Eastern Railroad Discussion > Circus Train

Apparently the schedule for the Circus train out of Lima southbound was wrong as it was supposed to leave there at 8:30 am. It got through Hamilton at 10:00 a.m. It takes more than an hour and a half to make that run. Did anyone see the power? Supposedly the numbers were 8461 and 597. The first engine probably a CSX but don't know about the second.

The train remains parked on the Bierman Bypass Main at Queensgate Yard. Target departure time is 1700. The previous schedule was chucked as usual the other day. Second unit is an ex-UP C36-7, now HLCX. Leader is an SD40-2. CSX Police are having lots of fun with the gobs of trespassers in the yard. An 8 or 9yo girl was spotted hoofing up R-1 South a few minutes ago.

<a href="http://www.k8dti.com/cincy">Railroads of Cincinnati</a>

When you have a trainload of around 300 men, women and children, and they're made to sit for any length of time, they begin to become a little antsy. Especially if their 'fridge funs a little low on bread and water, and beer, and whatever. RBBB employees are versed on railroad safety, but there are always new-comers to the tour each year who aren't as patient as seasoned employees (and certain of us railfans) when it comes to trains waiting to move. The longer the wait, the harder it is to keep everyone cooped up on board.

The little girl might have been part of one of the many families on tour, and now accustomed to walking around busy railyards. Circus people are usually rather safety-concious anyway. But I know for a fact the RR police will be relieved when the train departs their area...

The train, P965, departed Cincinnati at 1705 and passed Morning View, KY at 1845 barely making 30mph.

<a href="http://www.k8dti.com/cincy">Railroads of Cincinnati</a>

Both RBBB trains are officially rated for 60 mph where track conditions permit. What's up with the 30 mph slow order? Was there some sort of problem with the train today? Was it CSX's track? Or was there bad weather in the area before they ran thru there causing problems?

The track is immaculate and good for 60+ curvature permitting, but both units had seen better days and could not handle the heavy train real well.

If that's true, then it would follow a recurring pattern regarding the RBBB trains and CSX. All the other railroads are careful of scheduling crews and motive power, but CSX has a history of forgetting the Circus Trains altogether.

Take the mid-1990s trips thru Virginia. During February & March, Red Unit plays THREE Virginia cities, (Richmond, Norfolk & Hampton) in odd-numbered years, while Blue Unit plays them in even-numbered years (that's how their tours work out). There were multiple years that CSX's handling of that contract was VERY poor. Several years in particular were pretty bad.

The show would depart Norfolk heading for Hampton. While the two towns are only about 10 miles apart, the train had to run clear across a third of Virginia--to Collier Yard at Petersburg--to access the CSX line up to Richmond that connected with the only rail line to Hampton, amounting to about a morning's trip, total. During some years, and thanks to CSX goofing up, it took nearly 24 hours. The train sat in Collier Yard most of the day, waiting for crews or power.....

One year CSX forgot to call a crew. Another year they forgot to assign power. Another year the power they assigned wasn't rated to pull the 4,000+ tons up and over the routing's ruling grade. Another time they were held in Fulton due to M.O.W. work on the line to Hampton, and the show was NOT informed of any pending delay before hand. As a result I'm told they either missed the first show in Hampton or nearly missed it. That's poor performance by ANY railroad standard. A well-maintained passenger/mixed train rated to 60 mph has no excuse being held in a yard for such reasons, especially when there are 300+ people and all those exotic animals on board.

Oh, and one year the show left Hampton, Va. heading for East Rutherford, N.J., and the power assigned by CSX was a dinky little 4-axle GE and one of those old "BQ" things that looked like a metal bug on wheels. Asthetics aside, it wasn't enough power rating to get the huge train up Hermitage Hill in Richmond, so they sat there blocking three crossings on the hill for several hours, waiting on an Acca Yard crew to come out with their power & haul them in for the RF&P crewchange.

Am I ragging on CSX performance? Darn right! If NS was that bad I'd rag on them, too, but NS makes special efforts with such moves, and even hauls them at the full rated speed limits where allowed (you should see that mile-long passenger train blasting by a crossing along Highway 460 between Windsor and Collier, Va. at 60 mph on the high iron! "Impressive" isn't the word...) If the Circus had donkeys I might be tempted to make a joke about hauling a--..... NS really does the job right with RBBB.

If I sound harsh about CSX, note that I feel for the thousands of field employees who really DO try to do the right thing. It's their superiors I find fault with for mess like that mentioned above. Maybe CSX is slowly improving, but I haven't seen enough to convince me yet that they're doing enough, particularly if the Circus Train's motive power didn't perform on yesterday's move.

I suppose we should be thankful it wasn't worse.