existing track.

So to illustrate this, here's a couple of industries directly across from each other.  ABC Builder's Supply (receives centerbeams of drywall) and Lehigh Cement (receives... cement).  ABC has a derail and Lehigh has a split rail.  Why?  The world may never know.

The big picture:  

ABC:

Lehigh:

They usually use a temporary or permanent derail device that attaches to one rail. However, they can also use what is effectively a catch point (still called a derail) as in the photos below

 

DSCN1477s.jpg

 

DSCN1478s.jpg

 

Adrian

An old post I know but I'd like to add that I've never heard of these being called derails.  The image AnEntropyBubble posted is of a derail.  What's posted here is called a split rail.  

As for where you'll find these, the answer is essentially any spur tying into the mainline.  Industry tracks, storage tracks, small setoff tracks... even small yards will have a derail or split rail protecting the main.  Basically if you're looking at a track that's accessed from a hand-throw switch off the mainline, that track will have a derail or a split rail.  

It doesn't even have to be a mainline.  Say you've got an industrial park with some number of industries, each with their own spur accessed off a common track.  Each spur will generally have a derail or split rail near the clearance point.  In this case it does often depend on the terrain though.  If the spur goes downhill from the common track, oftentimes there won't be a derail/split rail.  Uphill though, likely yes.

I like how, if you zoom in, a whole new yard and plant appears.

 

Adrian

Yeah it's an ethanol plant that was built around 2010.  Unfortunately the company went out of business sometime shortly thereafter and it never went into operation.  Recently the Hopewell city council voted on incentives to bring in another company to take the plant over and it seems to be running now.  NS is the only one that works it though so I've never been in there.

And a river swing bridge to the NW

A swing bridge that still has a bridge-tender, no less!  Its' normal position is open for river traffic, only lining for the railroad when necessary.  You'll hear trains talking to him on the radio from time to time.

This trackwork seems a bit extreme for a simple approx 5 spot spur

http://binged.it/1CeQkpc

It's so they can be serviced by both NS and CSX.  Rates are much cheaper when you've got access to more than one railroad.  The line passing closest to the industry is CSX's industrial lead, while everything further away is part of NS's yard,

What's the track by the waters edge for?

Not sure.  Maybe nothing specific anymore.  Hopewell has been a center of industrial activity since DuPont pretty much created it around the turn of the last century.  

Here's the diamond.

...with plenty of switches, wyes and diamonds?

Feast your eyes on Hopewell, Virginia.  It's even got a diamond operated by a pair of hand-throw switches.

http://binged.it/1yKcv3R

If anyone's interested in a color-coded map to untangle this mess of tracks into its' NS and CSX components, I could do that.

Possible, depending on how many pigs there were.  But pigs are pretty much the lightest trains out there (except roadrailers I guess).

Keep in mind... (and for some reason 99% of railfans assume this) ...that just because you have motors in a consist doesn't mean they're online or even running at all.  Even the largest of manifest trains can usually get by with two modern diesels... anything beyond that is pretty much being transferred to another location for any number of reasons... usually for repairs or scheduled inspections because most terminals don't have full-service diesel shops.

Hi

 

Would be interested in seeing what it says but will not open for me

A Chairman’s Award-winning project years in the making is coming to fruition in September. In June, CSX shipped the first train of iron ore concentrate for Magnetation, Inc. to Reynolds, Indiana. Within the next few weeks, CSX will begin transporting iron ore pellets for the company as well.

The Grand Rapids, Minn. based company produces high-quality iron ore concentrate used in blast furnace operations and integrated steel production.  

Once the concentrate is moved from Magnetation’s Minnesota  facility to Chicago via BNSF, CSX trains carry it to a recently constructed plant in Reynolds, Ind. With the density of inbound and outbound train movements, CSX made a commitment to improve the infrastructure on the Monon subdivision.

At the Reynolds facility, the concentrate is transformed into iron ore pellets, which CSX will then transport to steel production plants. In all, CSX will deliver about 3.5 million tons of concentrate per year to Reynolds — five to six trains per week — and move nearly the same amount of outgoing pellets. CSX will also deliver one train per week of limestone to Van Meter Trucking to be transloaded and trucked over to the Magnetation facility.

“This is the only pelletizing plant CSX serves,” said Carol Craig, Market Manager, Coal. “Winning this contract took years of hard work and cooperation among many departments, including Sales and Marketing, Service Design, Transportation, Coal Operations, Regional Design and other groups within CSX.”  

The Magnetation project was the recipient of a Chairman’s Award of Excellence in 2013. The team was honored for its successful efforts to “overcome competitive rail options and solve multiple challenges concerning interchange, equipment, power, in-plant switching and dumping.”

Obviously not your time period, but thought you might find this interesting... was messing around the CSX Gateway site and found a reference to the Monon sub in an article on new business!

https://csxgateway-external.csx.com/cci/news/HomePageNews/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=747

Hah, gotta say... that tenement looks pretty much EXACTLY like the apartments where I live... and the apartment I live in, actually!

As far as securement goes... doubtless shortlines like the one referenced here aren't quite so stringent, but by-the-rule on CSX, when you set out a car (or tie down a train) procedure is as follows...

1 car: 1 brake

2 cars: 2 brakes

3 or more cars: 2 brakes (or sufficient)

Once brakes are set, Conductor will tell the Engineer to perform a standing brake test.  Engineer releases all air brakes (train and independent) and leaves it that way for 1 minute.  If the train moves, the Conductor needs to go tie more brakes.  If it doesn't move, good test.  Of course this doesn't include the handbrakes on any of the locomotives... so if you're tying down a train, it should be tested on the car hand brakes alone... PLUS you'd then be tying the handbrakes on the locomotives too before you leave.

Just a quick reference... on my subdivision we have large feed mill built on a grade... a pretty serious grade too, 1.1 or 1.2%.  They get 90 car trains of corn that we yard in cuts of ~30 or so in the 3 yard tracks there.  By the timetable, 30% hand brakes applied is required.  Of course, grain cars like that are very heavy.  Not coal heavy, but heavy.  A 90 car train weighs about ~11,000 tons or so.

We get 80 car trains of ethanol (82 with the buffer cars) and we used to tie them down in a siding near the plant where they're yarded because sometimes the loaded train would arrive before the empty was ready to be pulled.  Theoretically we can still do this given permission and filling out a new form (gives dispatcher information about grade, number of brakes applied, curve vs straight track, weather, etc) but in practice I don't think it's ever going to happen.

I don't understand the logic here.  As far as train handling goes there is one class of flammable liquid.  A car of fuel oil is handled the same way as a car of gasoline as a car of diesel as a car of crude oil as a car of ethanol.  Same laws, same rules, same handling, same train placement, same switching requirements.  Any labeling issues (PG 1 vs PG 2) would not have changed anything with regard to how the railroad was required to handle the cars or how the railroad would have handled the cars. 

 

For example a "key train" in the US is a train with 20 or more hazardous loaded cars.  Doesn't matter what type.  Same restrictions apply  to all.  20 cars of fertilizer (oxidizer) is the same as 20 cars of gasoline (flammable liquid) is the same as 20 cars of LPG (flammable gas) is the same as 20 cars of ammunition (explosives 1.4).

 

The only difference was paperwork (the documentation was incorrect) and possibly in emergency response.

A "key train" can also be a train carrying just ONE of what we call in slang as "killer cars".  Usually inhalation hazard stuff... here in Charlotte we've got a place that takes cars of Chlorine, so that's one example.