Eastern Railroad Discussion > whitethorne helper

this is one for all the railfans in the NRV. been wondering why the whitethorne pusher units are always 2 dash9 AC4400, why not ever use 2 SD70 ? or.......? and another question is i often hear a freight going that way also such as 18M or 184. even though there is no traffic on the cburg district.why sending them on the old virginian half the time?

I have heard these trains use this line as well, not sure why though

Gary


photoguy24141 Wrote:
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> this is one for all the railfans in the NRV. been
> wondering why the whitethorne pusher units are
> always 2 dash9 AC4400, why not ever use 2 SD70 ?
> or.......? and another question is i often
> hear a freight going that way also such as 18M or
> 184. even though there is no traffic on the cburg
> district.why sending them on the old virginian
> half the time?

18M and 184 are usually heavy trains. On any particular day they may have too much tonnage to run the Christiansburg District, but would not have enough tonnage to need a pusher on the Whitethorne District.

While V51/52 and the once in a blue moon V53 are generally two Crap9's, different power has creeped in from time to time in the set...

The grade from Whitethorne to Merrimac is lower than the grade from Vicker to Christiansburg... even if tonnage is such that the train can take the C'burg route, 184/18M/194/148/274 will still use the VGN if traffic permits.

To add to the reasons already given, I've been told that the Whitethorne district route is about 15 minutes quicker than the Christiansburg district route, due mostly to the easier grade but its just slightly shorter too.

Since the Christiansburg District between Walton and Pearisburg is mostly single track, having to arrange a meet with a westbound will slow down at least one of the trains if not
both. Directional running on opposite sides of the river makes sense - as long as there's not too many coal and grain trains in the way on the VGN.