| Home | Open Account | Help | 216 users online |
|
Member Login
Discussion
Media SharingHostingLibrarySite Info |
Western Railroad Discussion > Unit Train, Manifest, Storage Move, or All of The Above?Date: 04/27/22 14:59 Unit Train, Manifest, Storage Move, or All of The Above? Author: retlaw121 My adventures in central Illinois yesterday were looking like a total waste of time and gas for most of the day. After striking out in Pana, Litchfield (to be fair, I didn't stick around there very long), and Shelbyville, I was pretty bummed to say the least.
That all changed when I decide to see what Mattoon had to offer. When I got there, the dispatcher had a meet lined up. Both the north and southbound signals on the double main through town had approaches showing. After an hour or so of waiting, the northbound approached at speed. Soon after his FRED passed, the southbound came through at a much more leisurely pace. Being a PSR Monster, even by the time he stopped at the signal on the far south end of town, he was still blocking Marshall Ave (the only mainline crossing in town fortunately). Knowing he was likely waiting for Amtrak to overtake him, I headed up to Humboldt to catch Amtrak at speed. When I got there, there was another NB approach signal, so I figured I'd see the 1st northbound I saw again. No harm there. Amtrak took the siding as the NB signal improved, and instead of the earlier manifest, a monster train of empty aggies and gundersons came blasting by at track speed, led by a quintet of ES44s, all on-line and pulling for what despite being empty, was surely a heavy train. My count is 243 cars total--somewhere in the ballpark of 12,200 feet. I'm not sure of what to call this. It's almost like 2 different unit trains put together. A double unit train, manifest (or a twofest), or perhaps it was a massive storage move. As soon as they passed, Amtrak pulled out of the siding and took off to the south and I called it day. 1. Northbound #1 in Mattoon. 2. Southbound in Mattoon. Video: Northbound #2 and Amtrak in Humboldt Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/22 15:03 by retlaw121.   You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today! Date: 04/27/22 15:00 Re: Unit Train, Manifest, Storage Move, or All of The Above? Author: retlaw121 A few more photos of the 2nd Northbound and Amtrak.
   |