Tabla de contenidos para September 2024 en Trains

A NEW STUDY CONCLUDES a 200-car freight train is 24% more likely to derail than one with 50 cars, but some experts question the study’s methodology and conclusions. The paper, “The relationship between freight train length and the risk of derailment,” by researchers from Brigham Young University, Georgetown University, and Virginia Tech, was published in the journal Risk Analysis. It analyzed Federal Railroad Administration rail accident data from 2013 through 2022. The researchers then estimated derailment risk while taking into account the reduced overall accident risk that comes from running fewer but longer trains. They concluded that, compared to a 50-car train, a 100-car train has an 11% higher risk of derailment and that the odds of a wreck rise as the number of cars in a train increases. “Understanding…

bybillstephens@gmail.com Analysis: Trains.com With the world changing at an accelerating pace, there’s something comforting about standing on a station platform, putting your foot on the standard Amtrak-issue yellow step stool, and climbing aboard a train. Not any old train, mind you, but a passenger train with a name. A train that carries a name has a certain cachet lacking on trains — and flights, for that matter — that are identified only by number. Today it’s the Boston section of Amtrak’s westbound Lake Shore Limited, which squeals to a stop at Union Station in Springfield, Mass., at 3:19 p.m. Moments before you board a random thunderclap booms overhead. You’re due to step off coach No. 25124 at 11:23 p.m. in Rochester, N.Y., where the next day Genesee & Wyoming will…

AS THE OCT. 19, 2012, demonstration run approached, I discussed with Amtrak’s mechanical department staff the possibility of cutting out the speed-control feature of the cab signals on the P42 locomotive to prevent the penalty brake application resulting from the intermittent cab signal flip south of Odell. The cab signals would be otherwise operative. Amtrak was agreeable; so was the FRA supervisor on the run. The appropriate steps were taken and we departed for Joliet, where the VIPs boarded, and then proceeded south. As we passed Dwight and entered 110-mph territory, the Amtrak engineer notched out on the throttle: 80 … 81 … 82 mph. Suddenly, the cab was filled with the sound of escaping air. Bewildered looks filled the cab; a penalty brake application had occurred. We shrugged, the…

WHILE READING A RECENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER OBITUARY PAGE, I recognized the name of a person I knew from my work on the Maine Central. I had served in several positions before being promoted to the company safety department, so I got to know a good number of people. The gentleman was 89, had lived a good life, retiring in 1990 from the engineering department’s bridge and building section. Seeing his name brought to mind my first dilemma as a supervisor and a valuable management lesson. The incident involved the company’s — and the whole industry’s — Rule G. First things first: any employee who accepts employment at a railroad commits to obeying the rules, and there are many of them, including subsets for each department. This commitment was, and still…

ROOSEVELT ROAD USED TO BE THE Chicago railfan road. On less than a mile of viaducts just south of downtown, fans could catch passenger trains to and from many of the great Chicago passenger stations and associated coach yards. But intercity trains now only call at Union Station, and while commuters still roll, several iconic terminals and longtime coach yards are long gone. Today, Cicero Avenue (nobody calls it Illinois Route 50) is Chicago’s best railfan road — farther out, running north-south, and focused on freights and commuters more than intercity passenger trains. The scenery may not be world class, but the rail action is dense — 18 rail lines hosting about 650 trains per day along 42 road miles. Don’t decry “look-alike” commuter trains — six locomotive types lead…

THE CITY OF DETROIT has seen its share of comebacks over the past 20 years, but nothing quite like what it experienced beginning June 6 as it celebrated the grand opening of the renovated Michigan Central Station, the beneficiary of hundreds of millions of dollars in investment by its new owner, Ford Motor Co. The massive edifice, built in 1913 by the Michigan Central Railroad and a potent symbol of that company’s wealth and power, is now the cornerstone of what Ford is calling its innovation center: headquarters of the company’s Ford Model e and Ford Integration Services teams, as well as other initiatives focused on transportation’s future. Tens of thousands took part in 10 days of free tours, scheduled to resume this fall when commercial activity at the facility…

Norfolk Southern created a wave of excitement in 2012 by painting 20 locomotives with fantastic heritage schemes. NS displayed the units at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer on July 3 and 4 that year, creating an amazing visual display. The NS heritage units are still roaming its system, having the desired positive effect, and being photographed nationwide. During a conversation of what New Jersey Transit could do to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its rail operations (1983-2023), a few railfan-cognizant employees mentioned the idea of developing heritage units to Ray Kenny, then head of NJ Transit Rail Operations. Kenny, appreciative of the enthusiast community, gave the idea positive consideration. Another executive, formerly with Union Pacific and aware of the value of its heritage units, also warmed to the…

DURING ONE FIELD TESTING session utilizing Union Pacific No. 1399, one of two GP40-2 locomotives equipped for testing, its location determination system was performing poorly. This was a component of the overall system that pinpoints the locomotive’s location, speed, and direction of movement by processing Global Positioning Satellite signals, wheel tachometer signals, and other measurements of speed and acceleration. The Lockheed engineers analyzed data and speculated that the accelerometers in the subsystem hardware enclosure were malfunctioning. A short time later, the test train was routed into the Odell, Ill., siding for an Amtrak passenger train. The UP project manager headed to the offending locomotive. A short time later, he returned and announced he had inspected the equipment, observed that it might be subjected to excessive vibration, and procured two “Union…

If history had played out differently, our ride this summer day in the wooded foothills of the Sierra Nevada would be aboard Amtrak’s California Zephyr, instead of on Fairmont motorcars. The track would belong to Union Pacific, not a joint-powers authority. It’d be home to stack trains and AC engines. That’s because this route that eventually became Southern Pacific’s Placerville branch — or a segment of this route, at least — would have been part of the first transcontinental railroad. Before Theodore Judah was chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad, he helped build the Sacramento Valley Railroad from Sacramento to what became the city of Folsom. The 22-mile line opened in 1856 as one of the first railroads west of the Mississippi River, and Judah believed it could be…

DURING THE NIGHT OF JUNE 23-24, the Big Sioux River, flowing through Sioux City, Iowa, crested its banks, submerging the buildings and grounds of the Sioux City Railroad Museum in water ranging from 2 to 10 feet deep. Of the museum’s structures, five were inundated with flood waters, causing damage to the buildings, objects, and exhibits, and ruining gift-shop inventory. The museum announced via its Facebook page that it will be closed for the foreseeable future to survey and repair the flood damage. The museum is based around the former Milwaukee Road Sioux City Engine Terminal and Car Repair Shops. Exhibits and rolling stock are displayed in a number of original buildings throughout the 31-acre site. Key structures include the remaining portion of the roundhouse, turntable and car shop. At…

Too long A long BNSF mix of TOFC and reefers struggles just north of the Tehachapi Loop, on the Union Pacific’s Mojave Subdivision between Bakersfield and Mojave, Calif., on Aug. 24, 2017. There was a time when shorter trains would just fill the frame and not run over. Same place, different time Sharing the line through the Tehachapi Mountains, BNSF and Union Pacific also share the bridge over Bealville Road in Caliente, Calif. UP C44ACCTE No. 5960 rolls over the bridge on Nov. 21, 2023, at 8:01 a.m. BNSF Railway GE ET44C4 No. 3794 takes a turn on Feb. 9, 2024, at 10:19 a.m. Central California rain The 1973 pop song said it never rains in Southern California. It does rain in Central California, forcing commuters at Fresno’s Tulare Street…

THE RELEASE AND BURNING of vinyl chloride from five derailed tank cars — which sent a towering and toxic black plume over East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023 — was not necessary, the National Transportation Board concluded in its final report on the disastrous Norfolk Southern wreck that put a spotlight on rail safety. The tank cars were among the 38 cars of NS train 32N that derailed on Feb. 3, 2023, after the catastrophic failure of a wheel bearing on a covered hopper. The bearing was on fire but did not trigger critical alarms at two hot-bearing detectors the train passed before reaching East Palestine, where a detector alert sounded just moments before derailment. The wreck led to a fire that likely began with release of a flammable liquid…

A small ceremony at Chicago Union Station on June 26, 2023, marked Amtrak’s change to schedules incorporating 110-mph speed limits on portions of its Chicago-St. Louis route. The ceremony, led by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, included current and former politicians, and representatives from Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration, Illinois Department of Transportation, and Union Pacific. Those on hand were likely unaware of the long journey to the event, but for me, it was the culmination of 25 years of professional involvement in the effort to bring the line 110-mph operations, primarily related to signal and train control implementation. PHASE 1 THE NORTH AMERICAN JOINT POSITIVE TRAIN CONTROL PROJECT In April 1998, I joined Arinc, Inc., as a member of an engineering team consulting with railroads on communications, dispatching systems, and…

ONE LAST ATTEMPT was made to diagnose and resolve the cab-signal problem just south of Odell prior to the start of revenue 110-mph operations in the demonstration segment. A prominent theory was that high-voltage power lines paralleling the right-of-way were causing the induction of stray electrical currents into the rails, which then interfered with the cab signal operation. Arrangements were made with the local power utility and a large grain facility north of Pontiac to de-energize the power lines during their lunch break for the operation of a test train. The test train was positioned at Dwight, Ill., and at the stroke of noon, the power switch was thrown. The train highballed south to Pontiac and returned northward to Dwight. Alas, the cab-signal flips remained, and a 90-mph speed restriction…

NEW YORK CENTRAL’S West Side Freight Line, more formally named the 30th Street Branch, was the only direct freight railroad line into Manhattan. It was just 10 miles long, but maintained to mainline standards, and was even electrified for three decades. Vital for freight, mail, and express into the 1960s, it afterward saw a protracted decline. By 1982, under Conrail ownership, only one customer was left: The New York Times, which received rail shipments of newsprint from Canada. That March began “30th Street’s” final days. Briefly, the New York Times’ newsprint was actually trucked to a just-built New Jersey plant. It was a convoluted shipping move on the eve of ending. Subsequent cars would be more directly routed to the Jersey plant. The other rail customers on Manhattan’s West Side…

ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS passenger routes in the East is the former Pennsylvania Railroad trunk between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, known for hosting the New York-Chicago Broadway Limited. I’m a big fan of this route, known as the Main Line. The name stems from the original transportation corridor, the Main Line of Public Works — a multimodal system completed in the mid-1830s and consisting of canals, inclined-plane “portage railways,” and primitive railroad lines. Amtrak’s Keystone Service and Pennsylvanian trains travel this historic route, offering an excellent way to traverse Pennsylvania. Amtrak owns the route as far west as Harrisburg, whereas Norfolk Southern owns the trackage to the west. You can experience Amfleet cars in regular revenue service [see “Travel,” May 2024] and ride behind Amtrak’s powerful Siemens ACS64 Cities Sprinter…