The final destination of the two RMEX locomotives was South America. RMEX is a relatively new used equipment dealer. Note in the drone shot at 2:08 how the locomotive on the left still has the original sandbox cover made from a journal box lid! When EMD built these locomotives in the 1950s, they just used journal box lids rather then design anything new.
I filmed those engines many times on the Wabash Central Railroad, they were former CNUR 8 and WBCR 6. Amazes me they would be worth enough to ship to South America!
Poor old Norfolk Southern just can't get a break! I think they really need an internal safety audit and spend some serious cash upgrading infrastructure and training as well reassess some of their train handling practices.
It's all about staffing. The train crews and maintenance workers just are not there. They can talk all the tech and rules they want but without the men and women to make it happen, it means nothing.
Don’t make them spend more money please My couple shares of their stock had already fallen over s hundred bucks a share Make them use the top 1% salaries to fix the problem
Alignment control couplers look the same, the difference is in the draft gear, there are a large steel block or wedge on either side of the coupler to limit it’s side to side motion, look up when alignment control draft gears became affective. There was a UP derailment 20-30 years ago where they crushed a engine in half because the couplers had too much lateral movement. That would make a great informational movie
The old engines are IC Paducah rebuilds from the late1960s-1970s, most likely GP-10s. They underwent an extensive rebuild, most notably the chopped low nose and the saddlebag air filters.
Yes the one on the end is a GP11. You can tell by the the short nose, angled cabs and the Dynacell “saddle” air filters. The cab was moved forward about 24 inches for upgraded electrical components. This caused the nose on the gp11 to look chopped. That’s the best way to tell.
@@davidzahavi6535 Funny you should bring that up. Shortly after I posted this, I came across a back issue of "Diesel Era" Sept/Oct 1999 at my local model train hobby shop. It has the whole in-depth story of the IC Paducah rebuild program.
What a great find! Those are retro IC GP10 and GP11s. I’m building both of those right now in HO scale. I’m sure I’ll end up using this footage for reference at some point, especially around the draft gear and pilot areas. THANKS FOR POSTING!!!!!
EMD GPs are great locomotives Like any other locomotive, they need to be maintained and serviced and in good working order. You have to remember that these were the locomotives used to run trains for many years
Alignment control draft gear is a type of system that limits the side to side motion of the couplers. A hard run in of slack can cause non-alignment control equipped couplers to “jackknife” with each other and put extreme sideways pressure on the locomotives involved. NS’s butt head switchers (MP15, SW 1500 etc) most weren’t equipped with A-C, and were equipped with two massive blocks on each end. When in yard service, those blocks were bolted in a position outside of the draft pocket. When they were to be moved in a train, the blocks had to be removed from their stored position and bolted in the pocket between the coupler shank and the side of the draft pocket. Installation of those blocks inside the pocket greatly limited the lateral motion of the coupler, and preventing an extremely powerful sideways jackknifing of the couplers into the side of the pocket. If you’ve ever seen an NS switcher that has a white stripe painted under the cab number, that’s how they denote a non-A-C locomotive. I retired from NS in 2020 (mechanical dept.) and when I left, it looked they were trying to cast off all their switchers!
no wonder these looked familiar. Some locomotives from the same company were featured in an episode of "destroyed in seconds." Ironic how in both that and this derailment, they were wearing the Operation lifesaver sticker. Seems like an "unlucky charm"
I don't know how to message you, but NS is distributing new ties on the rail line through Locust Grove. Might be an interesting video to see all these ties being replaced on an active track....April 16.
Nostalgic to see the Illinois Central logo again. Grew up with the ICG (Illinois Central Gulf) rolling through our countryside. Love your vids and narration.
The units came from the Wabash Central Railroad in Bluffton, IN. RMEX markings were added last year to them but I’m not sure what they stand for. They worked on a series of lines owned by Spencer Wendelin. They previously carried the markings of CNUR 8 and WBCR 6.
How interesting.......featuring former Illinois Central "Death Star" units.........rebuilt in the Paducah Kentucky shops, from other former various railroads...........#8733 is alive and well at the Monticello Illinois railroad museum, as is # 6071, a former GM&O unit, and its the prototype EMD SD-40 UNIT!!!!!!!!
RMEX 6 (built December 1955 as IC GP9 9129, rebuilt to ICG GP10 8365, later as IC 8365, ex-WBCR 6) RMEX 8 (built April 1954 as UP GP9B 186B, rebuilt to ICG GP11 8704, later as IC 8704, ex-CNUR 8)
@@v12productions sad to hear. Working for said company I sorta dislike hearing about such things but I only seem to hear about them more and more these days
The only thing that has changed is the media and political attention arising from the East Palestine derailment. As a result the NTSB are looking at relatively minor derailments that they would've usually ignored, and it seems plausible this would be stretching their resources, but I'm not aware of any evidence one way or the other.
So this was near Anniston , and the other muddy messy was in my area of Jasper (I grew up and still live 30 miles nw of Jasper in the next county Marion , up I-22 bham-Memphis) I think I seen those tracks when I got around the Parrish/Cordova exit , thank you for all you do I carry on the love of trains from my paw paw, God bless all
In the NS rule it states a locomotive without alignment control draft gear cannot be coupled to another locomotive of the same status. They were together on the head end of that train behind the locomotives going through those sharp curves. Without the ability of the draft gear to shift as it needed to I see the problem IMO.
UP has the same rule about old junk locomotives like these as well. So yes i agree with your theory 100% as looking at it that seems to be the only way this could have happened. And if im not mistaken the alignment control coupler has to do with the coupler box not the knuckle itself.
RMEX = RMW Ventures, i think. 6 and 8 had the reporting marks changed about a year ago while running on the Wabash Central (WBCR) ex-Cloverleaf/NKP/N&W in NE Indiana (right by my workplace!) I still wonder what drove the change in reporting marks. Also, IIRC, the IC loco on the nose has been painted over twice and became visible again over time.
One certain political party feels the government should not be putting any regulations on private business. Since railroads can't seem to make it 24 hours without trains falling off the tracks it seems that plan isn't working.
Those two EMD GP9u Engine's were on a Railroad in Ohio called the worst tracks in the world. I believe the Railroad is The Mommie and Ohio RR. I don't think I spelled Mommie correct sorry but they used those two Engine's a lot. Wonder why they were being moved maybe for maintenance work? If You could find out why I would appreciate it.
Were those Illinois Central death-stars that we're getting moved I know they've been out of commission for a while there was somewhere up in Indiana for a bit
I'm pretty sure those things about the different coupler styles would've been internal differences since they seem to bring the couple back to center from my understanding.
So sounds like these locos were out of compliance, ns and the crew knew it was out of compliance, as well as breaking one of its special banding instruction rules and Still let it travel anyways and caused a derailment
Most likely, we're just hearing about them more because there have been a couple of big ones that made the news, so the media are more switched-on to reporting them. Overall, derailments are decreasing, but there are still over a thousand a year, which is about three every day.
It seems like they are hauling too much with shoddy equipment. Too many hours on the poor engineers as well. They need a decent Union and more legal oversite.
Norfolk Southern (NS) is a Cluster**** as far as the Class I Railroads are concerned. Why would Shareholders want to allow this Negative Behavior to Continue ? 🤪👎
Bought a Locomotive on an Online Auction - Helping My Customer Get It Moved - Shipping Nightmare skip to 22 : 24 to figure out from professionals what you're not capable of googling Topper Machine LLC 31K subscribers 236,264 views Apr 1, 2023 WISCONSIN Well, we bought a locomotive at an online auction. Now What??? This locomotive is an EMD GP7U. It went through a major upgrade in 1980 by the ATSF and is now essentially a GP38. One of EMDs best locomotives. My customer bought it based on my recommendation for use on a shortline freight railroad. The Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad will put this locomotive to good use. This locomotive has been in captive "Mill Service" for many years and needs a bunch of work before it can be shipped to its new home. Since the FRA does not have control of anything within an industry, some of the maintenance and repairs have been neglected. For this move, nothing has to be done with the engine or electrical. Just brakes, wheels, couplers, etc. All things I have dealt with in the past. But in this case, I have never dealt with a bigger group of incompetent people in my 25 year career of railroading. The inspectors on the first railroad were total idiots. We went through 4 different ones before we got anywhere. It is now home, and I can guarantee I will never deal with Watco again. Absolutely the worst experience of my career. If you are an unfortunate customer of theirs, I feel very sorry for you and wish for their speedy demise and a new operator to take over. My absolute sympathy to all of their customers. Topper Machine LLC is an entirely manual machine shop located in Spooner, WI. Our videos will highlight some of our shop work. Thank you for watching! Please Like, Subscribe, & Share.
The final destination of the two RMEX locomotives was South America. RMEX is a relatively new used equipment dealer.
Note in the drone shot at 2:08 how the locomotive on the left still has the original sandbox cover made from a journal box lid! When EMD built these locomotives in the 1950s, they just used journal box lids rather then design anything new.
Very interesting! I did not know all of that!
I filmed those engines many times on the Wabash Central Railroad, they were former CNUR 8 and WBCR 6. Amazes me they would be worth enough to ship to South America!
Poor old Norfolk Southern just can't get a break! I think they really need an internal safety audit and spend some serious cash upgrading infrastructure and training as well reassess some of their train handling practices.
PSR pushes maintenance and crew cuts to maximize profits. This destroys saftey
It's all about staffing. The train crews and maintenance workers just are not there. They can talk all the tech and rules they want but without the men and women to make it happen, it means nothing.
I call sabotage
Don’t make them spend more money please
My couple shares of their stock had already fallen over s hundred bucks a share
Make them use the top 1% salaries to fix the problem
@@fiercetrains4052 Extremely unlikely.
Alignment control couplers look the same, the difference is in the draft gear, there are a large steel block or wedge on either side of the coupler to limit it’s side to side motion, look up when alignment control draft gears became affective. There was a UP derailment 20-30 years ago where they crushed a engine in half because the couplers had too much lateral movement. That would make a great informational movie
The old engines are IC Paducah rebuilds from the late1960s-1970s, most likely GP-10s. They underwent an extensive rebuild, most notably the chopped low nose and the saddlebag air filters.
I read online one of them was a B Unit at one point, but couldn't 100% confirm that.
The one on the end looks like it's first two numbers were 87, now that's the series the IC used for GP11s so that one at least is probably an eleven.
Yes the one on the end is a GP11. You can tell by the the short nose, angled cabs and the Dynacell “saddle” air filters. The cab was moved forward about 24 inches for upgraded electrical components. This caused the nose on the gp11 to look chopped. That’s the best way to tell.
@@davidzahavi6535 Funny you should bring that up. Shortly after I posted this, I came across a back issue of "Diesel Era"
Sept/Oct 1999 at my local model train hobby shop. It has the whole in-depth story of the IC Paducah rebuild program.
What a great find! Those are retro IC GP10 and GP11s. I’m building both of those right now in HO scale. I’m sure I’ll end up using this footage for reference at some point, especially around the draft gear and pilot areas. THANKS FOR POSTING!!!!!
EMD GPs are great locomotives
Like any other locomotive, they need to be maintained and serviced and in good working order.
You have to remember that these were the locomotives used to run trains for many years
Alignment control draft gear is a type of system that limits the side to side motion of the couplers. A hard run in of slack can cause non-alignment control equipped couplers to “jackknife” with each other and put extreme sideways pressure on the locomotives involved. NS’s butt head switchers (MP15, SW 1500 etc) most weren’t equipped with A-C, and were equipped with two massive blocks on each end. When in yard service, those blocks were bolted in a position outside of the draft pocket. When they were to be moved in a train, the blocks had to be removed from their stored position and bolted in the pocket between the coupler shank and the side of the draft pocket. Installation of those blocks inside the pocket greatly limited the lateral motion of the coupler, and preventing an extremely powerful sideways jackknifing of the couplers into the side of the pocket. If you’ve ever seen an NS switcher that has a white stripe painted under the cab number, that’s how they denote a non-A-C locomotive. I retired from NS in 2020 (mechanical dept.) and when I left, it looked they were trying to cast off all their switchers!
At this rate the NTSB will have a separate division just for NS. 😳
(Comment made with tongue planted firmly in cheek by the way)
Hoping the old geeps end up being okay! They’re museum pieces at this point
no wonder these looked familiar. Some locomotives from the same company were featured in an episode of "destroyed in seconds." Ironic how in both that and this derailment, they were wearing the Operation lifesaver sticker. Seems like an "unlucky charm"
The EX IC engines are being sold off to brazil
Why
I don't know how to message you, but NS is distributing new ties on the rail line through Locust Grove. Might be an interesting video to see all these ties being replaced on an active track....April 16.
One thing is for sure though, those Illinois Central Geeps got Very Lucky that they didn't derail.
Has that been confirmed? Per this video 2 of 6 locomotives derailed, but it isn't known which two.
Very informative video Charlie! NS needs to get there act together
Thanks!
Nostalgic to see the Illinois Central logo again. Grew up with the ICG (Illinois Central Gulf) rolling through our countryside. Love your vids and narration.
The units came from the Wabash Central Railroad in Bluffton, IN. RMEX markings were added last year to them but I’m not sure what they stand for. They worked on a series of lines owned by Spencer Wendelin. They previously carried the markings of CNUR 8 and WBCR 6.
How interesting.......featuring former Illinois Central "Death Star" units.........rebuilt in the Paducah Kentucky shops, from other former various railroads...........#8733 is alive and well at the Monticello Illinois railroad museum, as is # 6071, a former GM&O unit, and its the prototype EMD SD-40 UNIT!!!!!!!!
RMEX 6 (built December 1955 as IC GP9 9129, rebuilt to ICG GP10 8365, later as IC 8365, ex-WBCR 6)
RMEX 8 (built April 1954 as UP GP9B 186B, rebuilt to ICG GP11 8704, later as IC 8704, ex-CNUR 8)
Great video and commentary, Charlie.
Is Norfolk Southern having a worse spell or is the media overblowing their safety issues due to East Palestine?
I’d say the media found out it’s easy to report on derailments
That's the question.
Great report and good research, Charlie! Thanks!
Thanks Dan!
@@v12productionsWhat, pray-tell is waybill?
@@v12productionsDoes waybill mean dead-in-tow? 😂
I live 15 minutes from where those old engines were kept in bluffton. Seen them all the time.
Golly, NS. How many more derailments shall we see from you in 2023.
There's plenty you don't hear about. Most are lil minor ones like someone forgetting an industry derail or cars getting away
Sadly, I just recorded another NS derailment scene in Alabama today. It happened last weekend.
@@v12productions Woww😔😳.
@@v12productions sad to hear. Working for said company I sorta dislike hearing about such things but I only seem to hear about them more and more these days
I have a model of NS 6985 so it was supper cool seeing it in this video
The NTSB must be fairly overworked with all the derailments that happen. Are there more recently or are the numbers pretty much average?
FRA reports that there are OVER 1000 incidents/year... that's 83/month... 3/day... so this is about average sadly
oh... and that's just on the MAINLINE... there's an equal number of incidents that happen in the yard as well
The only thing that has changed is the media and political attention arising from the East Palestine derailment. As a result the NTSB are looking at relatively minor derailments that they would've usually ignored, and it seems plausible this would be stretching their resources, but I'm not aware of any evidence one way or the other.
I have not seen any figures for this year but incident numbers have been going down steadily for several years
@@andrewreynolds4949
over the past at least four years, the 1000 rail incidents/year number has held steady.
So this was near Anniston , and the other muddy messy was in my area of Jasper (I grew up and still live 30 miles nw of Jasper in the next county Marion , up I-22 bham-Memphis) I think I seen those tracks when I got around the Parrish/Cordova exit , thank you for all you do I carry on the love of trains from my paw paw, God bless all
In the NS rule it states a locomotive without alignment control draft gear cannot be coupled to another locomotive of the same status. They were together on the head end of that train behind the locomotives going through those sharp curves. Without the ability of the draft gear to shift as it needed to I see the problem IMO.
UP has the same rule about old junk locomotives like these as well. So yes i agree with your theory 100% as looking at it that seems to be the only way this could have happened. And if im not mistaken the alignment control coupler has to do with the coupler box not the knuckle itself.
It sounded to me like the problem is that non-alignment-control couplers can shift too much.
RMEX = RMW Ventures, i think. 6 and 8 had the reporting marks changed about a year ago while running on the Wabash Central (WBCR) ex-Cloverleaf/NKP/N&W in NE Indiana (right by my workplace!) I still wonder what drove the change in reporting marks. Also, IIRC, the IC loco on the nose has been painted over twice and became visible again over time.
One certain political party feels the government should not be putting any regulations on private business. Since railroads can't seem to make it 24 hours without trains falling off the tracks it seems that plan isn't working.
Interesting video, great work! Thumbs Up
Imagine being on that Amtrak and seeing train scraps on the side
Those two EMD GP9u Engine's were on a Railroad in Ohio called the worst tracks in the world. I believe the Railroad is The Mommie and Ohio RR. I don't think I spelled Mommie correct sorry but they used those two Engine's a lot. Wonder why they were being moved maybe for maintenance work? If You could find out why I would appreciate it.
Super video! Your channel is a cut above! 👍
So in other words the broke their own rules and caused a derailment in doing so. Good job NS
i got to see number 6 in my home town today it is at rail serve it was towed by union pacific it is now being turned into a switcher
how many times is Norfolk southern going to derail within just one year.
Were those Illinois Central death-stars that we're getting moved I know they've been out of commission for a while there was somewhere up in Indiana for a bit
Interesting perspective..
I'm pretty sure those things about the different coupler styles would've been internal differences since they seem to bring the couple back to center from my understanding.
Yeah, it sounds like it's something in the draughtgear, not the coupler _per se._
I love your videos they inspired me to become a railfanner
Thank you!
But, did these two old locomotives cause the derailment, or was it a problem with one of the cars that started the catastrophe??
REMX is the reporting mark for REMX Corp.
Norfolk southern, what is your function?
Hooking up the country moving ahead as one.
1:31 to scap
No it says the engines were exported to south america
how long will NS leave the derailed cars lying around?
i see a illinois central loco all the time by my work switching
Nice information.
Can you recommend some good train podcast I can listen to at work? Thank you
PPTM! ( piss poor track maintenance)
That's what I call a horn slaut
I love Illinois central.
Great vid 👍👍👍👍👍
So sounds like these locos were out of compliance, ns and the crew knew it was out of compliance, as well as breaking one of its special banding instruction rules and Still let it travel anyways and caused a derailment
Norfolk Southern again?
Cool.
Say there going to museum or shortline.
RMEX is a sub company of LTEX u believe
What, pray-tell is waybill?
What is going on with trains derailments in 2023? There’s not many happening in the past.
Historically there have been 1000+ derailments every year. The only thing that has changed is that the media and rail fans are paying more attention.
Most likely, we're just hearing about them more because there have been a couple of big ones that made the news, so the media are more switched-on to reporting them. Overall, derailments are decreasing, but there are still over a thousand a year, which is about three every day.
I saw RMEX 8 in Chattanooga last weekend I don't know were she went after that
They’re going to Brazil
Must be double track. And fixed concrete sleepers more than better wood sleepers.
The video and photos show single track and wood ties/sleepers.
It seems like they are hauling too much with shoddy equipment. Too many hours on the poor engineers as well. They need a decent Union and more legal oversite.
Norfolk Southern is gonna go bankrupt
Cool
😮😮😮😮
Wow ex illinois central Cool
Good deal
Norfolk Southern (NS) is a Cluster**** as far as the Class I Railroads are concerned. Why would Shareholders want to allow this Negative Behavior to Continue ? 🤪👎
Bro
meow
Nice
Government should spend a few billions to fix the infrastructure
Norfolk Southern is a clown railroad
I have an idea where those two old engines were headed: The Scrapyard.
Bnsf best❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉
How is ns going to continue hey UP heres your change to buy ns
CSX would have to merge with BNSF for that to happen
@@railfanmaximstill7279 CSNF?
This s of no help…I don’t like title tales from non professionals. Inaccurate , too.
Nothing inaccurate about this video. I personally don't like people who feel the need to complain about everything.
I don’t like people that complain about stuff they know nothing about. Petty, too.
It's not old locomotives it's maintenance on the tracks they have cut 30% of maintenance ontracks
Bought a Locomotive on an Online Auction - Helping My Customer Get It Moved - Shipping Nightmare skip to 22 : 24 to figure out from professionals what you're not capable of googling
Topper Machine LLC 31K subscribers 236,264 views Apr 1, 2023 WISCONSIN
Well, we bought a locomotive at an online auction. Now What???
This locomotive is an EMD GP7U. It went through a major upgrade in 1980 by the ATSF and is now essentially a GP38. One of EMDs best locomotives.
My customer bought it based on my recommendation for use on a shortline freight railroad. The Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad will put this locomotive to good use.
This locomotive has been in captive "Mill Service" for many years and needs a bunch of work before it can be shipped to its new home. Since the FRA does not have control of anything within an industry, some of the maintenance and repairs have been neglected.
For this move, nothing has to be done with the engine or electrical. Just brakes, wheels, couplers, etc. All things I have dealt with in the past. But in this case, I have never dealt with a bigger group of incompetent people in my 25 year career of railroading. The inspectors on the first railroad were total idiots. We went through 4 different ones before we got anywhere.
It is now home, and I can guarantee I will never deal with Watco again. Absolutely the worst experience of my career. If you are an unfortunate customer of theirs, I feel very sorry for you and wish for their speedy demise and a new operator to take over. My absolute sympathy to all of their customers.
Topper Machine LLC is an entirely manual machine shop located in Spooner, WI. Our videos will highlight some of our shop work.
Thank you for watching!
Please Like, Subscribe, & Share.