Great show, love the fact that you are keeping it real. I've been a truck driver since 96. Right now I work for a company that is dedicated to Georgia Pacific, a large paper and paper product milling company. What caught on fire was not the cardboard but the cardboard dust which is a lot more flammable. I have to blow out my trailer after every load so the dust doesn't fall through the cracks and ends up on my breaks and catches my truck/trailer on fire, it happens more often than you think. Glad it turned out right though. Keep up the great work.
So my dad used to work for the railroad in Maine. His job would primarily be to check incoming and outgoing freight. Because we were so close to the Canadian border, he would get a long sheet that told him everything that was on the train, and he would go outside and bang on each of the box cars on each end with a hammer. He could tell by the sound it made if the car matched what was printed on the paper. He had to stop the train plenty of times so they could investigate further for smuggled goods. He would always tell me stories of different things like derailments and such, which I always found fascinating, so hearing you tell the story was so entertaining!
I've been in the industry 25 years and I'm having a great time following this adventure! I've always wanted to do this at some level so thanks for sharing. As for that boxcar fire, we've had a number of the exact same thing happen out here in Oregon. The dust in those cars is nearly explosive and is likely what started your fire, though conduction is possible, too. I hope you'll have the ability to do car repairs on the storage cars you get, eventually. Watch the scrap paper loads! lol
Think of it this way, you own a mile more railroad than almost any of us ever will! Great story, Keep it up! Also when do we get to see the trackmobiles?
being a welder for most of my 42yrs with GE on locomotives I learned before you light a torch or strike a arc have at least 2 full fire extinguishers at arms length, I to have had to put out plenty of fires and always scared the hell out of me. great vids and good luck, look forward to your progress daily
This project is in no way boring, nor mundane. This is fascinating and innovative, it's what makes the American Heartland what it is! We follow along through all that occurs with you!
I think it is amazing that you would buy your own railroad! What a great thing to do with your son! Wish you much success, can't wait to watch this unfold.
In 2005 I drove from here (SW Alabama) to Chicago and back to get an air compressor (WABCO 3YC) that was payment for some air horn repair I'd done. 2160 miles total in 2 days. Worth it!
Retired Navy. I've seen or know of many shipboard fires caused by welding and not checking for combustible interference and/or no fire watch. I personally saw a large fire suddenly break out in dumpster at NASSCO that was overflowing with cardboard. After it was put out the cause of the fire was a piece of metal that that been cut and tossed in the bin....then covered with all that cardboard. That metal was still hot enough to burn the cardboard and a thin burn line smoldered all the way to the top over days until it got oxygen and erupted! Only the cardboard the top burned...everything else was good except for that tiny black burn line. There is a 95% chance the Bonhomme Richard fire was hot work related and it may have occurred days before the fire broke out.
Love your channel. Anxiously waiting for more videos. Thank you for allowing us to view you hard work and learn something about RR work. May God protect and bless in all you do.
At paper mill here in Canada ..I witnessed this situation with a semi trailer of recycling paper bales ... A mechanic repairing the landing gear legs had been using torch and welder ...The next day the unit was found smoldering .. We pulled it from the line clear of the mill ..The fire department saturated with water after opening doors ... of course opening excelled combustion ... Leading to a decision of busting the trailer to bits with a Cat wheel loading ... then the bales and while saturating with water ... You guys are great... love your broadcast ... I wanna come and help you ..Regards from Canada ...
Spent the whole video believing you had pixelated out an angry squirrel, giving everyone the middle finger. (assuming squirrels have fingers) Next week, we get mooned by a moose. (Rocky and Bullwinkle have turned bad) ;D
Hi Guys! Thanks for sharing your project with us. As a retired firefighter, good job calling right away and not waiting to see if you could get it out yourself! Some of my biggest fires were ones people tried to tackle themselves before calling. We mask up on everything these days as cumulative exposure in our line of work increases our risk of certain cancers. Your overnight vigil and use of Dawn dish soap was brilliant. We add a little squirt of Dawn to our 2 1/2 gallon water cans for the same reason you did. Works great! The only derailment I ever worked as a firefighter/haz-mat tech was a string of empty corn syrup cars, but it was on the main line just off a spur that was getting a chlorine tanker once a week. So we were pretty nervous until we met up with the conductor for the train and confirmed the contents. Stay safe and look forward to your updates! Take care, Dave
My oldest son (5 year old) and I watch all your videos. He keeps telling me that we need to come down and help you because we're strong and it's the railroad. He's apparently outgrowing our HO railroad lol. Thank you for the videos and the joy of seeing a Father and son team working together and getting it done.
East Terminal Railway, Thanks you for the fire story. Both firefighting and paper products are important parts of my past. Plus, I Love hearing the tales that you tell!
Yes we are, we drove our ford 6.0 up there this past summer and that was the last drive it took. that is a possible video coming up, the 6.0 is gone but the truck is still going strong with some help from a 5.9 Cummins
Great story. Never would have guessed you repair boxcars. Great service to the industry. Nice way to pull in support if your viewers transparency is huge. Can’t wait to see what you do next on your railroad. Thank you
I really enjoy your videos since I have an entrepreneurial spirit and have also been a rail fan my entire life. I am intrigued that a one mile stretch of abandoned track can be the basis to start a profitable business performing services I had no idea even existed or could be provided by a small business such as yours. I wish you much success in your new venture!
Merry Christmas and happy New Years. That was one hell of a story man, glad it ended well. I have a 2009 Nissan Xterra and I love the hell out of it it takes me where I need to go and don’t care about it. Keep the videos up, your doing something that all of us have dreamed off doing.
When I was on the railroad, we pulled loads of trash into a power plant that burned it. We also pulled out loads of ash. The ash was in open gondolas, often at night it was still glowing from having just come out of the furnace. Once an ash car was sent back by CSX because a rail side radiation detector was set off. We set the car off on a siding at the plant, and a couple guys from the plant came out with a Geiger counter and shovels. They eventually found a radioactive source used for X-ray weld inspection that had been discarded in the trash. It had gone all the way through the process where the incoming trash is inspected for hazardous materials like propane tanks etc., into the furnace and was removed in the ash. Quite the big deal! Once the offending radioactive device was found and removed, we brought that car back to interchange with CSX. That’s railroading!
Paper in those big rolls emit chemicals from the manufacturing process, if closed off from fresh air , they can spontaneously combust. We always leave those doors open a foot or so.
Thanks for sharing the burning boxcar story. It was fun learning more about you two. Also I give you both a tip of my hat. It says a lot about someone's character when they're not too proud to share some of their mistakes in life and share what they've learned from them. Nicely done.
When I was on a rural fire department in Missouri, we put a bottle of dawn dish soap in every pumper and tanker. Poor fire departments foam to smother the fire Good call on your part! Happy holidays and hope you have a good new year.
When I first started in the fire brigade (Australia, urban brigade with rural / bush fire capability), all our bush trucks (called tankers) carried little 300ml bottles of wetting agent. You'd add one to each full tank of water (3,000lt) when needed. We also used them on oil spills on roads, we dumped a heap all over then hit it hard with water and brooms. But that was before environmental concerns were a thing. Now the trucks carry class A (carbon based fires like wood) and some also have class B (liquid fires like fuel, oil) foam with metering and injection systems, so we just nerd to hit a switch and adjust what percentage we want. We also carry some sawdust or kitty litter for small spills with the local council a phone call away for a literal truck load for larger spills. It's amazing how much of a difference a bit of foam makes, especially on burning rubber like tractor tires.
The ways a fire spreads (or more specifically, how heat spreads are convection (air currents), conduction (direct transfer through a conductive object like a metal door) and radiation (infra-red, the same as what happens with the sun). In Australia, a day of total fire ban means not only that you can't light a camp fire, but outdoor welding, grinding and even slashing (tractor based grass /shrub mowing) are also banned. Even some electricians I was working with weren't allowed to use their gas MAP torches to activate heat shrink cable waterproofing. Fires can start much easier then many people realise.
Great story! I worked in two different rail served paper plants. Fire was always a serious concern. I look forward to seeing some videos on your RR car repair work. Thanks!
Nothing wrong with being small. A good example is the west Michigan railroad in Hartford. The line was left behind by pioneer but now continues to grow by adding new customers and increasing car counts.
THANK YOU...for sharing. Fantastic story. Next time tell the plant manager he has to remove the bales from around the door before you start the door repair, after all, his tow motor operator is the one who damaged the door.
We used CONRAIL cars at my auto parts plant. We had 8 tracks coming into our building with 4 hi cube cars with 2 plug type doors on each track. conrail also switched our cars twice a day. they had their own rip crew that had a john deere gator and trailer to fix bad order cars. most were for the doors,but they would fix bulkheads too.thanks for posting.looking forward to seeing the new truck
I've never loaded boxcars, but have unloaded many. Where you guys have customers who couldn't get doors closed, I've had numerous boxcars that wouldn't open for various reasons. And maybe one or two that then wouldn't close after being emptied. That was quite the story about the fire. I think you guys did extremely well, especially with the FD Engineer's offer to leave the hose behind for you guys to use. Major stroke of good luck there. As for calling the railroad to advise them, and repeatedly calling the Yardmaster, that's a great call. Honesty is the best policy, for if no one had said anything and then something happened, it could come back to bite the shipper in the behind, which then would come back to bite you afterward, so good on you for taking the bull by the horns on all fronts there. I have a question for you guys, maybe you have an answer, maybe you don't, but here goes. Is it common practice for the consignee/unloader to throw any dunnage (such as metal strapping, cardboard items) back in the boxcar when finished unloading it? We used to do 3rd-party service unloading for some major paperboard shippers and processors. The "boss" always said to throw the "garbage" back inside the boxcar, that it would go back to the shipper (down in Augusta, Ga) and they would deal with disposing of it. I've always felt bad about doing that, not knowing for sure that those boxcar(s) would for certain go all the way back to that shipper, and felt like we were dumping the garbage on the next user, whomever that might end up to be. In the trucking industry, it's generally expected that whomever receives the load, is expected to deal with any dunnage, but of course, there are many exceptions there. In 32 years, I have yet to see a consignee sweep out a trailer, either. That always seems to be the driver's task. Hope Christmas was great, and Happy New Year to you guys. Here's hoping that 2021 is a great year full of hope, and brings ETR prosperity and a great customer base.
Watching with great interest from the Maritime Provinces, Canada 🇨🇦 Having shipped many loads of pulpwood to mills in Maine and New York State it’s never a dull moment dealing with the railways, had one load going missing and eventually ended up in British Columbia. All the best in your endeavour!
Titanic was effectively sunk by a bunker fire. Pouring water on it doesn’t work and can sometimes make it worse (the fire chemistry cracks the water). They were going so fast because the hot coal had to be dug out and put through the boilers. The heat buckled the bulkhead quite possibly the final straw that sank the ship.
If you "cleaned up" the metal with a grinder that can be the source of the hot spark. I suggest getting a selection of fire proof welding blankets and clamps
Seasons Greetings from Yorkshire UK, loving this small terminal project with so many future possibilites ( storage,repair,transfer etc ) + it may help the local community in many ways once you get going and known. I look forward to watching how this develops and wish you both a great future with it, cheers ken
What you are talking about is conduction. The heat conducted through the metal to the bales inside. Also NFPA 51B is the standard for hot work. Typically per the standard you need to protect or remove all combustibles within 35' of the hot work. So yes a 70' circle around where the flame is. it also talks about radiation, conduction and convection heat transfer. using welding blankets or mats will help to protect any of your combustibles within 35'.
Holy f"*! has this channel grown quickly!! I love it, new favorite channel to follow! Content, knowledge and humor is on par! Keep the great movies coming!
Great story guys! Please be careful when working on boxcar doors, bad order doors have killed plenty of people both on the railroads and at industries... Never stand where the door could hit you when opening. Also, dont feel bad about the fire...setting a railcar on fire actually happens quite often! My coworker set a caboose on fire inside the shop while torching out an old toilet... he had to push the car out of the shop so the fire dept could put it out! Even though he was being careful with the torch, he caught the insulation inside the walls ablaze. The railroad now requires when ever we do "hot work" that we soak the work area with water first.
Something needs to happen, in regard to large railroad management. Small customers don't matter, they get lousy service, they quit and go to trucks, entire stretches get abandoned as a result, and the rails get torn out and we lose more of that infrastructure that, I'm afraid, we are going to wish we still had one of these days.
I'm so excited for you with your new venture! If you're looking for a mic for your phone, consider the Comica BoomX-D system. If you look on Amazon there are several versions. One version has 2 wireless microphones (great for doing interviews) and a receiver that attaches to the bottom of an iPhone with a lightning connector (there's another version that connects to a phone that has a USB-C connector). You can also get versions that have only 1 microphone. These are great because they don't have any wires...nice and simple. In the future you may want to interview people for your channel so I would suggest paying the extra $ for a set with 2 microphones. Using these mics would make your videos louder and clearer and the wind screens would drastically reduce the wind noise in your videos.
I was thinking back when I've seen huge stacks of hay bales catch fire from the inside because of self generated heat. I wonder if it could happen with cardboard bales in the August heat. I've also seen manure piles smolder from heat inside them. But with a live torch in the area even if it wasn't you, the optics say it was. And it makes for a great story teaching a life lesson. No torches around full boxcars. Wasn't really concerned about making that error myself, having never seen a boxcar up close, but I do encounter bales of cardboard and never considered the fire hazard they could pose. Well told too, kinda kept me in suspense. Have Blessed New Year.
Ok. I have several questions that I haven't seen answered yet: 1) What led you to buying the shortline? 2) How did you locate/find this line to buy? 3) How much right-of-way do you have on each side? 4) Is their an active branch line still attached to this line and who owns/uses it? 5) Besides car storage, is their any existing businesses that would utilize rail transportation?
Definitely a smart and safe move to only start out with a railroad 1 mile long. Although if I were you, I’d go buy one of the old fairmont railroad speeders Might as well have some sort of toy to use on your own line when not working
I've got a 2001 Nissan pathfinder that has 270,000 on it and it still runs like new. I'd not be scared to drive it 1,000 miles one way. Nissan makes good vehicles.
Brought back a memory! Summer of '88, was a member of an Otero County (Alamogordo), New Mexico, vol. fire dept. Mid afternoon, get a callout for a boxcar on fire, ten miles south of town. Arrive on scene to find a lone boxcar (train had set it out and continued), sitting by itself, smoke coming out every available seam, surrounded by fire trucks from around the north county. Stationmaster (Alamogordo still had a manned station) arrived with a manifest. Told the chief in charge the fateful words: "manifest says it's empty. But we normally don't seal empties!" In other words, we had no idea what we were dealing with! Got all set up for the worst, full bunkers and airpaks, set up a full water curtain on the door, to include three streams on the lieutenant who volunteered to open the door. Made two attempts to open the door, but it would not budge! Struck everything down, moved to the other side and re-set up. This time the door opened with a cloud of smoke, but no flashover. Car was, indeed, empty, but had racks that implied it had been set-up for a specific cargo. It was speculated that a hotbox had set the wooden floor to smoldering. All I can remember is wearing that gear in the hot Southern New Mexico sun!
I was involved with a tractor trailer over height, filled with cardboard hit our 600 volt third rail cables and burst into flames . That to seemed to burn forever. Trailer was a total loss.
Nice starter piece of railroad you have. I figured out where it is, but I won't spill the beans. It's a perfect opportunity for trans-load and storage. 2900 feet if you got both parcels. I am very interested to see what comes of it. Curiously the active lead to the still active customer crosses your parcel.
I am very impressed. That was a very effective use of washing up liquid, I have also seen it used to deal with wasp and hornet nests, although that is nowhere near as exciting! I really appreciate the way you are sharing these things with us. Enjoy your trip to Chicago and may God bless you in the coming year 2021.
IMMEDIATELY change the timing belt. After you do that, the Xterra will run pretty much forever! I had an '03 with nearly 300,000 miles on it before I sold it. The timing belt has a history of failing in the older models at about 120-140,000 miles and making toast of the engine when it does.
Great story. I'm really enjoying your progress updates. I'm building a new ho layout and, with your permission, would like to include a East Terminal Railway storage/ transfer section. I would of course have to model you and Gram working it.
Umm, sort of. Class B (liquid fires) foam does that, it creates a barrier between the fuel and the oxygen. Class A form (carbon based solids, like wood and paper) has a very limited effect in that regards unless used with high expansion or compressed air foam systems. What class A foam really helps with is penetration into the material (Ie, breaking that surface tension). Take a dry piece of wood, even a 2x4, and place one end in a container of water for 30 seconds. Add some dish soap or foam concentration to the water and place the other end in for 30 seconds. Then cut that wood in half lengthways and look how far the water penetrated. I've even watched surface tension and very hot burnt ground (dirt) boil and bead water while staying dry until a bit of foam is added and the dirt suddenly becomes wet.
I agree that you’re thinking smart and I’m glad that box car did not turn into an inferno. I was one of the people that asked how long your railroad purchase was. A number of years ago I purchased a set of wheels contoured to be run on railroad tracks, basically abandoned lines and they are purpose built polyurethane covered and have axles. I want to dispose of them because my sight has suffered considerably and it doesn’t look like I’ll ever be able to use them. I thought perhaps it would be long enough to allow people to casually ride the rails safely. I got the idea from videos I saw where people did exactly what I just mentioned.
What exactly did you buy? Land, how much, acreage? Right of way, how many track miles, how many switches? Who was selling it? How did you find it? Thanks an old railroad worker.
@@cannon440 Have you watched any of the previous videos? Did you listen to what he said in this one? They've also stated in previous videos they are keeping a lot of the details of the railroad close to the vest for now. In this video he said they are going to be on the road to Chicago, so maybe that's why they haven't responded...yet.
@@cannon440 Ummm...okay, I guess? I mean, you asked a bunch of questions but you're 'not looking for details'? Maybe they found it in the "RRs for sale" section on Craigslist? (j/k) Anyways, they are in the middle of a road trip right now (as stated in this video), so that's probably why they haven't answered your many (but not looking for details) questions yet...lol.
Bales have so much air around them... rolls would have never ignited... I have bought thousands of tons of charred paper rolls... used a 96" chainsaw with a 20HP motor and sawed the wet charred ends off the rolls and then re-ran them.
Love the channel! I'm a native of the windy city. Where are you going? There are several areas where you need to be very careful. Also loved the video about your other field trip to Richey Bros. I now live in western Ohio. So, their place isn't far from me. I also own a motorcar and know others who are probably closer to you (who also have these vehicles). Might be of some future use, like the guy below from Kettering with the Rail Saw. Be well and be safe.
Great show, love the fact that you are keeping it real. I've been a truck driver since 96. Right now I work for a company that is dedicated to Georgia Pacific, a large paper and paper product milling company. What caught on fire was not the cardboard but the cardboard dust which is a lot more flammable. I have to blow out my trailer after every load so the dust doesn't fall through the cracks and ends up on my breaks and catches my truck/trailer on fire, it happens more often than you think. Glad it turned out right though. Keep up the great work.
It's always better to expand your Railroad than have to close or abandon parts of your Railroad Good Luck can't wait to watch your Railroad grow
So my dad used to work for the railroad in Maine. His job would primarily be to check incoming and outgoing freight. Because we were so close to the Canadian border, he would get a long sheet that told him everything that was on the train, and he would go outside and bang on each of the box cars on each end with a hammer. He could tell by the sound it made if the car matched what was printed on the paper. He had to stop the train plenty of times so they could investigate further for smuggled goods. He would always tell me stories of different things like derailments and such, which I always found fascinating, so hearing you tell the story was so entertaining!
I like the fact that you’re independent, I’m pulling for both of you and your project! 🇺🇸
I've been in the industry 25 years and I'm having a great time following this adventure! I've always wanted to do this at some level so thanks for sharing. As for that boxcar fire, we've had a number of the exact same thing happen out here in Oregon. The dust in those cars is nearly explosive and is likely what started your fire, though conduction is possible, too. I hope you'll have the ability to do car repairs on the storage cars you get, eventually. Watch the scrap paper loads! lol
Cut welds with a grinder not a flame. Still can still start a fire, but it somewhat safer.
Think of it this way, you own a mile more railroad than almost any of us ever will! Great story, Keep it up! Also when do we get to see the trackmobiles?
being a welder for most of my 42yrs with GE on locomotives I learned before you light a torch or strike a arc have at least 2 full fire extinguishers at arms length, I to have had to put out plenty of fires and always scared the hell out of me. great vids and good luck, look forward to your progress daily
This project is in no way boring, nor mundane. This is fascinating and innovative, it's what makes the American Heartland what it is! We follow along through all that occurs with you!
I think it is amazing that you would buy your own railroad! What a great thing to do with your son! Wish you much success, can't wait to watch this unfold.
In 2005 I drove from here (SW Alabama) to Chicago and back to get an air compressor (WABCO 3YC) that was payment for some air horn repair I'd done. 2160 miles total in 2 days. Worth it!
Retired Navy. I've seen or know of many shipboard fires caused by welding and not checking for combustible interference and/or no fire watch. I personally saw a large fire suddenly break out in dumpster at NASSCO that was overflowing with cardboard. After it was put out the cause of the fire was a piece of metal that that been cut and tossed in the bin....then covered with all that cardboard. That metal was still hot enough to burn the cardboard and a thin burn line smoldered all the way to the top over days until it got oxygen and erupted! Only the cardboard the top burned...everything else was good except for that tiny black burn line. There is a 95% chance the Bonhomme Richard fire was hot work related and it may have occurred days before the fire broke out.
What keeps me interested in this story is curiosity and the guy has a catching sprit and feels like he gets you involved.
Love your channel. Anxiously waiting for more videos. Thank you for allowing us to view you hard work and learn something about RR work. May God protect and bless in all you do.
I think that's bad ass how the fire fighters left you the tools you need and yall where able to handle the situation finely
I was on a VFD. Big round bales. Three re-ignitions. The solution..backhoe and break all the bales up, the same with cotton modules.
At paper mill here in Canada ..I witnessed this situation with a semi trailer of recycling paper bales ... A mechanic repairing the landing gear legs had been using torch and welder ...The next day the unit was found smoldering .. We pulled it from the line clear of the mill ..The fire department saturated with water after opening doors ... of course opening excelled combustion ... Leading to a decision of busting the trailer to bits with a Cat wheel loading ... then the bales and while saturating with water ... You guys are great... love your broadcast ... I wanna come and help you ..Regards from Canada ...
Spent the whole video believing you had pixelated out an angry squirrel, giving everyone the middle finger.
(assuming squirrels have fingers)
Next week, we get mooned by a moose. (Rocky and Bullwinkle have turned bad) ;D
I just the way you are bringing us in on the ground level. We can grow with you and not have to physically be there to do all the grunt work.
Hi Guys! Thanks for sharing your project with us.
As a retired firefighter, good job calling right away and not waiting to see if you could get it out yourself! Some of my biggest fires were ones people tried to tackle themselves before calling.
We mask up on everything these days as cumulative exposure in our line of work increases our risk of certain cancers.
Your overnight vigil and use of Dawn dish soap was brilliant.
We add a little squirt of Dawn to our 2 1/2 gallon water cans for the same reason you did. Works great!
The only derailment I ever worked as a firefighter/haz-mat tech was a string of empty corn syrup cars, but it was on the main line just off a spur that was getting a chlorine tanker once a week. So we were pretty nervous until we met up with the conductor for the train and confirmed the contents.
Stay safe and look forward to your updates!
Take care,
Dave
My oldest son (5 year old) and I watch all your videos. He keeps telling me that we need to come down and help you because we're strong and it's the railroad. He's apparently outgrowing our HO railroad lol. Thank you for the videos and the joy of seeing a Father and son team working together and getting it done.
East Terminal Railway, Thanks you for the fire story. Both firefighting and paper products are important parts of my past. Plus, I Love hearing the tales that you tell!
4 hour drive in an Exterra with 240k miles? You guys live on the edge. Thanks for your super stories and videos.
Yes we are, we drove our ford 6.0 up there this past summer and that was the last drive it took. that is a possible video coming up, the 6.0 is gone but the truck is still going strong with some help from a 5.9 Cummins
Thanks for the video update. Keep working on this Interesting Project and see where it goes. 👍
Great story. Never would have guessed you repair boxcars. Great service to the industry. Nice way to pull in support if your viewers transparency is huge.
Can’t wait to see what you do next on your railroad. Thank you
I really enjoy your videos since I have an entrepreneurial spirit and have also been a rail fan my entire life. I am intrigued that a one mile stretch of abandoned track can be the basis to start a profitable business performing services I had no idea even existed or could be provided by a small business such as yours. I wish you much success in your new venture!
i cant wait to see what the next year brings for you all. every railroad empire starts with the first mile.
Merry Christmas and happy New Years. That was one hell of a story man, glad it ended well. I have a 2009 Nissan Xterra and I love the hell out of it it takes me where I need to go and don’t care about it. Keep the videos up, your doing something that all of us have dreamed off doing.
When I was on the railroad, we pulled loads of trash into a power plant that burned it. We also pulled out loads of ash. The ash was in open gondolas, often at night it was still glowing from having just come out of the furnace. Once an ash car was sent back by CSX because a rail side radiation detector was set off.
We set the car off on a siding at the plant, and a couple guys from the plant came out with a Geiger counter and shovels. They eventually found a radioactive source used for X-ray weld inspection that had been discarded in the trash. It had gone all the way through the process where the incoming trash is inspected for hazardous materials like propane tanks etc., into the furnace and was removed in the ash.
Quite the big deal! Once the offending radioactive device was found and removed, we brought that car back to interchange with CSX. That’s railroading!
Paper in those big rolls emit chemicals from the manufacturing process, if closed off from fresh air , they can spontaneously combust. We always leave those doors open a foot or so.
Just subscribed after watching all of your videos. Wish I had a mile of track to run my Fairmonts. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for sharing the burning boxcar story. It was fun learning more about you two. Also I give you both a tip of my hat. It says a lot about someone's character when they're not too proud to share some of their mistakes in life and share what they've learned from them. Nicely done.
When I was on a rural fire department in Missouri, we put a bottle of dawn dish soap in every pumper and tanker. Poor fire departments foam to smother the fire Good call on your part! Happy holidays and hope you have a good new year.
When I first started in the fire brigade (Australia, urban brigade with rural / bush fire capability), all our bush trucks (called tankers) carried little 300ml bottles of wetting agent.
You'd add one to each full tank of water (3,000lt) when needed.
We also used them on oil spills on roads, we dumped a heap all over then hit it hard with water and brooms.
But that was before environmental concerns were a thing.
Now the trucks carry class A (carbon based fires like wood) and some also have class B (liquid fires like fuel, oil) foam with metering and injection systems, so we just nerd to hit a switch and adjust what percentage we want.
We also carry some sawdust or kitty litter for small spills with the local council a phone call away for a literal truck load for larger spills.
It's amazing how much of a difference a bit of foam makes, especially on burning rubber like tractor tires.
450 ft of a narrow gauge railroad was enough for me to build, maintain and play on so keep up the good work on your mile railroad.
It takes one person to use a cutting torch, it take two people to use it safely. lesson learned.
The ways a fire spreads (or more specifically, how heat spreads are convection (air currents), conduction (direct transfer through a conductive object like a metal door) and radiation (infra-red, the same as what happens with the sun).
In Australia, a day of total fire ban means not only that you can't light a camp fire, but outdoor welding, grinding and even slashing (tractor based grass /shrub mowing) are also banned.
Even some electricians I was working with weren't allowed to use their gas MAP torches to activate heat shrink cable waterproofing.
Fires can start much easier then many people realise.
Great story! I worked in two different rail served paper plants. Fire was always a serious concern. I look forward to seeing some videos on your RR car repair work. Thanks!
Love the story! A reminder to always check your surroundings before making sparks fly.
Nothing wrong with being small. A good example is the west Michigan railroad in Hartford. The line was left behind by pioneer but now continues to grow by adding new customers and increasing car counts.
THANK YOU...for sharing. Fantastic story. Next time tell the plant manager he has to remove the bales from around the door before you start the door repair, after all, his tow motor operator is the one who damaged the door.
That was quite a story. Thanks for the present. 👍👍👍❤️
We used CONRAIL cars at my auto parts plant. We had 8 tracks coming into our building with 4 hi cube cars with 2 plug type doors on each track. conrail also switched our cars twice a day. they had their own rip crew that had a john deere gator and trailer to fix bad order cars. most were for the doors,but they would fix bulkheads too.thanks for posting.looking forward to seeing the new truck
I've never loaded boxcars, but have unloaded many. Where you guys have customers who couldn't get doors closed, I've had numerous boxcars that wouldn't open for various reasons. And maybe one or two that then wouldn't close after being emptied. That was quite the story about the fire. I think you guys did extremely well, especially with the FD Engineer's offer to leave the hose behind for you guys to use. Major stroke of good luck there. As for calling the railroad to advise them, and repeatedly calling the Yardmaster, that's a great call. Honesty is the best policy, for if no one had said anything and then something happened, it could come back to bite the shipper in the behind, which then would come back to bite you afterward, so good on you for taking the bull by the horns on all fronts there. I have a question for you guys, maybe you have an answer, maybe you don't, but here goes. Is it common practice for the consignee/unloader to throw any dunnage (such as metal strapping, cardboard items) back in the boxcar when finished unloading it? We used to do 3rd-party service unloading for some major paperboard shippers and processors. The "boss" always said to throw the "garbage" back inside the boxcar, that it would go back to the shipper (down in Augusta, Ga) and they would deal with disposing of it. I've always felt bad about doing that, not knowing for sure that those boxcar(s) would for certain go all the way back to that shipper, and felt like we were dumping the garbage on the next user, whomever that might end up to be. In the trucking industry, it's generally expected that whomever receives the load, is expected to deal with any dunnage, but of course, there are many exceptions there. In 32 years, I have yet to see a consignee sweep out a trailer, either. That always seems to be the driver's task. Hope Christmas was great, and Happy New Year to you guys. Here's hoping that 2021 is a great year full of hope, and brings ETR prosperity and a great customer base.
My wife calls car and tractor shops for old men's daycare.
lol
Watching with great interest from the Maritime Provinces, Canada 🇨🇦 Having shipped many loads of pulpwood to mills in Maine and New York State it’s never a dull moment dealing with the railways, had one load going missing and eventually ended up in British Columbia. All the best in your endeavour!
wow... great story. 1 mile of railroad is a lot of work -- I have 10 miles, and its massive the amount of things we need to get done.
Great story. Experience is a wonderful educator. Some lessons are more costly than others!
Cheers!
Whipple
Titanic was effectively sunk by a bunker fire. Pouring water on it doesn’t work and can sometimes make it worse (the fire chemistry cracks the water). They were going so fast because the hot coal had to be dug out and put through the boilers. The heat buckled the bulkhead quite possibly the final straw that sank the ship.
If you "cleaned up" the metal with a grinder that can be the source of the hot spark. I suggest getting a selection of fire proof welding blankets and clamps
Thank you for the videos. Enjoy listening to the stories. Good luck in Chicago...
Love following you guys ,wish you best of luck. Following your adventures.
Seasons Greetings from Yorkshire UK, loving this small terminal project with so many future possibilites ( storage,repair,transfer etc ) + it may help the local community in many ways once you get going and known. I look forward to watching how this develops and wish you both a great future with it, cheers ken
What you are talking about is conduction. The heat conducted through the metal to the bales inside. Also NFPA 51B is the standard for hot work. Typically per the standard you need to protect or remove all combustibles within 35' of the hot work. So yes a 70' circle around where the flame is. it also talks about radiation, conduction and convection heat transfer. using welding blankets or mats will help to protect any of your combustibles within 35'.
Holy f"*! has this channel grown quickly!! I love it, new favorite channel to follow! Content, knowledge and humor is on par! Keep the great movies coming!
Great story guys! Please be careful when working on boxcar doors, bad order doors have killed plenty of people both on the railroads and at industries... Never stand where the door could hit you when opening. Also, dont feel bad about the fire...setting a railcar on fire actually happens quite often! My coworker set a caboose on fire inside the shop while torching out an old toilet... he had to push the car out of the shop so the fire dept could put it out! Even though he was being careful with the torch, he caught the insulation inside the walls ablaze. The railroad now requires when ever we do "hot work" that we soak the work area with water first.
Fire departments use dawn to make foam as toy did. The soap washed out with the water you put on it or in the paper making process.
Excellent video I enjoyed watching it and your can do style.your Christmas story was fascinating.👍😀🇬🇧
Something needs to happen, in regard to large railroad management. Small customers don't matter, they get lousy service, they quit and go to trucks, entire stretches get abandoned as a result, and the rails get torn out and we lose more of that infrastructure that, I'm afraid, we are going to wish we still had one of these days.
by the way, have fun in the shooting gallery (chicago)
More, More! Love this railroad reality TV. the saga continues.
I'm so excited for you with your new venture!
If you're looking for a mic for your phone, consider the Comica BoomX-D system. If you look on Amazon there are several versions. One version has 2 wireless microphones (great for doing interviews) and a receiver that attaches to the bottom of an iPhone with a lightning connector (there's another version that connects to a phone that has a USB-C connector). You can also get versions that have only 1 microphone. These are great because they don't have any wires...nice and simple. In the future you may want to interview people for your channel so I would suggest paying the extra $ for a set with 2 microphones. Using these mics would make your videos louder and clearer and the wind screens would drastically reduce the wind noise in your videos.
Loved the story time guys, creating foam was a great idea. Hope all goes well with the trip. Safe travels
But if you send your wife to the store for three items, she'll come back with 37...even with the list.
Jeupp.
I was thinking back when I've seen huge stacks of hay bales catch fire from the inside because of self generated heat. I wonder if it could happen with cardboard bales in the August heat. I've also seen manure piles smolder from heat inside them. But with a live torch in the area even if it wasn't you, the optics say it was. And it makes for a great story teaching a life lesson. No torches around full boxcars. Wasn't really concerned about making that error myself, having never seen a boxcar up close, but I do encounter bales of cardboard and never considered the fire hazard they could pose. Well told too, kinda kept me in suspense. Have Blessed New Year.
Ok. I have several questions that I haven't seen answered yet:
1) What led you to buying the shortline?
2) How did you locate/find this line to buy?
3) How much right-of-way do you have on each side?
4) Is their an active branch line still attached to this line and who owns/uses it?
5) Besides car storage, is their any existing businesses that would utilize rail transportation?
Definitely a smart and safe move to only start out with a railroad 1 mile long. Although if I were you, I’d go buy one of the old fairmont railroad speeders
Might as well have some sort of toy to use on your own line when not working
Thanks for the story guys, Merry Christmas, happy new year. Can't wait to see what progress you get on your railroad in 2021.
I'm glad to hear that you guys were safe after a fire like that!!
Watch out for the 4 ish inches of snow/ice we are supposed to get here in Chicago tomorrow evening gentlemen.
thank you, we will be careful.
Early Happy New Year. I really enjoy your project of bringing a rail back to life.
Can’t wait to see grahams auction truck and hear how the $400 Xterra handles the trip!
I think y'all are doing great. I wish I owned a mile of railroad. Will probably never happen though. Glad to see what y'all are doing.
I've got a 2001 Nissan pathfinder that has 270,000 on it and it still runs like new. I'd not be scared to drive it 1,000 miles one way. Nissan makes good vehicles.
Brought back a memory! Summer of '88, was a member of an Otero County (Alamogordo), New Mexico, vol. fire dept. Mid afternoon, get a callout for a boxcar on fire, ten miles south of town. Arrive on scene to find a lone boxcar (train had set it out and continued), sitting by itself, smoke coming out every available seam, surrounded by fire trucks from around the north county. Stationmaster (Alamogordo still had a manned station) arrived with a manifest. Told the chief in charge the fateful words: "manifest says it's empty. But we normally don't seal empties!" In other words, we had no idea what we were dealing with! Got all set up for the worst, full bunkers and airpaks, set up a full water curtain on the door, to include three streams on the lieutenant who volunteered to open the door. Made two attempts to open the door, but it would not budge! Struck everything down, moved to the other side and re-set up. This time the door opened with a cloud of smoke, but no flashover. Car was, indeed, empty, but had racks that implied it had been set-up for a specific cargo. It was speculated that a hotbox had set the wooden floor to smoldering. All I can remember is wearing that gear in the hot Southern New Mexico sun!
I was involved with a tractor trailer over height, filled with cardboard hit our 600 volt third rail cables and burst into flames .
That to seemed to burn forever. Trailer was a total loss.
Enjoying the channel , keep the videos coming . Looking forward to the roadtrip , I'll be on time ! 👍
Nice starter piece of railroad you have. I figured out where it is, but I won't spill the beans. It's a perfect opportunity for trans-load and storage. 2900 feet if you got both parcels. I am very interested to see what comes of it. Curiously the active lead to the still active customer crosses your parcel.
I am very impressed. That was a very effective use of washing up liquid, I have also seen it used to deal with wasp and hornet nests, although that is nowhere near as exciting! I really appreciate the way you are sharing these things with us. Enjoy your trip to Chicago and may God bless you in the coming year 2021.
IMMEDIATELY change the timing belt. After you do that, the Xterra will run pretty much forever! I had an '03 with nearly 300,000 miles on it before I sold it. The timing belt has a history of failing in the older models at about 120-140,000 miles and making toast of the engine when it does.
Could you add more line to your railroad. Where does you line go if you kept going. Do you have any bridges or tunnels on your line
Loved that story guys! Looking forward to the trip to Chicago! I am a big Cubs fan here in NC!!
Invest in a fire extinguisher 🧯 and use on these door jobs but the plant should have told y’all that car was loaded
Keep up the good work. I think your box car on fire story happened at a customer that is served by the railroad I work for. Lol
Great story. I'm really enjoying your progress updates. I'm building a new ho layout and, with your permission, would like to include a East Terminal Railway storage/ transfer section. I would of course have to model you and Gram working it.
I've got so many questions lol
Love the channel, such an inspiration.
Foam is used to separate oxygen from the fuel source. Once enough foam is in place, you have insulated the burning fuel from further oxygen.
Umm, sort of.
Class B (liquid fires) foam does that, it creates a barrier between the fuel and the oxygen.
Class A form (carbon based solids, like wood and paper) has a very limited effect in that regards unless used with high expansion or compressed air foam systems.
What class A foam really helps with is penetration into the material (Ie, breaking that surface tension).
Take a dry piece of wood, even a 2x4, and place one end in a container of water for 30 seconds. Add some dish soap or foam concentration to the water and place the other end in for 30 seconds.
Then cut that wood in half lengthways and look how far the water penetrated.
I've even watched surface tension and very hot burnt ground (dirt) boil and bead water while staying dry until a bit of foam is added and the dirt suddenly becomes wet.
I agree that you’re thinking smart and I’m glad that box car did not turn into an inferno. I was one of the people that asked how long your railroad purchase was.
A number of years ago I purchased a set of wheels contoured to be run on railroad tracks, basically abandoned lines and they are purpose built polyurethane covered and have axles. I want to dispose of them because my sight has suffered considerably and it doesn’t look like I’ll ever be able to use them. I thought perhaps it would be long enough to allow people to casually ride the rails safely. I got the idea from videos I saw where people did exactly what I just mentioned.
How much do you want for them?
@@RussellNelson
I have $800 in them and I will take $400 plus shipping. Pictures available. New never used.
@@yt650 Let's take this to email. Drop me a line at russnelson@gmail.com thanks!
Its a very interesting story that you have to tell. I hope you do a video on boxcar door repair. Keep the videos coming. Good luck to you.
Terminal railways have layers.
Great story and good luck on the railway!
I have a 2003 Nissan Xterra that is still going great.
What exactly did you buy? Land, how much, acreage?
Right of way, how many track miles, how many switches?
Who was selling it? How did you find it? Thanks an old railroad worker.
He said in one of the previous videos they have about a mile of track.
@@KG-xt4oq Thanks, I am surprised they haven't responded.
@@cannon440 Have you watched any of the previous videos? Did you listen to what he said in this one? They've also stated in previous videos they are keeping a lot of the details of the railroad close to the vest for now. In this video he said they are going to be on the road to Chicago, so maybe that's why they haven't responded...yet.
@@KG-xt4oq I have. I am not looking for details. I do not care where they are or names,
Just how do you find a R/R for sale?
@@cannon440 Ummm...okay, I guess? I mean, you asked a bunch of questions but you're 'not looking for details'? Maybe they found it in the "RRs for sale" section on Craigslist? (j/k) Anyways, they are in the middle of a road trip right now (as stated in this video), so that's probably why they haven't answered your many (but not looking for details) questions yet...lol.
Oh boy this job sounds really interesting actually
the jets gave you away, ;-),
sure have freaky weather
back there, how's the clearing
and drainage doing?
Can't wait to see trains running the line
It's a mile long, so it's gonna be short.
Look up Dallas Garland Northeastern Railroad. It is critical to businesses in north Dallas.
Bales have so much air around them... rolls would have never ignited... I have bought thousands of tons of charred paper rolls... used a 96" chainsaw with a 20HP motor and sawed the wet charred ends off the rolls and then re-ran them.
Can’t wait for the wonderful field trip:):):)
Great story both looking forward to the next video !
Love your enthusiasm and wish you both the best of luck! Who will be your interchange carrier once up and running?
Love the channel! I'm a native of the windy city. Where are you going? There are several areas where you need to be very careful. Also loved the video about your other field trip to Richey Bros. I now live in western Ohio. So, their place isn't far from me. I also own a motorcar and know others who are probably closer to you (who also have these vehicles). Might be of some future use, like the guy below from Kettering with the Rail Saw. Be well and be safe.
Any tips on keeping doors working on 40 ft boxcars at a railroad museum