Cowboy Railroading: Gravity Switching
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- Опубліковано 24 чер 2024
- See the full video here: • Nashville & Eastern Ra...
In the early 2000s, the Nashville & Eastern Railroad established a transload facility at Fisk Road on Cookeville’s east side. The small two-track site is where the shortline sets out railcars for customers that transfer their shipments to trucks which take the loads to warehouses or processing plants. Royal Oak, as mentioned previously, is one such customer that receives corn starch as a bonding agent for charcoal briquettes. We watched as the three-man crew worked to switch the transload site, first grabbing the empties before shoving the inbound loads into the transload spur.
Due to how the transload spur is designed, empties must be pulled out first and then shoved onto the mainline, clear of the switch. Handbrakes are tied to prevent the cars from rolling down a slight eastbound grade. Once the empties are tied down, the loads are uncoupled, pulled clear of the switch, and then shoved into the transload spur. The locomotives are parked momentarily while the conductor and brakeman gravity switch the empties clear of the switch, meaning, the handbrakes are knocked off so the cars can roll by the locomotives. Since there isn’t a true siding or wye at Fisk Road, this move allows the locomotives to couple onto the opposite end of the cars for the return trip to Lebanon.
In the 2020s, gravity switching is increasingly rare, with most shortline railroads opting to place a locomotive at each end of the train. As you can see in this shot, the loads are being pulled ahead of the switch. Conductor Williams then lines the switch so they can be shoved down the transload spur.
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Enjoyed the switching and seeing the Conductor riding on hoppers to set the hand break, nice video and footage!🛤🚂
That’s actually very smart an efficient, I’ve never seen or heard this way of switching!
Trust me its even rarer or the class 1s. We used to have a roll by location on our division but after a few low profile incidents they've just banned it.
I love how they modified the BNSF logo on that loco to suit their short line.
I have photos of #5941 taken in the early 1990s, at RF&P's Bryan Park engine terminal right about when CSX merged the RF&P. She and a couple of sisters had been renumbered into CSX's roster but were still wearing their as-delivered New York, Susquehanna & Western yellow-and-black "Bumblebee" paint scheme. The B40-8s were heavily outnumbered by CSX's 150 or so spartan cab C40-8s, but they looked much snazzier in Suzie-Q's colors than the CSX grey and blue "Stealth" scheme worn by the C40s. The B40s were sold to CSX after CP took ownership of the Delaware and Hudson, which SuzieQ had revived after a period of neglect by the Guilford Rail System, and were put to work hauling hotshot intermodal trains. They were eventually painted into the YN2 livery, but not before I got some shots of them pulling trains south out of Acca Yard heading for Rocky Mount, NC, and points south.
Thank you for documenting this gravity switching move that the Nashville & Eastern Railroad uses at their transloading spur in Cookeville, Tennessee, Drayton! The switchman/conductor needs to be careful with his handling of the hand brake to prevent any problems with this move. (25 June 2024 at 1717 CST)
Awesome content! Thanks for recording and posting.
Very nicely done. Great filming!
B&LE/CN still does this for a customer, Bennett Supply Company at Hodel Street in Harmarville PA.
CSX used to “kick” tank cars at the industry I used to work for. This was done at night and only on a handful of cars. Also they would switch with the handbrake set on every car because they were hazmat loads. You can only imagine the sound of brakes squaling…
You're Awesome Daryton.
3 man crew? Sweet, proper railroading. Great video too, well done.
Thank you very much!
Excellent video Drayton
lolol. nothing new under the sun. i worked for the espee in torrance , calif back in the 70s. we used to drop switch at US Steel all the time on western av. had a car get stuck in the middle of the crossing one night, new engineer. couldnt get past it with our sw1500. found some old scrap 4x4 wood laying around, and bent the hell out of a handrail polling that pig outta the way like in the old days. good times. thx for the memories......
Awesome video! Thanks for sharing!
Make sure you don't hear a leaky seal. A sticking triple value will mess it up, sometimes it's better to just bleed off certain types of cars that you know will cause trouble.
Mind you this is what I found on google but It said BNSF still does gravity Switching but it's only in designed areas and the only hump yard that does this on BNSF is Northtown Yard. This could be wrong or not correct me if i'm wrong I'm a kid from nj where we see almost every railroad even sometimes CN so my state is the interesting one.
Great catch!
Fantastic Film 🎥
That was a great switching move! 👍❤️
I saw this last fall on an NS local. Pretty cool, never realized it was so rare.
Love the Dash 8’s
So glad that these early Dash 8s didn't end up in the scrapper or converted to AC/ES 44s, etc.
This video is really cool 😊
Gotta Love that horn actuater 1 or 2 chimes or all the chimes
And the burbling of the u boats
Now that's railroad'n
That was cool. Dash 8's to boot.
I don’t know why, but seeing a standard cab BNSF painted GE just feels wrong.
It's just weird rocking up to almost any shortline these days and bumping into GE dash 8s when I remember them brand new and in class 1 service!
That was cool thanks for sharing
Very Cool Video!!!!
We do a lot of roll by or gravity switching here on the A&M but by golly I’ve never seen cars being rolled that fast!
I’m almost positive RJ Corman doesn’t allow gravity switching…
Very cool 👍🏻
rest in peace N&E now they’re rj corman
I miss the n&e :(
Gravity foam
This routes now run by RJ corman
And owned by them as well.
Its interesting that they sound the horn before the crossing every time the engine crosses, but they have no requirement to do so when rolling across with the loose cars. Is someone ahead of the cars protecting/flagging the crossing? I guess silently rolling cars across doesn't require whatever rule necessitates the horn normally??
I suppose they could radio the engineer in the engine nearby on the siding to sound his horn before the cross?
The engineer was protecting the crossing. He stepped out of the cab to flag it.
@@DelayInBlockProductions Ah that makes sense! Thanks for the reply
I can see why Gravity drops are getting banned to be honest. It's cool but there is also a lot of risk. It really is a cowboy move. Those are not usually good ideas. Lol
No gates, I sure hope they protected that crossing lol
The engineer was protecting the crossing. He stepped out of the cab to flag it.
@@DelayInBlockProductions I'm meaning ob the roll by. I would assume the 3rd man is out of camera view knowing how strict the rules are on none pulling moves with no gates.
Maybe I missed but why two locomotives used? (one knows the way to get there and the other to get back? :)
The N&E has a 3.1% grade between Buffalo Valley and Silver Point so that's why they use two units.
@@DelayInBlockProductions I see, thanks!
Thank you 🙏 I would love ❤️ to have the train 🚂 air horn trumpet 🎺 for my 🚙 car track 🛻👍🎥👏👏👏👋☮️
I'm surprised companies like N&E don't put their own livery on the "used" locos. You can clearly see one was from BNSF, and the lead loco from CSX.
I'm not. Paint's expensive. Neither one of the -8's above seems to have paint that's in bad shape either, so not much to gain for the cost involved for a small shortline like N&E
Probably when they get money, or they actually need to be painted.
The paint represents big brother and neglegence.
I'm sure most branch lines were owned by main lines. But penny pinching stock holders sold off the short lines for other lower class people to handle.
The paint is a reminder of this fact. Either way the video is cool. Thanks
That Paints in good shape so no point repainting. FEC got SD-40s from UP years ago and just put FEC over the UP because the they'd just been painted.
Only reason I’m surprised those haven’t been repainted is that both the Nashville Eastern and Nashville Western are now owned by RJ Corman.
At 2:04 what horn is that
Just my two cents, but having two locomotives should eliminate this risky move, particularly involving the grade crossing.
The safer way to do that is to split the power. If there is more than one qualified engineer then one crewman can ride the rear unit if more effort is needed. Even with a 3% grade that didn't look like a very heavy consist. The downside is that the engineer would have to walk the length of the train for the return trip. That can cause issues with some of the 'bigger' guys (me included) but it is safer to have the engine leading.
FYI the horn is not required to be sounded at a crossing if the engine is not in the leading position. Flagging is required in most instances without gates.
AI Voice?
No, narrated by Dave Dawson.
There’s no way that’s legal, but I see why it’s useful
Depending on the railroads rule book, gravity drops are legal. We had industries all over the old Wisconsin Central system that we switched with gravity drops.
It's legal. Some railroads do it and some don't. It's no different than kicking cars and letting them roll on their own.
@@David-yo5re Good ol' flat switching! That's all we had on the WC. No hump yards for us you get pretty good at kicking cars and knowing the how the yard tracks lay so you can make that 4 mph hook. Plus the majority of our yards were not even bowl yards.
Dropping cars over a public crossing is not a good idea! I'm sure a rules violation as well.
The engineer was protecting the crossing. He stepped out of the cab to flag it.
@@DelayInBlockProductions Thank you. I was wondering the same thing.