Are American railroads cheap or hard up for money?

JonMyrlennBailey

Active member
Here is a video about a two-mile long freight train that "got stuck in the snow".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Hu-TG6S9w

You will find many yoo-toob videos about trains' stalling on grades as well.

Railroads are gun-shy about the necessary money to have enough serviceable engines to provide
a train proper power for size, weight, weather and track conditions.

Railroad thrift, tightness with a buck, also has lead to the preventable deaths of many people over the years as well.

Cheapness on the part of RR companies means inefficiency for rail transportation and lack of safety for crews and the general public as well.
 
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The use of locos to clear snow is not unusual up where I live. They also have rotary plows as well and some big snow wedges.

The train getting stuck... That's due to the new precision railroading, meaning, run extremely long trains up to 3 miles long to save on crews and yard storage. These have been an issue since they were implemented by Harrison a few years ago up here in the Northeast with the hills and yes due to snow. There were some big issues with these trains getting stuck on the old Delaware and Hudson Sunbury Division due to the curves and many grades. NS runs that line now since they purchased the D&H from CP Rail. Then Harrison moved on to CSX and did the same thing where they have the same problems with curves and snow.

So yeah they're penny pinching but not with the snow, but more so with running extra long trains in curvy hilly terrain. These work fine out in the Great Plains and the great prairies of Alberta, but no in the hilly areas.
 
The use of locos to clear snow is not unusual up where I live. They also have rotary plows as well and some big snow wedges.

The train getting stuck... That's due to the new precision railroading, meaning, run extremely long trains up to 3 miles long to save on crews and yard storage. These have been an issue since they were implemented by Harrison a few years ago up here in the Northeast with the hills and yes due to snow. There were some big issues with these trains getting stuck on the old Delaware and Hudson Sunbury Division due to the curves and many grades. NS runs that line now since they purchased the D&H from CP Rail. Then Harrison moved on to CSX and did the same thing where they have the same problems with curves and snow.

So yeah they're penny pinching but not with the snow, but more so with running extra long trains in curvy hilly terrain. These work fine out in the Great Plains and the great prairies of Alberta, but no in the hilly areas.


They could probably work if roads weren't too cheap to use the correct number of engines and trainmen for the task.
The more freight you move, the more money it will cost to move it. Economics made simple. Railroads get no free rides.

If my long Trainz trains are too slow on grades, then I simply zap more helper locomotives onto the track in Surveyor!
 
They could probably work if roads weren't too cheap to use the correct number of engines and trainmen for the task.
The more freight you move, the more money it will cost to move it. Economics made simple. Railroads get no free rides.

If my long Trainz trains are too slow on grades, then I simply zap more helper locomotives onto the track in Surveyor!

Sure, but the problem is the long trains getting stuck in between and up and a down on the rolling grades. Unlike the longer stretches across the Texas Pan Handle and No Man's Land, we have rolling hills. These hills, although avoided for the most part, create a rolling type route in particular in the area where route is I mentioned above. If there is an issue that causes a train to stop partly up and over on one hill, with the other parts still partly in the valley running up on another hill, the train is now a victim of one of the laws of physics called gravity. If the lead locomotives attempt to pull the train too hard, there's the issue with coupler breakage and pulled drawbars. This is why they put DPU's in the train to help with the braking and extra power, but if the train so happens to stop in a place where these extra units aren't helpful, then all is lost. The only way to overcome this is to break the train and move part of it up and over out of the valley and then other part pushed up and over out of the valley. Once out of the lump, for lack of another term for it, the train is reassembled and they continue on their merry way.

In the meantime this issue caused a big delay that lead to additional backups of other trains trying make the grade and continue on the route. The other issue too on this particular stretch is the geniuses in management decided to single-track big sections so if a train is stuck there's no way to move other traffic around the stuck train. The single-tracking took place when the D&H was owned briefly by Guilford back in the 1980's when that company went on a wholesale ruination of every line they owned.

If only the railroads had the same features we have with Trainz. Imagine relaying stretches of track easily by using bulk asset replace tool, or rebuilding a level crossing by deleting it and replacing it with another.
 
Sure, but the problem is the long trains getting stuck in between and up and a down on the rolling grades. Unlike the longer stretches across the Texas Pan Handle and No Man's Land, we have rolling hills. These hills, although avoided for the most part, create a rolling type route in particular in the area where route is I mentioned above. If there is an issue that causes a train to stop partly up and over on one hill, with the other parts still partly in the valley running up on another hill, the train is now a victim of one of the laws of physics called gravity. If the lead locomotives attempt to pull the train too hard, there's the issue with coupler breakage and pulled drawbars. This is why they put DPU's in the train to help with the braking and extra power, but if the train so happens to stop in a place where these extra units aren't helpful, then all is lost. The only way to overcome this is to break the train and move part of it up and over out of the valley and then other part pushed up and over out of the valley. Once out of the lump, for lack of another term for it, the train is reassembled and they continue on their merry way.

In the meantime this issue caused a big delay that lead to additional backups of other trains trying make the grade and continue on the route. The other issue too on this particular stretch is the geniuses in management decided to single-track big sections so if a train is stuck there's no way to move other traffic around the stuck train. The single-tracking took place when the D&H was owned briefly by Guilford back in the 1980's when that company went on a wholesale ruination of every line they owned.

If only the railroads had the same features we have with Trainz. Imagine relaying stretches of track easily by using bulk asset replace tool, or rebuilding a level crossing by deleting it and replacing it with another.


I guess then the practical solution is to limit train length on eastern roads and use more trains as necessary to move the freight. My thought also was to have engines in the front, engines in the middle and engines on the back of a long train to evenly distribute pulling/pushing forces and evenly distribute coupler strain as well as put more combined traction on the rails. Keep a long train power balanced. If parts of the train are going down hill, those should help pull up the upgrade parts of the train. Maybe have a pair of engines for each and every 1/2 mile of train length at 1/2 mile intervals.

Think of the centipede with legs all along its body.

Here is stupidity out of this world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqGTMjpQCdI
 
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I guess then the practical solution is to limit train length on eastern roads and use more trains as necessary to move the freight. My thought also was to have engines in the front, engines in the middle and engines on the back of a long train to evenly distribute pulling/pushing forces and evenly distribute coupler strain as well as put more combined traction on the rails. Keep a long train power balanced. If parts of the train are going down hill, those should help pull up the upgrade parts of the train. Maybe have a pair of engines for each and every 1/2 mile of train length at 1/2 mile intervals.

Think of the centipede with legs all along its body.

Here is stupidity out of this world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqGTMjpQCdI

Yup. This works well in the flatter land, but even with the extra locomotives things still don't go well and like that string of beads if there's too much on one side, the wrong side in this case, the train gets pulled down instead of maintaining momentum to go forward. The problem is physics doesn't lie and management only talks to bean counters and not physicists.

This comment is funny.

Look Trainz AI is making this train back up!
 
Yup. This works well in the flatter land, but even with the extra locomotives things still don't go well and like that string of beads if there's too much on one side, the wrong side in this case, the train gets pulled down instead of maintaining momentum to go forward. The problem is physics doesn't lie and management only talks to bean counters and not physicists.

This comment is funny.

Look Trainz AI is making this train back up!

I just hope American consumers aren't paying the costs for inefficiency on the part of freight transportation companies. Is my new TV set $100 more expensive than it would be otherwise because Norfolk Southern trains often have trouble literally making the grade? That so-called five-mile-long train in the video had two engines in the front and virtually no power in the middle anywhere. At least two
miles of train had passed before the thing started to back down the hill. No two engines observed except the two up front. My physics theory, I won't bet my soul on this, is that two locos, DPU, at intervals of up to 1/2 mile along the entire train with powerful locos (6,000+ HP each) as those in the lead should be able to handle any freight train on any well-maintained standard-gauge line in North America. Apparently the NS bean counters like to take a risk that a train MIGHT stall on a grade. What do these stalls cost American society in terms of money, energy and lost time for motorists waiting at crossings?

Let's say you have a two-mile long freight. Ten 6,000+ HP locos total. Two up front, two 1/2 mile back, two a mile back, two 1 1/2 miles back, and two on the rear. Perhaps, this might be slightly overkill. The train might be able to get away without those two on the rear for a total of 8 engines. I guess they have to try to balance the risk of grade stalls attributed to using minimal loco numbers per train (or trains that are just stupid long) with the cost of assigning extra engines or limiting overall train size.

It might also depend upon how often grade stalls occur and how costly they are when they do happen. As an analogy, a store might spend $10,000 for security cameras to try to catch shoplifters. How much has to be stolen and how often to justify that camera investment to pay the store off? One candy bar stolen every five months? Probably not. $1,000 average in groceries stolen a month? Probably then it is a wise investment in the long run. Also, how effective are the cameras at actually thwarting or deterring shoplifting?
 
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OMG, I never thought about that ! We must all do something, "Right Now", before it is too late. Everyone write to your Congressman, and inform the next presidential candidate that the first item on their political campaign agenda promises should be to get the "Cheapskate" railroads to deliver "on time", no matter how frigid the weather, icy, wet, and deeply snowy the weather conditions, the railroads "Must" go through, and must stop that infernal silly slipping and stalling on the wet, icy, snowy rails, and employ Lionel-MagnaTraction®. Thank you "Captain Hindsight" I don"t know how we'd do it without this breaking newsflash.
 
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OMG, I never thought about that ! We must all do something, "Right Now", before it is too late. Everyone write to your Congressman, and inform the next presidential candidate that the first item on their political campaign agenda promises should be to get the "Cheapskate" railroads to deliver "on time", no matter how frigid the weather, icy, wet, and deeply snowy the weather conditions, the railroads "Must" go through, and must stop that infernal silly slipping and stalling on the wet, icy, snowy rails, and employ Lionel-MagnaTraction®. Thank you "Captain Hindsight" I don"t know how we'd do it without this breaking newsflash.

Engines do have sanders. How about a cogged railway?
 
Engines do have sanders. How about a cogged railway?
Captain Kirk to Scotty: "Mr Scott, I need that sand now" ! "Engage the COGs, full speed ahead" !

Unfortunately the Mount Washington COG railway, closed for the season in November, and will not be running until spring time

Due to the Nationwide sand shortage, Railways should now be required to have 14 locomotives per train, to prevent rail slipping and stalls

Due to the Nationwide Diesel locomotive fuel oil shortage, most freight should be shipped by tractor-trailer trucks over the interstate highway system, and should be delivered by a massive fleet of rental/leased small private Amazon vans delivering goods, shipped right to your door, which solves the railroad freight problem completely

I ordered two boxes of dog flea and tick medicine from Chewy, and it got delivered in 10 hours from Louisville Kentucky and never even touched a railroad train

If I ordered a brand new computer from Utah, or anything else, it would never even be shipped by a railroad train, and would be flown by airplane and delivered nationwide by private delivery vans inside of two days

However if I needed 300,000 gallons of hyperhydrololic acid delivered (used in women's face creams), it would have to be shipped by slow old railroad rail means
 
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Must be short on money. NS is grinding rails with old EMDs!

"Wherever our trains creep along, our rails fry, the sparks come to life, our engines stall on grades and we get there late.
One rough and worn-out line. Infinite failure possibilities." - Norfolk Southern
Norfolk Southern might as well give up full-size railroading and build toy trains instead.
They would go much faster and never stall!

https://youtu.be/8zbXarZtgJo
 
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"Wherever our trains creep along, our rails fry, the sparks come to life, our engines stall on grades and we get there late.
One rough and worn-out line. Infinite failure possibilities." - Norfolk Southern
Norfolk Southern might as well give up full-size railroading and build toy trains instead.
They would go much faster and never stall!

https://youtu.be/8zbXarZtgJo
Then it would seem, as one seemingly has a hatred and animosities, posting long winded rambling bashing of railroads, it might be time to find a brand new, more pleasent new hobby pass time, instead of constantly complaining about railroads and Trainz
Like American Truck Simulator :cool:
 
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Then it would seem as one seemingly has hatred and animosities, posting long winded rambling bashing of railroads, it might be time to find a brand new, more pleasent new hobby pass time, instead of complaining about railroads and Trainz, like American Truck Simulator :cool:

Hating the railroads has been an American pastime even as the first track was laid.
 
Then it would seem, as one seemingly has a hatred and animosities, posting long winded rambling bashing of railroads, it might be time to find a brand new, more pleasent new hobby pass time, instead of constantly complaining about railroads and Trainz
Like American Truck Simulator :cool:


I liked Southern Pacific back when it was running.
 
CSX too!


Notice any trend here? :D


Hmmmm, Where is the Sanding of the Rails?

Or is that not allowed anymore in the name of saving material Costs, less is more thinking :eek:........Good thing I am not Road Foreman, I have somebody's head for Rail Damage among other things.....:(

Thanks for sharing......
 
Hmmmm, Where is the Sanding of the Rails?

Or is that not allowed anymore in the name of saving material Costs, less is more thinking :eek:........Good thing I am not Road Foreman, I have somebody's head for Rail Damage among other things.....:(

Thanks for sharing......

How much do loco wheels cost to replace?
 
Hmmmm, Where is the Sanding of the Rails?

Or is that not allowed anymore in the name of saving material Costs, less is more thinking :eek:........Good thing I am not Road Foreman, I have somebody's head for Rail Damage among other things.....:(

Thanks for sharing......


How about automatic wheel slip control?
 
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