Rail roads and their tracks.

[ArlyA]

CN train crosses the St. Louis River dividing Wisconsin & Minnesota with a pair of General Electric locos. We've ridden across this bridge via tandem before. This is locally called the Oliver bridge.
Oliver, WI 9/29/2022.

 

[MossRoad]

Nice bridge.

 

[Hay Dude]

I grew up just a 45 minute drive from the Starrucca Viaduct. I've read and heard folks talk about it but just recently decided to go see it for myself.

When it was completed by the Erie RR in 1848, it was the largest & most expensive stone arch bridge in the world.

Starrucca Viaduct - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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The blue stone was quarried locally and the quality of workmanship is still evident today:

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To me, the most impressive fact about the viaduct is that it has been in continuous operation for 175 years requiring very little maintenance.

I may visit that on my “PA railroad excursion” that I HOPE to go on this summer if I can get any of my family members to go on. They don’t have the same “interest level” as me. lol

 

[bdhsfz6]

I may visit that on my “PA railroad excursion” that I HOPE to go on this summer if I can get any of my family members to go on

Another must see on your PA railroad excursion should be the Tunkhannock Viaduct. I posted on this one earlier in the thread.

Tunkhannock Viaduct - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

And of course there is the Steamtown National Historic site in Scranton, which is on every railroad enthusiasts list.

Steamtown National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

find your park national park week parkrx #weareparks

www.nps.gov

There is also the Trolley museum on the same site:

Electric City Trolley Museum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Both are family friendly with things to see & do for everyone.

 

[kenmbz]

And of course while in PA, the Strasburg railroad museum:

A Railroad Treasure in the Heart of Lancaster County - Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

At the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, it is our mission to preserve and interpret the Commonwealth’s rich railroad history.

www.rrmuseumpa.org

 

[Hay Dude]

And of course while in PA, the Strasburg railroad museum:

A Railroad Treasure in the Heart of Lancaster County - Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

At the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, it is our mission to preserve and interpret the Commonwealth’s rich railroad history.

www.rrmuseumpa.org

Yeah I live about 30-40 minutes from there. been there quite a few times.

 

[ArlyA]

A recent photo taken in the ironrange of MN.
A pair of GEVO's are on the point of a raw ore shuttle as it crawls forward, loading the last cars of the train through the dumper at the Thunderbird Mine in Eveleth, Minnesota. Once loading is complete, the crew will tone up dispatch for a light down the Missabe Sub to the Fairlane Taconite Plant.

 

[caver]

We had a Heyl & Patterson at the plant but ours was enclosed. I hated working on anything in the coal yard. That dust is so fine with the western coal. When the plant switched to western coal around 95' they had to dig a big hole into the former flood plain next to the Mississippi. This was to accommodate the rotary car dumper and the pit that goes far down below it. Previously our coal came in on a barge. Before they started excavation they drilled about 14 shallow wells around the hole to de-water. They were looped around into two 2' or larger pipes where they then went up and over the levee and dumped into the Mississippi over 2000' away. The coal drops into a hopper and then goes onto two feed belts that are short. That drops onto the main belt at the bottom that hauls it up through a tunnel and dumps the coal about a half mile away on the ready piles.

 

[m7040]

This trolley used to travel over our farm before it was divided. It is running between Frederick and Hagerstown MD

 

[MossRoad]

We had a Heyl & Patterson at the plant but ours was enclosed. I hated working on anything in the coal yard. That dust is so fine with the western coal. When the plant switched to western coal around 95' they had to dig a big hole into the former flood plain next to the Mississippi. This was to accommodate the rotary car dumper and the pit that goes far down below it. Previously our coal came in on a barge. Before they started excavation they drilled about 14 shallow wells around the hole to de-water. They were looped around into two 2' or larger pipes where they then went up and over the levee and dumped into the Mississippi over 2000' away. The coal drops into a hopper and then goes onto two feed belts that are short. That drops onto the main belt at the bottom that hauls it up through a tunnel and dumps the coal about a half mile away on the ready piles.

So now I have to ask, having only seen pictures of that before, are the couplers on the cars equipped with a pivot so they don't have to be uncoupled when the car is rotated?

How are the airlines handled?

I take it the machine has sensors that read car position, and the machine is controlling the train motion, not a human, to get it to stop at just the right spot?