Heads Up Washington Line

This line need a thread. We could combine with the H02 thread, and make it for
everything west of Dover.....but it needs a better title than the "HO2 thread"

Heads up.....
60 car ballast train went east thru Stewartsville at 10:10 am. 2 units on front, 2 on rear.
Expect train will return to Bethlehem later today. May just with empty cars...maybe just
light engines, maybe whole train?
Yesterday the local went east at about 6pm. Expect the same sort of routine today.

I wonder, will it outlaw in Washington yard?? anyone know of the power?? Crappy day to be doing ballast work!!

blockline4180 wrote:I wonder, will it outlaw in Washington yard?? anyone know of the power?? Crappy day to be doing ballast work!!

Actually its the best day. The rain will kill any dust.

wolfboy8171981 wrote:

blockline4180 wrote:I wonder, will it outlaw in Washington yard?? anyone know of the power?? Crappy day to be doing ballast work!!

Actually its the best day. The rain will kill any dust.

Yeah, but how about for the crew???

Power appeared to be (from a distance, and based on sound) a combination of GP-38's, GP-40's
and SD-40's. SOS. 2 on front, 2 on rear..which makes me think the are going to bring the train
back to Bethlehem tonite. They could yard the train in Washington..taxi back tonite, and taxi out tomorrow...

I was watching the train from about half mile away.....at the begining the hoppers appeared to be Herzog.
Toward the west end of the train...looked like the cars had READING speed lettering. I could be wrong.....
If anyone sees the train closer up, would like to know if any hoppers other than Herzog on the train...

I followed it all the way to Bill where it is stopped at 12 noon. Sounds like they are getting ready to go back. They were dropping ballast as they went east. They have 8719 and 6705(SD60) on the east end and 2771(SD70M) and 6113 (sd40-2) on the west end. Only Herzog hoppers. They are heading back west now as per scanner.

blockline4180 wrote:

wolfboy8171981 wrote:

blockline4180 wrote:I wonder, will it outlaw in Washington yard?? anyone know of the power?? Crappy day to be doing ballast work!!

Actually its the best day. The rain will kill any dust.

Yeah, but how about for the crew???

If it was the Herzog train the crew wont even notice.

Went out after it stopped railing this aftn.
Track crew was out between Phillipsburg and rte 519 today, behind the ballast train.
picking up old ties, ballast regulator...the usual suspects....about 6 track machines.
They tie up at night at Stockton Yard on the Wash. line in P'burg.

Ballast train came west thru P'burg around 4:30pm. Sd-40 long end fwd leading, SD-70M-2,
60 empty ballast cars, SD-60 and C40-8 on the rear (conv. nose).

Track looks good for 30mph now.....

I'm part of the gang working the Washington seconday. Started at pburg and working all the way to bill. We are putting in about 1200 to 1500 ties per mile on this job. There's a lot of mud to contend with regardless of how much stone they drag here. Track may look good for 30 but it's not. Small old rail and pretty battered ends are going to keep it ten mile per hour track. We did some skipping around the last few weeks and have most of the job complete to mp75 or so. Hopefully our equipment is still there after this weekend. We had some vandalism and theft lastweek when we were off for the holiday. I guess that's the breaks...

I guess it's the heavier engines and freight cars that keep the speed limits so low????

When I was on the EL, we ran 60 mph on 100lb stick rail all the time, and that track was no great shakes.
Amtrak used to run in Florida on some 80lb RB rail.

Are they really worried that depressed joints will cause the train to rock and derail at over 10 MPH.

I've seen active track that's a WHOLE lot worse than the track on the Washington line right now.

Are they planning to replace the rail eventually, or do something to even out the rail joints?

10 mph just seems awfully stupid, not to mention a waste of crew time.

Railking wrote:I'm part of the gang working the Washington seconday. Started at pburg and working all the way to bill. We are putting in about 1200 to 1500 ties per mile on this job. There's a lot of mud to contend with regardless of how much stone they drag here. Track may look good for 30 but it's not. Small old rail and pretty battered ends are going to keep it ten mile per hour track. We did some skipping around the last few weeks and have most of the job complete to mp75 or so. Hopefully our equipment is still there after this weekend. We had some vandalism and theft lastweek when we were off for the holiday. I guess that's the breaks...

Well, another guy who works for the railroad said it will be good for 25 mph after all the work is done... Where did you hear it will only be 10 mph still?? That just seems hard to believe with all the work they are putting into it!!

pdtrains wrote:
10 mph just seems awfully stupid, not to mention a waste of crew time.

Agreed!!!

Maybe they have some more rail work on the horizon and will wait til that time to change the speeds? Or maybe they just figure that 10mph works fine for now and will re-evaluate in the future if more traffic comes on line...

Hard to say what the railroads reasons are. Joint elimination (cut and slide) is out of the question as it would be cheaper I'd think just to put in relay cwr. The only reason I'm sure it is staying 10 mph is curves are only getting 1 inch elevation. 10 mph calls for one inch regardless of the degree. So it could sometime be brought back up to 30, but they would need to bring in a surfacing gang to retamp every single curve.

What are you all jumping down railkings throat for? Sheesh - he is working on the track gang = id tend to believe him before anyone else.

there is much more to track speed than just how the track looks. The DLW might have ran 60mph on 100lb stick rail, but that was 50 years ago, and its probably the same 100lb stick rail as then, and even they woldn't be running 60mph over it now 50 years later. What about the Chester Branch - thats brand new railroad - totally new - is that all of a sudden gonna be good for 60mph? I seriously doubt it - "but it LOOKS better than some other track!"

Even if the track was brand new rebuild from the dirt subbed up, the railroad is slow - it might take them years to simply remember to change the paperwork to upgrade the speed!