2010 In Reflection, Amtrak & Flip

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 is the 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.

MP154

Unstoppable

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.

Politics and General Electric Locomotives:

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.

In return, according to numerous sources (CNSNews.com as well):

(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.

EMD was purchased from General Motors in 2005 by the Greenbriar Equity Group LLC and Berkshire Partners LLC. They decided to retain the initials EMD -- for purposes of familiarity -- which then stood for Electro Motive Diesel. My brother could have purchased this entire company for its "secret" selling price of $200 million in 2005.

This, you must note, was prior to GM being floated by the US government and becoming Government Motors.

EMD was recently sold to Caterpillar's Progress Rail Services unit for $820 million dollars.

GM received stimulus dollars. EMD clearly did not.

An "even" playing field for our major locomotive builders, ladies and gentlemen?

I submit: not.

MP154

At Eyeball Level: The New & The Old

Now that I've discovered how to upload my quirky Flip Slide videos to YouTube, I'd care to display another if I might:



In this video, UP 7640 East charges up The Hill from Roseville towards Donner Pass, directly under Interstate 80, at about the 3,500-foot level.

UP 7640 is a GE C45ACCTE manufactured between 2007 and 2008, boasting 4,400 hp. UP currently possesses 325 of these units.

Second in line is an older Southern Pacific GE unit, #6221, still wearing its faded SP paint with red nose.

UP 6221 is a C44AC with 4,390 hp, purchased in 1995 by the Southern Pacific. It is one of 167 GE units that UP has, once owned by SP. These GE units were the last locomotives ever purchased, as a matter of fact, by the Southern Pacific. Most still have their SP paint with red cab numbers over rectangles of armour-yellow paint.

Finally, UP 7089 runs in rear DPU status -- 7089 being one of only two GE C44AC locomotives purchased in 1997, with 4,390 hp.

At this point, you are eye-level with the engineer and about five feet from 8,000 horsepower as it passes by at 25 mph.

I can't think of another spot -- unless you're in the cab -- where you can get as close to a moving set of locomotives running at track speed.

____________________________________________

NOTE: Union Pacific's steam locomotive #844, its Alco 4-8-4 FEF-3 locomotive, is currently on a Pacific Northwest Tour:

Omaha, Neb., September 02, 2010 – Bound for the rugged western U.S., a land of endless possibility that the railroad united with the east in 1869, Union Pacific Railroad's historic steam locomotive, No. 844, will travel more than 2,300 miles from its base in Wyoming on a 15-day, three-state tour to the Pacific Northwest to celebrate Union Pacific's role in the building of the western United States.

The "Portland Rose Heritage Tour" will begin September 8 when No. 844 departs Cheyenne, Wyo. The locomotive will make several overnight stops in cities in the region with an extended four-night layover in No. 844's first-ever appearance at the Pendleton Round-Up in Pendleton, Ore. The historic consist will stop in each of the following cities before arriving back in Cheyenne September 23:

• Laramie, Rawlins, Rock Springs and Green River, Wyo.;
• Montpelier, Pocatello, Shoshone, Boise and Nampa, Idaho;
• Huntington, La Grande, Hinkle, The Dalles, Portland and Pendleton, Ore.

If you live in the above areas, heads-up: live steam approacheth!

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

MP154

P.S.
Another video of the UP7640/6221 combination is coming, in which I document yet another train meet -- grain train vs double-stack.

MP 154 Revelation: I Can Post Videos

I likely belabor the obvious when writing this, but I am far from competent in the land of technology. If it weren't for the fact that Blogger makes blog creation almost painfully easy -- even I have created a few -- this and some other small points in the Blogosphere would not exist.

That written, I learned how to create small videos and then, the past day, learned how to upload them to YouTube. Surely that is a remarkably easy feat for yourself but a massive step ahead for the CCBIs (Computer-Challenged Blithering Idiots) like myself.

I am not new to shooting video; I've had a Sony DCR-VX2000 since 2002 and possess many hours of trackside video in MiniDV. That camera has taught me much about tilting, panning, framing, white balance, and possession of a proper tripod with fluid head. Now, with all that footage, I need an editing system and a computer with the horsepower to pull it off.

The breakthrough for me came with my purchase of the Flip Slide. This is an HD-compatible videocam about the size of an elongated pack of cigarettes. Its convenience is also its greatest drawback. In my sixth decade of life I don't "hold" quite like I used to when I was freelancing in my early 20s. It's damned tough for me to keep the Flip still, particularly when shooting where there is nothing on which I can lean.

One final bit about the Flip Slide: I don't yet have an HD TV at home, so I played the various Flip videos on an HD unit at work; I was absolutely stunned by the resolution, clarity and color saturation. Unfortunately, it also emphasized the point that my videos resemble those of the guy that shot Cloverfield.

My first video uploaded to YouTube, up to bat:



The video was taken during the making of this post. I am standing next to UP 5652, a GE C44ACCTE locomotive, as its 4,390-hp engine idles.

There is, I must admit, nothing like standing next to a four-stroke diesel locomotive engine, even as it idles. You can literally feel your lungs vibrate. Every few moments there is a throttle blip which helps to keep the engine clear. The first hiss you hear is the air tank (for the braking system) venting to keep from overpressurization. The second, shorter hiss is the air dryer venting.

For those who may not know, air dryers are installed on all GE and EMD locomotives. Any time you compress air (required for a locomotive's braking system as well as those of the trailing train cars), you get condensation. Air dryers remove all condensation before air is introduced into any air lines on the locomotive or the brake pipes of an adjoining train. Absent completely dry air in the pipes, the lines, fittings and connectors would start to rust. Air dryers then vent this condensation, under pressure, to the outside atmosphere.

When playing the video, turn up your speakers. If you can adjust bass, do so. You might then begin to approximate what it is that I heard during the recording.

Enjoy. More videos to come. Please let me know your thoughts and opinions.

MP154

EMD Purchased By Caterpillar

There were, at one time, quite a number of locomotive builders in America, when both steam and diesel power was extant.

American steam builders included Alco (American Locomotive Company), Baldwin, Lima and, to a small degree, HK/Porter and Brooks. Once steam declined, two major diesel-electric builders remained standing: GE (General Electric) and EMD (Electro Motive Division of GM, General Motors).

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. The reasons for this are sufficiently voluminous and detailed as to warrant an entirely separate post one day.

EMD was purchased from GM in 2005 by the Greenbriar Equity Group LLC and Berkshire Partners LLC. They decided to retain the initials EMD -- for purposes of familiarity -- which now stood for Electro Motive Diesel.

EMD was recently sold to Caterpillar's Progress Rail Services unit. The deal was finalized this month, in August. From The Journal of Commerce:

The purchase was for $820 million in cash, Caterpillar said, plus a “net working capital adjustment subject to post-closing finalization” that it estimates at about $108 million.

In a deal Caterpillar first announced on June 1, it purchased EMD from private equity fund owners Berkshire Partners and Greenbriar Equity Group, which had bought it in 2005 from General Motors.

Berkshire Partners is not related to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which owns BNSF Railway.

Caterpillar Vice Chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman said “the acquisition of EMD is a natural fit, as it supports our enterprise strategy to aggressively grow our Energy Power Systems business, and the rail industry is an important component.”

The company says EMD can also further boost Progress Rail, which is already a major supplier of rail and transit products and services including locomotive repairs and upgrades, railcar replacement and remanufacturing, track work, rail welding, signaling and maintenance of way equipment.

EMD and GE Transportation supply North American freight railroads with their powerful line-haul locomotives along with a number of smaller-powered yard units.

Neither has been selling many new locomotives on this continent in recent years after the freight recession led railroads to lay up hundreds of units from their fleets, but a major governmental push to inter-city passenger rail in the U.S. and overseas is offering new market opportunities for many rail equipment suppliers.

Though EMD hasn't built its SD90MAC-H in years and, in fact, most of the H-engined 6,300-hp units have been scrapped (more on this in a later post), it is rumored that Caterpillar wanted to acquire all the rights and blueprints to the base 265H-engine itself.


It is interesting to note that Caterpillar did in fact provide prime movers for diesel-electric locomotives at one time, when the Morrison Knudson MK5000C locomotive was introduced in 1994. The MK5000C was powered by the 3612 V-12 Caterpillar block. Each cylinder of this engine displaced a massive 1,121 cubic inches.

A total of six MK5000C locomotives were produced. They had 5,300-gallon tanks and a maximum geared speed of 70 mph. The Cat 3612 engines, however, had problems which resulted in Southern Pacific and Union Pacific returning their demonstrator locomotives back to MK. Issues were with the main bearings and with the Kato alternators.


However, it is in direct response to the MK5000C locomotive that GE produced its AC6000CW and EMD responded with, first, the 20-cylinder SD80MAC at 5,000 hp and then the SD90MAC-H.

The Utah Railway purchased all six units but ended up yanking the Kato alternators and Cat engines, replacing them with EMD alternators and prime movers.

With the purchase of EMD, Caterpillar is deep into the locomotive game and may use EMD's diesel engine expertise to upgrade their own engine skills.

It's time for EMD to become a strong and competent locomotive manufacturer once again.

MP154

Inside a GE C44ACCTE Locomotive

I swore that I would never reveal information and circumstances surrounding my acquisition into various locomotive cabs I have encountered in my journeys.

With that in mind, I happened to have been invited into a DPU cab, within the past few months, after the train stalled in the mountains on the Roseville Subdivision.

As opposed to EMD locomotives, GE units have exhaust stacks (above) that extend above the roof of the engine room, one clear method of differentiation between manufacturers.

An overall view of the same engine room -- with clear signs of an engine room fire. For whatever reason, GE engines have had more engine room fires than EMD units. Also, GE units from the mid-to-late 90s ran rich and, upon throttle-up, would occasionally belch fire from their stacks. Was it a two-stroke v four-stroke issue? Some theorized it was an initial software problem.

Detail of the engine room fire. Note blistering, dripping, subsumation of colors from high heat. Engine repaired. Not so much the engine room doors.

Interior, GE 5652, view from the engineer's seat. Computer bank on left (two monitors were "dead" because of DPU status), with desktop controls on right. In trailing units or DPUs, reverser levers are removed.

Closer view, DPU. GE unit ahead. Through Milepost 148. Train is moving and not yet completely stalled. Conductor came to check DPUs for their status. UP 7095, shall we say, is not doing very well at this point.

A desktop control stand, with computers frozen because of DPU status. Reverser removed. Top left square controls are for lead axle sanding. ON left, OFF right. Lower square blue buttons are for that unit's manual sanding. ON top, OFF bottom. Yellow square is the bell button. Horn is a yellow button below that. Conductor has his own square yellow horn control, lower right below desk. Missing control is reverser; forward for same, back for reverse. Black round handle is the throttle.

Reverser removed; throttle in idle. Train in full release. There are 8 "notches" for the throttle. To increase the throttle, it is pulled towards engineer. From idle (current position), there are also 8 notches (pushed away from engineer) for dynamic braking. Red (up) and black (down) handles on the right control braking. Brakes are applied by pushing away from engineer; brakes are released by pulling towards engineer. Train brakes are on left; independent locomotive brakes are on the right.

View out engineer-side door, looking to rear. There is no door on the conductor's side on any American freight engine comfort cabs. Earlier non-M cab EMD SD-40/50/60 locomotives, and early GEs, had main entry door on conductor (left) side.

Conductor side of cab, with speedometer (left) and red Emergency Brake handle (right). Up is applied, down is released. Also includes convenient desktop surface. Horn button on lower right. Refrigerator behind Conductor and to the rear of seat. Seat closest to camera is for third occupant. May be for trainee or rider or unanticipated third. Locomotive camera can be see on metal stalk to upper right of photograph. Cameras are now in every cab of every locomotive in America and are on when locomotive is active.

Looking over the downhill track from the Conductor's left seat.

Engineer's position. Seats in locomotives are heavy vinyl and "industrial strength." Rear access cab door to right. This unit, UP 5652, is one of 141 General Electric C44ACCTE units with 4,390 hp manufactured in 2004. You can clearly see that, in just six years, this unit has seen some heavy use resulting in a grimy interior smattered with grime and more grime. Even when moving, the cab was remarkably quiet. In idle, the engine could be felt more than heard.

This is my first attempted posting with a video from my new Flip SlideHD cam. Even with a faster connection from my wife's internet access, I couldn't post more than a few seconds from this camera. I caught many excellent videos from my cab visit which, apparently, I can't upload directly to Blogger.

Please let me know if you can see this video. Blogger indicates it has completely loaded; I'm not quite so convinced.

MP154