A resource to Every Mainline Route Creator in the Genre (US)

[Falcus]

So, was reading a favorite blog of mine tonight (Oil-Electric.com) and I discovered this little gem.....

Are you tired of being handed "Mainline Routes" with Speed Restrictions no higher then 30MPH (In fact if one were to only believe most of our Trainz Routes as being prototypical one would have to believe its rare Dash9s and SD70 ACEs ever go above 25MPH...)? I know I am.... Class 1's regularly move freight in the 40-60MPH range, and have done so for as long as there have been engines capable of pulling profits at that speed.

As regards that, I found this little article detailing the estimated cost of required Track Maintenance (With detailed area analysis) for MLW Lines West of Miles City Montana (Basically their entire Mountain and Western Divisions) to Tacoma WA. It was done by a third party (Hired of course) in an effort to convince the US Government that the MLW could not afford to repair their lines west of here in preparation for abandonment of these lines.

It makes quite the read for anyone even remotely interested into *Why Speed Restrictions are put in place*. Further gives general info about the kinds of lengths involved and why these lengths are important "Heavy Curves, track needs to be re-curved" "10MPH Slow Order Mile post XXXX-XXXX" etc etc. Its only a handful of pages long, but if you have any interest in this kind of thing (Or even just MLW History), its worth a read. This report was one of the Nails in the Coffin for the Road.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-KLCSQAa-15MXFhN0dvVFRZTWs/edit?pli=1

Link Propogated from this Page/Site:
http://www.oil-electric.com/2012/10/halloween-on-monster-road-black-river.html

Author of this post is by no means owner of or has any claim to any material shared. All rights reserved by their respective owners I'm sure. Posted for Educational Purposes only and without permission of any parties whatsoever interested, legal, or otherwise.

-Falcus

 

[JCitron]

I'll have to take a look at this. I traveled next to the Pacific Extension back in 2012 from Forsyth to Roundup, MT during a storm chasing trip with Silver Lining Tours. It was sad seeing a smooth, wide ROW with many concrete bridges intact and even telegraph poles still in place all waiting for the tracks to replaced again.

Regarding the reasons to kill that extension, this was a nice excuse, among others, and it turns out this was totally unwarranted and the line should have remained in operation as that was the most profitable portion of the MILW. There were even offers to rebuild the electric system completely, to even integrate the two separate sections along with offers with financing from Westinghouse and GE, but all was for naught. The management sought to remove the copper and sell it just as the price for copper plummeted and the cost of diesel fuel went up when they purchased their SD40-2s. In the end it was axed based on an accounting error, and because management had already made up their mind that they were going to scrap the MILW and sell off the bits to whoever wanted it.

Now getting back to speed restrictions... The Boston and Maine once had a 60 mph mainline with freights restricted to 50 mph on their mainline between Boston and Deerfield in Western MA with a slowdown for Washington's Curve in Ashburnham, MA where the Cheshire branch split for Bellows Falls. Past Deerfield, the passenger trains had a 40 mph speeds, and freights restricted to 30 mph right through to North Adams due to the tunnel and curves.

Even during the B&M's worst time while in bankruptcy, the maintained their system to at least 40 mph freights on the line since there were no longer any passenger trains in service. The big Deerfield yard, located on the junction between their River Line between Springfield, MA and Berlin, NH, once sported automatic switches throughout the yard during these times, and that too was maintained well as so was the big Lawrence, MA and Rigby Yard in Portland, ME which was shared with the Maine Central.

Then..... (as framed by that F-minor 7th chord), Guilford Transportation industries got a hold of the B&M, MEC and later the D&H in 1982. At this time, deferred maintenance set in immediately. Engines caught fire, brakes failed, there were more and more derailments, and then there were standing derailments in Lawrence and Deerfield yards. Yes, boxcars would fall over while sitting there. Deerfield yard, with all its automatic switches today has all manual ones except for two on the bridge over the Deerfield River and the River line, and these two switches are manual most of the time because they don't work. The other automatic switches in Greenfield, at the split between the northbound main to Berlin, and the western route to Rotterdam, Jct. sports automatics too with the same problem, and so do others. The crew have to get out and manually switch the automatic switches most of the time due to failures. Mike K. (Steamboateng) and I witnessed this in North Adams a couple of years ago.

Anyhow, the main west of Fitchburg, sunk so low that there were outlawed trains on it due to the 5 and 10 mph speed restrictions all the way to North Adams. The only reason the eastern portion from Haverhill, MA to Fitchburg was faster is due to state commuter rail agency ownership, and north of that because of the Amtrak Downeaster route. During this time, it took 14 hours to go from North Maine Jct. all the way to Rotterdam - a distance of 450-plus miles. Then finally in 2008, Norfolk Southern, which connected with Guilford at Rotterdam, Jct. via then trackage rights over the CP-Rail (former D&H), formed a partnership with GTI, which by this time was renamed to Pan Am Railways. The NS/PAR partnership is called Pan Am Southern, and is a 50-50 split ownership in the venture. NS put in nearly $140 million, and probably more since then to bring the tracks up to a decent running speed. Today the freights see 20-30 mph again instead of 5 or 10 mph west of Fitchburg, and some of the automatic switches have been repaired. More recently, signals are being upgraded and there have been studies done on raising the roof in the Hoosac Tunnel. The signals sadly replace the old searchlights with new tri-color Darth Vader-hooded jobs.

So the reason for slow orders, outside of speed restrictions due to maintenance, or upgrades, is deferred maintenance because a company doesn't want to put the funds into keeping the infrastructure in top shape.

John

 

[Falcus]

...snip...
John

Oh believe me I know all about the death of the MLW at the hands of its board of directors, as well as the reasons behind the low speed restriction on financially flailing railroad institutions. The larger point I was trying to make as regards the Speed Restrictions is that, a genuine class 1 operating in full swing won't have these ridiculous speed restrictions in place, and nor should our routes which are in theory an attempt to model such (In suitable circumstances). If you're Modeling FJ&G sure, but BN/BNSF??

As for the PAS (Short for "PASsed the Buck" if you ask me), and its history, part of my ire on this topic comes from having read at some length recently about the shenanigans that went on at MMA leading up to the Lac Megantic (Sp?) Disaster (The big oil derail & Subsequent explosions) up in Canada a few years ago. Having just stepped back into the game, and revisiting some really well made routes, but with appallingly atrocious Operation Rules (Signalling and Speed Signage mostly), I just figured I'd share this in an attempt to demonstrate what it looks like to see Dash-9s and SD-70s crawling along at a restricted 25MPH.....

-Falcus

 

[mjolnir]

If I may be just a bit pedantic, the company known in the railroad industry by the Acronym MLW never operated railroad right-of-way in Montana, Idaho, or Washington. MLW usually refers to the Montreal Locomotive Works, a division of, ALCO. The entity that operated from Western Montana towards the Pacific was the Milwaukee Road, usually referred to either by the abbreviations of its corporate name, CMSTP&P, or by it's railroad reporting marks, MILW.

This post should is not intended, and I would hope not be interpreted, as a critique of the participants of the thread, but merely as a means of helping future novices.

Now back to the regular discussion.

And by the way, Happy New Year.

ns

 

[JCitron]

Oh believe me I know all about the death of the MLW at the hands of its board of directors, as well as the reasons behind the low speed restriction on financially flailing railroad institutions. The larger point I was trying to make as regards the Speed Restrictions is that, a genuine class 1 operating in full swing won't have these ridiculous speed restrictions in place, and nor should our routes which are in theory an attempt to model such (In suitable circumstances). If you're Modeling FJ&G sure, but BN/BNSF??

As for the PAS (Short for "PASsed the Buck" if you ask me), and its history, part of my ire on this topic comes from having read at some length recently about the shenanigans that went on at MMA leading up to the Lac Megantic (Sp?) Disaster (The big oil derail & Subsequent explosions) up in Canada a few years ago. Having just stepped back into the game, and revisiting some really well made routes, but with appallingly atrocious Operation Rules (Signalling and Speed Signage mostly), I just figured I'd share this in an attempt to demonstrate what it looks like to see Dash-9s and SD-70s crawling along at a restricted 25MPH.....

-Falcus

And absolutely right... If the track conditions warrant the fast speed they do move along quickly on the truly well maintained Class 1s such as the BNSF. I saw those 50 mph freights along the very busy Strafford Sub down in Texas as we headed west towards La Junta, CO. What a site that was, and I didn't have my video camera out! There were parades upon parades of manifest freights, mixed cargo, grain trains, oil trains, locals, all busy, along with fast auto rack trains moving at mainline speeds we'd expect to see. On my 2012 trip, I also saw the former Great Northern Highline in full operation as we headed up to Glacier National Park and chased storms out between Shelby and Havre, MT. What a site to see those long container trains moving along at 50 mph and Amtrak's Empire Builders, yes both east and west, meeting at Havre yard and passing each other on the double-tracked mainline while freight was being switched in the background. I sat at a Micky D's eating lunch (normal storm chasing fare) and watched the action from the restaurant.

Then I head home to see what was once a Class 1 railroad reduced to a trash heap. Yes, PAS-sed the buck is a good way to put it and very much how PAR works. If it wasn't for the MBTA on the east and NS on the west, the B&M would be completely gone. The MEC is reduced to a few branches and just think, they wanted to purchase the MM&A! I'm glad they weren't given the chance, otherwise things would be worse up there, or could it get worse?

John