Thats true but it seems you can walk faster than the train is moving across that bridge. Behind Union Station and across the river they have a pedestrian bridge over 3-4 through tracks which BNSF and UP share. Heavy traffic through there as well.
If it’s restricted speed, then it is restricted speed. There’s a lot of places that visibility only allows walking speed. Doesn’t matter if you rebuild the tracks to class 9 status (or whatever), if you are required to operate restricted, you are at a crawl.
That guardrail isn’t doing much more than making somebody feel good about it being there. Almost any piece of railroad equipment (larger than MOW) striking it at any kind of angle will bend it like a pretzel or just break it.
Speaking of MOW: If you move ahead on that Google Map image to go down the center off-ramp for “Richards Rd. / Downtown Airport”, across the intersection, and then back up the on-ramp* to US 169 N; then, just about where that guardrail ends, look to the right - you’ll see a locomotive crane with reporting marks ATSF 199465 and a support flat car. Pretty amazing to still see that in 2017 (date that the imagery is copyrighted for, per Google). I’ll try and post some coords for it here in a few minutes to make it easier.
EDIT: This is where you want to be:
N 39.11784 W 94.59038
- on the ramp from Richards Rd. up to U.S. 169 NB, opposite the signal bridge - the crane is right underneath it.
*Don’t stay on the main route of US 169 NB - all you’ll see is a plain old train going by, nowhere near as interesting as that crane !
- PDN.
MC: D
Nice find!!!
I usually got the scarier places and the other roadmasters got the $$$ for the more visible places. (Hobart usually took care of itself* - Malabar, 1st Street, Watson (Swamp & one certain alligator…ugh!), Pico Rivera (and a certain rigid switch in a sea of variable switches that got run thru) and La Mirada had a disproportionate amount of my deprived sleep and attention.)
(*) except for some notable brain fart incidents. The old heads worked really hard to keep that squirrel factory fluid. (my heroes!)
OK, thats fine then. Understood about restricted speed I just didn’t ever think it would be that slow. I just would not have that kind of patience to sit in a locomotive moving at that speed. It would drive me nuts, even with the AC on full and Metallica cranked up so the windows were vibrating.
In KC Union Station they have a huge Santa Fe F Unit in Warbonnet colors painting with it comming at the viewer. Also, more than one plaque on Mike Haverty of KCS (former Santa Fe). One of the plaques say he was responsible for the Santa Fe Fleet of Intermodal trains landing large clients like JB Hunt and Schnieder National. I guess he played a instrumental role in the Pedestrian Bridge across the tracks behind Union Station as well as preservation of KC Union Station itself. There is a restored KCS F unit in passenger colors behind KC Union Station as well as a number of private cars in a fenced in area.
…and he also pulled Krebs accross the table by the shirt collar in a business car[B)]
You learn to live with it when your job is literally on the line every time you knock down a restricting signal. Also, no stereos.
REading back through this Thread, some of the yards mentioned seem to be pretty good sized both rail and Intermodal. I found no mention of the BNSF (nee: Frisco) Facility in Memphis area ( @ Capleville,TN). It was opened in May of 1957 as a single hump yard ( at the time it was ‘State of the Art’) in 20092010 the BNSF spent $200 million on the 185 acre Intermodal lift facilty; stated capacity was 1 million ‘lifts’ per year. It is adjacent to, and runs along side the Tennessee Yard facility.
linked here is a video of the intermodal facility @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2MwzBHmcXYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2MwzBHmcXY
I am wondering how this facility ‘stacks up’ along with some of the yards/facilities mentioned here?
Thanks,