WHEEL SLIP! Sparks Fly on the Fulton County Railroad as Locomotive Stalls on Hill
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- Опубликовано: 27 фев 2023
- This is not photoshop, I promise. GMTX 2235 stalls on a hill and throws sparks in epic fashion. The second motor died, leaving 2235 as the only power to shove this heavy train up a steep grade. Click to see how the crew was able to get the train up the hill. Posted with permission from the train crew.
This is not a normal occurrence by any means, but it can happen under the right circumstances. The crew needed to push five covered hoppers loaded with granulated sugar up a steep hill to get to the industry. With two engines, this would have been relatively easy to accomplish, but the second locomotive (OMLX 2001) ran out of water and had to be shut off to avoid serious damage to the engine. The heavy hopper cars and 250,000lb paperweight (that was now engine 2001) proved to be too heavy for the lead motor. To see the wheel slip immediately, visit minute mark 5:45.
A wheel slip like this occurs when the wheels lose traction on the rail, causing them to spin out of control. The intense friction between the rail and the wheel causes sparks to fly until the engine red-lines and throttles back down.
The Fulton County Railroad is a terminal railroad located southwest of Atlanta, GA. They operate 21 miles of track that connect to 68 customers. Because of the short mileage, this railroad is relatively undocumented by railfans. This is one of 27 railroads across the U.S. that are operated by OmniTRAX Corporation.
"Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28 NIV).
If you feel restless, take a pause and read the gospel of John in the Bible. It was encouraging to me and I hope it will be encouraging to you too.
Thank you for watching (and reading!).
Filmed in November, 2022
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©ICE6365
![[4K] Train Stalling with Wheel Slips and Sand](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EXCFHnzeeco/mqdefault.jpg)
This was a 1 in a MILLION video!! I have never seen a video that showed how difficult it was to move cars that are heavy up a small incline. Thanks for sharing this. I was amazed!!
Thank you!! It certainly was one in a million - I doubt I'll ever see anything like this again. It really puts into perspective how heavy railcars are. Oftentimes modern locomotives make it look effortless, but it's truly amazing how much weight they can pull (with proper traction)!
😅😅😅😅😅😊
Holy hell! I thought the sparks were fake until I watched. Wow that was more insane than I thought!
Yeah man, it was unreal!
That was great. Enjoyed it. You don’t see that every day hats off to the crew and the guy that filmed it. Thanks.
Thank you Michael!
1:38 That is some really banged-up looking track.
It's got a few bumps lol but it looks worse because of the low camera angle. As you saw, the train had no trouble running through that stretch at 10-15 mph
Looks like 1206 from Unstoppable
Yes it does lol
Well, the track's giving the suspension a workout!
As a Retired "Hobo" train hopper (Moniker: Boxcar Johnny) I really enjoy your videos.
Contrl Chief stuff was not on any Locomotives I rode, I quit in 2017 turned 62 got Deep Low Cost riding Amtrak! Yes, I went from F.T.R.A. to Amtrak Preferred Customer.
I appreciate it Johnny! Haha hard to believe anyone would switch to Amtrak instead of finding a better alternative. Low cost is about the only thing going for them. Those long distance routes just can't compete with the airlines.
Excellent action and great that the crew were so cool about the situation.
Thank you Joseph! Yes, the crew was very friendly. I asked them afterwards if they were ok with me posting this, and they approved.
Them tracks have seen better days.
Very cool. Looked them up on the map and was REALLY impressed with the extensive amount of spurs for former and current customers. There’s a lot going on on that little short line railroad. Keep making videos of them.
Thank you Jason. I am impressed with how many customers they serve as well. I will try to film them more in the future.
First video I've seen of Fulton. I live in Marietta and didn't even know about them till about two months ago location scouting on Google Maps for crossings to shoot at over there. Nice catch!! Subbed!
@@LancesLens thank you Lance! They definitely fly under the radar. I would have never known about them without a friend telling me. Glad you enjoyed!
Hill: Harry, where's "Ludicrous Notch?"
Have a nice day, thanks
Thank you
You caught some crazy action!
Yessir! It was unreal
Wow! I've only experienced seeing that one time, I was close enough and the breeze was just right, I could smell the steel grinding😮
It's a cool experience for sure! The wind was to my back, so I couldn't smell the steel grinding
when i was clinchfield railroad back in 70s 80 thes units were the best ever built i love the sd40s they had a sound of there own and power great vid s
Thanks Larry. I agree - the geeps are great but the sound of an SD40 definitely wins in my book
Larry, right before I "retired" we had an SD40-2 on the property, briefly. It was accidentally ordered as a leaser. They were terrified of going into curves with it for obvious reasons so it stayed in the yard about 3 months before it was returned. While I have operated many of them on the road, I had never switched a yard with one until then and it was a switcher's dream come true. Of course the alternative was the 2000 and 2001 seen here in this video so anything probably would have been better. But being able to actually move cars around the yard and climb the hill towards Selig instead of slapping it into 8 and praying was a wonderful change of pace.
The rails looks like in India. Nevertheless, cool video! Thanks for sharing!
Haha yes they do. Thank you!
Yet another amazing video from ICE6365!
Thank you sir!
Awesome footage and great catch of the Wheel slip action! 🚂👍🙋♂️
Thank you Wayne!
@@ICE6365 You're welcome!
Wonder how many 5 bags of sugar that was. Great video and kudos to the to all pushing up that hill and the videogpher as well.
Would be curious to know the same. Thank you!
Answer:
221,540 bags of 5 lb sugar
That’s 5 fully loaded covered hopper cars in the video at shown added up LD LMT commodity capacity
= 1,107,700 lbs (553.85 tons) / 5 lbs
= ~44,300 lbs of sugar per loaded covered hopper railcar
= ~8861 bags of 5 lb sugar per railcar
The tonnage capacity of each covered hopper railcar is visible in the video if you slow down / pause footage. For example, at 3:13 mark it shows FURX 851014 with stenciled data under the reporting marks (these days UV resistant vinyl transfer graphics are used, not masked paint) showing interior contents cargo weight capacity for the 286,000 maximum loading rated freight railcar:
LD LMT (contents Load Limit) = 222600 lbs (111.3 tons)
LT WT (empty “tare” Light Weight) = 63400 lbs (31.7 tons)
Total Weight Capacity allowed by FRA for 4-axle railcar / locomotive = 286,000 lbs (143 tons)
Hope this helps!
I like the paint scheme on that GMTX engine number 2235.
Me too. It is a former Paducah and Louisville (PAL) paint scheme
@@ICE6365 I thought it looked like a P&L. I live in Dawson Springs KY. I see this scheme almost daily.
@@chuckwilkerson9034 Yep, it's a sharp looking scheme. I have family in Missouri, and when we visit we pass their yard in Paducah. Several times we have photographed the power sitting by the shops, but I've never seen one of their trains move.
@@ICE6365at one time, they operated mostly at night. I beside the CSX Henderson Sub, between the PAL and EVWR at Robards, KY.
and on OmniTrax property, anything but the wish d tcom CSX version of paint looks amazing!
Great video John! I remember you telling me about this but now, actually seeing it is really cool!
Thank you my guy! Yeah it's hard to put this into words lol
I could watch this all day...
Thank you 🙏
Love the locos design. GP38's are my fav I think, besides the classic CSX EMD's lmao
Beautiful wheel slip
EDIT: also the train groaning at around 10:30, just a bit past, is amazing
Me too. Thank you!
I think my favorite has always been the SD38-2. But they are so rare.
2235 is a beautiful locomotive.
Indeed it is
Great railway footage.
Many thanks!
Nice to see an old EVWR engine here.
Agreed. It's a very nice paint scheme
6:35 @ICE6365 when we were kids in the 70s we made fun of trains by putting grease on one length rails at the middle part of the hill climb. Then we discovered we can use candles but we have to apply it on rails at the middle of the day when the rails are hot.
😊😁😂
Gollee that's hilarious! Did it ever cause a train to slip? For anyone reading, do not try this yourself.
@@ICE6365 always😄
I read your description. In a Diesel electric locomotive, the engine doesn't redline if the wheels spin. The engine governor controls the RPM at the notch the driver selects. The driver selected notch setting is the throttle. There are usually 8 notches. Each notch has a known RPM which the governor holds which is why a tacho is redundant.
In a given notch what happens is the amps on the amp gauge begin to rise as the train slows. This is indicating more and more work is being done since traction is electrical. If the wheels break traction then the amps go down to nearly zero and the load comes off the Diesel engine. The governor just holds the engine RPM no matter what. If the governor detects any over RPM it reduces fuel to maintain the set RPM - more fuel for more load, less fuel for less load. EMD Diesels aren't like smaller Diesel engines in cars or trucks. They have quite a lot of internal mass, so if the electrical load is suddenly released by the spinning of the wheels the governor acts faster on the fuel rack than the revs can rise (there is a tolerance but that's the principal of operation) maintaining the set RPM. With full traction before wheel spin, if train speed reduction continues then the traction motor's electrical configuration automatically changes in a process called transition. This is usually where the wheel spin is likely to occur. Why transition is required is a complex topic but simply it changes the connection of the traction motors between series and parallel depending on whether the train speed is increasing or decreasing. Back EMF is the enemy of speed in Diesel electric locomotives. As speed increases the traction motors begin to behave like a generator (the back EMF part) reducing the traction motor windings capacity to absorb current from the generator, so the electrical cabinet changes the way the traction motors are connected to the generator.
When wheel spin occurs it is the engineer that throttles down otherwise the governor would hold the set RPM for the selected notch and the generator would keep supplying just enough current to keep the wheels spinning - except there are some fancy systems that drastically improve locomotive traction so that doesn't occur. These systems are so effective they allow greater weight (more cars) or less locomotives for the same train weight or length. As we can see these locos don't have any of that equipment.
Also some yard only locos have their transition disabled so they can never go faster than about 15 or 20mph.
You might like this rather dry vid on locomotive transition but it is interesting. If you want to skip the first part, the description of Transition begins at six forty:
ruclips.net/video/eMT8qVvn9wo/видео.html
Hi Paul. Thank you for taking the time to write this. This is cool stuff! I watched the video to learn a bit more about transition too. I am going to favorite your comment so others can learn what is happening with the engine in an instance like this.
Definitely a great explanation of the inner workings. And assuming the governor is working properly but no matter what, it will never exceed 900 RPM so long as the governor has oil in it.
Wheel slip circuitry not working for sure. Awesome vid.
Absolutely. Thank you!
Wheel slip circuit catches when one axle breaks away. In the video all four suddenly break away and probably ran away at a balanced speed. To the wheel slip monitor it looked like the train suddenly rolled uphill at 40mph. It's not going trip the wheel slip indicator for that. Modern engines have the same problem if the same results are achieved. I can show you what track looks like when a mid-train DPU ran away like this for several minutes in run 8.
Awesme footage!
And no clickbait !!!!
Well done Sir!
Thank you sir! I always make sure to use thumbnails that are actually in my videos. There are too many channels that lure people in with fake thumbnails and I don't wanna be that guy.
@@ICE6365 Apreciate the Truthfull images :) Ill be watching them sparks flying a couple of times :) You can really see the power coming onto the rails :)
Nice wobbles, beautifully filmed.
Thank you!
They are SO LUCKY those sparks didn't start a fire in the bushes and trees near the right of way.
Agreed. I was surprised there weren't any small fires in the pinestraw or crossties too
Awesome to see several of those boxcars in a row.
Agreed
It's an everyday occurrence on the Fulco Rwy. Two customers get beer imported from Mexico and one stack goes to General Wholesale off Camp Creek Pkwy, while the other stack goes to Saddle Creek down off Westgate Pkwy. Anywhere from 8-25 boxcars a day, if they are still seeing the traffic I handled up till about 3 years ago.
I'm watching this while playing with my model trains. I think I may have a sickness.
Not a sickness. Healthy!
"Beans don't burn in the kitchen. Beans don't burn on the grill.
Took a whole lotta tryin' just to get up that hill."
Wow that's amazing and it's like a Ho scale model that dose the same thing
Thanks! Must be a Tyco model :)
Worked around this track frequently....great footage and I’ve never seen this!
Atlanta has an amazing amount of rail and I’ve seen some of the old rail in Smyrna
Thank you Stephen! Agreed, Atlanta has a lot of tracks. It can get very confusing on what goes where especially in downtown lol
1:55 so old Rails just look at them
They are old rails, but the camera angle certainly makes them look worse than they really are. The rails are laid in 20-foot sections (offset by 10 feet on either side) and there are small dips at each joint. When looking at them from a low angle you can really see those spots. Side note - this is what causes the "rocking back and forth" motion that many people associate with trains.
I watched the video without reading the description and got a big surprise! I've never seen such a thing! Kudos!
I guess it had a shock factor haha! I'd never seen anything like it either
2001, a Soot Odyssey!
Spectacular. And nice that you provide a direct jump to the "action".
Thank you Boris. I know most people don't have the desire to watch a 16 minute video just to see the 10 seconds of action - especially those who don't like trains as much as I do.
@@ICE6365 Coming from a railroad family, I'm surely not one of those people. I can watch these movies for hours. So keep them coming. ;)
Perfect video to ask this. I am 52 and have wondered these questions for a long time. Okay railroaders what is the mechanical clicking sounds at the first of this video. Sorta sounds like popping off an air tool from an airline. But click, click, click, click sound?
Another sound is the sound of something spinning up. Like a "wherrip" normally I hear it when a locomotive is powering up to move. Silly questions but I just have always wondered.
@JD-dw8cc Hey JD, thanks for your comment! Definitely not silly questions - I have wondered about these sounds for a long time too. The clicking you hear is the air compressor on the locomotive spitting water out of the air reservoir. The compressed air causes condensation to collect in the tank, and it has to be spit out to prevent it from rusting. The "wherrip" noise on modern locomotives is the turbo kicking in to give the locomotive extra power. I don't know exactly how the turbo functions, but hopefully someone can answer that more in-depth.
@@ICE6365Thank you, I deal with air compressors alot. I drain the the tanks daily and the airline driers. I wonder now how they know to drain automatically. I would have assumed the turbo were constantly running like in tractors. I learned something new today. Thank you
@@ICE6365 on these engines, they have Roots Blower systems, and do not have a Turbocharger. They would be a GP40 if they had turbo. I am not keen on the noise you are identifying but you may be hearing the sound of the generator, or the roots blower. And the clicking is not the air compressor. These have static air compressors that are directly driven from the motor. The device you are speaking of is called a "spitter" and does exactly as you explain. They are located at the bottom of each reservoir tank. They are electronic, and when they detect condensated water, they open the valve to eject it. If the tank had a gallon of water in it, they would remain open constantly and there would be a stream of water ejecting from the spitter. Also if the voltage ever gets low or the pressure in the tank drops to a point that the valve can no longer close, it emits a very flatulent sound for a couple minutes.
when I lived in Pacific Grove in 1971, the Southern Pacific(?) still ran all the way towards Asilomar. The tracks were 200 yards in front of our house. I'd run out everyday when I felt the rumble and heard the horn to wave to the engineer... They always waved back.
That is wholesome Tony, thank you 🙏
I saw 2 Conrail GP40-2s shove 4 Covered Hoppers loaded with sugar up the grade into the Ferra Pan Candy factory spur in Forrest Park, IL. The crew dumped all the air from those Covered Hoppers. All of the wheels were sliding. A side note, this happened in the mid 1980s. The Candy factory has several silos for the ingredients to make the candy and has big winches to position the cars for unloading. Some of the candies they make are Red Hots, Atomic Fireballs & Lemon Heads.
I'm definitely a fan of GP 40-2's and Atomic Fireballs. 👍🇺🇸
Is the factory still operating?
@@longwindingroad As far as I know. I left the Chicagoland area in July 1997. They re-opened a retail store at the factory in April 2017 and their website is still up and running.
Nice footage man and great catch on the wheel slip action 👍👍
Hey Rob, thank you! This was a once in a lifetime witness so I'm glad I got it
Cool switching video (Dave).
Thank you Dave
Excelente video saludos desde Queretaro México 🚂🚂🚂👍👍
Saludos Jose! Me alegro de que hayas disfrutado el vídeo. Muchas gracias 🙏
Good video, like !
Thank you!
Tanks Brasil 🌟🇧🇷🙏👍
That was cool...Thanks for sharing 👍
Thank you William 🙏
Cool video thank you. Nice spark show
Thank you Rick
Great video…I really enjoyed it!
Thank you sir!
On Google Earth we can see that this line serves many factories on a large area,, but some sections are abandoned. Jacques, from France.
Correct
Sheesh!
Now that’s some hot wheelslip!
Yessirrrrrrrr
Holy 🚬 smokes! Literally....(got this in my feed, subscribed...awesome action!)
Thank you Christopher! Yes, quite literally LOL
Great video! Thumbs up!
Thank you! 👍
This looks like a lack of maintenance, A locomotive doesn't need to run out of water. Now you're putting extra wear and tear on the locomotive that works.
I agree. I had never heard of a locomotive running out of water until this instance.
@@ICE6365It might have a leaking radiator, or worse, a head gasket leak.
@@andrewschannel4259 that would be nearly fatal to the unit, wouldn't it?
@@ICE6365 Yes it would. A leaking radiator is one thing, but a head gasket leak would require tearing apart the prime mover.
Very cool, wish we had some of that excitement here in Clemson. We love our train videos in Clemson SC, Go Tigers! Keep it up.
Thank you, and Go Tigers!
My boy Charlie made it to the Big Time!
Congratulations 🎉 1000 subscribe
Thank you very much! 😁
Wow ! really cool to watch this. I am a big fan of the last mile type of action. Kudos !! James.
Hey James! Very glad you enjoyed it. I like the "final mile" shortlines too. It's fun filming the switching ops and funky power that these railroads tend to have.
@@ICE6365 I have made a few videos of this type of railroading in the past. And I too find it a lot of fun. But it is definitely (IMHO) more challenging that filming mainline action. I am intending to try to do more of it when the weather cooperates to give me better flying weather. Stay safe. James.
@@FrogandFlangeVideo I also think it is much more challenging to film the regional railroads. The most challenging part for me is their limited schedules. I'd love to see aerial footage of last-mile switching on your channel. I'll be looking out for your videos. You be safe as well!
@@ICE6365 I agree 100 %. I'll try to round up the links for several of my favourite ones and send them to you. They are all on the channel, but none done in the last number of months due to the weather. James.
Here are some of my favourites:
CN L580 SERVICES REMBOS AND BLASTECH ON HAGERSVILLE SUB - SHISA KANKO ruclips.net/video/0PFamqgeAus/видео.html
A DAY AT GARNET YARD + HYDRO SPUR ruclips.net/video/UiaYUmMhEog/видео.html
END OF AN ERA - ORANGEVILLE & BRAMPTON RR A FALLEN FLAG ruclips.net/video/hUXnWgWK_n0/видео.html
A DAY WITH THE ORANGEVILLE & BRAMPTON RAILWAY ruclips.net/video/cPS0PVHgUMg/видео.html
CN - A DAY OF SERVICING HAMILTON INDUSTRIES ruclips.net/video/VF3xvLCKr1g/видео.html
Stay safe. James.
The GMTX2235 that could
Thank you Bepis Man
Engineer: Hey, buddy, she can’t do this, we may have to double it!
@@ICE6365 ouch those wheels on the diesel train it looks hot
Nice footage! Love the captions for the coms too. Looks like some of the track on that run needs a bit of TLC but then again I know a whole lotta nothing about that stuff!
Thank you! I'm glad you liked the scanner coms. I know the scanner can be hard to understand which is why I add the captions. Makes it fun to follow along with what is happening.
Awesome shots !! 👍
Thank you sir!
@@ICE6365 You're very welcome !
The GMTX 2235 Was going up the hill was going up the hill to struggling, throwing spark was very epic I just looking up on Wikipedia.
Very epic indeed :)
"good garly the sparks" said the engineer LoL
Yes lol I thought that was funny too
This was a great video...
Thank you Johnny!
That was a good catch!
Thank you!
Cool video
Thanks Jason
Great train video.
Thank you Frank
빨리와요 😢😢😢😢😢😢
What State is this ?
Georgia, USA
Superb shots !
Thank you!
@@ICE6365 You're welcome !
Fantastic video😉👍️✨
Thank you! :)
Muy buen ideo saludos desde mi bello México
Thank you Ivan!
Vídeos muito bacanas imagens lindas parabéns amigo pelo excelente registro 👏💯 locomotivas muito lindas 👏👏
Gracias, muy apreciado!
way to go guys.good job.
Thanks team 👍
Great work
Thank you
I’m surprised it didn’t make much noise. When it snowed where I live couple week ago a train went by uphill and the squeal nearly blew my ears out.
Looking back, I'm also surprised it didn't make more noise. You can hear the grinding noise of the wheels, but there were no loud squeals. The squealing sounds trains make are usually caused by the wheel flanges rubbing against the inside of the rail.
@@ICE63659
Really nice catch there!
Thanks Noah!
Man, those fellas need some sand!
For real!
Either they had sand and the engine just broke traction suddenly, or the yardmaster / GM has decided sand is not in the budget. They seem to flipflop between the two depending on how the stars align. And I know the GM, Eric is going to do whatever his boss says!
😮
My Buddy Josh works for that line , he might be the engineer on this cut , third times a charm !!!!
Nice! Not sure what the engineer's name is, but he was a cool guy
Very cool. Don’t see that kind of thing very often. At least I don’t! 😊👍👍
Thank you! Fortunately, I don't either 😂
That was very interesting; don't think I ever saw anything like that. Saw an engine stall out but the wheels did not slip and throw sparks. Nice catch !
Thank you sir! I've seen locomotives stall too, but never like this. I believe modern locomotives have technology built in that prevents major wheel slips like this.
The problem here is, all four axles cut loose at the same time. A Wheel slip indicator will only show , and the throttle is cut when one of the wheels cuts loose. If it cascades and all four or six wheels break loose at the same time, then the traction motors run away with everything the generator has waiting for it. And even when the engineer cuts the throttle, those wheels are still going to spin for a while! If the engineer wasn't about to crap himself, he would have grabbed the independent and helped them slow down. But I've been in his position, and I know how frustrating it is when the wheels just decide they're going on a trip without me! I also worked for this railroad for about 8 years and I know exactly where and how he had the problem. The second engine, the OMLX 2001 has some serious mechanical issues. Between the frame damage, several connections on the main gen and other problems, if they weren't so hard up for power, they probably would have scrapped it for parts by now. But the Bama Boys (Mechanical dept from the ATN) never have had any intentions of fixing or scrapping it. However it is one of the reasons they have had to rent power. I wonder if the OMLX 2008 (SW-1200) is still on the property? Man that thing couldn't get out of its own way and yet it contributed at least another 300 HP to the consist if we had a big cut of cars going out to the South end. It too was a piece of junk and spent most of its time stuffed and mounted at the end of Track 13. Other times we hid it back int he woods behind Kapstone so the kids would stop vandalizing it.
Goes to show...Third times the charm!!
Yessir!
Great video New here Keep them rolling Thanks 👍🏻🚂
Thanks Mike!
Cool video and channel just subscribed
Thank you, I appreciate it!
Wow 👌 👏 thats some sustained loss of traction by GMTX #2235.
Absolutely haha
And if you want an explanation of why you keep having trans derailed, look at those tracks. I've seen straighter corrugated iron.
Well A. This a shortline not a mainline, they aren't going to have the best rails.B.....Derailments are common seeing how over a thousand happen every year.
The tracks do look crooked, but that is largely due to the camera angle and zoom. These tracks are only used several times a week at low speeds, so there is no need for them to be upgraded. Most railroads use continuously welded rail that is much straighter and can tolerate higher speeds.
the wreck in Ohio was caused by overheated wheel bearing, nothing to do with the rails. The mainline that accident happened on was on better maintained rails that the short line in this video.
@@ICE6365😊
good work guys
Great work indeed. Thanks Team 👍
That spark very amazing 6:33
Thanks! It was crazy to see
It is now a Rail grinder.
great video bro
Thank you!
These tracks are unbelievable! No wonder, so many accidents happens in the USA
These rails are pretty good lol... I would encourage you to look up the Maumee and Western Railroad on RUclips for videos of really bad tracks
This is a SIDING, not a main track.
I used to hang out with a couple of different crews on different railroads when I was in my 20s.
Derailments were rare, but they happened.
This is in just ONE, emphasis on ONE, city.
Now multiply that trackage by a few MILLION, and you now have a system that can have a thousand derailments a year.
That’s actually a quite impressive track record, zero pun intended.
You have ZERO clue as to how crews take care of “their” section of track.
They DO NOT want to be on the ground!!!
When they ARE in the ground, they do their best to get back in the track, if they can!
Rerailing frogs aren’t always available, but a few bits of discarded lumber can make all the difference!
Thats why these “bad” tracks have slow speed limits and arent mainline tracks where trans go 30+mph, my local train has bad tracks and their limited to 10 mph
@@dangeary2134 The Fulton County Railway is a Terminal not a siding. A Siding is a track that parallels a Main line and connects to it at both ends so that trains may pass each other. They also operate as a Terminal rather than a railroad. A Railroad has at least two stations and work by hauling cars from Station A to Station B, etc. A Terminal however does not have any stations, and all cars are switched internally within the Terminal. That's why they are not using a Marker on their rear-end. They also are exempt from handling HAZMAT cars with cover, although we had to ask politely for clarification on that rule from the FRA because they were pretty sure we needed to have a cover car to switch certain HAZMAT tanks.
And finally, the FRA did cite Fulco on track hazards in several places. One of them being a 72-degree curve with more than 140 gauge rods holding the track together for more than a year! Other spots were cited where the track kinked badly and caused several derailments. While I was there, none of the derailments were bad, not even the one in my Avatar image. Most of the time, it was just wheels on the ground and the train air didn't even bust. But the issues were deferred maintenance and the FRA helde them accountable for it. So while I was there, they did a lot of rehab to curves, switches and some of the bad washout spots. A big part of that was the contractor they had hired to do track maintenance. They did a lot of inspecting and not a lot of work for the money they were contracted to do. That contractor was fired and another company was brought in to take care of the major issues and bring the line back up to par with FRA Class 1 track standards.
But on that note; Amtrak does not use this line, max speed is 10 MPH and track will never look like your model railroad table, EVER! Just because there's a hump in the rail or a kink on the curve, that's all stuff that happens daily with the constant change in temperature, the weather, the traffic load and sometimes just the way the stars align. After the @$$ kicking they took from the FRA I am pretty certain they are maintaining their track to FRA Class 1 track status and not going below that anymore without some serious reasons.
As a German train engineer (50% shunting 50% outside the shunting yard) this was extremely cool to see. The locomotive I use every day doesn't stall that hard, even under heavy load. Is there any information on how heavy the wagons or the train itself were/was in this clip? Would love to know 🙂
A loaded railcar weighs anywhere from 263,000 lbs to 286,000 lbs. The locomotives can vary greatly, but an educated guess would be 450,000 lbs per locomotive. So, 900,000 lbs + 1,315,000 lbs = 2,215,000 lbs, minimum, for this entire train.
@@LmaA1 Das stimmt. Ich ziehe mit meiner Rangierlok noch 4000 Tonnen weg (Spreche aus Erfahrung). Selbst bei Regen geht's (Mit genug Übung). Das hier sollen wohl nur 800 Tonnen sein.... 😆
@@Fuerwahrhalunke I'm glad you liked it! Where in Germany do you operate and what types of locomotives do you use?
These older locomotives weigh about 250,000lbs (125 tons) so their traction isn't as good as newer engines that weigh closer to 450,000lbs as Daniel said. These particular railcars have a load limit of about 220,000lbs (I looked at the last car of the train at minute mark 3:17. You can see the "LD LMT" under the reporting mark GACX 53969). I estimate the weight of the railcars and the one engine that shut off to be roughly 550+125=675 tons. Compared to main line 120-car coal trains, that's easy work, but not for one GP38 locomotive with no sand and this steep hill.
@@ICE6365 Hey! Because I'm German it's rough for me to translate everything into my language, so if I misunderstand something, this is why 😛
I operate in Northrhine-Westphalia, close to the netherlands. My locomotive is (mostly) the BR 294, though I operate the BR 261/265 as well. The 294 weighs about 80 tons and were first built in the 60s, though their engine got renewed in the late 90s to a 1300 hp engine. We don't operate more than one locomotive at a time because the heaviest trains we have regularly are 2000 tons.
You are right though; I didn't see that you had no sand available and I couldn't estimate how steep this hill is.
How much hp does the GP38 have?
@@Fuerwahrhalunke Sieht so aus, als ob alles gut übersetzt wurde. Vielen Dank, dass Sie sich die Mühe gemacht haben, zu übersetzen! Ich habe nach weiteren Informationen zu den BR 294 gesucht. Cooles Zeug. Ich danke Ihnen für das Teilen. Gibt es Fälle, in denen Sie beim Rangieren oder auf der Hauptstrecke zwei Lokomotiven gleichzeitig einsetzen? Der GP38 hat 2000 PS. Aufgrund der geringeren Zugkraft und Pferdestärke im Vergleich zu anderen US-Lokomotiven verkehren sie meist paarweise.
Wow... I have seen wheel slips on old steam-powered locomotive, but never on a modern diesel-electric.
It's rare, but it does happen on the diesels
Nice video.
Thank you
No water? In the cooling system? Excellent rail fanning!
Correct, no water in the cooling system. I appreciate it!
@@ICE6365 Wonder why it was hooked up, just pushing dead weight, would have got up the grade a lot easier.
I wonder the same... The crew didn't know this was going to happen, so I bet if they hadn't made it up the hill on the last try they would have set the unit out and tried again.
That was cool 😎
Thanks Kirby 😎
Very cool video.
Thank you
@@ICE6365 you're welcome.
hello iec6365 its is randy and i like your is cool thanks and super ice6365 thanks and mr. canadian 2036 friends randy
Thank you Randy