The reason why those 2 BNSF units where running is either they had a defect that prevented the AESS (Automatic Engine Start-Stop) system from shutting down the engine (usually low batteries) or you had the shear luck of being there when they where running in between shut downs. Very rarely will crews do a manual shutdown, especially during the colder months where temperatures will drop below freezing. Railroads use water instead of Antifreeze to cool engines, so when an engine is shut down and it drops below freezing a safety valve known as a Guru valve will pop to dump the water and prevent engine damage from frozen water. (Its a pain to get it refilled, so no one on the railroad wants that to happen.) Those blue signs that you saw those men, who are called carmen, putting up are "blue flags". Blue flags are used to warn T&E crews (aka Engineer, conductor, & brakemen) that workers are underneath, on, or working on equipment, and that that equipment is not to be moved. Blue flags can only be removed by the person who placed it or a person on that person's team with permission in most railroads rulebooks. Those carmen, also know as Car inspectors, are not part of the switching crews. Their job is to inspect and repair cars after the yard crew sorts them. They are part of the mechanical department, and are a different "craft" . Crafts are basically job groups, but management is not a craft. (Also positions like IT and other HQ level positions) Conductors, Yard Foremen, Switchmen, Brakemen, Utilitymen are part of the T&E craft, but have their own Union. Engineers, Firemen are also part of the T&E craft, but have their own Union. (Technically they are a different craft but they are consider as part of the T&E craft) Mechanical department is part of several different "crafts" and unions depending on position. Same for Track Dept , B&B (Bridges and Buildings), Signals, Clerical, dispatchers, etc. I'm not sure exactly how NS does it, but usually the crews in the yard are Engineer, Yard Foreman (basically a conductor), and switchmen.
Thank you so much for the detailed answers to my questions. I really do appreciate it. You make watching this more enjoyable with the information you provide.
I found this video the day after watching your video of loading the ship on Lake Erie. I live about twentyfive miles from the Portsmouth yard. I knew it was big but I never had any idea it is this large. I very much enjoyed this video and will be checking out many more on your channel.
Back in the old days, we would go to the footbridge that gave maintenance workers access to the yard. Employees never gave us trouble about being there. This old bridge was located at the base of the hump. It was torn down a long time ago. Power for the hump was C630s and yard power was T6s.
@nkyrailfan As one of those workers today, I can tell you that on one hand, we generally don't care except that the rules, regulations, and companies make us care. We can be responsible for "not caring". On the other hand, FAR more people are NOT staying back and they ARE causing trouble. Just the other day I had a couple of railfans flying drones directly up next to my engine. Like I could have swung by brake stick out the door and hit them. Having a drone license does not mean you can trespass and distract crews.
Oh wow! I can only imagine how frustrating that would be. I am lucky in the fact that my drone has a zoom on it, so I can stay back and don't need to get close. In talking with the FAA flight services district office (local FAA guys for a region) and attorneys, they all say the same thing; You can fly over any property that isn't restricted airspace, but you must be above the "usable air space." That means above the tallest structure or light post at a minimum. I have seen a few videos recently where guys are basically at locomotive cab level in a yard. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️ I hate seeing that, because those idiots are going to ruin it for everyone. I really enjoy creating these videos, but I'd feel pretty bad if I knew I was bothering the crews like that to make them.
@nkyrailfan Yeah normally when I see a drone way up off somewhere filming I think, "Oh cool a railfan is filming I hope something cool happens for them down here" but like I said these guys were literally buzzing around our cab and around our heads and stuff. Definitely too close lmao.
As always, fantastic footage and voiceover. Portsmouth was a major yard for the Norfolk and Western, one of the key predecessor railroads that eventually got merged to evolve into the Norfolk Southern. It basically sat at the fork in the road on their mainline where one branch of it split and went to Cincinnati, where they could exchange with the Pennsy and one branch went to Columbus where they exchanged with the New York Central. Perfect place to put a full suite of shops and multiple humps. The Cincinnati connection was a jump off point south and, more importantly, to Chicago, while Columbus ultimately allowed them to ship freight to Toledo, Detroit and Cleveland.
Another entertaining and educational video. Your drone work and editing skills are on full display again. Absolutely one of the best railfan channels out there. Thanks for another great post.
Hi. As DJ from DJ’s Trains has pointed out railroads recycle the ties and rails. They make money by tearing out the tracks. Sadly most rail yards are a shell of their former selves. Rail traffic has decreased and industry like the coal industry has really slowed. Great video! Thanks for sharing this with us!
I have heard that about railroads and trying to squeeze money out of anything they can. It really is such a shame. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the video.
You have the best rail fan channel hands down facts!! The drone does you and us major justices 🔥🔥🔥! Thank you and blessings upon you and your family my guy!! Real talk!
NO Reason to Shut Down the Engine on a Foreign Power Unit. Maintenance don’t want to Waste Time working on a Foreign Power Unit if they Can’t get Restarted.👍
They’d just send it back to the powers closest terminal. They won’t work on foreign motors. Plus, the motors most likely have auto start and stop so they will cycle on and off
The main reason for shutting down a locomotive is fuel conservation. Regardless of weather it yours or some foreign roads, it has to be fueled when it runs low. Besides, with all the run thru trains between railroads these days they keep track of the number of engine hours a foreign loco is on your road and how many hours they have yours. After a while they figure out the difference and, as in this case the bnsf may be paying the ns back for a few hundred or thousand hours so those units could be on the ns for weeks
I wish I could've seen it with the humps in operation and when coal was running nonstop. That's one reason I try and record as much as I can, this stuff seems to keep consolidating and disappearing.
I live in Portsmouth and I watch trains a lot. the yard used to have 2 turntables with 2 roundhouses. back in the late 1970's/1980's they had a strike, it was vary bad in Portsmouth, one the executives of the N&W, (soon to be the last CEO of the NW) was in Portsmouth to witness the damage done by the strikers and almost got hit by someone throwing a rock at him, another official did get hit. At that moment he said that will make Portsmouth a "whistle stop". The yard became an empty shell. It wasn't until around 2007 to 2010 that the CEO of Norfolk Southern mad a deal with the Governor of Ohio to reopen the car shops, a type of tax deal. Also, the Cincinnati Line known as the Peavine line closed back in 2003. Would be interesting to see how much more traffic on the rails, especially since it has already increased with the double stack trains.
I've seen a few folks share about the history and trouble that happened in Portsmouth. Such a shame for just a few decisions to have such a big impact on a town. You wonder what could've been if things hadn't happened the way they did.
9:18 Those are Blue Flags that protect mechanical department personnel from rolling equipment being moved within the blue flagged zone. They also line the switches away from that track and lock them with their locks. As a conductor myself I can say that those blue flags are absolutely SACRED. A train crew member dropping a blue flag or tampering with their locking devices is the kind if thing that will get you fired and possibly decertified on the spot. If you remove or run over a blue flag, there's a very good chance you never move a train again.
@nkyrailfan No problem man! If you ever have any questions about stuff like that just let me know I'd be happy to help. I can't disclose specific information about specific trains but other than that... 😂
I never knew the yard was that large nor the general size of Portsmouth proper. Good video. Maybe you could do the yard and area around Parkersburg/Belpre
2:35 Coke empties heading for Suncoke at Haverhill. 3:30 Thats part of the old hump (known simply as the west yard now), the loaded coke train is in the flat yard), the video doesnt show it well but its actually pretty steep. I call it the poor mans hump. Can literally just shove them up the hill and pull the pin and they're roll down the hill (most of the time, sometimes you get a stubborn one). Spent many a night switching cars over there. It's always so cool seeing the yard from the air, such a different perspective.
Thanks for the great info! I really do appreciate it. One question for you, any idea how often Suncoke puts out a loaded train or the coal facility loads/unloads one? I'd love to try and record either in action.
@@nkyrailfan Suncoke puts out a train I wanna say bout every other day, sometimes daily. Depends on who they're producing for (currently it goes to cleveland (the one down by weller va also produces for them), east chicago, and middletown. Last year they were shipping to sandusky and it was being dumped for a place in canada. I believe some was going to kenova to KRT at one time as well. Burg, I don't know. They mix and load the shuttle for haverhill, I don't know the frequency. They'll load a sandusky train but, thats rare now days.
Yes, the brick buildings are original. There used to be a large roundhouse, and a footbridge connecting the locomotive/car shop complex to the north side of the yard. As far as switches, only the ones at either end allowing access to the to the mains, as well as those at West Avenue, are dispatcher controlled power switches. All the others are hand throw.
Another reason the BNSF motors might have been left running is when the temperature gets too low at night, engines won’t start if they are too cold so they’ll leave them running to keep them alive. Easier to keep them running then have them dead and not able to start
Locomotives have water cooled engines so they keep them running under certain temperatures. To conserve fuel many modern locomotives will shut themselves down over a certain outside temperature. I don't know what the setting would be on these BNSF locomotives but I would guess it's somewhere in the 40's F, with the thought that a temperature drop could be quite fast. Railroads don't use antifreeze for various reasons including cost, ease of maintaining and handling (of water), safety. etc.. Antifreeze is a poison and can be licked-up by wildlife along the tracks. Just about every terminal has a basic garden hose near one of the tracks for topping-up the water. That's about as simple as it gets. Also, maintenance personnel can drain water onto the ground, as opposed to having to capture antifreeze. I worked for CSX.
i normally cross the river west of there anymore but i can tell you that cable bridge ain't that old!! 25 30 years max!! and beyond starting the bastard then going to the office and completely forgetting about them the on;y 3 reasons i know of for running engines like that is one to check a repaired system two to drain the fuel tanks to work on it or three they're tapping power off it for something!
Blue signs are the blue flag protection for the car men to inspect the cars. Blue signs are put up and blue locks are out on the switches so the track can’t be accessed while the car man is doing his inspections.
All the railroads I follow in the west use blue markers between the rails for a clear warning that men are in and around cars for an extended period. I'll bet NS uses the STOP marker to warn of a cut being aired up as well, but that is just a guess.
I've been curious about that too. I'm told from several people that the coupler systems on these cars have been improved and are able to take quite a pounding and not suffer damage. The couplers are so good in fact, auto rack cars used to be marked "do not hump," but I have not seen one with the warning in years.
the bulkheads probably weren't bled out all the way or had a handbrake loosely on. Cars can get switched to the wrong track and destination fairly often. As a yard master. ill print out a track list and each car will be classed to either a customer if its an inbound to the area or its outbound destination if and outbound. I'll then designate what tracks I want the cars to get grouped to. It's up to the crew to then follow the list correctly, paying attention to the car numbers. some guys wont pay attention to car numbers and will just go by cut blocks and kick away. What you said about cars being spotted to be sorted, are sorted or put with to be dealt with later on ALL apply.
I've got good news for you, Brandon. I spent the previous day I shot this video in Russell. I have plenty of flat-track switching and more. Plus, I stopped at the Progressive Rail facility at the Raceland Car Shop and went to Huntington to get some video of the engines waiting to be refurbished. I hope to have it out within a week or two
@@nkyrailfan yeah they closed the shop in russell in like 2019, they had some old locomotives stored along greenup avenue, infront of the raceland high school, i got no clue if CSX is still storing them there though, but it would be cool to see them in a separate video since those tracks are used to store locomotives being scrapped.
@ 3:23... flat switching with road power can be frustrating... road power takes too long to load when you're kicking the cars... also @ 3:40... hate that... that's the DO OVER 🤬🤬🤬🤬... depending on where you work, the guys will rib you for it 🤣🤣... @ 8:26... you mentioned about what are they doing with all the cars they are switching... no matter what, here's what happens at practically every yard... first, the run-through dwell cars are blocked (those are the cars that are on the dwell clock, so they have to be out of the yard before a certain time limit... if they aren't, the trainmaster loses his fat dwell time bonus for the qtr... so he is incentivized to make that the priority)... @ 9:50... a PERFECT example of run-through dwell ops... those road guys are ready to beat feet out of the yard with their train and the trainmaster is happy as long as that train is within it's dwell time parameters also, the local cars are placed on their correct track/s... the bad order cars are sorted... the RIP track is pulled and spotted and the RIP okays are switched out... also any local trains are made up... also, sometimes cars don't have a waybill, called no waybills (go figure lol), they are placed on a designated track until they get further forwarding instructions.... lot of stuff going on in a railyard
When switching and kicking cars, the crew will receive a “switch list” it has every car number, the destination for them, special car information (like danger information), the weight of the car, The track it needs to be put in, And a few more things that aren’t as important. It’s not too often that a good switchman puts a car in the wrong track sense it’s all broken down pretty easy for them.
@@nkyrailfan thought you might be interested. The Decatur Illinois yard has scheduled to tear down on of their two towers/yard office and build a new flat yard office in its space.
I cant tell you about portsmouth but i can tell you about switching. If you have a good yard master, your switch list will have a list of cars in the track that needs to be switched. The longer you switch the more you learn where certain cars go, most of them have the location they are going to or what industry local they belong to. Someone thats on a regular switching job long enough usually just gets their switch list and uses the tracks how they want to sort them out but often times the yard master will have pre sorted every car or block of cars and have it numbered on the switch list of what tracj they belong to. Say from here, cars theyre kicking into "track one" are going on an industry local, cars going to "track 4" is a block of cars going to columbus, cars going to track 3 may be going to the shop, track 2 may be going elsewhere. And track 6 may be for a different industry. I cant tell you much about this yard as ive never been in it but they have the luxury of a "hump" as you can see in the video which is great. A lot of times you dont even need to "kick" you just get your slack and the cars roll down the hill. The guy pulling the pin is the FO or conductor/foreman in the job, the guy throwing the switches is his switchman/brakeman. Conductor is responsible for making sure the right cars go in the right track, brakeman is responsible for making sure the foreman doesnt have to go throw a switch down the lead. Both guys will usually have the same switch list and a good crew doesnt even have to talk to each other. They know what each others next move ahead of time. Also some cars just dont want to dang roll. My solution is I usually close both knuckles and give it a good kick unles i know ive got more going into that track later that will likely move it. Or just go back later and shake the track up, meaning shove all the way until the last car moves and then pull them ahead and my brakeman will tell me if the last cars moving. If so, you know everythings coupled up and the track is solid. As far as cars being spotted up on one end of the yard, most yards have air on one end or the other. They are spotted to that end and the car department will bleed all the cars off to make sure the brake piston releases, walk to make sure, and then put them on air so they can do an a6 brake test and c100 to make sure all the brake pistons set up. Thats how you get your brake slip for those cars. If youre unfortunate to work in a terminal that doesnt have carman, you do your own brake test and c100. They also leave them on air for as long as they need to because if a car is off air for more than 24 hours you have to do another brake test on it.
The scope of the blue signal regulations is to provide protection for railroad employees engaged in the: Inspection, testing, repair, and servicing of rolling equipment, while. On, under, or between such equipment and subjects them to the danger of personal injury posed by any movement of such equipment
As I understand it, when a blue flag (sign) is placed only the person who placed it can remove it. Those blue flags were probably placed so that carmen could inspect the cars in that track. If another car were to bang into a cut being inspected, a carman could be injured.
Thank you for the very detailed response. I (and others) really do appreciate it. I didn't think about how critical it is to protect those workers when they're doing an inspection or other task on cars, and expecting them to remain still.
Blue flags indicate that Mechanical forces are working on equipment on a section of track. Switches are locked out and equipment is secured from movement. Operating crews are not permitted enter a blue flagged track. Mechanical supervisor or Foreman may not remove a blue flag until all Mechanical personnel are clear of the equipment. Likely Mechanical crews are lacing up the string of cars and testing the air brakes.
The process for starting an engine is not an easy one...... Generally you need an electrician to do it, and they aren't always available, so they leave them running,it uses more fuel starting than it does just to leave it running......
Hello, we are two students from KTH Sweden who are about to start our thesis on rail yard design. So, we will compare only the design of them. I don't know how, but UA-cam started recommending your videos. And I realized that you know a lot about this. That's why I would like to ask you some questions if it's okay? Do you know any reports or where to find information about these things?
I would be happy to help any way I can, but I do not know that much about the yards or the designs that go into them. I only record the yards. I'll see what I can find regarding information on the yards and their designs and get back to you.
I wish I had a way to sync up the radio chatter and the video. Unfortunately, there's no way to directly record into the drone. And because people like hearing the chatter, I condense it down to squeeze more in.
![★ 4K 2x🎥 🇨🇭 Basel - Kandersteg - Brig Re 6/6 cab ride [07.2020] Lötschberg führerstandsmitfahrt](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/x8ez4XNT080/mqdefault.jpg)
The reason why those 2 BNSF units where running is either they had a defect that prevented the AESS (Automatic Engine Start-Stop) system from shutting down the engine (usually low batteries) or you had the shear luck of being there when they where running in between shut downs. Very rarely will crews do a manual shutdown, especially during the colder months where temperatures will drop below freezing. Railroads use water instead of Antifreeze to cool engines, so when an engine is shut down and it drops below freezing a safety valve known as a Guru valve will pop to dump the water and prevent engine damage from frozen water. (Its a pain to get it refilled, so no one on the railroad wants that to happen.)
Those blue signs that you saw those men, who are called carmen, putting up are "blue flags". Blue flags are used to warn T&E crews (aka Engineer, conductor, & brakemen) that workers are underneath, on, or working on equipment, and that that equipment is not to be moved. Blue flags can only be removed by the person who placed it or a person on that person's team with permission in most railroads rulebooks.
Those carmen, also know as Car inspectors, are not part of the switching crews. Their job is to inspect and repair cars after the yard crew sorts them. They are part of the mechanical department, and are a different "craft" .
Crafts are basically job groups, but management is not a craft. (Also positions like IT and other HQ level positions)
Conductors, Yard Foremen, Switchmen, Brakemen, Utilitymen are part of the T&E craft, but have their own Union.
Engineers, Firemen are also part of the T&E craft, but have their own Union. (Technically they are a different craft but they are consider as part of the T&E craft)
Mechanical department is part of several different "crafts" and unions depending on position.
Same for Track Dept , B&B (Bridges and Buildings), Signals, Clerical, dispatchers, etc.
I'm not sure exactly how NS does it, but usually the crews in the yard are Engineer, Yard Foreman (basically a conductor), and switchmen.
Thank you so much for the detailed answers to my questions.
I really do appreciate it.
You make watching this more enjoyable with the information you provide.
I had and eng dump its water, and my trainmaster came out with 10, gallon water jugs, lmao. I just shook my head like, no just no
@@treos17 that sounds par for the course for some MTOs I've met. (But oddly enough, not the ones in charge of my home territory lol)
I live just north of the yard. This video was very informative.
I found this video the day after watching your video of loading the ship on Lake Erie. I live about twentyfive miles from the Portsmouth yard. I knew it was big but I never had any idea it is this large. I very much enjoyed this video and will be checking out many more on your channel.
Thank you very much.
I'm really glad to hear you enjoy the videos.
Thanks. Enjoy your videos. Like that you use the 8x.
Back in the old days, we would go to the footbridge that gave maintenance workers access to the yard.
Employees never gave us trouble about being there.
This old bridge was located at the base of the hump. It was torn down a long time ago.
Power for the hump was C630s and yard power was T6s.
I wish there was a way to go back in time when workers didn't mind you being there as long as you stayed back and didn't cause trouble.
@nkyrailfan As one of those workers today, I can tell you that on one hand, we generally don't care except that the rules, regulations, and companies make us care. We can be responsible for "not caring". On the other hand, FAR more people are NOT staying back and they ARE causing trouble. Just the other day I had a couple of railfans flying drones directly up next to my engine. Like I could have swung by brake stick out the door and hit them. Having a drone license does not mean you can trespass and distract crews.
Oh wow!
I can only imagine how frustrating that would be.
I am lucky in the fact that my drone has a zoom on it, so I can stay back and don't need to get close.
In talking with the FAA flight services district office (local FAA guys for a region) and attorneys, they all say the same thing; You can fly over any property that isn't restricted airspace, but you must be above the "usable air space."
That means above the tallest structure or light post at a minimum.
I have seen a few videos recently where guys are basically at locomotive cab level in a yard.
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
I hate seeing that, because those idiots are going to ruin it for everyone.
I really enjoy creating these videos, but I'd feel pretty bad if I knew I was bothering the crews like that to make them.
@nkyrailfan Yeah normally when I see a drone way up off somewhere filming I think, "Oh cool a railfan is filming I hope something cool happens for them down here" but like I said these guys were literally buzzing around our cab and around our heads and stuff. Definitely too close lmao.
Fantastic video. Can't beat the variety of both angles and trains! Thank you!
As always, fantastic footage and voiceover. Portsmouth was a major yard for the Norfolk and Western, one of the key predecessor railroads that eventually got merged to evolve into the Norfolk Southern. It basically sat at the fork in the road on their mainline where one branch of it split and went to Cincinnati, where they could exchange with the Pennsy and one branch went to Columbus where they exchanged with the New York Central. Perfect place to put a full suite of shops and multiple humps. The Cincinnati connection was a jump off point south and, more importantly, to Chicago, while Columbus ultimately allowed them to ship freight to Toledo, Detroit and Cleveland.
Thanks for the great information about the role this yard played for the N&W.
I really do appreciate it.
Very nice ! Enjoyable ! Was there 4 yrs. Ago .
Another entertaining and educational video. Your drone work and editing skills are on full display again. Absolutely one of the best railfan channels out there. Thanks for another great post.
Hi.
As DJ from DJ’s Trains has pointed out railroads recycle the ties and rails. They make money by tearing out the tracks.
Sadly most rail yards are a shell of their former selves.
Rail traffic has decreased and industry like the coal industry has really slowed.
Great video! Thanks for sharing this with us!
I have heard that about railroads and trying to squeeze money out of anything they can. It really is such a shame.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the video.
You have the best rail fan channel hands down facts!! The drone does you and us major justices 🔥🔥🔥! Thank you and blessings upon you and your family my guy!! Real talk!
NO Reason to Shut Down the Engine on a Foreign Power Unit. Maintenance don’t want to Waste Time working on a Foreign Power Unit if they Can’t get Restarted.👍
That actually makes an incredible amount of sense.
They’d just send it back to the powers closest terminal. They won’t work on foreign motors. Plus, the motors most likely have auto start and stop so they will cycle on and off
The main reason for shutting down a locomotive is fuel conservation. Regardless of weather it yours or some foreign roads, it has to be fueled when it runs low. Besides, with all the run thru trains between railroads these days they keep track of the number of engine hours a foreign loco is on your road and how many hours they have yours. After a while they figure out the difference and, as in this case the bnsf may be paying the ns back for a few hundred or thousand hours so those units could be on the ns for weeks
Hey did a great job on this NS Rail Yard in Portsmouth Ohio that yard looks like it's not as big as it once was years ago
I wish I could've seen it with the humps in operation and when coal was running nonstop.
That's one reason I try and record as much as I can, this stuff seems to keep consolidating and disappearing.
Another Excellent vid thank you
I live in Portsmouth and I watch trains a lot. the yard used to have 2 turntables with 2 roundhouses. back in the late 1970's/1980's they had a strike, it was vary bad in Portsmouth, one the executives of the N&W, (soon to be the last CEO of the NW) was in Portsmouth to witness the damage done by the strikers and almost got hit by someone throwing a rock at him, another official did get hit. At that moment he said that will make Portsmouth a "whistle stop". The yard became an empty shell. It wasn't until around 2007 to 2010 that the CEO of Norfolk Southern mad a deal with the Governor of Ohio to reopen the car shops, a type of tax deal. Also, the Cincinnati Line known as the Peavine line closed back in 2003. Would be interesting to see how much more traffic on the rails, especially since it has already increased with the double stack trains.
I've seen a few folks share about the history and trouble that happened in Portsmouth.
Such a shame for just a few decisions to have such a big impact on a town.
You wonder what could've been if things hadn't happened the way they did.
Awesome Video 😍😍❤❤
9:18 Those are Blue Flags that protect mechanical department personnel from rolling equipment being moved within the blue flagged zone. They also line the switches away from that track and lock them with their locks. As a conductor myself I can say that those blue flags are absolutely SACRED. A train crew member dropping a blue flag or tampering with their locking devices is the kind if thing that will get you fired and possibly decertified on the spot. If you remove or run over a blue flag, there's a very good chance you never move a train again.
Thanks for the great information!
I really do appreciate it.
@nkyrailfan No problem man! If you ever have any questions about stuff like that just let me know I'd be happy to help. I can't disclose specific information about specific trains but other than that... 😂
I never knew the yard was that large nor the general size of Portsmouth proper. Good video. Maybe you could do the yard and area around Parkersburg/Belpre
I'll try to make it up there one of these days.
Any good vantage points you can recommend?
2:35 Coke empties heading for Suncoke at Haverhill.
3:30 Thats part of the old hump (known simply as the west yard now), the loaded coke train is in the flat yard), the video doesnt show it well but its actually pretty steep. I call it the poor mans hump. Can literally just shove them up the hill and pull the pin and they're roll down the hill (most of the time, sometimes you get a stubborn one). Spent many a night switching cars over there.
It's always so cool seeing the yard from the air, such a different perspective.
Thanks for the great info!
I really do appreciate it.
One question for you, any idea how often Suncoke puts out a loaded train or the coal facility loads/unloads one?
I'd love to try and record either in action.
@@nkyrailfan Suncoke puts out a train I wanna say bout every other day, sometimes daily. Depends on who they're producing for (currently it goes to cleveland (the one down by weller va also produces for them), east chicago, and middletown. Last year they were shipping to sandusky and it was being dumped for a place in canada. I believe some was going to kenova to KRT at one time as well.
Burg, I don't know. They mix and load the shuttle for haverhill, I don't know the frequency. They'll load a sandusky train but, thats rare now days.
@osrr6422 thank you for answering my questions.
Sounds like I just need a bit of good luck to catch the coke factory loading.
Yes, the brick buildings are original. There used to be a large roundhouse, and a footbridge connecting the locomotive/car shop complex to the north side of the yard. As far as switches, only the ones at either end allowing access to the to the mains, as well as those at West Avenue, are dispatcher controlled power switches. All the others are hand throw.
Thanks for the great information. I wish I could've caught the roundhouse when it was still around and in use.
Another reason the BNSF motors might have been left running is when the temperature gets too low at night, engines won’t start if they are too cold so they’ll leave them running to keep them alive. Easier to keep them running then have them dead and not able to start
Luv your stuff Bro!!
Locomotives have water cooled engines so they keep them running under certain temperatures. To conserve fuel many modern locomotives will shut themselves down over a certain outside temperature. I don't know what the setting would be on these BNSF locomotives but I would guess it's somewhere in the 40's F, with the thought that a temperature drop could be quite fast. Railroads don't use antifreeze for various reasons including cost, ease of maintaining and handling (of water), safety. etc.. Antifreeze is a poison and can be licked-up by wildlife along the tracks. Just about every terminal has a basic garden hose near one of the tracks for topping-up the water. That's about as simple as it gets. Also, maintenance personnel can drain water onto the ground, as opposed to having to capture antifreeze. I worked for CSX.
Thanks for the great information, Steve.
I had no idea it was water only.
That makes sense about the auto shutoff.
i normally cross the river west of there anymore but i can tell you that cable bridge ain't that old!! 25 30 years max!! and beyond starting the bastard then going to the office and completely forgetting about them the on;y 3 reasons i know of for running engines like that is one to check a repaired system two to drain the fuel tanks to work on it or three they're tapping power off it for something!
Looks like exclusive,,,, ARMSTRONG OR ARMBUSTER SWITCHES TO ME!! 😬💯👍🇺🇸
Not even two minutes in, you’ve earned a sub from me. Kudos!
Thank you very much.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the video and hopefully other videos too.
Blue signs are the blue flag protection for the car men to inspect the cars. Blue signs are put up and blue locks are out on the switches so the track can’t be accessed while the car man is doing his inspections.
Thank you for the great info. I do appreciate it.
Check out Belen after dark, for a ton of blue lights and placards.
All the railroads I follow in the west use blue markers between the rails for a clear warning that men are in and around cars for an extended period. I'll bet NS uses the STOP marker to warn of a cut being aired up as well, but that is just a guess.
Thanks for the info, Mark. I do appreciate it.
I'm hearing "dueling banjos" in the background of one of their radios
I wonder how many knuckles they break, some of those car hit hard.
I've been curious about that too.
I'm told from several people that the coupler systems on these cars have been improved and are able to take quite a pounding and not suffer damage.
The couplers are so good in fact, auto rack cars used to be marked "do not hump," but I have not seen one with the warning in years.
Very interesting video, Hello from Kyiv. Ukraine
Вітання зі Сполучених Штатів.
Я радий, що вам сподобалося відео.
the bulkheads probably weren't bled out all the way or had a handbrake loosely on. Cars can get switched to the wrong track and destination fairly often. As a yard master. ill print out a track list and each car will be classed to either a customer if its an inbound to the area or its outbound destination if and outbound. I'll then designate what tracks I want the cars to get grouped to. It's up to the crew to then follow the list correctly, paying attention to the car numbers. some guys wont pay attention to car numbers and will just go by cut blocks and kick away. What you said about cars being spotted to be sorted, are sorted or put with to be dealt with later on ALL apply.
Thanks for the great information.
Hyce would be proud
should go over to the russell yard and do a video there, i live nearby anyways so it would be cool
I've got good news for you, Brandon.
I spent the previous day I shot this video in Russell.
I have plenty of flat-track switching and more. Plus, I stopped at the Progressive Rail facility at the Raceland Car Shop and went to Huntington to get some video of the engines waiting to be refurbished.
I hope to have it out within a week or two
@@nkyrailfan yeah they closed the shop in russell in like 2019, they had some old locomotives stored along greenup avenue, infront of the raceland high school, i got no clue if CSX is still storing them there though, but it would be cool to see them in a separate video since those tracks are used to store locomotives being scrapped.
They keep the engines running because if they sit cold too long the diesel fuel turns into a gel.
@ 3:23... flat switching with road power can be frustrating... road power takes too long to load when you're kicking the cars...
also @ 3:40... hate that... that's the DO OVER 🤬🤬🤬🤬... depending on where you work, the guys will rib you for it 🤣🤣...
@ 8:26... you mentioned about what are they doing with all the cars they are switching...
no matter what, here's what happens at practically every yard...
first, the run-through dwell cars are blocked (those are the cars that are on the dwell clock, so they have to be out of the yard before a certain time limit... if they aren't, the trainmaster loses his fat dwell time bonus for the qtr... so he is incentivized to make that the priority)... @ 9:50... a PERFECT example of run-through dwell ops... those road guys are ready to beat feet out of the yard with their train and the trainmaster is happy as long as that train is within it's dwell time parameters
also, the local cars are placed on their correct track/s...
the bad order cars are sorted... the RIP track is pulled and spotted and the RIP okays are switched out... also any local trains are made up...
also, sometimes cars don't have a waybill, called no waybills (go figure lol), they are placed on a designated track until they get further forwarding instructions....
lot of stuff going on in a railyard
Thanks for all the great information! I really do appreciate it.
When coal isn't present in the hoppers, isn't the whole string called a hopper train?
I'm not sure.
The railroads do have train designations for empty coal trains, so I think they remain empty coal hoppers or empty coal trains.
When switching and kicking cars, the crew will receive a “switch list”
it has every car number,
the destination for them,
special car information (like danger information),
the weight of the car,
The track it needs to be put in,
And a few more things that aren’t as important.
It’s not too often that a good switchman puts a car in the wrong track sense it’s all broken down pretty easy for them.
Thank you very much for the detailed information. I really do appreciate it.
Do you have an email I can reach out to you with a few more questions at?
@@nkyrailfan Any question you have just give me a shout on that email and I’ll answer what I can.
@@nkyrailfan thought you might be interested. The Decatur Illinois yard has scheduled to tear down on of their two towers/yard office and build a new flat yard office in its space.
I cant tell you about portsmouth but i can tell you about switching. If you have a good yard master, your switch list will have a list of cars in the track that needs to be switched. The longer you switch the more you learn where certain cars go, most of them have the location they are going to or what industry local they belong to. Someone thats on a regular switching job long enough usually just gets their switch list and uses the tracks how they want to sort them out but often times the yard master will have pre sorted every car or block of cars and have it numbered on the switch list of what tracj they belong to. Say from here, cars theyre kicking into "track one" are going on an industry local, cars going to "track 4" is a block of cars going to columbus, cars going to track 3 may be going to the shop, track 2 may be going elsewhere. And track 6 may be for a different industry.
I cant tell you much about this yard as ive never been in it but they have the luxury of a "hump" as you can see in the video which is great. A lot of times you dont even need to "kick" you just get your slack and the cars roll down the hill. The guy pulling the pin is the FO or conductor/foreman in the job, the guy throwing the switches is his switchman/brakeman. Conductor is responsible for making sure the right cars go in the right track, brakeman is responsible for making sure the foreman doesnt have to go throw a switch down the lead. Both guys will usually have the same switch list and a good crew doesnt even have to talk to each other. They know what each others next move ahead of time.
Also some cars just dont want to dang roll. My solution is I usually close both knuckles and give it a good kick unles i know ive got more going into that track later that will likely move it. Or just go back later and shake the track up, meaning shove all the way until the last car moves and then pull them ahead and my brakeman will tell me if the last cars moving. If so, you know everythings coupled up and the track is solid.
As far as cars being spotted up on one end of the yard, most yards have air on one end or the other. They are spotted to that end and the car department will bleed all the cars off to make sure the brake piston releases, walk to make sure, and then put them on air so they can do an a6 brake test and c100 to make sure all the brake pistons set up. Thats how you get your brake slip for those cars. If youre unfortunate to work in a terminal that doesnt have carman, you do your own brake test and c100.
They also leave them on air for as long as they need to because if a car is off air for more than 24 hours you have to do another brake test on it.
Thanks for the great information and detailed reply.
I really appreciate it.
The scope of the blue signal regulations is to provide protection for railroad employees engaged in the: Inspection, testing, repair, and servicing of rolling equipment, while. On, under, or between such equipment and subjects them to the danger of personal injury posed by any movement of such equipment
As I understand it, when a blue flag (sign) is placed only the person who placed it can remove it. Those blue flags were probably placed so that carmen could inspect the cars in that track. If another car were to bang into a cut being inspected, a carman could be injured.
Thank you for the very detailed response.
I (and others) really do appreciate it.
I didn't think about how critical it is to protect those workers when they're doing an inspection or other task on cars, and expecting them to remain still.
Blue flags indicate that Mechanical forces are working on equipment on a section of track. Switches are locked out and equipment is secured from movement. Operating crews are not permitted enter a blue flagged track. Mechanical supervisor or Foreman may not remove a blue flag until all Mechanical personnel are clear of the equipment. Likely Mechanical crews are lacing up the string of cars and testing the air brakes.
Thank you for the very detailed response.
I really do appreciate it.
Tragically, the N&W depot was demolished in 2004.
The process for starting an engine is not an easy one...... Generally you need an electrician to do it, and they aren't always available, so they leave them running,it uses more fuel starting than it does just to leave it running......
its actually very simple and you dont need an electrician.
Most engineers start their own as needed.
Hello, we are two students from KTH Sweden who are about to start our thesis on rail yard design. So, we will compare only the design of them. I don't know how, but UA-cam started recommending your videos. And I realized that you know a lot about this. That's why I would like to ask you some questions if it's okay? Do you know any reports or where to find information about these things?
I would be happy to help any way I can, but I do not know that much about the yards or the designs that go into them.
I only record the yards.
I'll see what I can find regarding information on the yards and their designs and get back to you.
@@nkyrailfan Thank you very much, I really appreciate it.
I don't think I saw one boxcar in this yard.
Bread n butter bread n butter bread n butter bread n butter bread n butter bread n butter bread n butter 12:47
3:41 can confirm that is a coke train. Likely a 802 going to Columbus to head west toward Cincinnati
Its a shame that they close the peavine line, it would have been a shorter distance
@will28c9 it really is a shame.
I would have loved to follow a train to or from Cincinnati to Portsmouth over the line.
The blue flags are for the car shop guys to inspect a cut of cars likely for a pickup by a train going to Bellevue or Fort Wayne or Columbus
Thanks for the great info.
I do appreciate it.
so many bad things, kicking cars (Lots of Damage), Riding on front of a car, very dangerous, to name just a few
Ok, it's 8X speed, we can see that
Radio chatter is way off. Ask me how I know. lol
I wish I had a way to sync up the radio chatter and the video.
Unfortunately, there's no way to directly record into the drone.
And because people like hearing the chatter, I condense it down to squeeze more in.
Till you got one of the times where it’s so crazy we struggle to get a word in lol.
@nkyrailfan just giving you a hard time lol I was the coal train coming in
@@Ranger14e Lol, no worries at all. I figured you must've been a worker.
Where were you heading with the coal train?
@nkyrailfan came in from Bellevue Ohio that was the end of my trip in Portsmouth