Eastern Railroad Discussion > DPU in the East??

Which Eastern subdivisions host DPU ops? CSX, NS, etc.

Just a few off the top of my head:

The NS Plant Scherer coal trains runs with DPU's. They run on the NS Memphis District East End and West End and the Atlanta North and Atlanta South Districts.

Also on NS, the UP run-through trains to Atlanta from California sometimes run with DPU's. They run on the AGS South District and the East End District.

KCS runs DPU's on their Shreveport, LA - Artesia, MS manifests.

Andrew

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The Norfolk Southern 66z oil trains to the Linden NJ refinery have run with DPUs in the past. Recent deliveries have not had DPU,however.

NS also runs DPU on the stack trains that run between Norfolk and Louisville (22A/23G, if I recall correctly).

It has run distributed power on oil trains between Chicago and Delaware, but to my knowledge is not currently doing so - at least, not with any reliability.

To my knowledge, CSX does not employ distributed power anywhere on its system.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/14 09:22 by toledopatch.

ns runs a unique dpu operation on the na district,birmingham north to parrish,the eastend district,birmingham to leeds,the central of georgia district,leeds to childersburg and the anniston district,childersburg to wilsonville. it is normally 2 up front and 2 on the rear coal train,which runs from the mines at berry,al thru birmingham to childersburg,where a reverse move is made onto the anniston district line to go to the power plant at wilsonville.the siding at childersburg on the central of georgia line is single ended on the east end,so i would assume someone gets off and watches the train go by and then lines the switch for the reverse move.i believe a crewman rides the rear units when the first reverse move is made to speed up the next one. at wilsonville another reverse move is made to enter the storage yard at the plant to access the unloading coal tressle loop. i do not know the symbol for this train,when i filmed it back in 03-04,it was 74k/75k,but it went via the ags south to bessemer and then the 3b north district to wilton,then the anniston dist. to the plant.

I don't about now but a few years back CSX was running DPUs in Clinchfield country on coal certain freights.

CSX tried DPU"s on the Mountain sub a few years ago,but it was only like a one week trial.They tried to take 120 loads from Grafton to Cumberland,but still needed a maned helper in addition to the DPU. They gave up on the idea and went back to 2AC;s up front and 2AC's shoving.

GRS

There were some isolated reports of DPUs on loaded coal trains on the Wabash in Indiana. Don't know where they came from or went.

bridgeportsub Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CSX tried DPU"s on the Mountain sub a few years
> ago,but it was only like a one week trial.They
> tried to take 120 loads from Grafton to
> Cumberland,but still needed a maned helper in
> addition to the DPU. They gave up on the idea and
> went back to 2AC;s up front and 2AC's shoving.
>
> GRS


I've often wondered how good the economics of adding DPUs really are. You save a helper's engineer and conductor, but you have the add / subtract costs along the way.

In CSX's case, 2 + 2DPU + a helper set sounds like an incredible amount of power for a train. Does the company usually operate six engines on any train?

CSX ran DPU from Avon to the A&S (UP) in ESL. But they don't anymore.

Does CSX no longer run dpu thru Erwin, Tennessee on coal? The last time I was there, it was used extensively.

mttrainman1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does CSX no longer run dpu thru Erwin, Tennessee
> on coal? The last time I was there, it was used
> extensively.


Yes, Coal trains south out of Erwin TN on the Blue Ridge Sub have DPU`s as seen in this shot taken at North Cove NC back in September. At times, unit Ethanol loads on the Blue Ridge Sub have used DPU`s but not very often.

Michael

---

I believe CP operates DPUs on some of its crude oil trains south out of Montreal to the Port of Albany. I haven't actually seen one but have read about them:

http://www.easternrailroadnews.com/2012/05/05/cp-neus-to-get-boost-from-120-car-oil-trains/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/14 03:31 by JPB.

CN has run DPU on the Toronto-Montreal line as well as the northern Ontario route!

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON

JPB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I believe CP operates DPUs on some of its crude
> oil trains south out of Montreal to the Port of
> Albany. I haven't actually seen one but have read
> about them:
>
> http://www.easternrailroadnews.com/2012/05/05/cp-n
> eus-to-get-boost-from-120-car-oil-trains/


Virtually all of the CP oil trains to Albany run with DPUs. Some but not all of the ethanol trains use them as well.

A few years ago CSX tried running 12,000ft/16,000 ton
Q602 trains out if New Orleans. They ran fine across the NO&M but it wasn't very pretty when they got onto all of the hogbacks and grades between Mobile and Manchester. Needless to say their plan didn't work and all of us that had to operate them were happy to see them go. And all of this just to cut a couple off crews off...

Matt

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On CSX the UP coal train between East St Louis, IL and Terre Haute, IN run with DPU both loaded and mty. On NS the BNSF run through coal train between Granite City, IL and Coffeen, IL run DPU.
Michael T Kerner
Collinsville, IL

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