edit Whoops!! Double post…Dang $#@&^%# slow server/edit*
They talked about doing this project last year, and put it off, then it’s a hot job all of a sudden. 4 VP’s came through today. They didn’t even get out of the van. ( At least where I could see them, they didn’t.)
Thanks for the great website on Ft Wayne. After I asked about the NS schedules I explored the site and was really impressed. Whoever put that together deserves a lot of credit and thanks.
Just got back from vacation down to North Carolina and am catching up. Is the TC to Minneapolis going to run from Chicago? Do you think there will be loads from that area to the Southeast? Could be pretty interesting.
Looking at the schedules, it shows two west bounds TC’s to Chicago, 261 from Bethlehem and 264 from Jacksonville, yet only 1 eastbound - 262. Why do they have 2 and 1 instead of an even number both directions?
thanks,
ed
[:-^][:-^] LOL! I was the one with the handheld recorder…[:D]
What? Of course I was just kidding![:o)]
Based upon what I’ve seen traffic wise these past couple weeks though, that Mike-TC junction has been a major bugaboo tieing everything up, I can see where “someone” would be pushing hard to put some resources into the area.
The new doubling is gonna go at least far enough to reach the old Piqua “Wye” isn’t it? That should help some
MP173-It’s on the Triple Crown in Minneapolis thread
Jay
…The Ft. Wayne stuff above has been very interesting. Doesn’t it seem railroads have cut up and abandon with disregard…[seemingly], to the point it later comes back to haunt them in some locations.
You know - I keep saying that about management - ours in particular - they shoot off their foot and then go “oh, oh! Maybe we should have just removed a toe or two.”
Deep, Deep cuts that only caused more harm than good. Railroads seem to be no different.
Probably deep cuts that make the bottom line look great short term, but a bit farther down the “line”…Not so great.
When a big company is in serious trouble, it is common to bring in a new CEO to act as “fireman” When IBM brought in Lou Gerstner is a good example.
Massive cutbacks are expected, entire business strategies once seen as sacred cows are abandoned in what is a fight for survival.
CEO’s in other businesses see this and it can be a “monkee see monkee do” type of thing as they are under constant pressure for short term results. But, not having a catastrophy on their hands big enough to justify slaying of sacred cows, they look for opportunities to ‘whittle’ where they HOPE it will be least noticed., operationally.
railroad to poorly because they run there business like a financial instituion and not like a railroad. Thease people need to get their butts out of their reclining chairs and look for customers like a door to door salesman. If they did that, then they would have so much businees that these railway lines and infrustructure wouldn’t have been needed to be abandoned in the first place. Some of thease people also have no vision and any imagination on what made the railroad so popular in the first place. They need to also educate the shareholders on the basics of a sucessful railroad. It is unfair for the shareholder to expect profit to increase without making large smart-growth investments. Also the railroads and shareholders must convice businesses that due to increase fuel costs that the railroad is the cheapest way to go and that the railroad must be very price competitive against all other modes of freight travel. Rails must be improved and speed limits raised. Other routes must be looked at to reduce junction conjestion. Some routes should be cooperatively operated by multiple railroads for intermodal. For example, NS and CSX should insist that they can buy back the Canada Southern route and rebuild it to run their intermodals that stop at Buffalo for a crew change. Thease Chicago - Boston/New York trains take longer to get to their destinations presently than if they were to detour into Canada and follow the ex Con Rail line. It would eliminate the need for a crew change in Cleveland and move crew change to at lease Detroit. NS and CSX should purchase faster engines like P-42 or at least ex amtrak F-40 so they can run their intermodals up to 85mph if possible. Railroads must wake up and remember that they are in the railroad business and that they are in competition with trucks, ships and planes. With escalating fuel prices and increase border and airport delays, the railroads should sease the opportunity to make up for lost business.
More fun news at TC. I talked to the contractor doing the trackwork and he plans to use steel ties on the new tracks with wood ties under the turnouts.
TAG: As far as the new new lead, it will start just past the signals at “Mike Tower” and run into TC’s yard. The “piqua wye” will slide over to connect to the new lead. There will be two cross-overs East of the piqua wye, one between the two leads and one from the old lead to CSX , so it will be possible, but not practicable, to have 3 WB TC trains at the west end of Piqua Yard. Grade work should finish up this week. Trackwork won’t start until Sept.
Thanks!! That makes good sense, and should help a great deal At least that way in concept TC could receive and send trains simultaneously on the south NS main track and run trains by on the north track…
That part of the main between Mike and Hugo has been a real parking lot at times these couple months
Hey, is the old “hump” still in place at Piqua, or did they tear it out?
It’s still there, sort of. You can see trains climbing and descending as they go past the building at the round-about for Pontiac, Wayne Trace, and ? north of the tracks. I can’t tell you if it’s still as high as it was in the glory days, it just looks too low to me to be able to roll cars a mile into the bowl.
You do mean that it’s going to come off the current lead east of the signals at Mike, not an additional switch off number one main. They can already run trains on number two and build Triple Crown trains off number one. This helps somewhat but not like I would have hoped.
Yes, I should have said “east of the signals” In fact, the new lead’s switch will be where the access road turns to the north towards the ex-Wabash main. There will still be only one switch in the ex-Wabash EB main.
I wish all railfan websites were this comprehensive (and accurate). I was in hog heaven when I first stumbled upon it.
I think the reason is traffic. TC runs a lot of dedicated trailers for auto assembly plants, so the loads go one way for the most part. Whenever 264 is late enough to leave in the daytime, it’s not more than 50 trailers long.
Now I’m cofused again,…what made perfect sense 5 minutes ago, now seems uncertain.
They are putting in the second track far enough to reach the Piqua wye aren’t they?
Such that if need be they could bring a west bound coming in to town from NE into TC via the WYE while sending a west bound out of TC via the current track?
Maybe I’m totally lost, but in thinking about what you said earlier about the decision to not double the TC line all the way to Mike, I started pondering the use of the Piqua wye as the SECOND SWITCH to the main, and it made sense with the importance being to route trains needing access to TC onto the southside line of the pair (at either NE or Hugo) and using the main laying on the north side of the pair for runaround either east bound or westbound. LOL,…am I “lost” again?
[%-)] I think so. The track changes all take place on the former Pennsy R/W. “Mike” and “Piqua” interlockings on the ex-Wabash will not change. Where the existing TC lead and CSX main come together to a single track at Mike is where the new TC lead will start (east of, or outside of the interlocking). The Piqua Wye switch that I am referring to is 700 feet west of the TC yard fence.