@GhostFearMe In all honesty, everything shows up in Selkirk. Being the central distribution point for most of the North East along with traffic coming to and from Canada and points west, it isn't uncommon to see CN/CP, UP, BNSF, NS and various short line's power in and among the CSX units.
Can anyone tell me what that CSX without a cab is in the very beginning of the video around 00:01 - 00:03? Is that an unmanned locomotive? I have seen these several times before, but not really understood their purpose. Thanks.
7620100 It's commonly called a slug or a MATE ( more additional tractive effort ) usually an older 4 or 6 axle locomotive with the Diesel engine removed for a lower height of the equipment hood allow much better visibility for the engineer, normally semi-permanently coupled to another 4 or 6 axle locomotive using regular couplers that the cut levers were usually tied down so you didn't accidentally uncouple a set as that would rip out all the high voltage traction power cables that provides power both traction ( 600 volt DC ) and low voltage power for.lights and tractive motor cooling . A six axle SD-40-2 locomotive is commonly used with a slug which doubles the tractive effort and easily handles 100 car + freights pushing them over the hump. Selkirk yard for years used sets of GE U23C locomotive's as hump power where they could have saved a lot of fuel by using a slug in every hump power set older ALCO 6 axle power was preferred due to using 752 traction motors which in the DC motor era could take a lot more abuse than any EMD motor. The idea originated in the early 50's when EMD offered cow-calf locomotive's for yard use ( 2 yard locomotive's with only one operating cab on one engine. Eventually some railroad looked at a cow-calf set of power and asked himself ( Why do we need two power plants when one will do for a cow calf set of power. After all it's yard service very slow speed and one engine will provide all the power it needs.) Railroads using ex ALCO 4 and 6 axle power eventually replaced the tri-mount trucks ALCO used with with EMD C type trucks as they are proven to be cheaper to maintain than ALCO trucks. That meant they switched to EMD traction motors instead of GE 752 style traction motors which reduced costs as EMD traction motors were and are a lot more common than the GE 752 motors. And the EMD trucks were also cheaper and easier to maintain than the older tri-mount trucks. The MATE version of the slug was actually a production locomotive built by GE as either a 4 or 6 axle auxiliary power unit for road or yard service. The mate even had if ordered a full size fuel tank that was coupled up to its mother to provide additional fuel. The additional fuel on the mate saved GE a lot of money on ballast as the fuel provided weight when fully fueled. A few railroads utilized the fuel tanks as extra fuel storage to the mother locomotive on home made slug power but most simply filled the old fuel tanks with sand to avoid fuels leaks when transferring fuel from slug to mother unit. Hope this answers the question.
Monica Matos When you cross the Hudson River on I-90 look south and about 100 yards south you will see the Smith bridge double track with CP SM on the East side that switches trains from the Hudson division to the branch for the Boston and Albany railroad in my day known as the New England division. West of the Smith bridge you come to CP SK controls traffic from CP SM and from the River Division from New Jersey and another branch to Albany, NY it feed all traffic into Selkirk yard controlled by 505 the east end train master/yard master tower. both Cp's are controlled by the Syracuse dispatcher which back in the 70's operated on yard channel two with all the yard moves ongoing. It wasn't normally a problem. If I remember correctly the Smith bridge was built in the mid 20's. If that bridge went down all New England bound traffic would have to go via Albany and Boston and Albany passenger main to CP 187 to points east. It could be done but would turn into a pain real quickly.
nice selection of power!
Great Video what bridge are you on?
a few miles south of Albany
@Tcostello105 Thanks, theres an abandones road bridge right over the yard.
This place is awesome where is it again
@guilford681 Yep there is an abandones road bridge over the yard. 613 is back now I caught it on Sunday
nice video and great catch of all the train's in your video.
@GhostFearMe I heard it is en route to the New England Central also owned by RailAmerica. They keep needing more power
where is this selkirk yard in new york?
i love selkirk its my second favorite place to go and watch trains
CSX FTW
@GhostFearMe In all honesty, everything shows up in Selkirk. Being the central distribution point for most of the North East along with traffic coming to and from Canada and points west, it isn't uncommon to see CN/CP, UP, BNSF, NS and various short line's power in and among the CSX units.
So thats where the 613 is!!! Btw are you standing on a bridge?
Can anyone tell me what that CSX without a cab is in the very beginning of the video around 00:01 - 00:03? Is that an unmanned locomotive? I have seen these several times before, but not really understood their purpose. Thanks.
a slug
7620100
It's commonly called a slug or a MATE ( more additional tractive effort ) usually an older 4 or 6 axle locomotive with the Diesel engine removed for a lower height of the equipment hood allow much better visibility for the engineer, normally semi-permanently coupled to another 4 or 6 axle locomotive using regular couplers that the cut levers were usually tied down so you didn't accidentally uncouple a set as that would rip out all the high voltage traction power cables that provides power both traction ( 600 volt DC ) and low voltage power for.lights and tractive motor cooling . A six axle SD-40-2 locomotive is commonly used with a slug which doubles the tractive effort and easily handles 100 car + freights pushing them over the hump. Selkirk yard for years used sets of GE U23C locomotive's as hump power where they could have saved a lot of fuel by using a slug in every hump power set older ALCO 6 axle power was preferred due to using 752 traction motors which in the DC motor era could take a lot more abuse than any EMD motor. The idea originated in the early 50's when EMD offered cow-calf locomotive's for yard use ( 2 yard locomotive's with only one operating cab on one engine. Eventually some railroad looked at a cow-calf set of power and asked himself ( Why do we need two power plants when one will do for a cow calf set of power. After all it's yard service very slow speed and one engine will provide all the power it needs.) Railroads using ex ALCO 4 and 6 axle power eventually replaced the tri-mount trucks ALCO used with with EMD C type trucks as they are proven to be cheaper to maintain than ALCO trucks. That meant they switched to EMD traction motors instead of GE 752 style traction motors which reduced costs as EMD traction motors were and are a lot more common than the GE 752 motors. And the EMD trucks were also cheaper and easier to maintain than the older tri-mount trucks.
The MATE version of the slug was actually a production locomotive built by GE as either a 4 or 6 axle auxiliary power unit for road or yard service. The mate even had if ordered a full size fuel tank that was coupled up to its mother to provide additional fuel. The additional fuel on the mate saved GE a lot of money on ballast as the fuel provided weight when fully fueled. A few railroads utilized the fuel tanks as extra fuel storage to the mother locomotive on home made slug power but most simply filled the old fuel tanks with sand to avoid fuels leaks when transferring fuel from slug to mother unit.
Hope this answers the question.
Great video! how do CSX trains go form east of the Hudson to Selkirk which is west of the Hudson, is there a rail bridge somewhere upstate?
Monica Matos
When you cross the Hudson River on I-90 look south and about 100 yards south you will see the Smith bridge double track with CP SM on the East side that switches trains from the Hudson division to the branch for the Boston and Albany railroad in my day known as the New England division. West of the Smith bridge you come to CP SK controls traffic from CP SM and from the River Division from New Jersey and another branch to Albany, NY it feed all traffic into Selkirk yard controlled by 505 the east end train master/yard master tower. both Cp's are controlled by the Syracuse dispatcher which back in the 70's operated on yard channel two with all the yard moves ongoing. It wasn't normally a problem. If I remember correctly the Smith bridge was built in the mid 20's. If that bridge went down all New England bound traffic would have to go via Albany and Boston and Albany passenger main to CP 187 to points east. It could be done but would turn into a pain real quickly.