HEAVY GRADES, HEAVY TRAINS -25 & 50 YEARS AGO
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2024
- This never before seen chapter on loading coal trains with color film shot 50 years ago as well as fresh material from 1996 and January 2000. The setting is the beautiful Wasatch Mountain range and its punishing 2.4% grades where helpers are a way of life. The town of Helper, Utah was still a stronghold for Rio Grande units with showcase helper action and sets up to seven units!
The chapter shown here focuses on the Utah Railway that shared the tracks in the region.
Here's a review of the overall production...
Model Railroad News comments: "Charles Smiley Presents captures some of these moments from the past through heritage film and contrasting those scenes with rail traffic of today in "Reflections on Soldier Summit. This is an interesting collection of images and anyone who is a certified Rio Grande fan will want to watch it. And if you're not a Rio Grande fan, this DVD will make you at least a little bit sorry it's gone."
"Tracking the evolution of the railroad through various avenues, his images convey the awesome territory that the Rio Grande conquered, and the brute force of the trains that did it. One of the hallmarks of the Grande was its use of huge helper sets of six, seven, or more six-axle diesels, sinister with their paint soot-blackened by tunnel dwelling, prowling the twisting, turning rails. Modern yellow diesels of the all-devouring Union Pacific are shown on the same passes, and even though the UP is touted as wanting to avoid helpers, an SD-90 and a pair of high horsepower GEs still need extra oomph to get their coal up the grade---and sure enough, it's black and orange diesels doing the pushing. Smiley showcases vintage Utah Railway ALCO locomotives, first early RSDs and later, Alligators off the Santa Fe, mostly still in yellow and blue."
This is an interesting collection of images and anyone who is a certified Rio Grande fan will want to watch it. And if you're not a Rio Grande fan, this DVD will make you at least a little bit sorry it's gone. 
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A super look at huge trains out West from our full length DVD "Soldier Summit Reflections" available at www.cspmovies.com
I drove flatbed trucks over Hwy 6 around 1998-2000 and loved seeing those monster sets of locomotives dragging long lines of cars through the winding route in the canyon. The loading facilities were quite a sight to see tucked between the river, rails, and rim of the canyon. Regardless of the politics and economics, the yellow, gray, and red highlights of UP motive power always catches my eye. Thanks for another great video that brings back great memories, Charles.
Thanks for posting the films of the ALCo RSD-4 and the ex-Santa Fe RSD-15 units! They made me smile!
Those old Alcos sure put on a heck of a show.
They certainly do and no wonder railfans made pilgrimages to Utah to see these machines in action!
Yes ! RSD15 running ! You make my day 😊
I began my career on these beauties as mecanician
@@micheltherriault7063 Wow, you were fortunate to be able to work on those classic machines. What a wonderful time in railroading!
I live in Utah .I remember the Reo Grande and Utah Railroads. And the Zephyr. Soldier Summit is 7.477 elevation. Always loved to see the Reo Grande Zephyr between Denver and Salt Lake City Utah.
Wonderful videos.
I really enjoy them.
I'm putting them in my account and I'm gonna save him. Look forward to seeing more.
Thank you, thank you. Thank you.
22:00 stop I'm gonna cry, I know rail crews hated them, but I miss the F45s and their SD45 cousins SO bad...
EMD F45 is in the video. I really do love the Cowl Units on freight trains.
Why aren’t Cowl Units used any more?
Limited visibility with reverse moves, whole carbody has to be removed when undergoing heavy maintenance. Beyond styling, winter weather, and slightly better aerodynamics (that doesn't matter on US roads) there really is no advantage with a Cowl unit.
I should also note that being a variation of the 20-cylinder SD45, the F45 suffered many of the same fuel savings issues and crankshaft failures. They are still reliable units but the extra maintenance for only 600HP+ wasn't seen as worth it.
As a railroader I can tell you we already can't see that well out of standard Geeps and road switchers as it is, and the big modern road units are even worse. With a cowl body you can't even pretend to see! Most modern rail applications require SOME SORT of switching action at some point in the life of the train. Sometimes that's just kicking out bad ordered cars or spotting a unit train at the destination, but we like to do that all with the same power. Having to change out power to do different tasks is extremely tedious and sometimes even illegal.
Super. 💙 T.E.N.
Great video, Thanks for presentation, from Germany
Workhorse locos pullin all that coal. If i had a 4400 horsepower car, i guess it would pull ? Thanks Charles🎉
Those C-44's were awesome pullers, and changed the coal revolution for all the railroads. Thanks for watching!
Well, for one, you'd need multiple high horsepower cars just like they need multiple high horsepower locomotives. That being said, if you had a car that matched the power of that consist, it would actually pull it better due to the high friction of tires on road, but far, FAR less efficiently due to the same reasons. This is obviously a gross oversimplification btw lol.
The mobile phones and RUclips that we enjoy today, are about 75-80 years too late! 😉
When I was somewhat (ahum...caugh caugh) younger, I good friend of mine had a buddy whose uncle used to work Rio Grande....
With my Milwaukee Road on the #1 spot of my list, I might just have to put the Rio Grande in the #2....
Progress isn't always good, right? 😉
Rare to see that many mid-train power units. All slugging it out!
An Alco that smokes that much under full throttle is suffering from neglect/ poor maintenance. Yes they all blew smoke as the throttle was notched out and the turbos lagged but under full boost there is no good excuse. Took a good Alco man to adjust the fuel racks is all .
Have y'all ever tried to put together a DVD on the White Pass & Yukon Route or CN's Newfoundland Railway? You have a very impressive catalog but those are two additions to your library that I'd really like to see.
21:46 I’m pretty sure that’s an EJ&E gondola
Burning some serious diesel..
Yes they are really smoking it up! We love those Alco's and older EMDs!