Dedicated to all the hard-working railroaders who have ever hogged an engine, thrown a switch, walked a train, welded a rail, pulled a tie, fixed a circuit, replaced a knuckle, poured fuel or sand, repaired, hostled, cleaned or cursed at a locomotive or a car in the dead of night, in the rain, in the snow, in the glazing heat. You keep America moving, now more than ever.
It's just that the requirements for the predominant bulk of my posts mandate HD video uploads and larger photo files.
I can't tell you how many videos I've recorded in the past two months -- in concert with a number of digital still photographs.
But, for the bulk of time, I find myself posting at my cabin in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and my dial-up connection there is not what one would consider conducive to timely uploads to either YouTube for my videos or to Blogger for photographs over a handful of megs.
There are some great videos coming. More train meets. The inside of a cab. Snow and rain videos. Some interesting track movements (like reverse-running). A video that, when you see it, you'll cringe. And a video that almost cost me some serious trouble.
And finally, while I thought that by this time I'd be retired (after 35+ years) and able to post more frequently and, further, get into video editing -- no such luck. The economy up and slammed me -- as it likely slammed you as well. Therefore, work still takes up a bulk of my time.
In the meantime, please enjoy the two Amtrak photographs. The above photograph, taken in the summer of 2010, shows Amtrak #6 running eastbound through the concrete sheds still in existence at Soda Springs. Lead Genesis engine #202 is a GE Dash9-P42-B, built in 2001, sporting 4,200 hp and the standard four-cycle engine with B-B trucks.
The photograph below shows, again, Amtrak #6 running uphill on the #2 track just past Secret Town. Lead locomotive is GE Genesis #148, an identical engine to that listed above; Amtrak has 87 of those locomotives numbered in the 121 to 207 range.
For those new to the blog, Amtrak runs two trains daily over Donner Pass on the main #1 (west) and #2 (east) tracks. The westbound train is Amtrak #5, and the eastbound train is Amtrak #6. This passenger train is called the "California Zephyr" and runs between Emeryville, California to Chicago, Illinois.
Further, they are rarer when actually captured by photos or video.
Monday, March 14th, I had occasion to document a completely unanticipated meet that was, in truth, quite historic in nature for both directions: eastbound and westbound.
I was driving back to the cabin via the old US Highway 40 (the Lincoln Highway) between Gold Run and Dutch Flat (just north of current I-80) when I chanced to see the green signal for eastbound traffic at milepost 153.6.
I stopped, extricated my Flip HD with image stabilization from its LowePro camera bag, wiped the lens and waited for eastbound traffic. Instead, I was greeted by the oncoming horns of westbound (downhill) Amtrak #6 cruising through lower Dutch Flat.
But there was a major surprise coming, as the video indicates here:
This video is too good to pass up.
My blog, due to its inherent structure, can't physically accommodate the actual original letterbox content through the Flip HD; I have to trim it horizontally, each time, to fit my chosen blog template. On the other hand, you can click on the full link here and watch the video in true HD.
If you choose to do this, please enlarge the video and, further, plug your Denon headphones into the audio output of your confuser. Trust me: you will NOT be disappointed. Turn up the volume.
That written, some details for the purists amongst you:
Amtrak #86 on point, a GE Dash9-P42B DC unit making 4,200 hp, manufactured in 1997. Next, Amtrak # 194, a GE Dash9-P42-B DC unit, 4,200 hp, manufactured in 2001. Third, Amtrak # 41, another Genesis GE Dash9-P42B DC unit with 4,200 hp manufactured in 1997. From there, eight common Amtrak cars pass by.
The final two passenger cars are "private varnish," which means they are privately owned and paid for Amtrak to carry. They are, in order, the Creative Charters cars "Evelyn Henry" and then the "Warren R. Henry," with two persons waving to me on the veranda.
These two final cars are owned by Patrick Henry Creative Promotions and, on their website, indicate that prices for these cars "start at $8,500 per day."
Good luck with that fee.
Sufficiently unique for you, perhaps?
On the other hand, I hadn't even remotely thought of archiving SIX elder EMD GP engines in line as they hauled ass uphill at, minimally, track speed.
In order, these B-B trucked EMD GP38-2 units, of 2,000 hp each, manufactured between 1973 and 1981, were #600, #587, #604, #589, # 566, #590.
They carried solitary UP flanger SPMW 331. Though painted in armour yellow, the numbering is a tribute to the original Southern Pacific Maintenance of Way #331 flanger car.
First, my most sincere apologies for not posting more frequently. No, as I have been asked, I am not going away or abandoning the blog. I have found, however, the work continues to get in the way of my hobby (a point I hope to ameliorate within the next year or so), and, in order to upload my videos, the connection has to be beyond what I have at my cabin in the Sierra Nevada mountains -- that is, faster than "dial-up." Yes, I fully realize that even our current president is faster than dial-up, which provides bushels of clues about dial-up itself.
That said, I present a very cold video that, trust me, made my feet even colder.
Above, eastbound Amtrak California Zephyr #5 slugs uphill as it approaches the signal and crossing at Dutch Flat.
As you can see, there is much snow -- and ground fog as well. The temperature is roughly 20-degrees. The area had just seen two very heavy storms which left about 7 to 8 feet at Donner Summit. Locally, we got about 2 to 3 feet in the first dumping and an additional 3 feet subsequently.
When I travel, I usually carry my camera bag replete with Nikon super-zoom P100 and the Flip HD video. I had just finished shopping in Colfax and was driving home when I caught sight of a green signal for the #2 track. Unfortunately, not thinking I'd be encountering much, I'd dressed that day in Keen Newports (see photo), no socks and no coat. Silly me.
I stopped the RAV-4 near the tracks with the Flip HD video. Snow, as I had clearly forgotten, can be deceiving. My first stride plunged me into about one foot of water, hidden by the snow itself, after I'd broken through a crust of ice. The second stride put my sweats into about three feet of snow. The third and continuing strides held me knee-deep or more in snow and the final step landed my other foot into another watery dip.
So there I stood, my feet and calves wet, sweats drenched from the knee down, open shoes, no socks, no coat, waiting a good five minutes for the approaching Amtrak. In 20-degree weather. I know this because my SUV has a temp readout on the dash. It took all that I had plus the Flip's image stabilization to keep my shivering from being patently obvious as the Zephyr approached and passed.
Of course, once finished with the video, I had to slog my way, in the snow and water, back to the SUV. Happy days. I couldn't feel my feet -- no shock there. Only by taking a hot shower did I begin to feel my toes, later.
Details: Amtrak engines #133 on point, and #199 behind (elephant-style) are GE Dash9-P42-B's with 4,200 horsepower four-stroke engines, DC final transmissions, B-B trucks, 2,200 gallon fuel capacity, weight of 268,000 pounds each, built in 2001. Amtrak purchased 87 of these units. Those 8,400 horses are pulling just nine cars -- not much of a challenge that day.
Thanks for sticking by me at MP154, and I'll be doing my best to increase the frequency of posting, more photos, more videos.
I have to admit, from my very early interest in trains my goal was to find out what happens in the cab of a locomotive on point.
And since my concentrated interest in 1996, it didn't take me long before I was invited inside.
Luckily, my interest coincided with the transition of the purchase of Southern Pacific by the Union Pacific. All the engineers, at that time, had great loyalty to the "friendly SP" as opposed to UP. And trust me -- SP was infinitely more friendly than UP. Former SP or retired SP employees will unanimously agree.
My first invitation into a cab came when a train was halted in Gold Run and shoved into the eastern siding, waiting for Dispatcher 74 to clear them. Snow was all around. The lead unit was a battered UP SD-60. And I do mean battered. I went home and snatched a plate full of just-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies. Getting out of my car and trudging through about three feet of snow, I yelled up at the cab. The window slided open and I was invited into the cab -- for clear reasons. I met an engineer whom I encountered many times on the road and has invited me into the cab for various rides since -- to the point where I was given the opportunity to operate the controls on one very clandestine run. It was, frankly, the time of my aged life. I think my age also helped: I'm not a kid and I am customarily festooned with cameras.
For obvious reasons I shall keep the names and times and details of my cab rides in obscurum.
Because I work in a job where I am a union member (though, given, a remarkably small one) at a closed shop subject to contract negotiations, the engineers and conductors I met in all those various cabs had, oddly enough, much in common with me; I found out about New York Dock wages, the conditions under which the cab crews operate, the differences in the unions, "dying on the law," crew-callers, operating hours, training, pee tests, and their working lives in general.
Though it's a post for another time, trust me, if you think the life of any given railroader is a piece of cake, you would be sorely mistaken. The administrations of railroads operate in a para-military fashion because, historically, they were originally administered by -- at first -- ex-Civil War officers who knew no other way in which to operate. That para-military bent hasn't changed in over 150 years. And in general, even now, there is a prevailing "us vs them" mindset encompassing railroad administrations and employees.
When you get in the cab, I quickly discovered, you also get into the heads of the railroad employees and the railroad executives. You see and hear things no one else will see and hear.
Along the way, with various engineers and crews, I've done my "small bit" to help out. Because I work for a LE agency and am quite well-armed when hiking about, I have assisted in getting various bums and oddities removed from cabs and cars -- where the crews were more than several miles from civilization and had no idea of the make and manner of people they'd find in said cabs and the cars.
On one occasion I knocked on the locked door of an SD40-T2 with the barrel of my Sig P220 because I could see a kid inside with a guitar case and his right hand inside a bag. We came to a verbal agreement that he should exit said cab in an expeditious manner. The large hole at the end of the P220 didn't hinder the urgency I attempted to communicate at the time. With a lengthy apology to the conductor on the ground adjacent the cab, the young man sought other adventures elsewhere. The train continued on.
I myself have had plenty of adventures since, though with lesser frequency. UP and other railroads are operating under Homeland Security strictures -- and there have even been issues with train enthusiasts shooting photos from various Amtrak station locations. Again, a post for another time as I have a very strong opinion on the matter.
That said, when I hike I have my own very seasoned eye on the various pieces of infrastructure and rolling stock I encounter along the way. I feel it is my job and responsibility to keep my own eye on the security of the rails because, where I go, there is no one else to do so save the occasional passing cab crews. I have done things from putting out two separate tie fires to removing objects and obstacles from the tracks.
Very nice cab interior video above; below is a video of "Doug" starting an ancient Conrail GE locomotive, created with just a tad bit of "tongue-in-cheek":
Below is a quick video of an Amtrak GE P42 cab ride, from the engineer's position, at night:
Here is a dark but revealing look at the engine room of a moving (67 mph per the speedo in the cab) Amtrak GE P42 locomotive; air compressor room at the very end. Note that, as you walk down the stairs from the cab toward the bulkhead of the engine room, there is a door to the right. That's the crew toilet. For sound deadening purposes there are two doors between the engine room and the cab itself:
Because I am writing this particular post on my MacBook Pro, I don't have access to my large volume of cab interior shots. I'll post these at other times. I also have a Flip Slide HD video of the interior of a UP GE freight locomotive, but I'm debating posting that video because the Slide is not image-stabilized, and my camera movements are jerky and quick -- for two salient reasons: 1) I had just finished hiking some distance in the heat, and 2) It was even hotter in the cab (100+ -degrees) and I was badly dehydrated, therefore shaking visibly.
Cab interiors fascinate me. If you'd care to see the Flip HD vid I'll post it. I'll also be making a trip this Spring to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola (I'm a Lifetime member) for interior video of their beautiful EMD F-7 unit -- and the interior of the UP 6946, an EMD DDA40X 6,000-hp Centennial. You would expect no less.
Oh, and one final thing -- nice (but again, dark) video of starting and shutting down a Norfolk Southern EMD SD40-2. This is the real deal:
Take care, be safe, and keep reading and visiting!
My heartfelt apologies for the dearth of recent posts but, as with most good things in Life, work just seems to get interminably in the path of greatness. On the other hand, there isthe positive aspect of that bi-weekly check and the fact that I am still reasonably employed, though we lost 132 people last year and are operating at 32 less on just my shift presently.
Resolvedly, I will make the attempt to provide more 2011 Train Porn for myself and whatever band of shaggy readers I may have adopted from the nearby tracks. Of course, train buffs of all stripes are welcome here at Milepost 154 and, with that being said, perhaps this is the appropriate moment for a bit of reflection.
2010 is about to conclude and, with it, one of the worst economic times in my recent memory -- save that of the late 70s and very early 80s. James Earl Carter (if not the worst then perhaps in the running for second-worst president in American history) had been recently defeated and left behind, as his wondrous legacy, the importation of criminal Marielitos from Cuba into Florida, the giveaway of the Panama Canal, double-digit inflation, unemployment and the 14% rate that I was paying on my home loan -- you know, the one with the five year call. Some people were paying 25% to 30% on car loans. If they could get them. That was back when you actually had to possess a modicum of credit reputability coupled with a considered down payment. Up until the past few years all that was required for home loan acquisition was to be a vertically-bipedal meatsack. But that's a story for my other blog.
Luckily, the nation is not at that point. Unemployment, it can be argued, is actually worse in some targeted locations -- agricultural towns and cities in Fornicalia, for example, where unemployment ranks at 20% or worse -- but the overall economy hasn't transitioned from inflation and thence into hyperinflation; this may be coming, however.
The largest problem is this: no one knows. This government isn't helping when it continues to spend beyond-prodigious amounts of money as though there is no valve whatsoever on the taxpayer spigot. There isn't necessarily a revenue problem; there is clearly a spending problem.
Further, not just individuals but businesses are left hanging. Small businesses, the bread and butter of the nation and responsible for the bulk of hiring (not "Big Business"), can't get loans. Money has not loosened because banks are anally holding their capital -- again, unsure about the economy and the forecast of health, energy, tax rates and regulations.
This is not surprising when the political pastures change almost weekly and the forecast is "rain, with an actual chance of socialism."
As I am wont to say, the parasites are on the cusp of outnumbering the hosts. When the lever fully tilts in that opposite direction, the nation will be grievously wounded. No one yet knows if the wound will be mortal or reversible. One can only hope.
What, for God's sake, does this have to do with trains and a trainblog? Quite a massive bit, as it turns out.
You have to ask yourself: what's the purpose of railroads? Answer: they transport commodities. They are "common carriers" but with this caveat: they transport in bulk. LTL (less than truckload) business isn't their specialty. That's for trucks. Specific point-to-point door deliveries.
Trains can compete with trucks, to a degree. Some bright young lad one day thought: hey, who says we can't put truck trailers on flatcars and move a bunch of them? This arrangement is called TOFC or -- oddly enough -- Trailer On FlatCar.
Further, an entirely different bright young lad thought: hey, who says we can't create this thingy whereby we attach truck trailers to railcar trucksets and leave out the whole flatcar? This arrangement is called a "roadrailer."
Still and all, trucks are really good at what they do, and railroads are really good at what they do. They don't mesh well otherwise, particularly at rail crossings.
Overall, therefore, railroads were impacted by the economy in 2010. Locally for me (and by that, I mean Union Pacific's Roseville Subdivision over Donner Pass on the #1 and #2 tracks), traffic has not necessarily decreased substantially. This is because UP discontinued running most intermodal or stacktrain freight through the Feather River Canyon area (former Western Pacific digs) and, instead, diverted it up and over Donner. See my posts here and here and here and here for the reasons.
But this is the exception and not the rule. Unit trains (a train carrying one specific commodity, such as grain, chemicals, petroleum, coal*) are down as are mixed manifest trains (trains of a lesser priority which can carry anything from flatcars to gondolas to boxcars to bulkhead cars to autoracks). [*It is no secret that the current US administration wants to eliminate the use of coal entirely for any purpose whatsoever.]
This is clearly because the economy does not demand those bulk movements be made as frequently. The demand for the product(s) is down.
Subsequently, train crew calls are down, employees aren't needed as much and profits are down.
Further, the demand for new railcars is down as is the demand for locomotives. America's heavy rail industries are impacted.
I wish I could forecast a blooming economy for 2011; unfortunately (though I am no remote resemblance or kin to Carnak The Magnificent) I see the economy continuing on a poor path; perhaps even worse. Again, those aren't detailed topics for this blog but more pointedly for my other.
Bottom line: I'll try to blog with greater frequency which, admittedly, I very much enjoy.
Assisting me in this endeavor will be my trusty Nikon Coolpix 100, Sony A300 DSLR and my Flip video cameras in HD. I have become slightly more facile with my Flip HD videocams, and I have sworn to become even more familiar with them in 2011.
First, an admission: I am not a shill for the Flip video or for Cisco Systems. I receive no goods or services from them nor do I know anyone who works for them. That said, I find the Flip videocams in HD to be absolutely astounding little devices. Above, I have posed the Flip Slide videocam on the left, and the newest Flip Ultra HD on the right. I placed a pen below them in order to better indicate their relative sizes. These cameras are not appreciably larger than a pack of cigarettes. More on the Flip videocams in a later post, with comparisons and reviews.
But first, an Amtrak video captured with the Flip Slide:
If you happen to listen to the video with headphones, you can hear the detector at milepost 148.8 activate in the background. And I must admit: it was an amazing thing to be hit right in the snoot with two four-stroke diesel exhaust bursts from the glorious GE units as they passed underneath.
And there you have it. Time to wrap up so that I can sojourn back up to my cabin in the mountains. I'm making a stop at Costco on the way, for hardtack, wagon axle grease, a new Henry rifle, jerky, flour, pickaxes and goldpans. You know, the stuff you need in the mountains.
God bless you, my dearest readers, thank you so kindly for visiting, perusing and commenting. Good luck to you in 2011 -- we're all going to need busloads of it, I fear.
As those interested in trains know, railroads are primarily "background" in the United States. Only when an individual is halted at a crossing by a slow train, or there is a derailment that causes impact on a community -- both negative events -- does the average citizen even consider the presence of railroads in their towns or cities.
In that vein, there aren't many movies produced by Hollywood in which trains have something of a starring role. Two come immediately to my mind: "Runaway Train" with Jon Voight and Eric Roberts (1985), and the ever-classic "The Train" with Burt Lancaster (1964).
Move over; there is another train film in town in which a newer General Electric locomotive -- and an older EMD as well -- shares stardom with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine (Star Trek, 2009). The film was inspired by this incident.
And, if you as a railroad enthusiast can overlook the obvious technical faults, it's an excellent film showcasing great acting, great pacing and non-stop action. Bottom line, even if you're not a rail or locomotive enthusiast? An exciting action movie well worth your money for the big screen.
But of course, being the equivalent of the pejorative "foamer," I cannot stop the review here. I have to be the one to point out a few such aforementioned technical faults.
The film begins with a yard's hostler instructed to move his train in order to clear it for another. In the process he fails to connect the glad-hands from the locomotive set to the rest of the train (good overview of train air brakes here). His failure to make this connection helps, in part, to allow the train to move from a simple "coaster" to a full-on runaway (see BNSF Air Brake & Train Handling Rules -- 120 pages -- here).
Further, he has placed the reverser into the forward position and added throttle (it appears to be Run 1 if I recall). He decides to physically exit the cab in order to throw a yard switch ahead of the consist but fails to reach the switch in time. He also fails to regain the locomotive as it starts to pick up speed and leaves him on the ground. Ooops.
Cut to a close up of, magically, mystically, the throttle somehow swiping itself fully into Run 8 -- the highest throttle setting available in current diesel-electric locomotives.
Two techno Train Geek points:
Throttles don't do that by themselves. As someone who has manipulated throttles in a cab, watched by an engineer, throttle levers are very "notchy" and their accompanying detents are very clear. It take much more than a casual touch to move the throttle lever from one detent to the next. They don't simply fall from one position to the next;
Even if the train were to somehow be on the move, the Alerter system would stop the locomotive consist which, in turn, would slowly stop the runaway.
Look at my cab photo below. In this framing you can see the Alerter button is circled. After a period of time in which no input has been made by the engineer to any control, a loud alert begins to sound. It becomes progressively louder if the engineer does not carefully push the reset button. In truth, because they are so annoying, the engineers customarily mash the reset button with all the aplomb and care usually reserved for sledgehammers.
If the Alerter is not reset, the locomotive and any attached locomotives would be thrown into the equivalent of "emergency" and the locomotive brakes would be applied immediately. Because the air had not been connected to the rest of the train, the locomotive "independent" brakes would apply. The train would be stopped, but not as quickly as if the rest of the brake pipes on the trailing cars were connected.
Absent these and a few more tidbits, the movie is thoroughly enjoyable.
As always, comments or questions?
MP154
An EMD SD40-2 rigged for filming, painted in fictional "Allegheny & West Virginia" colors.
Point "star" is former Canadian Pacific GE AC4400CW #9782, built in 2003, rated 4,400 hp.
General Electric is the parent company of NBC, and a clear supporter of Mr Barack Obama during his campaign, with a $499,130.00 donation -- half a million dollars.
(CNSNews.com) - The Obama administration gave corporate giant General Electric—the parent company of NBC--$24.9 million in grants from the $787-billion economic “stimulus” law President Barack Obama signed in February 2009, according to records posted by the administration at Recovery.gov.
At first blush, one might suspect this was done in order to, in its best light, help GE create jobs and extend its manufacturing prowess.
The truth is much more disillusioning:
Despite getting $24.9 million from U.S. taxpayers, GE decreased its U.S.-based employees by 18,000 in 2009, according to the company’s 2009 annual report.
Despite receiving governmental -- actually, taxpayer -- dollars, GE chose to lay off or fire employees.
Though:
According to Standard & Poor's, GE took in $156 billion in revenue in 2009.
Yet:
GE was the primary recipient of 14 stimulus grants, a spokeswoman for Recovery.gov confirmed to CNSNews.com. These 14 grants provided GE with $24.9 million in tax dollars. On four additional stimulus grants, the primary recipient of the federal money hired GE as a contractor. Recovery.gov is the administration’s website that tracks stimulus expenditures.
At the end of 2008, GE employed 152,000 U.S. workers, according to its 2009 annual report. But at the end of 2009, according to the report, it employed only 134,000 U.S. workers, a decline of 18,000 workers.
The Energy Department provided GE with 9 stimulus grants, the Department of Health and Human Services provided the company with 3, and the Justice Department and the Commerce Department each gave the company 1 stimulus grant.
Finally:
In addition to the $24.9 million it received in stimulus grants, GE was also awarded $5 million in federal contracts under the economic stimulus law. These contracts were payment for services provided by the company.
As you likely already know, there are only two major American locomotive builders. One is GE, and the other is EMD.
EMD was the number one seller of diesel-electric locomotives until 1989, when GE then became the largest builder of locomotives in the United States.
Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, United States
I am a political junkie who works in the capital of California, and cannot wait to leave the daily bedlam of the valley for my rustic cabin at the 4,000-foot elevation in the Sierra Nevada mountains. My interest in railroads has led to a rekindled interest in photography, video and history. Few things are as impressive as having 15,000+ horsepower pass by my home in Run 8, hence my interest in the Central, Southern and Union Pacific Railroads.
One of the purposes of this blog is to display my photographic documentation of the Roseville Sub, specifically the Donner Pass area, as it exists now and in the past.
My current challenge is to provide you with views, photos and videos that few people would dare to proffer, placing me in frequent danger. On the other hand, after 6 decades, I'm ready for each and every challenge.
Unless otherwise credited, all photographs are copyright (c) 2014 by the blog author.
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