Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX 200# car coal train.

228 car coal train through Huntington,WV this morning. 5 six axle engines all on the head end with none as DPU. Rare even in coal country.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/17 14:33 by wc31057.

Wow

Posted from iPhone

They've been running those on the C&O for over a year.

Appalachianrails Wrote:
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> They've been running those on the C&O for over a
> year.

What he said.  Its enough of a low grade route west of the Alleghenies that 200+ cars is not unusual.  Most of the time they'll send 200+ empties down the branch lines, split it up to load, and combine them up somewhere like Russell for the trip out.  I've seen them try 200+ loads too, but I'm sure those have their fair share of problems.

wc31057 Wrote:
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> 228 car coal train through Huntington,WV this
> morning. 5 six axle engines all on the head end
> with none as DPU. Rare even in coal country.
>
> Posted from Android

Maybe move two to the rear in Hinton for the climb over the Alleghany mountains?

I have seen a few with DPU, but not that many cars without. To be clear this was fully loaded 100 ton hoppers. The conversation between the crew and dispatcher is what made this interesting to me. The train had encountered numerous delays apparently do to it's size and consist. The dispatcher's reply when informed of this was, "You have got to be kidding me."

Posted from Android

CSX has attempted DPU operations on the former C&O. They removed the DPU radio repeater equipment that was used on tunnels along the Clinchfield and installed them along the tunnels in the New River and Alleghany Subdivisions but they've only done one test train. The test occurred in January of 2016 with an eastound 220 car loaded coal train between Russell, KY and Clifton Forge, VA. I believe the train went into emergency about six times, the first time delayed the eastbound Amtrak Cardinal. No other DPU test trains have ran since then.

Jimbo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wc31057 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 228 car coal train through Huntington,WV this
> > morning. 5 six axle engines all on the head end
> > with none as DPU. Rare even in coal country.
> >
> > Posted from Android
>
> Maybe move two to the rear in Hinton for the climb
> over the Alleghany mountains?

 

We these 100 ton cars are larger? Older hoppers were 100 ton capcy, new alum rapid discharge hoppers and tubs are usually 286k GWR. If these cars were mostly those, this train could have been over 30,000 tons GWR. I agree, seems DPUS would be much better.