An MP15 engine's visit to Tampa for several months in early 2023!
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- Опубліковано 23 чер 2023
- In February 2023, CSX EMD MP15AC engine 1181 visited Tampa for a few months, and proved what an amazing and capable little engine it is. This EMD model dates back some 50 years, and there aren't many of them left, so it was a special treat for Tampa railfans to have one around for a while.
It worked the Tampa yards and local jobs for several months. Despite its small size, this workhouse was capable of doing the same jobs as the various iterations of the larger EMD GP38 and GP40 Tampa switch locomotives that normally handle those jobs.
The highlight of the video is many passes of the MP15 on Tampa's well-known Y295 Polk Street run, which show off this unusual-looking engine. The video also shows CSX 1181 performing yard jobs in Tampa's CSX Yeoman Yard and CSX Trans-Flo yard, plus several runs to Hooker's lead to the port of Tampa. The Trans-Flo footage is a great opportunity to see the switcher in action, remote-controlled by the CSX engineer or conductor standing or walking in the yard alongside it.
Sadly, as of June 2023, Y295 no longer carries tanker cars to Cargill Sweeteners or Chemical Formulators customers at Rattlesnake Point in South Tampa. Both have closed due to the sale of their land to a condo developer. Cargill is moving this part of its business to another Florida location, so it is fortunately not lost rail business.
So this video also serves as a nice memory of the many decades of Y295's Street runs with long strings of tankers, which the MP-15 was able to pull with ease. Y295 has since been reduced to 1-4 boxcars and tankers, and sometimes runs with no cars at all either to or from South Tampa.
Much of the video is night footage, and was taken using fast f1.4 lenses and special techniques to provide clear and vibrant video at dusk and sometimes well after dark. Trans-Flo yard was extremely dark (almost pitch black) and so the Trans-Flo video has some noise, but the operations are clearly visible.
Fantastic footage. Thank you.
Great catch! What horn is that? Awesome sounds!
Pretty sure it's a k5la with a dead #1 bell.
Very nice montage, Barry. Will be tough to live with no tanker service to Rattlesnake point.
Thanks, that means a lot coming from you. I'm trying to capture nice sequences around Tampa that are interesting. However it's sad that some of them are also acting as documentaries of decades-old rail services that have come to an end. I plan to re-do a lot of footage of Old Tampa yard at some point into a better-edited video. I had planned to shoot a daytime version of my 'Definitive Y295 Night video" but since the Rattlesnake service ended, the night version will have to do.
So does that mean no street running in Tampa?
There are still two customers South of Downtown, Quad graphics gets boxcars 2-3 times a week, and occasionally hoppers also go to the port at the end of the line near Picnic Island, so for now it's still running.
Land sold to condo developers. I'm sure that was an entirely transparent and entirely above-board financial transaction.🤑💰😒🤫 😌