Working rail roads and their tracks.

[the old grind]

There are disaster videos of slag being dumped from railcars into ditches that were a bit too wet, (puddled?) and resulting steam explosions were pretty scary. Glowing gobs of slag scattered about.

btw, YouTube just suggested a video of an EMD (IIRC) diesel running with the valve cover removed. I might see that again and can post a link. Shoulda seen the circumstances but passed once already. (Doh!)

 

[MossRoad]

Back in the 70s, we hauled a lot of slag aggregate out of the Levy Company and Bethlehem Steel in Gary. When we went into the steel plant to load, there would often be torpedo cars setting on tracks waiting to be loaded or cooling down so they could be relined with refractory brick.

My father got several loads of slag for his driveway when I was a kid. It worked great compared to gravel. So back around 1989 when my wife and I bought our land, I had to cut in a road from the state highway. It's all sand. But I bought a soil map and found a pocket of gravel that was exactly where we were required to make the cut by the state. Pretty lucky. So I dug out the roadbed through the sand 12" down 400' back, lined it with the gravel 6" deep, and brought in multiple tri-axle dump trucks of slag, and spread that on top of the gravel another 6" deep. I've had cement trucks over it with no problems. The sharp edges of the slag lock into each other, yet drain easily. No frost heave. The sand below helps, I'm sure.

Anyhow, back to trains.

 

[JRH02]

A few years ago, I picked up an Electromotive 645E3 overhaul manual at a flea market. I've spent hours browsing that manual, those engines are amazing pieces of engineering, especially the fabricated, not cast, engine blocks. Although the main bearing saddles and some other parts are cast and welded into the blocks.View attachment 1862549

Just seeing the cover picture sent chills of having to 'dive for pearls' which was changing out a power assembly before the scheduled overhaul period. The 'diving' part was the guy who had to work through the lower access cover to remove the connecting rod cap, the oil 'pee pipe', etc.. Lord forbid if you dropped anything as the oil was not drained from the crankcase. If you dropped anything you would be labeled as unreliable and be assigned any of the worse of the worst jobs until you could prove yourself worthy again. In some cases you would never outlive your new nickname(s). Needless to say the old timers never did that part of the job but one would be watching from the access cover on the other side in case you did drop something. Fortunately a power assembly change-out didn't happen too often.

 

[bcp]

Cement truck, not a concrete truck. Knowledgeable writer, or accidentally correct?

Must have been a huge gray cloud, if it was full.

https://www.koin.com/news/oregon/train-crashes-into-cement-truck-in-eastern-oregon/

Bruce

 

[bcp]

Amtrak train impaled through windshield by downed tree during bomb cyclone

The train was on the way from Vancouver to Seattle on Tuesday when it struck a tree that had fallen on the tracks, heavily damaging the cab.

www.kgw.com

Unpowered cab car:

Bruce

 

[MossRoad]

Cement truck, not a concrete truck. Knowledgeable writer, or accidentally correct?

Must have been a huge gray cloud, if it was full.

https://www.koin.com/news/oregon/train-crashes-into-cement-truck-in-eastern-oregon/

Bruce

The article said the truck had just left the Ash Grove Cement plant, sooooo, probably just good reporting.

 

[MossRoad]

Amtrak train impaled through windshield by downed tree during bomb cyclone

The train was on the way from Vancouver to Seattle on Tuesday when it struck a tree that had fallen on the tracks, heavily damaging the cab.

www.kgw.com

Unpowered cab car:
View attachment 1870424


Bruce

Wow, that trunk through the windshield looked pretty bad. Glad they weren't injured badly.

 

[ArlyA]

Fresh out of Fairlane, the Deathstars (emblem on engines front) work their train up to 40per. 11/05/24

 

[ArlyA]

UP 4014 Union Pacific Steam 4-8-8-4 at Denver, Colorado by Mike Harriman. (I believe this is a recent photo)

 

[MossRoad]