Western Railroad Discussion > in the middle of nowhere monday: the truxton "flyover"........

an e/b stack/ethanol mtys combo climbs up over the "truxton flyover" on the bnsf's seligman sub.

i made this 2 videos to ensure i caught the entire train.  this is the 1st of the 2 videos.

for those who don't know where this is, it is between peach springs and kingman, az off of rt. 66.............

66 

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here is the 2nd half of the train.

i really like the scenery out here..........

66

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Very NICE to see the Truxton Flyover in action with a nice Mega train. Good looking mountains in the background.

Larry

Hey cool vids what's the purpose of the flyover?

Good work!

Chuck

The reason for the flyover is something about the ex-ATSF and how they routed trains.  Rather than keeping everything to the right, somewhere along the line they had "left hand running" (which I don't understand), so putting in this flyover allows the trains to revert to proper directional running WITHOUT stopping trains at a crossover to allow endless trains to switch tracks, hour after hour.  This does the same thing, but keeps operations fluid.

As for the "left handed running" issue, I'll let someone else explain the need for that during ATSF days....

For whatever reason the layout of the Belen yard requires the fuel islands to be placed in a favorable setup for left hand running. I.E. westbound crew change and fuel islands are on the west side of the yard (left if facing north) while the east bound crew change and fuel islands are on the east side of the yard (right if facing north). Easier to run the entire transcon left hand running for that, but in California their yard setups are more favorable to right hand running.

Thanks for the videos, nice job.

Posted from Android

RailDawg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey cool vids what's the purpose of the flyover?
>
> Good work!
>
> Chuck
The Territory between Ash Fork and Rio Puerco is actually set up to favor uphill trains on the left hand tracks.  Track splits at Johnson Canyon, the Continental Divide and near Rio Puerco were built when the line was double tracked in the 20's.  Even with Johnson Canyon gone, the DS still would swap tracks to give uphill trains an easier pull.

my next mission is to capture a "meet" there on video...........

66

goneon66 Wrote:
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> my next mission is to capture a "meet" there on
> video...........
> 66

"As always, should you fail, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.  This tape will self-destruct in five seconds."

Good stuff! I'm struck by how much erosion there is on the new grade. I guess it takes only one or two gullywashers to move some dirt.

mapboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> goneon66 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > my next mission is to capture a "meet" there on
> > video...........
> > 66
>
> "As always, should you fail, the secretary will
> disavow any knowledge of your actions.  This tape
> will self-destruct in five seconds."

good one. 

getting a "meet" these is gonna take some extreme luck..........

66

eljay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good stuff! I'm struck by how much erosion there
> is on the new grade. I guess it takes only one or
> two gullywashers to move some dirt.

there does seem to more erosion there than i would have expected, especially since this "flyover" is less than 2 yrs old.........

66

To further add to what has been mentioned already, many of the track splits for grades east of this location are set up for left-handed running (I think Belen's fuel racks being the way they are is a result of this fact as well, it's NOT the reason).   

West of this flyover, track splits around Kingman and further west on the Needles Sub favor right-handed running for the grades.   So somewhere between Kingman and east of Gallup, the traffic had to swap from right-handed to left-handed operation, and that was done at the crew change location of Winslow.   Now this flyover is designed to eliminate that congestion in Winslow (though trains are STILL constantly getting in each other's way at Winslow, so go figure!).

zchcsse Wrote:
-- Now this
> flyover is designed to eliminate that congestion
> in Winslow (though trains are STILL constantly
> getting in each other's way at Winslow, so go
> figure!).

That, and from my experience last year on the Clovis sub, trains are still making tons of crossover moves all the way across for meets and overtakes; seems hard to believe the flyover really elimnated very many of them.

Andy

Most of the trains are running left-handed on the railcams at Lugo (Cajon Pass), Flagstaff, Gallup and Belen.  At Kingman they run right-handed.  They can be on any of the three mains at Barstow, but east of there they usually run right-handed.  MofW, Amtrak or a hot Z often change that pattern.

mapboy

Left hand running was the norm for Westbound trains from Barstow to allow them to descend the "hard way" from Summit to Cajon, and Eastbounds went up the Eastwqard track with the easier grade.  At one time, there was a "flyover" at Pisgah on the Needles district to place Westbound trains on the South track thru Barstow. 

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar