When Natural Disaster strikes the Railroad
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- Greetings Folks. I know this year has been quite a whirlwind for many of us, but some of us southerners have had our lives turned completely upside-down since the passing of two major hurricanes; Helene and Milton. Each of these storms affected different areas of the U.S., but in both cases, major railroads were caught in the lines of fire.
Seeing as I was able to make it through the second storm - that made a direct hit to Florida - we take this video to observe some of the damages incurred in both areas, as well as how said railroad responds to the devastation on their doorstep. We'll also take a look at some historic signals on CSX's Clinchfield Route, as we made a trip there, not even a year before one of these storms washed part of the route away amidst flooding.
I hope everyone is doing well, since the hurricanes or otherwise. Thanks for watching. - Авто та транспорт
Thanks Dakota for your time with this video !!! 👍👍👍👍👍
Thank you for yours, for watching!
Great video and love the narration and explanation of what is going on. Glad you and the FRRM family came through the storms OK.
Really cool Video. Love it
Just south of Erwin, NC at Poplar and Spruce Pine you have two VERY important CSX/Clinchfield rail customers: A quartzite mine that provides primary silicon material for US computer chip production and one of the more important Baxter Healthcare IV solutions plants necessary for much of hospital/healthcare IV supplies in Eastern US.
Very interesting. Between that and the Eastman industrial park in Kingsport, I know there was plenty of justification to hold on to it, and I suppose it’s a good thing they did. Can’t imagine any other carrier that would have the resources to get it up and going again without assistance from another entity like CSX. Wonder how they’re doing since the storms. I’ll have to look into those two.
Awsome video Dakota. I did okay during the storm because I didn’t lose power. But the FEC railway was in a mess after the storm but they are back up and running again and we’re lucky to have the Maintenance of way crews to fix the mess. Keep up the good work dude👍
Glad to hear. Will do my best. The east coast, luckily, was spared from most of the wind and flooding rains.
when I went to Orlando last week I caught CSX Local train L722 and plenty of Sunrail commuter trains and Amtrak P097 and the final run of P091 for now
I Live in Asheville, not to far from Erwin TN. M692/M693, M652/M653, a couple of coal and ethanol unit trains, and even some grain trains take that route, which is not many, but there is a line that was damage by Helene, that hardly saw a thing. That being the Old Fort Loops, which I have caught trains on that stretch for a couple years. Since 2020, the Loops only saw a train with GE Widecabs and like 10 cars in the evening and night, and a Woodchip train, later a short local with widecabs, and no trains on the weekends, unless if a rare run occurred. It was damaged by Helene, and potentially on the writing for abandonment.
I did hear about that. It wasn’t explicitly mentioned, but a couple of those Old Fort pictures I used in the video are from that NS line rather than the Clinchfield. I’ve seen plenty of stuff from that line, and it’s really a shame that it may be on the kill list. Best wishes to y’all up there - I know Asheville got hit real hard.
@@kotabeaner It sure did. Asheville wont possibly see a train till late march 2025. The tracks from Black Mountain I've heard have not seen much maintenance. It could start up again, once some roads in that area open, or abandonment would take place.
Excellent content (both footage and narration), Dakota. I guess a lot of us, when thinking about hurricanes, don't realize what damage they can do to rails. Takes me back to the devastation Seminole Gulf suffered in the wake of Ian, although on a less massive scale than a Class I like CSX endured. Although, at the end of the day, the damage that SGLR suffered affected their overall ability to conduct business a lot more adversely.
The day you recorded this, I was driving back from Kingsland Ga., where I was hanging out until my power came back on. I topped off the tank in Waldo, not wanting to chance no gas at home; so I know where you are coming from regarding the gas situation.
Finally, thoughts and prayers go out to all of those still suffering greatly from the devastation wreaked by both Helene and Milton.
Thanks man. I'm glad you enjoyed it and hope you're all back on your feet. Seminole gulf almost lost their lifeline during Ian…they were lucky to have another branch and means of transport to keep the cash flow moving during repairs. Scaled down, I’d say they were both pretty detrimental.
@@kotabeaner I agree...the Sarasota branch at least kept them afloat. That was a lot of damage heaped on a short line!
We're well thanks, and hoping the same for you and yours.👍
We are rebuilding the clinchfield, we are averaging about 7-8 miles a month from what I've heard. It will be June-July before its fully operational again. We move a lot of mixed freight that doesn't need to go thru the A & S lines between Richmond and Waycross to help alleviate congestion. Average annual tonnage was around 14,000,000 tons of freight. We had 4 regular daily time freights (what the oldheads call Manifests), 1-2 ethanol trains a week + their empties, 1-4 coal trains + their empties a week, and an odd grain train or two at least every other week.
I got assigned to the old C&O Mainline for a bit because of the destruction, but didn't have any damage to my home or property.
Very interesting. You on MOW? Or operational crew? I may be visiting a buddy of mine near Atlanta again in January, so I am interested to see some of the rerouted assets over on that side. May also have to make a trip back up to the Clinchfield once everything is done. Granted, I’ve heard some of those highways up there may not be open until 2026. Maybe that’s just a worst case scenario, but even then…holy sh*t. A lot of peoples days just got a whole lot longer.
@@kotabeaner T&E, conductor
Great report-thanks for posting!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Glad to see you all made it out alright. Aside from an abnormal amount of tornadoes, the weather hasn’t been too bad up here. Our winter is looking like it’ll be a very snowy one, so you should try it out up here if you wanna get those snow shots.
Very good. Glad to hear. We always do a trip somewhere right after Christmas, so I’ll have to see what the weather’s like and what’s around. I’d love another white Christmas.
Very nice 389 Peterbilt transfer trucks in Florida.
They're all over the place down here. There were about 3 different carriers I saw throughout the evening… B&P and Whitney being the two I remember.
Estimates I've heard are up to a full year for Clinchfield to be rebuilt, including tamping the entire line (which, itself, is a good amount of time for the work)
Even that is pretty impressive. I’ve heard certain highways up there won’t be traversable until sometime in 2026. That’s insane. Another comment mentioned potentially summer of next year will see the Clinchfield operating again. I guess we’ll see…hats off to those getting all this done.
Where those culverts were used to be wooden bridges
It had one engine for caboose an on flat car with a bucket graber
You did not show the tree cutting train
I did not see said train either. Had no idea they even ran something like that.
About mofo time, please don't make us wait so long for your content!!!!
Responsibilities friend… Ain’t preferable but I promise ya I ain’t goin’ anywhere. Just hardly find the time for this stuff now.
you cooked brother
Yet my rice was cold today☹️