March 11, 2014 – The Pennyrail Online Edition

March 2014 Area Railfanning

March 11, 2014 Jim Pearson No Comments General Post

by Matt Gentry

If there is anyone who absolutely despises cold weather, it is this guy right here. Don’t get me wrong, as much as I love summer and the heat it brings, cold weather provides a nice break. But, once Christmas and New Years is

over, I want the heat to return. This year has been exceptionally depressing on the temperature front with the “Polar Vortex” and the frozen precipitation we have had. And it goes without saying that no one in the area has been left out! Snow and ice down in Atlanta and the Carolina’s? OK, great Mother Nature, let’s get a little warmth back.

Two northbound UP trains meet at Gorham, IL on February 18, 2014 -Thomas Bryan

As it goes for many of us who share the same enjoyment of trains and railroading, it has not been a winter to get out to do much, if any, rail fanning. That is until mid February. I had been keeping an eye on the temperatures for about a week and saw that Tuesday, February 18th was potentially going to be a nice enough day to go chase trains. I made mention of it to Rick Bivins and we both threw out the idea of making a trip to one of our favorite spots, Gorham, Illinois. Albeit

Northbound out of Yankeetown, Indiana Southern and two former SP locomotives go to get another load of coal on February 22, 2014 -Matt Gentry

last minute, to Gorham we went with Donny Knight and Thomas Bryan joining along for the day.

Upon arriving just about 45 minutes after Rick & Donny, we were immediately greeted with a northbound Union Pacific stack train with 2 brand new SD70Ace’s (possibly SD70AH) headed up the Mt. Vernon subdivision. My reaction? “It’s going to be a great day.”

What made this trip even more of an adventure for me was twofold; 1) the purchase of a new high definition digital video camera not two days before our journey (did I plan it that way? …maybe), and 2) for being my fourth trip to Gorham, all previous trips had actually been fairly lackluster for me! Gorham and lackluster in the same sentence you ask? Yes. Two of the previous three occasions had track maintenance being performed to the south and traffic on the Chester Subdivision was virtually at a standstill for the better part of eight hours. Thankfully, this day did not disappoint!

A very dirty YDC #21 heads to the north end of the yard to push a cut of cars up to the unloading docks at Yankeetown IN. on February 22, 2014 -Matt Gentry

It wasn’t a few days later and the weather still continued to cooperate and I managed to catch some rail activity not a few miles from my house! As some of you know, I live not very far from the Alcoa aluminum plant and Vectren power plant to the east of Evansville along Highway 66 (Lloyd Expwy). This day, I witnessed Indiana Southern (now Genesee & Wyoming) pulling an empty coal drag north towards Boonville. Interestingly enough, there were two former Southern Pacific locomotives in the consist! I am fairly certain that these units were slugs only. They had no prime mover in the locomotive.

After this sighting, I figured what the heck, I’ll head up towards the power plant and see if I can see anything working in the yard. As luck would have it, I was able to catch one of the Yankeetown Dock Corp locomotives, #21, shoving loaded coal cars up to the docks to be unloaded! I couldn’t believe it! It still exists! With this kind of luck, I decided I should head up to Princeton Indiana to see what traffic I could see in the area. Princeton is a great train spotting location because the CSX and Norfolk Southern cross at grade on the south side of town.

After mentioning this to Rick, we decided to plan a day in Princeton. Once again, rather last minute, but we went to Princeton on Monday February 24th. We took a risk going on a Monday, but I wanted to arrive early enough to check and see what kind of NS trains would be going through. Surprisingly we were not disappointed in the slightest. We saw at least six NS trains and one (maybe two) CSX trains for the day.

After all of this, my plans for the year are to make as many outings as possible to do some rail fanning in the area and possibly make some longer distance trips to new locations. After all, I do have a new video camera to use!

And speaking of the camera and my videos, below there are videos to of our day in Gorham Illinois and a video containing the Indiana Southern and Yankeetown locomotives.

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March 2014 The Prez Sez

March 11, 2014 Jim Pearson No Comments The Prez Sez, Tommy Johnson

By Tom Johnson, Chapter President

Greetings, fellow chapter members!

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone Monday night, March 17, 2014 at the depot for our monthly meeting.

We had a real good February meeting with Steve Miller presenting a power point program on railroad signal interpretation. Everyone seemed to enjoy the program and I think we all learned some things. There were some good discussions during the presentation with people citing local examples of many of the signal situations included in the program.

We had good attendance. I counted 18 but the sign-up sheet only showed 17; I guess someone forgot to sign-in.

The discussion segment of the meeting was on the subject of “foreign power” and several folks contributed good information.

It seems that lots of you like the idea of devoting a few minutes of our meetings to discussion on a particular topic. Each and every one of you is encouraged to submit ideas for these discussions to Matt Gentry. Matt will announce the topic in the newsletter so that members will have time to do a little research on the subject ahead of the meeting. Subjects will be chosen on a first come, first served basis when more than one suggestion is submitted. The “official” way to submit an idea is to Email it to Matt. If you don’t “do” Emails, let me know your idea and I will Email Matt for you.

Remember, we are not trying to make this the main “entertainment” for the meetings, just a feature where we spend maybe 15 minutes on the topic that has been chosen.

Hope to see all of you Monday night!

March 2014 In The Corner

March 11, 2014 Jim Pearson No Comments General Post

by Rick Bivins

A southbound NS local heads into the yard at Princeton IN on February 24, 2014. -Rick Bivins

First off, as one can see in this issue, several members have taken time to arrange a few rail fan trips this winter…..undaunted members of a “frigid rail fan group” no less. This winter has not been kind to anyone, our friends “up north” and “down south” have all seen harsh conditions. Some still are!!! But a few spirited (desperate to get out perhaps) individuals took it upon themselves to get out anyway. I have always had a good time in Gorham Illinois, regardless of the weather. Recent trips to there and Princeton Indiana have all been good. But Saturday March 8, 2014 I drove all the way to just south of Nortonville KY… (a whole five miles for me) to one of my favorite spots to watch trains. Of course my front porch is a pretty good spot! But I still enjoy going to Romney Siding at the Hopkins/Christian County line on Hwy 41. In one hour and 55 minutes I saw five trains with power from five different railroads! CSX of course plus BNSF, NS, UPRR and CP. Now that to me is a good two hours!

A former SOO locomotive is found sitting just east of the NS yard at Princeton IN on February 24, 2014. -Rick Bivins

A northbound led by BNSF power at Romney Siding on Marhc 8, 2014 -Rick Bivins

As for my “almost monthly” contribution to the newsletter, I said in the last article while describing my model railroad project, “Here is the plan…sorta”. Well….I have since changed things around. I still plan to have people over to enjoy the trains, mine and theirs etc. But the layout has morphed from a complex group of tracks that with Steve Miller’s help was pretty cool. The up and over idea really appealed to me as did adding “big” scenery as I tend to call it. But by the time I was two thirds of the way through the hard part, that is laying track, I realized it wasn’t practical. The “pile on more track” syndrome had kicked in. My layout was just a mass of track.

Looking down into the Toyota loadout facility serviced by NS in Princeton IN on February 24, 2014. -Rick Bivins

So, I decided to explore other track plan ideas, each one ended up the same

A member of the “Frigid Railfan Group.” Matt Gentry takes video at Princeton IN on February 24, 2014. -Rick Bivins

way. The result of this is “I cannot put twenty thousand square feet of layout in a five hundred square foot building….even if I go vertical with the track!” So….I will have to make a decision, do I want a loop of track going around and around, maybe with a siding and a staging yard or possibly twice around or have a switching layout with industry’s to set out and pick cars from or can I get all of it in there or………SEE, that is how it starts!

Or……I could add another twenty one feet to the building and then I could……..

A northbound at Mortons Gap is led with two leased units heading into Madisonville KY. -Rick Bivins

Diamond damage at Madisonville, Ky

March 11, 2014 Jim Pearson No Comments Bill Thomas, News, Photo Section

The diamond on the northside of Madisonville Ky on CSX’s Henderson Subdivision is shown after at least one train went through damaging the it, completely removing the east side rail, in February 2014. No trains hit the ground or derailed. – Photo submitted by Bill Thomas.

Casky Yard Construction

March 11, 2014 Jim Pearson No Comments Jim Pearson, Photo Section, Steve Miller

Sign that has been raised proclaiming the Casky Inspection Yard Project - - Steve Miller — Sign that has been raised proclaiming the Casky Inspection Yard Project – – Steve Miller

On February 22, 2014 a northbound CSX mixed freight, headed up by two UP engines, heads past the area where the new south lead will be for the new Casky Yards on the Henderson Subdivision will be located on John Rivers Road, south of Hopkinsville, Ky. Some construction has begun, but with the wet weather we’ve been having lately much of the dirt and track work has kept the equipment building the yard idle. – Jim Pearson

March 2014 Rail Flicks

March 11, 2014 Jim Pearson No Comments Rail Flicks, Tommy Johnson

The Kootenai River Sub of the BNSF Railway stretches from Sandpoint, ID, on the west to Whitefish, MT, on the east. This is the only railroad video that I am aware of that covers this trackage. The next sub to the west is covered in 7idea Production’s “The Funnel BNSF Railway’s Spokane Sub” and the next sub to the east is covered in their “Marias Pass BNSF Railway’s Hi Line Sub.”

In this video we travel timetable east from Sandpoint but we head north to Bonners Ferry, ID, before turning southeast to follow the Kootenai River for 60 miles. We leave the Kootenai River east of Libby, MT, at a place called Jennings, MT, and begin the 1% climb through the Salish Mountains up to the Flathead Tunnel. It is a downhill run from the east portal of the tunnel to Whitefish, MT.

The scenes in this video were shot in the winter, summer, and fall of 2013. The fall scenes are especially beautiful because of the western larch, with their needles turned a brilliant gold, interspersed with the evergreen fir trees. The western larch is a deciduous conifer, which means that even though it is a cone-bearing tree and has needles, it sheds its needles in the fall.

A map of the sub is shown early in the video but there are no more references to the map throughout the remaining two hours of the video, which is somewhat disconcerting. Unfortunately, this shortcoming is common among RR videos, and many of them make no use of maps at all.

On five different trains shown in the video we see CSX power in the lash-ups along with the BNSF locomotives. Those CSX locos were sure a long way from home trackage! We see doubles stacks, unit grain trains, unit coal trains, and unit crude oil trains as we work our way across the sub.

When the Libby dam was built to form the Koocanusa Reservoir, 59 miles of track had to be re-located, which required the boring of the Flathead Tunnel. The narrator points out that 20% of the cost of the Libby Dam project was the money spent to bore this seven mile long tunnel, the second longest RR tunnel in the U.S., the longest being the Cascade Tunnel in Washington. The Flathead Tunnel was completed in 1970.

This is a very entertaining video and has the high quality wide screen videography that 7idea Productions in known for. The scenery is very appealing and the railroad action is good. I recommend this video.

March 2014 Mystery Location

March 11, 2014 Jim Pearson No Comments Mystery Location

This depot is located on a branchline that began in Madisonville and headed west, but never left the state of Kentucky. This line handled passenger trains regularly with baggage, mail and the works, plus considerable freight and lots of coal and farm products since it serviced a big livestock area. The line started in 1882 and then the tracks were removed from the Madisonville area roughly 35 years ago.

Submitted by Wally Watts and Photo By; Thomas Bryan
E-mail your guesses to Matt at info@westkentuckynrhs.org

The first correct guess will be revealed at the meeting on March 17th!

by Wally Watts & Matt Gentry

The month of February brought the execution of a new idea for the West Kentucky NRHS, and that was to have brief discussions (roughly 15 minutes) at each meeting about general railroad knowledge or why a railroad may execute its procedures this way or that.

For the month of February, our President Tom Johnson gave a topic to get the idea off the ground, and the topic was “Why do we see foreign rail power on another railroads trackage, and how does that railroad get compensated?” For example; why do we see Union Pacific power running on CSX track through Madisonville KY? (Which we witnessed during the meeting!)

A lot of times, the simple answer can be that the train is a “run through.” This means that the train does not get altered from its origination point to its final destination. These trains are typically your coal drags, grain trains, coke trains and oil trains. What this means is that an oil train put together and loaded in the oil fields of North Dakota on the BNSF will not be altered until it reaches its destination at an oil refinery in Ashland, Kentucky for example.

Even Class II RR’s trade power. Here, Wheeling & Lake Erie is found on NS tracks in Elkhart IN. 10/29/11 -Matt Gentry

The reason you may see foreign power running a local manifest freight would most likely be the foreign railroad is running out their borrowed time to the railroad that is running the train. The way the railroads get paid for the use of their locomotives elsewhere in the nation is based on how many “horse power hours” a locomotive gets used and therefore billed to the operating railroad. For instance, if a Union Pacific locomotive with a horse power rating of 4400 horse power were used for 13 hours on the CSX, the CSX would owe them 13 hrs of use of one of their locomotives with a 4400 horse power rating. There are many different configurations that the horse power hours get calculated and paid back due to different horse power locomotives. A CSX 4000 horse power unit would take more than 13 hours to pay back the UP for their 13 hour 4400 horse power unit.

NS & CP units are seen at Romney KY on March 8, 2014 -Rick Bivins

Another example-In the 1940’s and 50’s when the SP, UP, and C&NW were running the City of San Francisco, I (Wally) have seen photos of the train in Green River, WY with an ABB lash-up of C&NW E-7’s eastbound. They were “running out their time” in UP territory with C&NW crews-BUT with a UP “pilot” engineer on board. Same thing sometimes with the westbound “City.” It would be seen in Nebraska with SP E-6’s or 7’s on the point. They were “running out their time” they “owed” UP. Instead of owing money or borrowing money to each other, they owe time-or “horse power hours” if you will.

A southbound CN switches onto Union Pacific’s Chester Sub. at Gorham IL on February 18, 2014 -Thomas Bryan

The topic of discussion for the moth of March was planned to be presented by David Millen over the L&N railroad throughout the area. However I (Matt) stopped at David’s house after the meeting in February to drop off his copy of The PennyRail to find that he had slipped on the ice. David seemed to be getting along OK, but was unsure of his attendance at the March meeting.

In the event of David’s absence, we will use the following question for our topic of discussion:

Why did the Illinois Central run steam on their coal trains in Western Kentucky long after other railroads had gone completely to diesel-electric locos? –Tom Johnson