Thought you guys might like these. I got them from a co-worker of mine. The train was 199. There was still 3 inches of water over the top of rail. I few days before this happened I heard that they were pushing cars out to the middle and then hooking up on the other side to get the trains across.
ADDED MORE PICS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE!
Wow, those are awesome! It’s like the train is running on the water. Not a sight you see every day, that’s for sure…
Noah
Is your co-worker a Coast Guard Reserve rescue swimmer?
Wow, that’s just amazing to look at, and I bet it was amazing to see!
I see the train was observing the “No Wake” zone.
That was amazing. Just imagine riding those locos over the water. That HAD to be eerie.
Those are some great pics! Not sure I would want to be that crew though. Only 3 inches of water but I bet you still couldn’t see the rails. Flood water is known for being very clean after all.
I agree with everyones comments ! Thats awsome and errie…I wander if they had a track rider go ahead of them? It would be easier to get a high rail out of there than a locomotive and cars!
So maybe we COULD get trains to and from Hawaii!
…Great photos…It was my understanding a diesel / electric running thru that much water endangered getting water into the traction motors…Not so…?
They CP folks definately did have to worry about water in the traction motors. Service was embargoed for a good time, and once the water went down siginificantly they got trains through the swamp in “push-pull” mode. One set of engines would shove the train into the water and out the other side without entering the water themselves, and then another set of engines picked up the train on the other side of the water. Once the water dropped down to a certain level where it didn’t endanger the traction motors (3 inches I gather) then they started running the trains straight through the swamp at just a couple miles per hour.
Noah
Yes what Noah said. I was told the same thing about his spot and that at one time there was about 4 feet of water above the the top of the rail. They are already taking about raising the track there 5 feet high, but are having troubles figuring out how to keep the ballast and track from sinking down after they raise it. Everytime they try and raise it it just sinks down again. You know, because its a swamp! And I do believe that there is a hi-rail truck of front of the train. You can barely see it.
Thanks
I am hardly an authority on this, but I know that just piling stone or gravel on top of the existing roadbed won’t get it. Even if the bottom of the constructed bed is on something more solid than swamp muck, the load on the top tends to cause the whole thing to flatten out. I think there are methods to build a stable road bed through muck, but I’d bet at a cost that would start to make a bridge/causeway look feasible.
Of course any plan to deal with the problem will face a gauntlet of regulatory review on the impact on a major wetland.
Is that a bridge underneath there somewhere or is that track just on a fill or some other elevated roadbed? Didn’t BNSF actually raise their track 24" somewhere by adding ballast before the track flooded? How did the rr verify the integrity of the tracks & roadbed before sending cars and then trains across?
Those pictures are incredible!
Jamie
I think they were thinking of driving steel sheets down on each side in a V-shape to try and hold the rock up. Because everything the they put down just gets sucked into the marsh. But, that was just one thing they were thinking. To me that sounds like a lot of $$$, and a big waste. I think this problem had only happened one other time and that might have been in the MILW road days.
The marsh at Reeseville used to flood fairly often. They used to have 2 ways around it, Watertown-Madison-Portage, and Grand Ave.-Horicon-Portage. The line between Cambria and Portage has been removed. In this last round of flooding, the Watertown-Madison line was also flooded. They did run detours Portage-Madison-Janesville-Roundout.
The CNW/UP had/has the same type of problem at Deval.
Due to the constant pounding of the diamonds there, in addition to it being built in a former swamp, every few years the railroad brings out a trainload of ballast and dumps it around the diamonds, only to have it continue to sink.
Are they sending the Empire Builder that was also?
If so, that must be quite an experience for the riders (and of course for the train crew) to look out the window and see nothing but water surrounding the train.
I can’t help but wonder: what do they do if they pop an air hose in the middle of the water?
Does the conductor go for a swim? And if so,
Would he be required to wear his steel-toes boots during the swim?
Does he have to carry a suit and towel to work?
Does he get to dive off the front of the locomotive?
What rule would cover safety while swimming?
Is there extra pay for swimming on duty?
What if the conductor can’t swim?
Sounds like a good job for a Trainmaster.
Are they sending the Empire Builder that was also?
The Empire Builder at this time was detouring over the ex-CNW from Tunnel City to Chicago, before that it was either annulled between Chicago-Twin Cities or detouring via the BNSF. I managed to catch #8 at Clyman Jct. the same day these CP shots were taken-
http://flickr.com/photos/nordique72/2626574397/
After ending the push-pull operations- the CP began slowly shuttling all trains through the water in Reeseville the morning of the 30th- when the units were in the water they allowed them only 3 MPH- when it was just cars in the water it was increased to 5 MPH. The trains were under constant supervision as they crawled through the marsh- with plenty of hands on deck to ensure everything went smoothly. I was up on the west side watching the parade later that day as they continued to walk trains through the water-
http://flickr.com/photos/nordique72/2626570681/
quite a sight to see.
Here are some more pics of the same area. I guess you could say that this was the first train through the marsh, but the first pics were the first train though under its own power and not push-pull method. These are pics of the CPR crew getting ready for the first push-pull train.
Hope you like the pics. You can see in the pics where they added ballast to try and raise it, but the following day the water was up to high. Check out my post about the IC&E derailment near GUTTENBURG, IA
Thanks