Sometimes you can get finds. I bought a box of stuff for $1, mainly for a ceramic rose which would go for $50 on eBay if I was to sell it (my SO found it in the box and had me bid on it).
Super video. A friend recommended it and I’m glad I did. Nice video work but the real gem is the investment you’ve made in the narration. Nicely designed script that was tightly executed. The story is easy to discover and become engaged in. Thank you.
Having done local customer switching it’s nice to see some video of it. Very time consuming to pick up and drop only one car like that. I love the drone footage. It really adds to the videos. I’d love to get one some day.
Oh c'mon now! You don't get a thrill from a 150 car piggyback train going by at 60MPH? I like the local switching, but the main line stuff is exciting too! :-))
Nice vid. I thought the same thing about all of the cars being loaded with CSX#6554. But I noticed there isn't a Placard on any of those tank cars. By rule (law) if they are loaded or have residue from a previous load they have to have placards on all sides telling everyone what is inside them. Also when switching out on the road. The crew has to be mindful of car placement while enroute. Careful to place hazmat loads in the proper order according to rules for example. While they servicing the customer by subtracting and adding to the consist of their train. Thanks for sharing. Be safe out there.
In the Lakeland area, you'll see small customer switching like that rather frequently on the line through Kathleen, at the chemical plant. Usually it's one to three cars being switched in and out. I've also seen them (on the rare occasions I go into Lakeland) doing the same on the old line going down towards Bartow, at various businesses. The derailment involving the sulfur tank cars (and a couple of box cars) that happened quite a few months ago (and made the national news) was right at that switch - and there is STILL a box car on the west side of the rails from that accident. I wonder if they're eventually going to try to put it back on the tracks - it actually looks in pretty good shape. Talking about switching small customers... Several years ago, there was a short single-customer branch line between Lakeland and Plant City, just off of the main line and only a couple of miles this side of the county line. That branch passed within 10 feet or so of the mobile homes in the park that it passed through and while we lived there, it seemed rather strange to look up at the engineer out of our window, as the engine crept very carefully down that track (it wasn't in good shape at all). It was the same as you showed - swapping out a single box car. The engine and box car swayed a LOT and I was always nervous that they'd have a derailment right there.
In the beginning, yes those cars were loaded (truck springs were compressed) but that creaking and groaning was the brake rigging, not the roadbed. At 2:26 a compound miter saw with an opening bid of $100? Must be in like new condition. I think it was the DeWalt. Nice drone work and EXCELLENT narration voice - sounds just like a professional video or TV feature.
Danny nice video! Right near the end when the train was backing the cars in, in the drone view as the engine clears the switch the is a long tie painted white that lays under both sets of rails. Is the supposed to be the minim clearance for cars to clear as long as they remain behind it or is it of some other use?
I am not sure what that white tie represents. It looks like the first long switch tie in the turnout. Or possibly where the crossing signal circuit begins.
I was just going to ask the same thing! Interesting how certain people notice certain details. (My main reason for noticing it, I'm laying HO scale track, and painting the ties and rails to look more realistic, so I'm always on the lookout for good track photos.)
While Class I railroads may not seek out these businesses, Class II and Class III railroads/shortlines use this as their bread and butter. The ideal relationship is Class I railroads transporting these cars from Point A to Point B, and smaller railroads dealing with the customer. Everyone makes money and the customer is happy. Source: I'm a conductor for a Class II railway who left a Class I
Another beauty Danny! "Lets just say....budget priced items"....lmao. The video is great but as usual, it's your story telling that makes it all the better. Cheers Gregg.
Crews on these jobs also get to know their dispatcher quite well. Sometimes it can be downright comical to listen to their conversations with the funny things they’ll say to each other. A breath of fresh air amidst the organized chaos of railroading. 😉 Really nice video and excellent use of the drone.
Yup I used to pick up a lot of traffic like that on my scanner many years ago. One day the conversation was quite comical because the dispatcher holed up the local for a road freight and got them stuck for quite sometime. The back and forth conversation was funny to hear.
mile57.2 galtsub Probably because the Class 1 railroads decided Unit trains and intermodal services are huge timesaver trains and cost far less to manage and operate than the carload customers. In the late 70s to early 80s, they cut their nose off to spite their face when they did a lot of closing roads with only carload customers on them. When the ICC created the Surface Transportation Board to regulate the railroad industry primarily to keep them from killing so many branch lines, they began selling their branches to shortlines who could make a decent profit from carload customers and then turn over big cuts of cars to the class 1s. Of course they still have to maintain their infrastructure including classification yards but CSX is taking the first step towards shutting that part down as well.
EXACTLY what I mean....here where I live, in Winnipeg, we had a huge map of different spurs every which way. But, things changed let's say around in the early 80's, I remember at least 2 spurs were taken out. Then, in the later 80's the great CN yard in the downtown area was all redone, and the old tracks all removed, and all became as a terrorism spot. Later, at least in 2000, a line of trackage was all taken away, so were the spurs in the one part of the city were I closely live near by....and got all redeveloped. Many more places got their tracks removed, and got redeveloped, and so rare to see spur lines having trains on them...working to deliver to small/large businesses, now mostly all done by semis.
4 decades ago truckers had much smaller trucks with the average load weighing far less. These days it is very difficult to stay competitive with trucking (and intermodal)
That is really just basic switching. What you may not have seen is this crew or another crew switching the cars in the correct order at the yard. I worked with a few people that would have had a hard time switching out the blue cars from the red ones. 😂
It is sad to see alot of these working spurs gone, or abandoned. In North America, before the "high paced" future we all live in now, and before trucks, we all had many working spurs; many people had jobs doing whatever they needed to do to keep the trains...let's say rolling. Now, it is so rare to see working spurs, and the real working horses of the days...after and during the days horses still were doing the work as well. But, which I love too, however I think very dangerous on highways, trucks are doing the transports, however trains still do alot of heavier, bulkier, and more supplies back and forth...from cost to cost...than trucks, just that they do less small buisnesses, and less working spur lines to any buisness....which I think it is a great lost.
Just happened to stumble across this video and while I normally am not a fan of commentary for train videos this definitely the exception! Your commentary makes this video and I look forward to watching/listening to more of your work in the future ☺ keep up the splendid job!
Very nicely put together, and extremely well explained. We have a very similar switching puzzle up here in Akron, Ohio. This job, done by CSX's D750 is a daily move. The way the track is lined up with one of the customers, D750 has to leave their cut of cars from the customer on the No. 2 main, run 15 miles to the next Absolute Signal and Crossover, and crossover to the No. 1 track where they will travel about 20 miles in the opposite direction on the No. 1 track in order to run around their cars and get on the rear end of their train. And that is just for one of their customers. D750 services about 5-7 customers on the CSX Newcastle Subdivsion every single day, and as the one dispatcher (BEH, Brain) puts it, "I got people up here that know how to pay us dispatchers well." Too bad they don't know how to pay the head-end crew as amptly as they do the dispatchers.
I work for international paper in California. We get alot more than 1 box car at a time. More like 8-10 at a time. I also get to unload the rail cars. Which is fun cause I love trains.
Great video as always Danny and did you know there's actually two customers on the Plant City Sub? There's the classical International Paper but there's also Highland Packaging Solutions, which receives Covered Hoppers and is located between Paper and Lake Wales Junction. You can view their siding from Gordon Food Service Drive, which despite the sound of the name is actually a public road and crosses the Plant City Sub behind the customer.
This is the most fascinating kind of railroading and I've always enjoyed watching the local do the switching. On my virtual railroads, I always have a bunch of industries which need a boxcar, hopper, or tank or two. This type of operation can keep me busy for hours. The distribution building the train was servicing at the end reminds of one of the models I have. I think the creator used this industry as an example because they also create a Plant City passenger station as well. Where I live in eastern New England, we still see lots of 4-axle power. PAR only recently started phasing out their GP40-2s in favor of some recently acquired former CSX Dash-8s. For many years, the SD40s and GP40s were the mainstay and they're still plenty about on the system.
The smaller railroad customers just getting a car or two have always been more interesting to me from the operations standpoint than the mega industries receiving and shipping several cars at a time. I remember railfanning back in the 1960s, almost every town along the RR of any significance had at least one or two small freight customers to switch, be it a feed mill, fuel dealer, lumber yard, or similar small businesses. Nowadays most of these same towns just have a main track going straight through. The former switches, sidings, and active customers are history with the old loading docks facing trackside many times bricked up or otherwise sealed shut. I know the railroads make more off of mega customers but it's still kind of sad for me to see the smaller industries fall by the wayside over the years. I'm amazed when I see a smaller business still receiving a single car or two these days.
Yes, I think the railroads are finding ways to serve these small customers through intermodal nowadays. It's cheaper and faster than spotting boxcars on industrial tracks. Of course some commodities still need it the old way, like newsprint and mechanical parts. Boxcar traffic is till alive and well, though. I see 50 - 70 cars cuts of boxes in roads trains even now.
When I was working on the Connecticut Southern we were low on power and had to use one of the SD40-T2 snoot nose which originally started its life in 1965 on the UP needless to say it was rather scary on some of the industrial tracks spotting cars
This ought to be the primary way industry ships goods. I see a lot of businesses with rail access that hasn’t been used in many years. The businesses are still operating, so obviously they have moved all their shipping to trucks. My question always has been, why would they want to go from an efficient, inexpensive and fast method to a slow, inefficient and expensive one? If trucking companies had to pay for the infrastructure they use, we would see the true cost of trucking, and rail would still be the primary means of goods transportation. And if railroad companies would do business the way trucking companies have, they would have a lot more business.
A. Trucks are much more flexible regarding scheduling and changing destinations on short notice. B. Trucks can go the first and last mile (i.e., door to door) C. Triple trailers and the like which are currently in Australia and eventually coming to the USA four and five trailer hook ups turn a truck into in effect a road train.
@@exoressdelivers70 A: Yes, trucks are more flexible. And you expect to pay for that flexibility. Subsidies make trucking artificially cheap, so people don’t really know how much it really costs for that flexibility. If subsidies were reduced, it might be discovered that extra flexibility is not needed for most things and rail would be a much better fit. B: Rail can and often does go door to door. This should become much more common, as it used to be. C: Road trains work only in limited circumstances. Oz is one of those, where distances are large and traffic is small. And you never have to back up. There are precious few places in the US where a road train is a real option. Meanwhile, a real train can be 2 miles long and operated by 2 people.
Umm... 6 axle SD power was design for light track because it spreads the load out over a greater area. An SD-40 would be easier on the rail than a GP40. Great video, but the point you were making was only valid if you compare it to the much heavier CSX modern 6 axle road power which is what I assume you meant. Also funny to hear you refer to a 3000 hp GP40 as "small". It's all relative though I suppose.
Tell me you make a living with your voice? If not, you could and should. When you say "CSX" it makes me believe that you ARE CSX! Professional, top quality video! First class all the way! Thanks for the effort! 👍
I love those GP40'S, I got a Atlas GP40-2 HO scale engine on my desk at work. Of course with the Chessie System paint scheme. I wish CSX would do something with that old Chessie logo again. I'd take a cut out of a kitten over the letters CSX in brackets like some boxcar emoji.
I can guarantee the cars are loaded. If you look at the springs on the trucks you can see they are depressed indicating the cars are loaded...great video
I was watching a fellow railfan and he was looking at some of those - 3 engines that CSX has rebuilt with that weird Square Cab in the weird nose and it came up with a nickname SpongeBob square cab I agree they turned a good-looking locomotive into a butt ugly machine why would they do such a thing that era were that locomotive originated from had cool General Motors styling now it looks but ugly sorry that's just my opinion I like the old SD40 - 2 nose instead of the SpongeBob square cap design
If you are ever in the Utica, Ny area check out the Sangerfiekd switching for the feed and seed Mills. If you plan it right, you can also catch F.X. Matt brewery switch, the train runs right down Schuyler street.
A customer is a customer, big or small. Partly why the shortline railroads have become such a big concern these past few years, they run the lines and serve the customers that the big railroads turn their noses up to, but are nonetheless profitable.
Danny a way of telling if a enclosed freight car is loaded or empty is looking at the springs on the trucks. If they are compressed it is loaded. Unless the boxcar is loaded with feathers. LOL!
Danny A question I always had was what does it cost to ship something by rail. By box car or tank car or any other car. I really have no idea what it costs. I know each load and everything is different probably by weight or if it’s hazardous and the distance so on and so on. But does it cost a few hundred or is it thousands. Always something I wondered.
When I was a kid in the '80s I lived near the end of the track w spur in deland Florida . It was always fun to go up high Street and see the train dropping off Hopper cars for Sherman medical and box cars at rinker concrete and every once in awhile dropping off a single propane car at Florida gas .
This is why I appreciate the smaller railroads like RJ corman. They take the smaller customer's and shuttle it to the class 1s . Allowing more businesses access to rail transport.
This kind of work is fun. I love riding the point in wooded areas to spot a load or set out a cut of empties on a spur. One night on one of our locals I was on the back of the train on the last car with my trainee, riding downhill, around a corner, with tree branches smacking us the whole way down - and as those tree branches were smacking me and I'm shining my flashlight down the track looking to clear the switch at the bottom of the hill to then line us in for the long shove back on our spur for the setout, my only thought was "this is f'ing fun"
You have the best system with great info perfect sound with the trains sound low enough to enjoy and able to hear everything you are telling us. Delay in the block has a loud train sound that's annoying if you turn up the sound to hear the information being spoken. Your absolutely the best railfan production
@ 2:02 you can see a rail buried alongside the tracks. I've been seeing this a lot lately and don't ever recall seeing it before. Maybe I just haven't been paying as close attention. What is it's purpose?
Your videos are so good! I seriously get so sad when they end. Actually, this one felt so short. However, as always, you learn so much from watching you. Although it sounds cliche, please keep up the good work. I can’t tell you how much you have reignited a passion for me in trains in general. All the best to you and thanks for all you do and these amazingly produced videos.
![DDG & G Herbo - Nosey [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/I9Ra0Zc2NlQ/mqdefault.jpg)
“Budget priced items”
Sounds like a Sheriff’s Auction lol
AKA, junk. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Sometimes you can get finds. I bought a box of stuff for $1, mainly for a ceramic rose which would go for $50 on eBay if I was to sell it (my SO found it in the box and had me bid on it).
You have the BEST commentary voice I've ever heard. You could narrate the process of a dog going to the bathroom and I'd still listen.
Wow, thanks Shawn! I hope I never have to narrate anything on THAT level, though! Haha!
Shawn Lewis he sounds like the Pentrex videos guy
He's a pro!
like a discovery documentary.
I initially thought this was just a clip from a TV show due to the commentary, very well done.
0:28 you can kinda hear the tank car give you a shave and a haircut in the wheel on rail noises
@JS317Productions same
OMG THAT IS PRETTY COOL
Great, Danny. This is real railfanning, one car at a time. Love it.
Mr Danny This is one of the best Switcher videos. 👌Hope you make more like this one
Thanks!
Super video. A friend recommended it and I’m glad I did. Nice video work but the real gem is the investment you’ve made in the narration. Nicely designed script that was tightly executed. The story is easy to discover and become engaged in. Thank you.
Having done local customer switching it’s nice to see some video of it. Very time consuming to pick up and drop only one car like that.
I love the drone footage. It really adds to the videos. I’d love to get one some day.
Good stuff Danny! Much more interesting than watching 150 freight cars speed by.
Oh c'mon now! You don't get a thrill from a 150 car piggyback train going by at 60MPH? I like the local switching, but the main line stuff is exciting too! :-))
Nice vid. I thought the same thing about all of the cars being loaded with CSX#6554. But I noticed there isn't a Placard on any of those tank cars. By rule (law) if they are loaded or have residue from a previous load they have to have placards on all sides telling everyone what is inside them.
Also when switching out on the road. The crew has to be mindful of car placement while enroute.
Careful to place hazmat loads in the proper order according to rules for example.
While they servicing the customer by subtracting and adding to the consist of their train.
Thanks for sharing.
Be safe out there.
Thank you Daniel.
I didn't notice that about the HazMat placards. I wonder why that is. I'm pretty sure all those tanks carry HazMat and not food-grade.
Beautiful video. Thanks.
Very well done video, loved the auctioneer.
I just love urban switching and your videos are pretty much Pentrex quality, as is the narrating, just like Dave Drui! 👍
the drone work is a fantastic idea... great video 👍
Great work. Very informative as always!
Another great masterpiece Danny.
Brilliant ❤️
Great video, Danny! I love catching last mile switching
Thank Tolga. I like that term, "Last Mile". I might use that for Part 2! :-))
Great video!
In the Lakeland area, you'll see small customer switching like that rather frequently on the line through Kathleen, at the chemical plant. Usually it's one to three cars being switched in and out. I've also seen them (on the rare occasions I go into Lakeland) doing the same on the old line going down towards Bartow, at various businesses.
The derailment involving the sulfur tank cars (and a couple of box cars) that happened quite a few months ago (and made the national news) was right at that switch - and there is STILL a box car on the west side of the rails from that accident. I wonder if they're eventually going to try to put it back on the tracks - it actually looks in pretty good shape.
Talking about switching small customers...
Several years ago, there was a short single-customer branch line between Lakeland and Plant City, just off of the main line and only a couple of miles this side of the county line. That branch passed within 10 feet or so of the mobile homes in the park that it passed through and while we lived there, it seemed rather strange to look up at the engineer out of our window, as the engine crept very carefully down that track (it wasn't in good shape at all). It was the same as you showed - swapping out a single box car. The engine and box car swayed a LOT and I was always nervous that they'd have a derailment right there.
In the beginning, yes those cars were loaded (truck springs were compressed) but that creaking and groaning was the brake rigging, not the roadbed.
At 2:26 a compound miter saw with an opening bid of $100? Must be in like new condition. I think it was the DeWalt.
Nice drone work and EXCELLENT narration voice - sounds just like a professional video or TV feature.
Love the graffiti on that ttx
Danny nice video! Right near the end when the train was backing the cars in, in the drone view as the engine clears the switch the is a long tie painted white that lays under both sets of rails. Is the supposed to be the minim clearance for cars to clear as long as they remain behind it or is it of some other use?
I am not sure what that white tie represents. It looks like the first long switch tie in the turnout. Or possibly where the crossing signal circuit begins.
I was just going to ask the same thing! Interesting how certain people notice certain details. (My main reason for noticing it, I'm laying HO scale track, and painting the ties and rails to look more realistic, so I'm always on the lookout for good track photos.)
Did you happen to catch the P098 reroute yesterday? Went through vitis jct. for the first time in 14 years
Cool
While Class I railroads may not seek out these businesses, Class II and Class III railroads/shortlines use this as their bread and butter. The ideal relationship is Class I railroads transporting these cars from Point A to Point B, and smaller railroads dealing with the customer. Everyone makes money and the customer is happy. Source: I'm a conductor for a Class II railway who left a Class I
Renewed short lines like that are springing up. Grafton and Upton came back in Mass around 2009. One car at a time.
Class ones have to service the customers no matter what. My company sued csx over this not there hauling us lumber and everything
This is why I love local freight trains. So many switching maneuvers to keep you entertained. Nice little video Danny. Can't wait for more.
Another beauty Danny! "Lets just say....budget priced items"....lmao. The video is great but as usual, it's your story telling that makes it all the better.
Cheers Gregg.
Thank you Gregg!
I like your new drone! Nice job!
Thank you. Yes, the Mavic Pro is much easier to handle than the Phantom was. It's shaping up to be a great railfanning drone.
Drones away! Great shots
I’ve never seen drone footage of a locomotive just over the switch. This is AWESOME!!!
Crews on these jobs also get to know their dispatcher quite well. Sometimes it can be downright comical to listen to their conversations with the funny things they’ll say to each other. A breath of fresh air amidst the organized chaos of railroading. 😉
Really nice video and excellent use of the drone.
Yup I used to pick up a lot of traffic like that on my scanner many years ago. One day the conversation was quite comical because the dispatcher holed up the local for a road freight and got them stuck for quite sometime. The back and forth conversation was funny to hear.
I think I may have turned my nephew into a fan of yours.
I bet that was pretty easy....Danny is the best!
An 11 year old with a love for trains, so yeah it was pretty easy. LOL
Thank you, Shawn!!! That's awesome! We can always use another railfan.
Have to have the next generation of railfans. :D
Nice to see jobs like that switching today. Go back even 4 decades ago and you saw a hell of a lot more industries serviced by rail.
mile57.2 galtsub Probably because the Class 1 railroads decided Unit trains and intermodal services are huge timesaver trains and cost far less to manage and operate than the carload customers. In the late 70s to early 80s, they cut their nose off to spite their face when they did a lot of closing roads with only carload customers on them. When the ICC created the Surface Transportation Board to regulate the railroad industry primarily to keep them from killing so many branch lines, they began selling their branches to shortlines who could make a decent profit from carload customers and then turn over big cuts of cars to the class 1s. Of course they still have to maintain their infrastructure including classification yards but CSX is taking the first step towards shutting that part down as well.
EXACTLY what I mean....here where I live, in Winnipeg, we had a huge map of different spurs every which way. But, things changed let's say around in the early 80's, I remember at least 2 spurs were taken out. Then, in the later 80's the great CN yard in the downtown area was all redone, and the old tracks all removed, and all became as a terrorism spot.
Later, at least in 2000, a line of trackage was all taken away, so were the spurs in the one part of the city were I closely live near by....and got all redeveloped.
Many more places got their tracks removed, and got redeveloped, and so rare to see spur lines having trains on them...working to deliver to small/large businesses, now mostly all done by semis.
4 decades ago truckers had much smaller trucks with the average load weighing far less. These days it is very difficult to stay competitive with trucking (and intermodal)
That is really just basic switching. What you may not have seen is this crew or another crew switching the cars in the correct order at the yard. I worked with a few people that would have had a hard time switching out the blue cars from the red ones. 😂
A+ production work and a really neat example of switching for folks with a small layout to get more operating in. Keep up the good work!
Thank you Calvin!
Thanks, Danny. It's a always nice to see your videos. See you, next time.
It is sad to see alot of these working spurs gone, or abandoned. In North America, before the "high paced" future we all live in now, and before trucks, we all had many working spurs; many people had jobs doing whatever they needed to do to keep the trains...let's say rolling. Now, it is so rare to see working spurs, and the real working horses of the days...after and during the days horses still were doing the work as well. But, which I love too, however I think very dangerous on highways, trucks are doing the transports, however trains still do alot of heavier, bulkier, and more supplies back and forth...from cost to cost...than trucks, just that they do less small buisnesses, and less working spur lines to any buisness....which I think it is a great lost.
I love watching switching work like this, especially when I can get up close! Excellent work!
Just happened to stumble across this video and while I normally am not a fan of commentary for train videos this definitely the exception! Your commentary makes this video and I look forward to watching/listening to more of your work in the future ☺ keep up the splendid job!
Very nicely put together, and extremely well explained. We have a very similar switching puzzle up here in Akron, Ohio. This job, done by CSX's D750 is a daily move. The way the track is lined up with one of the customers, D750 has to leave their cut of cars from the customer on the No. 2 main, run 15 miles to the next Absolute Signal and Crossover, and crossover to the No. 1 track where they will travel about 20 miles in the opposite direction on the No. 1 track in order to run around their cars and get on the rear end of their train. And that is just for one of their customers. D750 services about 5-7 customers on the CSX Newcastle Subdivsion every single day, and as the one dispatcher (BEH, Brain) puts it, "I got people up here that know how to pay us dispatchers well." Too bad they don't know how to pay the head-end crew as amptly as they do the dispatchers.
Thanks! Your switching story is amazing. 15 miles to the crossover then 20 miles backward to the customer? I'd love to chase that down someday.
I work for international paper in California. We get alot more than 1 box car at a time. More like 8-10 at a time. I also get to unload the rail cars. Which is fun cause I love trains.
Great video as always Danny and did you know there's actually two customers on the Plant City Sub? There's the classical International Paper but there's also Highland Packaging Solutions, which receives Covered Hoppers and is located between Paper and Lake Wales Junction. You can view their siding from Gordon Food Service Drive, which despite the sound of the name is actually a public road and crosses the Plant City Sub behind the customer.
This is the most fascinating kind of railroading and I've always enjoyed watching the local do the switching. On my virtual railroads, I always have a bunch of industries which need a boxcar, hopper, or tank or two. This type of operation can keep me busy for hours. The distribution building the train was servicing at the end reminds of one of the models I have. I think the creator used this industry as an example because they also create a Plant City passenger station as well.
Where I live in eastern New England, we still see lots of 4-axle power. PAR only recently started phasing out their GP40-2s in favor of some recently acquired former CSX Dash-8s. For many years, the SD40s and GP40s were the mainstay and they're still plenty about on the system.
The smaller railroad customers just getting a car or two have always been more interesting to me from the operations standpoint than the mega industries receiving and shipping several cars at a time. I remember railfanning back in the 1960s, almost every town along the RR of any significance had at least one or two small freight customers to switch, be it a feed mill, fuel dealer, lumber yard, or similar small businesses. Nowadays most of these same towns just have a main track going straight through. The former switches, sidings, and active customers are history with the old loading docks facing trackside many times bricked up or otherwise sealed shut. I know the railroads make more off of mega customers but it's still kind of sad for me to see the smaller industries fall by the wayside over the years. I'm amazed when I see a smaller business still receiving a single car or two these days.
Yes, I think the railroads are finding ways to serve these small customers through intermodal nowadays. It's cheaper and faster than spotting boxcars on industrial tracks. Of course some commodities still need it the old way, like newsprint and mechanical parts. Boxcar traffic is till alive and well, though. I see 50 - 70 cars cuts of boxes in roads trains even now.
Now THAT is the sound of a railroad
When I was working on the Connecticut Southern we were low on power and had to use one of the SD40-T2 snoot nose which originally started its life in 1965 on the UP needless to say it was rather scary on some of the industrial tracks spotting cars
The Connecticut Southern is a nice railroad. The Armory branch was near my work...loved watching the trains on it...
Arthur Passeri Lol while spotting the army train one time I climbed inside one of the hummers and fired it up 🤣 all the keys are left in the ignition
This ought to be the primary way industry ships goods. I see a lot of businesses with rail access that hasn’t been used in many years. The businesses are still operating, so obviously they have moved all their shipping to trucks. My question always has been, why would they want to go from an efficient, inexpensive and fast method to a slow, inefficient and expensive one? If trucking companies had to pay for the infrastructure they use, we would see the true cost of trucking, and rail would still be the primary means of goods transportation. And if railroad companies would do business the way trucking companies have, they would have a lot more business.
A. Trucks are much more flexible regarding scheduling and changing destinations on short notice.
B. Trucks can go the first and last mile (i.e., door to door)
C. Triple trailers and the like which are currently in Australia and eventually coming to the USA four and five trailer hook ups turn a truck into in effect a road train.
@@exoressdelivers70 A: Yes, trucks are more flexible. And you expect to pay for that flexibility. Subsidies make trucking artificially cheap, so people don’t really know how much it really costs for that flexibility. If subsidies were reduced, it might be discovered that extra flexibility is not needed for most things and rail would be a much better fit.
B: Rail can and often does go door to door. This should become much more common, as it used to be.
C: Road trains work only in limited circumstances. Oz is one of those, where distances are large and traffic is small. And you never have to back up. There are precious few places in the US where a road train is a real option. Meanwhile, a real train can be 2 miles long and operated by 2 people.
I always love watching your great videos, amazing catches, Danny.
“Five bucks for two electric weed eaters”
WHY DOES THAT MAKE ME LAUGH SO HARD EVERY TIME OMG
Umm... 6 axle SD power was design for light track because it spreads the load out over a greater area. An SD-40 would be easier on the rail than a GP40. Great video, but the point you were making was only valid if you compare it to the much heavier CSX modern 6 axle road power which is what I assume you meant. Also funny to hear you refer to a 3000 hp GP40 as "small". It's all relative though I suppose.
I live in Tampa, Maybe I should start a Level III short line, and see if CSX would partner with me.
Switching videos are always a treat, very nice work Danny!
Howclong long can keep this up
Whst long can you go on
Tell me you make a living with your voice? If not, you could and should. When you say "CSX" it makes me believe that you ARE CSX! Professional, top quality video! First class all the way! Thanks for the effort! 👍
Hi great video I was wondering how do you listen to their radio calls and if you use a walkie talkie what do you use ???
Great video! I wish there were more switching videos like this out there! Keep up the great work Love the channel! - Brian
You always have the best videos, Danny. I don't know how in the world I missed this one.....lol
I love those GP40'S, I got a Atlas GP40-2 HO scale engine on my desk at work. Of course with the Chessie System paint scheme. I wish CSX would do something with that old Chessie logo again. I'd take a cut out of a kitten over the letters CSX in brackets like some boxcar emoji.
I can guarantee the cars are loaded. If you look at the springs on the trucks you can see they are depressed indicating the cars are loaded...great video
Yes, I could see that too. But I'm never 100 percent sure unless I see the seals
Hey, there's a yard called Interbay over here in Seattle! It happens to have a locomotive shop as well with some really neat old stuff.
Now I'm wondering, did you buy anything at the auction since you were there? LOL Sounds like some bargain prices!
I was watching a fellow railfan and he was looking at some of those - 3 engines that CSX has rebuilt with that weird Square Cab in the weird nose and it came up with a nickname SpongeBob square cab I agree they turned a good-looking locomotive into a butt ugly machine why would they do such a thing that era were that locomotive originated from had cool General Motors styling now it looks but ugly sorry that's just my opinion I like the old SD40 - 2 nose instead of the SpongeBob square cap design
If you are ever in the Utica, Ny area check out the Sangerfiekd switching for the feed and seed Mills. If you plan it right, you can also catch F.X. Matt brewery switch, the train runs right down Schuyler street.
You sound a lot like former Baltimore Orioles and Colts announcer Chuck Thompson. Great voice, diction and inflection.
A customer is a customer, big or small. Partly why the shortline railroads have become such a big concern these past few years, they run the lines and serve the customers that the big railroads turn their noses up to, but are nonetheless profitable.
I enjoyed watching the switching and the commentary. Believe it's called shunting in New Zealand. Would like to see more please.
Danny a way of telling if a enclosed freight car is loaded or empty is looking at the springs on the trucks. If they are compressed it is loaded. Unless the boxcar is loaded with feathers. LOL!
Danny A question I always had was what does it cost to ship something by rail. By box car or tank car or any other car. I really have no idea what it costs. I know each load and everything is different probably by weight or if it’s hazardous and the distance so on and so on. But does it cost a few hundred or is it thousands. Always something I wondered.
When I was a kid in the '80s I lived near the end of the track w spur in deland Florida . It was always fun to go up high Street and see the train dropping off Hopper cars for Sherman medical and box cars at rinker concrete and every once in awhile dropping off a single propane car at Florida gas .
There's a lumber Mill in gallizen, and I never see them switch cars around there. I just see the cars lay there
Here’s a hint: If the springs are pushed down, its loaded but if it’s not, it’s empty
This is why I appreciate the smaller railroads like RJ corman. They take the smaller customer's and shuttle it to the class 1s . Allowing more businesses access to rail transport.
Great coverage Danny. Drone shots are hot digity!! Keep 'em coming man!
HOW did they pull this off in the days BEFORE walkie-talkie radios???
This kind of work is fun. I love riding the point in wooded areas to spot a load or set out a cut of empties on a spur. One night on one of our locals I was on the back of the train on the last car with my trainee, riding downhill, around a corner, with tree branches smacking us the whole way down - and as those tree branches were smacking me and I'm shining my flashlight down the track looking to clear the switch at the bottom of the hill to then line us in for the long shove back on our spur for the setout, my only thought was "this is f'ing fun"
You have the best system with great info perfect sound with the trains sound low enough to enjoy and able to hear everything you are telling us. Delay in the block has a loud train sound that's annoying if you turn up the sound to hear the information being spoken. Your absolutely the best railfan production
Didn't read through all the comments but you can tell easily if car is loaded or empty by looking at the truck springs compression.
Love your videos...keep up the great work!!!
Oh, there is no reason to switch International Paper. Believe me. Just let it run dry.,
@ 2:02 you can see a rail buried alongside the tracks. I've been seeing this a lot lately and don't ever recall seeing it before. Maybe I just haven't been paying as close attention. What is it's purpose?
Nice work though since airspace is public as long as you could see your drone you could have flown over their plot.
Auctioning off some ones MISFORTUNE.
Your videos are so good! I seriously get so sad when they end. Actually, this one felt so short. However, as always, you learn so much from watching you. Although it sounds cliche, please keep up the good work. I can’t tell you how much you have reignited a passion for me in trains in general. All the best to you and thanks for all you do and these amazingly produced videos.
Love your videos man! If you don't mind me asking, what camera do you use?
they're loaded for sure, just look at the springs compressed upon the sill of the trucks.
"small engines" says something about American freight trains if that's small
I'm surprised CSX hasn't made a deal with a short line to handle small customers like they do in other areas.
Nice
Sure like the drone footage you add to your videos. It gives a prospective not seen with trains.
CSXT 6063. Nice catch of a famous locomotive in action.
GREAT video
International paper is not a small customer!!! Good video thou as always!
I am halfway around the world, but funny this is in my old neighborhood.
I just caught this video and I was wondering if you’re going to mention that guy at the auction. Ha ha
Holyshit . If all your videos are as good as this one then u just got yourself a new subscriber
With that voice you should apply at Disney . great video . thank you
Didn't this guy used to be an anchorman for Fox 13 news Tampa? He sounds so familiar.
I would like to visit Plant City next year and see what you're seeing.
Interesting and well presented thanks from Orlando
All railways should do wagonload. This is the way forward.
0:29-0:32 it sounds like the rail joints are doing shave and a hair cut!
Who thought switching cars could be so entertaining