CSX Chessie 1973 Conquers the Cowan Pusher District
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Welcome to Cowan, Tennessee - home of the steepest CSX railroad grade in the Volunteer State. It’s also one of the oldest mainlines in the southeast, built by the Nashville & Chattanooga Railway between 1849 and 1859. The difficult terrain over the Highland Rim and Cumberland Plateau resulted in countless delays, preventing the railroad from reaching Chattanooga for nearly a decade.
Without a viable path around Cumberland Mountain, the 2,228-foot-long Cowan Tunnel was constructed between 1849 and 1852, the longest in the world and an engineering marvel when it opened. Although the milestone tunnel allowed the railroad to punch through the mountain, it came with another problem: the steepest railroad grade in North America.
The grueling climb included a 2-mile, 2% grade from the north and a longer, 15-mile approach from the south with grades up to 2.5 percent. The crest is located within the tunnel. It was much too steep for a single 4-4-0 locomotive so Cowan became a helper district with the NC establishing a yard and shop facility north of town.
172 years later, Cowan is still a helper district despite the evolution of diesel locomotive technology. Although modern locomotives are much more powerful, trains have gotten longer and heavier, forcing CSX to keep the helper district active. The modern-day NC mainline is known as the Chattanooga or “Chatt” Sub, running from its namesake to Nashville, a distance of 140 miles. The line sees approximately 15 dail freight trains, most requiring a manned helper at Cowan.
On the evening of April 7th, we found Chessie Heritage Unit 1973 and AC4400 no. 503 assigned to job H383. Unveiled in June 2023, the 1973 wears a unique Heritage “Mullet” with the standard YN3 design covering the nose and cab while the long hood wears the iconic Chessie scheme. The mullet design was conceived by former CSX EVP of Operations Jamie Boychuk, who demanded the locomotives represent CSX more prominently.
The decision to decorate the heritage units this way has been controversial, with most railfans disdaining the design because the front of locomotives resemble a standard CSX GEVO, making it hard to photograph the throwback paint of CSX’s predecessors. Nonetheless, many still document the heritage locomotives because they’re different - which is why we ended up trackside in Cowan.
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Been saying it every time I see it... That Chessie unit looks like somebody put an N-Scale decal on an HO-Scale engine
They couldn't find a full-sized template in Cumberland or Huntington? Or pay to have one made? Or does someone at CSX and/or Waycross dislike the Chessie System logo? That's just inexcusably pathetic and lame, and further justifies the many who believe the entire Heritage effort is only half-hearted because they don't wrap the locomotives all the way around. Come on, Mr. Hinrichs, no self-respecting German would ever tolerate such a half-assed effort - you can do better!
Great video and nice to see Brian Judd included! He and Bobby Gass are great guys. I love railfanning Cowan!
This is an awesome video of “a-day-in-the-life-of” I was just about to google the Tracy city branch as you started mentioning the upcoming video later this year! Can’t wait!
This is a fantastic video. Your drone work is by far the best I’ve seen. Keep up the good work. My wife and I used to go to Cowan to watch the trains and visit the Museum so this was fantastic to watch.
Wow, thank you!
Fantastic video Drayton
I got to see CSX 1973 come through my hometown of Moncks Corner, South Carolina. I like the Chessie paint scheme it has on it. Despite the nose, I personally think it still looks nice.
Also, we get our electricity from Cross Generating Station, the sister power plant to the Winyah Generating Station in Georgetown. They're both operated by Santee Cooper. I've always wandered which mine the coal comes from and the info you gave on CSX 907 answered that for me. Thank a lot.
DIBP is underrated fr fr
Awesome Trains Heritage is CSX Chessis system Units #1973 Daryton.🇺🇲
Best videos in the business!! 🚀
I really enjoy watching trains and this is the best video
featuring the best trains Thank You.🇺🇲🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🇺🇲
Daryton Said Thanks!
the coil cars are probably going to Volkswagen in chattinooga.
did you notice the helper power behind gave a two -blast passing the museum? i guess remotely controlled. i guessed manned sorry , not paying attention
YES. Terrible paint design!!!!
Drayton you are the best. Always looking forward to the next new video. Have a nice day😊
Great video.
Thank you for this video on the Cowan, Tennessee manned helpers, Drayton! I enjoyed watching the manned helpers in action. The narration of the video was interesting and informative/
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching and always being so supportive.
As always excellent work I understand the reasoning csx gave behind not painting the entire locomotive however seeing NS locomotives Hu wise I do wish the whole thing was painted but at least we got Hu units some work scheme wise way better than others
Hi from New Zealand. When the helper engines are connected to trains, are they remotely operated from the lead locomotive or do the local LEs maintain control?
The local engineers maintain control. The head-end units would lose radio communication in the tunnel with the pushers on the rear.
This video is really cool 👍
Excellent from UK 🇬🇧👍
The spinning handbrake wheel on CSX 1973 at 42:45? What's up with that?
These units are fitted with the electronic parking brake. Essentially the engineer can apply or disengage it from the cab. This is mostly used in rainy weather or snow. There are switches above the wheel to switch to manual control.
New to me also.
Electronic hand brake push button to release or to apply
I really appreciate the time and effort you go to in making these marvelous videos, so informative and with great shots too. Thank you
Thanks so much for watching!
I think CSX 1973 would look better if it was fully painted.
Every time I see the Chessie heritage unit I think they copied an old 80s cheapo HO scale loco scheme - the Chessie logo is way too small. CSX - in my opinion - dropped the ball hard on their heritage scheme with the CSX "nose dip". They seem to have got eh remaining areas OK on other units, not sure why the Chessie wording is so small.
So the pusher runs back and forth between Cowan and the mountain? Where does it refuel?
My first Chessie photos were from 48 years ago,,, someone is getting old.
Very enjoyable video!
😅😅😊😊😂😂😂😂😢😮😊😊😊
Good footage and video of distributed power and helpers,nice depot, nice shot at the tunnel!🛤🚂