With a little detective work, you can determine what the speed limit is for trains through Maricopa because railroads have speed limit signs just like the highways. Railroad speed limit signs are a white background measuring approximatley 1 foot square with black numerals, on metal poles. They are usually posted in locations where the speed limit changes. Look around outside the city limits for signs.
Railroads normally do NOT have speed limit signs…they display Speed Restriction signs. The maximum speed authorized for the various classes of traffic that the roads handle will be specified in the employee Timetable. The speed signs that the carriers place along the right of way denote areas with the permissable speed that is less than the maximum speed that the timetable authorizes.
UP shows maximum speeds in the timetable, not on signs. Permanent speed restrictions are shown on yellow arrows pointing downward (if two numbers are shown, the top number is for passenger trains); the end of these speed restrictions are denoted by a green arrow pointing upward. No number on the green ones.
I believe that CSX may have posted speed limits by its block signals at one point–again, those might be only the restrictions.
(Cacole, I don’t know what you’re looking at, but your description suggests that the speed limit might increase or decrease by one mile per hour at one-mile intervals.)
I’m not sure that the trains shown there were doing 70, but if the timetable says that they can go 70 through there, there was probably nothing in the equipment restrictions that would slow them down. As for the third one being “too fast”, you could be right–that poor CSX locomotive probably never traveled so fast before in its life!
My most recent employee timetable shows 79 mph. for passenger trains and 65 mph. for freight trains between Yuma yard and 36th Street in Tucson. There are a few restrictions along the way but none in the area of Maricopa. That said, some railroads allow intermodal to run at passenger speeds. Whether or not that is true of the UP, I have no idea. I do know that I have heard more than one train go over the detector east of Maricopa at 69 mph. Interestingly enough, when the temperature tops 95 degrees, they put speed restrictions in place because of the possibility of sun kinks, not unlike railroads in the north do when it gets below freezing and there is a chance for broken rails due to contraction.
Interesting! I just looked at the timetable for the appropriate subdivision. Maximum speed for eastbound freight trains is 65, as John said, but it’s 70 for westbounds! And Maricopa has no further speed restrictions for freights in either direction.
John, UP has both warm-weather and cold-weather restrictions, with varying levels, and not always the same in all parts of the system.
At one time (when they were going after the UPS business), UP allowed certain trains (with specific power and equipment) to be run at speeds higher than normal freights, but those exceptions aren’t in place any more. The freight speed limits apply to all freights, and the equipment restrictions in the special instructions, regulations on train length, tons per operative brake, and perhaps other things cut down the speeds from there.