Working rail roads and their tracks.

[JethroB]

Thats an amazing piece of good news. Are you closeby to it that you can share photos?

Here is a video. 90 car dedicated trains have been around for 20 years or so at the encouragement of the RRs. Cuts the freight cost per bushel in half from the old mill. The savings will pay for the $32M mill in 6-8 years. Steel ties are being used.

Crawfordville Full Site Update July 4th - YouTube

 

[Hay Dude]

Here is a video. 90 car dedicated trains have been around for 20 years or so at the encouragement of the RRs. Cuts the freight cost per bushel in half from the old mill. The savings will pay for the $32M mill in 6-8 years. Steel ties are being used.

Crawfordville Full Site Update July 4th - YouTube

Thanks
Impressive!

 

[Peter 315]

Nice......:thumbsup:

 

[ultrarunner]

I've explored a lot of the high Rockies in Colorado and a little into Wyoming. Evidence of the work that was done to put rail thru these areas is astounding. I think it's a reflection of how poor the working class were. They would do anything for a job.

Where did we lose that.

"We are no longer that poor"

40 years of managing rentals with many low income I can attest earning a living is no longer required to live...

A family of 4 would need almost 70k income to equal the multiples of assistance received.

Family of 3 in a three bedroom single family home with gardner, two bath, discounted utilities, full no cost healthcare, school lunches year round, food, free internet, free college tuition and books, computer, cell phone, free rent and the kicker is a brand new Toyota Corolla in the driveway...

I could go on
...

Proximity of rail is detrimental to health as in current drive to pull rail tracks if that is what it takes to halt "Toxic" Utah Coal through port of Richmond CA.

 

[MossRoad]

While I'm pretty sure no one's gonna disagree with you on that, however, there's no fixing society here in the railroad thread...

On the subject of the original topic....

For the last 10 years we've been driving down to Purdue fairly often as the kids went there for college. Frequently, we'd see these Triple Crown Roadrailer trains passing through. Very cool. From what I gather, they are primarily Detroit to Kansas City, but they have terminals in several cities to the east. Great concept.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I've Jeeped on some old railroad tracks high in the Rocky Mountains. Alpine Tunnel SW of Buena Vista Colorado has a "museum" in the old station house at the top of the pass. Great place to visit. No locks on the doors. No one present. Lots of pictures and memorabilia hanging on the walls. Had a turn table up there too. Quite a place. Requires some quiet reflection to truly appreciate it. Altitude above treeline, probably somewhere around 11k ft.

My son was up at the alpine tunnel. We vacationed a couple of years at a ranch near there outside gunnison. He took a jeep trip up while we were riding horses above the treeline.

 

[Hay Dude]

Very cool pictures. If anyone has more toss em on.
Buckeye Farmer, are you off Rt 70?
I have to move my daughter from one dorm to another dorm this weekend at OU.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

About 20 minutes off of I70

Drove thru Athens last week.

 

[RobS]

I ride a lot of rail trails and there is some hiking along an old canal near me (@Mossroad, check out River Preserve County Park). I'm continually amazed at the accomplishments of our ancestors using only hand tools, or crude machines no larger than modern compact tractors.

 

[ovrszd]

The company I retired from is building a new feed mill. It has a circular siding over a mile around to accommodate up to 100 cars. A 90 hopper car train will be dedicated to make the run from the southeast to the Midwest or Canada every 12 days hauling over 300,000 bushels of corn to supply the mill. The mill will have 15 hours to unload it to qualify for substantial freight discounts. Amazing stuff to me.

That mill would make an awesome Drone Video!!!

 

[ovrszd]

Here is a video. 90 car dedicated trains have been around for 20 years or so at the encouragement of the RRs. Cuts the freight cost per bushel in half from the old mill. The savings will pay for the $32M mill in 6-8 years. Steel ties are being used.

Crawfordville Full Site Update July 4th - YouTube

I should have read down. Excellent Drone video. A shot straight down from 2,000ft would have been the clencher. Thanks for posting this. That was a huge project. I was surprised by the size of the levy it sits on in some areas.

 

[MossRoad]

I ride a lot of rail trails and there is some hiking along an old canal near me (@Mossroad, check out River Preserve County Park). I'm continually amazed at the accomplishments of our ancestors using only hand tools, or crude machines no larger than modern compact tractors.

Will do, thanks! :thumbsup:

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Over the last few years, people in my town have argued on FB that there was a tunnel under our town. My dad who is 96 and still alive said it was a cut, with wood bridges over the rails. He remembers as a boy the train going under the bridges with the smoke coming up thru.
Eventually I found this pic of the cut thru town, taken sometime after the RR was closed, and before they filled in the cut.

Next pic is the train leaving the station heading up into the cut.

 

[ovrszd]

My son was up at the alpine tunnel. We vacationed a couple of years at a ranch near there outside gunnison. He took a jeep trip up while we were riding horses above the treeline.

View attachment 677092
View attachment 677093
View attachment 677097

That's it!!! I've got pics of that little museum building inside and out but can't find them. Thanks for posting these. It's worth the trip and can be done in a 2wd vehicle. The people that maintain the museum also clear the trail each Spring. There's also a Gold or Silver mine near there that's right beside the trail. My kids have explored in it many, many times. It was always on the list of things they wanted to do. It's in the Valley between Tomichi Pass and Hancock Pass.

Gunnison is one of our favorite stops as well. We stayed overnight in the ABC Motel on Main Street several years in a row. The owners are European with heavy accents. We watched their kids grow up. Last time we were there I got to visit with their Son who had just Graduated from High School. I met him when he was 6 or 7.

 

[ovrszd]

Over the last few years, people in my town have argued on FB that there was a tunnel under our town. My dad who is 96 and still alive said it was a cut, with wood bridges over the rails. He remembers as a boy the train going under the bridges with the smoke coming up thru.
Eventually I found this pic of the cut thru town, taken sometime after the RR was closed, and before they filled in the cut.
View attachment 677123
Next pic is the train leaving the station heading up into the cut.
View attachment 677129

That's how it was done here too. Use the dirt from the cut to fill in the next low area.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Our friends ranch is waunita hot springs. Love that place. We examined many old mines in the mountains. My avitar is taken there.

 

[ovrszd]

Our friends ranch is waunita hot springs. Love that place. We examined many old mines in the mountains. My avitar is taken there.

My boys really enjoyed exploring the mines. I had several artifacts gathered from them like tools, pieces of clothing, etc. All burned in my shop fire ten years ago.

Some of the mine's entrances would be so caved in we'd have to dig rocks out of the way to crawl in. My rule was simple. Sit in the entrance hole for a minute silently. Feel the air. If there was no movement and felt stale we didn't go in. That would be a dead end mine. If the entrance caves in you could possibly die. Wanted a mine with ventilation shafts or other entrances/exits.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I posted this in my other thread, of my hometown RR.

June 21 1894

The fireman died 2 hrs later, crushed between engine and tender. Engineer died later that night.
Tressel gave way where some new timber’s were being put in.

 

[the old grind]

My brother has an heirloom panoramic picture of a 1914 wreck on the Wabash from a collapsed trestle. Its framed ~ 12" tall and 30" wide. The whole town turned out to be in the shot, and our Grandpa can be seen holding a briefcase. This page includes press photos but not the wide shot: Attica, IN Train Wreck, Apr 1914 | GenDisasters ... Genealogy in Tragedy, Disasters, Fires, Floods

Grandpa was 19, a printer by trade, and found the package in the wreckage, recognizing it to be Federal property. It contained printing plates destined for one of the banks or mints out West, Denver or Sacramento. The authorities were pleased to have the plates returned intact.

btw, Gramp worked till he was 80 years old, had watched at lunch time Detroit's Cobo Hall being built from the window of the Arnold-Powers print shop he worked in. He might have been the last hand typesetter working in the Metro Detroit area until he retired in '75. He passed in '93 at 98 and is still my hero. In the '60s he'd show us previews of FoMoCo brochures, etc months before they were sent to dealers for a new model year.

 

[ovrszd]

Great story Old Grind.

I've been to Attica several times.