While eating lunch today next to the double-track NS Reading Line at about MP 32.1, I see a headlight coming towards me WB on the normally EB track. It was NS 7565 - a GE ES40DC leading, pulling a single covered hopper - NS 294187, and trailing NS 9612 - a GE C40-9W, facing the other way - and that was it ! From the looks of things, they continued on about another mile, and set-out the covered hopper as the last car on the interchange track with the East Penn Railways at Emmaus/ Perkiomen Jct. I couldn’t hang around long enough to see if they returned ‘light’ to Allentown, or continued on to Reading, or whatever else, etc.
So I 'm wondering how come this car rated such unusual treatment - essentially its own ‘special’ train ? I’m not sure of the car’s maximum gross weight, but even at 130 tons or so the HP/ ton ratio was on the order of 30 HP / ton - and that’s if only 1 of the locos was being used. The Gross Ton-Miles Per Train-Hour figure has to be abysmal - at best, from what I could see at 30 MPH or so, maybe 4,000 GTM/TH -
It was probably the local, Paul. An engine for each end of the train so that the cab is always forward. It may have left Allentown with a lot of cars to set out and was down to one by the time it reache dyou. Could have moved on with just the two engines to pick more, then return east again. But the idea is two locomotives, cabs facing out…opposite each other, so there will be no backing up with a long hood forward. Locomotives are not mu’d but drag each other and the train. Plus the conductor has someplace to go when he gets mad at the engineer.
There is a daily train which runs from Frankfort, In to Marion, In with a locomotive on each end. From Frankfort, the train runs about 50 miles EAST, then at Alexandria it turns NORTH for the final 25 miles to Marion. The line from Frankfort to Alexandria is on the old NKP line and Marion is on the ex NYC line from Elkhart to Anderson.
The only connecting track is in the NORTHEAST quadrant. Thus, the train would either have to make a very long backup move, or have power on each end.
My guess is there is something like that, or perhaps there is only a facing point siding for spotting a car which requires the locomotive to be on the other end. Are there crossovers in the area which the train works? Perhaps the crossovers were out of service. The flying switch moves are no longer allowed by most railroads.
henry6 and MP 173/ Ed - Both of your responses are eminently sensible, and indeed that’s what the daily local here often does, a push-pull type arrangement - I’ve even commented on it here a few times before. But although the time of day was about right, here’s what makes this train much different from that one -
Wrong direction - the usual local is EB on that track, not WB as this one was;
Way too few cars - the daily local usually ranges from 10 or 15 to 40-plus cars, as opposed to this sole car;
Big road power, instead of the local’s usual mix of GP38-2, GP59, SD40-2, etc.
Taken altogether, it just looked and ‘felt’ different from the normal local - verging on the ridiculous - of course, I left my camera at home this morning . . . [sigh] I’ll keep an eye out and see if it occurs again.
Wonder what the motorists at the grade cropssings thought as that assemblage cruised past - not even the OCS specials rate that much HP/ car . . . [8D]
If it came out of allentown/bethlehem area, then they would have to run push-pull, since the East Penn interchange is a facing point if you’re going west. The 75xx would lead west… pull past the switch, then the trailing engine would be used to slam the car into the East Penn.
Why was the car by itself? Beats me. Could be all they had for the East Penn, it could have been a “hot” car, it could have been on a siding somewhere getting repaired… have to be careful using that logic concept on the railroad, though.
You saw a “yard job” (HA13) out of Allentown that took a bunch of cars over to Bethlehem and then this one car back to Emmaus. It’s the regular route for HA13.
It’s nice to hear, finally, of a NS train with adequate power. Maybe the ‘bean counters’ have stopped worrying about the cost of toilet paper in their newer units! I’ll bet it was capable of 10+ m.p.h.! CSX: take note!
Zug - Yep, that’s exactly how they were switching it in. Don - thanks for that info [thumbs up] - that makes sense for the power and the mission. Thinking about it further, I believe I saw someplace that type of covered hopper car is often used for sugar. There is a Blommer Chocolate plant at the end of the branch in East Greenville, and maybe they needed it really bad, or the car had missed a connection elsewhere someplace, etc. Odd as this move may have seemed, it maybe made more sense than sending this car all the way back to Reading, only to then come back again in the local that would be moving and oriented in the right direction to make that drop - and that would probably take 2 more days to accomplish, anyway. If the HA13 job had time left on duty and wasn’t looking for an early quit, and/ or that car was in someone’s way, and the main line was available, yeah, then why not do it ? It’s something like less than 4 miles from the Allentown Yard limits/ CP BURN to the interchange, so it wasn’t like a cross-country move. By the way - it only dawned on me later that all of the preferred local power that I listed above are EMD’s, whereas both of these units were GE’s - for those who care. Thanks for all of the responses, too. - Paul North.
I have notice a lot of locals running with an engine on each end. It seems to be a recent thing on class ones,like within the past ten years or so they discovered it would make some switching easier!