Wanna take a train ride with me?

[Casey Jones]

Well, not me, exactly. But the line I worked in Montana - from Helena to Sandpoint and into Post Falls, Idaho.



The ride from Helena starts at about 55 minutes in.

This is a series of videos spread over 35 years...the reason being, Montana Rail Link has been merged out of existence. The BNSF Railway purchased it, or re-purchased it, sort of. The line was founded in 1987 when the Burlington Northern (predecessor to the BNSF) applied to the ICC to abandon the former Northern Pacific line (a predecessor to the Burlington Northern) from Idaho to Billings. Local construction magnate Dennis Washington (who is white, BTW) made an offer to buy the line, and run it. He got his political cronies involved, and in due course, he had leased the line, and had the rights to run it as a Class II (regional) railroad.

Most of these attempts fail; but the MRL was a great success. Probably because of the well-worded contract in the lease - MRL was basically a "bridge line" that connected with the BN at both ends. Meantime, there were small industries that wanted rail service.

And it was good. Smaller sometimes is better. The personal touch.

The West grew, and the nation's rail system became a bridge for intermodal shipping...Newark to Long Beach or Seattle. The BNSF and Union Pacific have, or had, all they could handle; and were routing trains over MRL, and paying us to run them.

They wanted to increase capacity. The BNSF "High Line" through Kalispell, up through Havre and on to Williston, is triple-tracked now. The old Northern Pacific, single-track with passing sidings. Since Dennis didn't own the track, only leased it, there was no motivation for MRL to lay a second main line - which will involve a LOT of work.

BNSF wanted. For 20 years they'd been pressuring Dennis Washington to sell or re-organize to fold MRL into the BNSF. He's resisted.

Now he's approaching 90 and his kids are...from what I hear, they're like Hunter Biden. So Dennis is giving up. He made a cool couple of billion, in breaking the lease.

So the rail buffs are doing tributes to Montana Rail Link.

As you can see, the scenery is breathtaking. A lot of that old equipment, I was using. SD-40-2 locomotives were still MRL's backbone, although BNSF run-through power was GE Evo stuff. You'll see some SD-7s and SD-9s in there; those are gone; but there were still about four GP-9s dating to 1955.

Those got scrapped last year.

Just thought some folks might like to see the land, if nothing else. And get some idea of how a railroader works, on the road.

 

[searcher]

Bump.......

14 HOURS on incredible Adria Sleeper train: Split - Budapest​

Join me today on the beautiful and stunning ADRIA sleeper train from Split to Budapest, one of Europe's secret hidden gem sleeper trains. Come for the Hungarian sleeper cars, the gorgeous dining car and the food onboard, and stay to enjoy some of the stunning scenery on this overnight trip from Croatia to Hungary. This train isn’t even that expensive and I’ll tell you how I booked and what it cost in the video - it’s the iconic Adria train, which runs from sunny Split to beautiful Budapest. 17 mins, 54 secs long.



Adria menu: https://www.mavcsoport.hu/sites/defau...

0:00 Intro
0:54 Split railway station
2:20 Our MAV-Start sleeper train
3:58 Surfshark sponsor segment
5:27 Boarding B1205 Split to Budapest train + sleeper room tour
7:19 On Time Departure from Split
8:00 MAV's special ex-Hungarian Governemental train restaurant car
10:23 On the plateau, beautiful scenery
11:31 How I booked my ticket
13:04 Night time on the sleeper
14:35 Day 2 - alongside Lake Balaton (I think?)
16:50 Conclusion, thanks, and please subscribe!

​

 

[nickndfl]

 

[rblong2us]

Well, not me, exactly. But the line I worked in Montana - from Helena to Sandpoint and into Post Falls, Idaho.



............

Just thought some folks might like to see the land, if nothing else. And get some idea of how a railroader works, on the road.

Casey, some observations and questions -

A while ago you posted up about how important it was that the train didnt concertina into itself by pushing too hard from behind.
As an engineer I was fascinated at how finely things had to balance within the train. You talked about miles long trains, some going uphill and some going down, causing all sorts of linear stress on the set. You talked about the train moving in opposite directions due to 180 degree bends. And watching the video, ( ok I managed about an hour of it ) I was able to see and feel the stresses you talked about.
So sometimes we would see perhaps eight or more locos on the front end, were they all needed for pulling ? braking ? or were they just being dead hauled to be used elsewhere ? Do all the running locos need an operator or are they managed by one driver, including ones placed part way along the train ?
Why do you sometimes put strings of heavy / full carriages behind empty carriages ? Surely a higher chance of getting the empties to stack under braking ?
Does all the rolling stock have brakes ?
How do you balance the braking, do the brakes work like a trailer 'override' brake, or do they have antilock / ABS ?
In some places it looked like the trackbed was wide enough for dual track but either it never got built or it got removed ?
Whats the story behind those occasional junctions and tunnel headers ?

Thanks for the insight into a world I really know nothing about (-:

 

[Casey Jones]

Casey, some observations and questions -

A while ago you posted up about how important it was that the train didnt concertina into itself by pushing too hard from behind.
As an engineer I was fascinated at how finely things had to balance within the train. You talked about miles long trains, some going uphill and some going down, causing all sorts of linear stress on the set. You talked about the train moving in opposite directions due to 180 degree bends. And watching the video, ( ok I managed about an hour of it ) I was able to see and feel the stresses you talked about.

Yeah, it was a bit much for a casual viewer.

There's a subspecies of humanity, that we on the railroad call "foamers." So named because, when they see a train, they get so excited they (seemingly) foam at the mouth. Hard-core rail buffs.

Remember, the term "fan" is a derivative of "fanatic." Fanatics are rarely sensible.

But, I thought that climb from Helena on through Mullan Tunnel, gave a good feel for the extreme of the job.

So sometimes we would see perhaps eight or more locos on the front end, were they all needed for pulling ? braking ? or were they just being dead hauled to be used elsewhere ? Do all the running locos need an operator or are they managed by one driver, including ones placed part way along the train ?

No, the power on the head end, is all controlled by one operator. There's a "jumper cable" (what it's called in the field) run between the units - a 98-pin cable that signals to trailing locomotives, instructions on throttle, dynamic brake, warning signals, unusual status like wheel-slip alarms.

The throttle is an eight-position electric control that signals (older locomotives) an electro-mechanical governor on the diesel unit - the leader, or, through the jumper cable, all the trailing locomotives. New locomotives are 100-percent computerized; but the jumper cable remains. It just signals to the chip, not to the primitive governor.

I'm not sure how many units can be reliably controlled. On Conrail and CSX, we had a limit: No more than four units online, when operating. More will probably work; but EACH connection between locomotives is a weak point - like a primitive ethernet cable between computers. More connections, more problems.

Brakes on the locomotives (independent from the trainline) were controlled with three air hoses. One was to connect all the Main Air Reservoirs (more air capacity); one was the Independent Brake pipe (straight air through the locomotive consist) and one was the Release signal (when the trainline brakes are applied, the locomotives' brakes are applied also, unless the engineer "bails them off" - that's done routinely. Use the train cars' brakes to stop, while pulling lightly with the locomotives, to prevent slack action.

When you see five, or eight, units on the head end...those are being transported. Some of those are along for the ride.

The big thing when I left, seven years ago, was "Rail Science" edicts - by technologists, who have never run a train; who put out edicts, how many units may be run. With CSX, they would order, on a train, to turn off all but two locomotives, or, occasionally, only one. And they'd track you for compliance with Wi-Fi.

Units in the middle of the train: In the past, those were called "helpers." They'd be cut into the train at (on this vid) Helena at the yard. They'd have a two-man crew on them; and they'd get in there and push, manually. When they started pushing, was usually about five miles west, when the grade started steepening. They'd be in radio contact - but there wasn't much for them to do, other than cut their power in, and be on it for unusual circumstances. Mostly, they'd just get into full throttle and ride - until the tunnel, when they'd have to close windows, put on gas masks (no, I am not kidding!) and cut the throttle when they saw they were getting close to the west-side exit. Right at the west portal, was the peak of the grade. Downhill all the way to Missoula.

Today, now, that's done with Distributed Power - DP. Digital radio control. You set it up like Bluetooth, only it's a far more-powerful signal. With DP, the power in the middle and end - two separate radio link-ups (that is new; seven years ago, most of the DP programs only allowed one set) it's just the head-end crew, working their electric throttle and brake (also controlled through electric braking controls and used with DP).

Why do you sometimes put strings of heavy / full carriages behind empty carriages ? Surely a higher chance of getting the empties to stack under braking ?

With local merchant traffic, those are often set up in blocks for easy set-outs along the way. Or, they were picked up. Of course, doing work close to the head end, is much easier.

If the line is flat and straight, it's no problem. In extreme situations, as you saw on the vid, it does matter.

Sometimes, some jag-off will have set up your train in a bass-ackwards way, before you get to it and take it over. Most times, you just have to run with it - unless there's some HazMat legal violation.

Does all the rolling stock have brakes ?

Yup. In fact, if cars' brakes are bad...the rule of thumb was, no more than 5 percent of a train's cars can be bad order or cut out. If there is A car failing brake testing in a yard, it has to be set out. Failure en route, the train can continue to the next terminal where the bad-order cars must be taken out of the train.

How do you balance the braking, do the brakes work like a trailer 'override' brake, or do they have antilock / ABS ?

Nope. The brakes are all similar in design - yeah, that means it's basically, 1910s technology. MUCH better train brakes could be used, and are out there, for specialized applications - excursion trains, where those cars are never coupled to other cars.

But to put, say, antilock disc brakes on freight cars...for them to work safely, the changeover would have to be 100 percent from Day One. That won't happen; and tens of thousands of rail workers are experienced with the brake system we have. So we keep using it.

Freight-train brakes can be APPLIED incrementally; but can only be released completely. The brakes work off air, supplied by each car's air reservoir, filled off the pressurized air train-line.

They work sort of like a car's vacuum-booster brakes work. The trainline pressure is DROPPED; and the DIFFERENCE between the reduced air pressure of the pipe, and the full reservoir on the cars...that air is sent to the brake piston, through a spool valve.

It takes one second a car, for train brakes to apply or release); and about one minute a car for them to recharge. When you have 20 cars, that's nothing. When you have 120 or more, it's an important factor.

Controlling slack-action is critical. There's about three inches of in-and-out action for each car. If there's severe slack action, an engineer can break a drawbar or a car can be literally bounced up and off the rails.

In some places it looked like the trackbed was wide enough for dual track but either it never got built or it got removed ?
Whats the story behind those occasional junctions and tunnel headers ?

That line was never double-tracked. In places there's room for service trucks to get up there.

There were more tunnels in the past, but some of them were cut open...given the improved earth-moving technology with time. The line was laid down in the 1890s. There were no shovels, only dynamite and cheap labor. Tunnels were the only way they knew how to do it. That new cut that you saw...that had been a tunnel; it was cut out.

Tunnels are a real danger and a pain. They fill with diesel exhaust - if the train has a failure IN the tunnel, the crew has to don gas masks. The exhaust will kill in short order, if the train is stationary, or if the helper crew doesn't have windows in their cab that seal.

Not sure what you meant by "occasional junctions." What you saw were passing sidings, which are all over, on that line. It's a busy line, even today.

Thanks for the insight into a world I really know nothing about (-:

No problem.

 

[rblong2us]

Thank you Casey
All good answers / info.
Hopefully I will avoid becoming a 'foamer' but there is something curiously compelling about the engineering of the terrain ( my speciality as a civil engineer for too many years ) and the delicate mechanical engineering balance within the kit that uses the railway.

However I do kinda melt when I'm having a cream tea ( S. W. England speciality ) at a certain railway station and a steam train pulls up alongside for a couple of minutes, then pulls away ..........