Heavy Trains, MP15DCs and a Meet on the Union Railroad
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- Опубликовано: 19 июл 2020
- I just recently returned from a four day trip out to Pittsburgh, PA with a friend to see what kind of short-line action we could find. One of the top goals of the trip was the Union Railroad, which is operated by Transtar, a subsidiary of US Steel. The Union, which was founded way back in 1896 interchanges with CSX, NS and the Wheeling & Lake Erie and operates between the three remaining steel plants in the Steel City, Edgar Thomson in Braddock, Irvin Works in West Mifflin and the Clairton Coke works in Clairton. Many different types of locomotives have come and go, the railroad now rosters 33 locomotives, 24 MP15DCs and 9 SW1500s which are mostly used within the plants..
Sunday July 12th was our Union Day, and we found ourselves outside of the Edgar Thomson works to see the 76ET crew shoving up the low grade, caboose first with MP15DCs 18, 29 and 15 with hot slabs for Irvin works, and I mean hot! After catching them here, we catch them tackling the Bull Run Grade at Grant Avenue and just barely beating them to the north portal of the 1919-built Dravosburg Tunnel, as this location and Grant Ave are very close..
A few hours later, the trio of pups return towards ET with scrap loads ahead of empty slab racks..
Later in the evening after a good burning on the W&LE, we found the 9 Crew, a classification yard crew based in Duquense as they ran a solid train of steel coils for Irvin Works. Another MP15DC pair powered this train, blue and yellow painted 17 and rare green painted 14. We beat them to Dravosburg by the skin of our teeth, and were surprised to have a meet here too. 10 crew charges outta the tunnel with a quintet of MP15DCs, 27, 28, 30, 19 and 31 bringing loaded coke hoppers from Clairton for ET and CSX loads for interchange. We catch up to them at Grant Avenue and at DK Interlocking in Duquense, were the train will wye before heading across the Monongahela River, where we just beat them. A little later, the evening 76ET crew returns from Irvin once more with the trio of pups again..
Enjoy! Thanks for watching! 
Авто/Мото
![[SFS] This is a boxcar that ruined our week.](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/F-Jb1L8ShrY/mqdefault.jpg)
Awesome throaty sound of the mps
You should have been around 60 years ago. The URR hauled slag...tons and tons of slag. It came from the Mon Valley plants, traveled uphill alongside Thompson Run Road in West Mifflin, and was dumped at various places in West Mifflin. There was also a large train yard bordering State Route 885, Lebanon Church Road, and Delwar Road. The URR connected to the NS there.
Those little switchers couldn't haul the slag so URR bought road swichers and hot-rodded them, I was told. When the steel industry collapsed they sold them off.
Today, a lone slag pot stands guard at the Route 885 entrance to the now-abandoned Century 3 mall.
If you visit the Waterfront in Homestead, you'll see a dinky engine. It was the transfer car engine for the 45 inch slab mill. Homestead had a narrow gauge rail network between the Structural mill soaking pits and Open Hearth 4. An ingot car can be seen at the Homestead side of the Grays Bridge.
I worked at Homestead Works between 1978 and 1981, when the layoffs started.
That's an impressive shove. What a terrific sound they make. Fascinating how these industrial operations are often in very picturesque settings.
I agree! I love the industrial/suburban setting these guys run through.
Used to live in Monroeville. You can hear these things chug from miles away. They have a unique sound to them.
Can’t beat the symphony of multiple roots blown 12-645Es working hard at N8. Fantastic video Dan!
Thanks bud!! It was awesome, seeing switchers pulling big and heavy trains around was fantastic!
You should have been around in the good old days (pre 2005) to watch 5 units lugging loaded coal up the North bessemer branch. Fantastic memories.
God Man. I'm speechless. Those were some heavy trains. Power was sickening man. 👊
Thank you brotha!! Big trains, heavy metal and switchers, what’s not to love right?!
I used to service Mountain State Carbon in Follansbee, West Virginia. They made coke for the steel mill across the Ohio River in Steubenville. They had a captive train with only one locomotive and if the track was wet from rain it had a devil of a time getting uphill to the bridge!
Awesome video TNJ, the MP15's are one of my favorite locomotives! The local short line near me has several of those as well as GP38'S and GP40's. Thanks for sharing this video and I'm viewing this from the 1st state of DELAWARE.
Thanks pal! Glad you enjoyed! ahh DCR, I’ve seen them a couple times!
Another nice one. Slabs, coke & rock and roll!!
Great job and great video.
Thank you!!
That must be a lovely atmosphere in that tunnel at 18:00. I think I might want to wear a mask if I was going in there.
Absolutely stunning!!! Great job! Such a unique operation. Actually I plan on going this week. What would you say is the best time to go railfanning at that crossing in the thumbnail? Thanks in advance!
and to think 3 GP40-2s would be better suited for them hevy ore ^ coke loads. 3 of them would replace 2 Mp 15
What a unique railroad; using only switcher to pull heavy trains. Is the caboose for having a crew to watch the rear end for backing up? Are those Pennsy signals?
You are correct, they use the caboose for a riding platform and even a crew member rides in the caboose. I think those are just old URR signals
Brute power! This on of my favorite videos bar none. Great work there. I have railfanned and model the Union RR. Question: Why would steel coils be shipped from Irvin works to ET.... makes no sense. After viewing the tunnel meet ...Coke from Clairton headed to ET meets coil coaches which are headed back to Irvin. Coaches probably being from off line customers. Nevertheless fantastic outstanding video.
Long, hard grade out of Clairton for the coke hall. Dad worked as an IE at the coke works. Dealt with the move of coal and coke.
Charles Taylor Fantastic work Chuck Hop to see mor URR vids
The coils would have been moving to kenny for interchange with ns or demler for interchange with csx
NS coil cars are shipped north thru URR’s yard in Duquesne to the small-medium NS yard next to Kennywood. Coke cars that are CSX or misc are not bound for ET - shipped north from Clairton but cross the Mon to Port Perry and then CSX just north of McKeesport. URR coke shipped to ET would be in near-new black URR coke cars with white heralds on the sides - not pictured in this video.
Edit: the URR coke hoppers are shown at the end of the video, and enter ET on the same ramp that slab trains exit the mill.
what time did the 76 crew run?
They run in shifts, there’s an evening 76 crew as well, but the morning 76 crew departs ET around 8-9 am.
They like to mash their power up backward.
18:47, the train coming out the tunnel, is that coal it's hauling ?
Coke actually!
kinda wish it was pepsi
Lol
Maybe even Dr Pepper