Only person I know that goes on vacation and returns with questions!
MP 270.01
MP 60.00
MP 0.73
all within a block of each other. I figure they are like mile markers on interstate. But on the highway - they go from border to border. How do the railroads measure theirs? (I know someone explained it earlier, but you know how it is with a busy brain)
AND… let’s not forget AND…mixed freight - came in very slowly - then coasted very, very slowly to a stop. Tried to watch the air brakes under the tank cars - didn’t see them move. Did he, maybe, coast to a stop (up a very slight incline) using the locomotive brakes only?
Lastly - finally - COEH coal cars - 244,300, 244,400, 244,500 etc. LD wt. If these cars are built to specs - why the difference in LD weight (and Lt weight?)
Don’t they all hold the same amount and why not?
In closing - (I feel like windy Clinton) saw a head-end of BNSF - 1 Dash 9, 1 SD70, 1SD75M and 2 NS Dash 9’s - hauling freight into Lincoln! Still not quite over that! Plus saw BNSF #7165, #7050, #7047 and if I am reading my scribbles right off the newspaper I wrote it on - these were 3 SD 40’s all together!
On the milepost question, it’s usually from some significant point on the railroad (ie UP MP 0 in Council Bluffs. Sometimes that can lead to some interesting situations, as near here, where a line (the C&A) has mileposts that start from a point on the shore of Lake Ontario (a one-time terminus, the line was planned to cross Adirondacks), but the first 40 miles or so no longer have any track, having long since been abandoned and removed. Thus, the first milepost on that branch is some number much higher than 1.
Sometimes you’ll see a reference on an older milepost as to where that starting point is.
I’d have to see which lines are involved to tell you from whence these mileage figures are based. It sounds like 0.73 is that far out on a branch that originates somewhere in Lincoln. Could you be 60 miles from Omaha or Pacific Junction? I don’t have a clue to what you might be 270 miles from.
Mileposts can be based on the end of the line or a major division point, or (in the cae of a branch line) its junction with a main line. There are cases in which these figures don’t reflect modern trackage, i.e., the line between Milepost 0 and some place along the line has been abandoned. Sometimes whole main lines are numbered the same way (example: C&O from Fort Monroe, Virginia, to Cincinnati…the easternmost three miles or so are no longer in existence); sometimes they start over at a division point (example: C&NW starts at 0 in Chicago going west, then starts at 0 again in Clinton, Iowa); or sometimes they start at a central location (I believe NYC’s mileposts were measured both east and west from Buffalo).
The stopping train: possible, though not likely, that he stopped with just the engine brakes. On an upgrade, that might work to stop 'em, but I wouldn’t want to trust it to hold 'em! What part of the brakes are you watching? Look for the piston to be sticking out of the brake cylinder, a sure indication that the brakes are applied (motion in the brake shoes isn’t always easy to detect).
Load Limits and Light Weight: variations like that are normal, even in mass-produced cars fresh out of the factory. It’s hard to say what would cause it, but I’ve seen highs and lows separated by 1000 pounds or more in the same series of cars. (This also holds true in tank cars…you’ll be lucky to find two cars in any given series that hold exactly the same number of gallons).
Now, did you notice that when the load limit goes up, the light weight goes down? Add the two together and they’ll always equal the same thing: in your case, it would have been 286,000 pound
Hey Jen!
I went on vacation too. Two weeks, one on the beach in Fort Meyers the other traveling to New Orleans then up to MN.
One thing I saw that stumped me was in a mid-size town in the northeast corner of Arkansas.
There was a train with two UP engines on it. The lead engine looked like a SD90mac
with the dropped center section. I sware though that those two engines looked like they were fifty years old and had been dragged through a rock pile upside down. The paint looked blistered and the metal rusted. I’ve never seen a UP engine in that shape except in a bone yard. The sd90s are too new for that look ( I think )
In all the traveling I did the only thing I got to do strictly for myself was to tour the battleship uss Alabama. It was in better shape then those UP engines I saw. lol
Did you vacation at home or away?
Sooblue
as CShaveRR said, About Mile Posts, just want to add, they can start from either of two points, where the railroad wants them to or where the railroad wants them to. The BN used two systems - from (I believe) St. Paul, for the main lines going West, Chicago for the CBQ, from the NP’s jct with the NP in Montana (don’t know the station name) to Denver, I believe (C&S ), and then from Denver south to the Gulf (FWD). For instance, the mile posts from Vancouver, WA sout to Portland start at 0 at the passenger station in Vancouver to 10.something at Portland Union Station. Partway, is Willbridge, where a branch takes off that is now part of the Portland and Western. That is MP 0 for the “A” Line. I live at MP 28.4 on that line.
Now, the Southern Pacific used one point and only one point to measure their MP’s from, 3rd and Townsand Street Station, San Francisco, CA. Any SP mile post, traced back will be exactly the posted distance from that point.
What we are saying here, is that you have to know where the starting point is to make any real sense of the MP’s on any given track segment. Mergers and acquisitions further complicate the above explanations.
And about those brakes, many tank cars and a lot of covered hoppers have truck mounted brakes and the cars do not have the traditional brake pistons. They are mounted on the trucks on the brake beam.
SooBlue, It would be interesting to have those unit numbers.
That was a nice vacation for a cold weather watcher! We stayed home - put our pennies into MIllie’s car payment. But the weather was super - it was in the 40’s 50’s and even almost 60 one day. Perfect two weeks off. Had good train watching - so you could say we had a vacation right here in town!
Any thoughts from anyone else as to why those engines were so beat up?
From one who has walked and studied the R/W of two railroads in the big pile of spaghetti called downtown Lincoln…You currently have two railroads in Lincoln (BNSF & the Yellow Peril), In 1890 there were at least 9, all with their separate agendas, even though they may have had common ownership. The mileposts do not change simply to avoid some of the confusion with documentation. It’s much easier to leave the trainmen confused a little bit than to change one hundred years worth of recordkeeping…(BNSF changed the mileposts on the Denver-Pueblo joint line and the problems created there will cause headaches for decades)[%-)][%-)][%-)]
I don’t know why I was ignoring the cars with truck-mounted brakes…you’d definitely have to look at the brake shoes on those cars (and movement would be more noticeable on those, too).
Embarrasingly, I also forgot about my benevolent employer when discussing the mileposts. Any clues as to which railroads had which mileposts, and where the tracks were leading to?
(Re: “benevolent”: most of the time that would be correctly construed as sarcasm, but I recently got an “extra mile” award for detecting lading damage that could have cost the company thousands.)
Ah So Sensi Mud! I see…And to take this one step further - the yellow peril doesn’t run much, is now running it through the Hobson Yard [8D] and BNSF runs like it is 9 railroads all in one - with lots and lots of traffic - exception is when the Mookie shows up - they all must run for cover!
In Mook’s Lincoln, the former BN/CB&Q lines include:
(1) Burlington & Missouri River RR (Omaha-Oreapolis-Lincoln-Crete-Kearney)
(2) Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs RY (MP 0 at KC)
(3)Lincoln & Northwestern RR (Lincoln to Columbus, MP 0 at Lincoln)
(4)Nebraska RR (Midland Pacific) [Nebraska City to Lincoln to Seward] - part of this line in now KYLE/RailAmerica, Lincoln to Neb. City thru the old Nebraska State Pen, MP 0 at Neb. City on the River)
(5) Republican Valley RR (Lincoln to Grand Island)
(6) Atchison & Nebraska (Nemeha to Lincoln)
(*) Add those to UP (St. Joseph & Western), MoPac,CNW (F,M&EV), CRIP (CK&N) and OL&B and you begin to see why Lincoln was a busy place and why all the milepost corned-fusion
Thanx Big Muddy - I owe you part of my Iams! I must print this off and let the driver study it while he is waiting for me to get my fill of trains. We keep wondering where everything goes after it leaves 1st and J.
Sounds like everybody went on vaca. I took the kids to Disneyland. BOY was it CROWDED. Managed to ride the monorail and the steamers ‘round the park though. Darn nice lookin’ young blond woman conductor too. Gotta love California…
[}:)] Oh I am so glad you are back to posting like you used to - I was afraid you had developed some kind of serious eye ailment - like getting too close to subject and getting a black eye…