Eastern Railroad Discussion > Power Move?

I was watching the web cam in Chesterton, Indiana, yesterday.
It's a double-track main for NS.
At one point, a set of 11 locos passed by with no cars. About an hour later, another set of 5 locos passed by. Both sets were headed west.
Not being familiar with NS, is this a normal power transfer, or was it something else?

Dave.

Firechief Wrote:
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> I was watching the web cam in Chesterton, Indiana,
> yesterday.
> It's a double-track main for NS.
> At one point, a set of 11 locos passed by with no
> cars. About an hour later, another set of 5 locos
> passed by. Both sets were headed west.
> Not being familiar with NS, is this a normal power
> transfer, or was it something else?

Light-engine moves like that were common on Mondays during Conrail days to balance power because of relatively little westbound traffic out of the East Coast on Sundays. Not surprised to hear that NS still does it.

Seeing as how yesterday was Monday, it sounds good to me. Thanks.

Mondays (and sometimes Sundays) were typically guaranteed power moves on Conrail TV-7 out of Boston. Often three sets of power would be on those trains, 9 or 10 4-axle units. I believe this is now Q117 but the move is less common, although I did get it a couple of years back with 8 new GEVO's in four back-to-back pairs perfectly matched. Pretty impressive to see these trains.

Bill Miller
Galt, ON

CCMF Wrote:
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> Mondays (and sometimes Sundays) were typically
> guaranteed power moves on Conrail TV-7 out of
> Boston. Often three sets of power would be on
> those trains, 9 or 10 4-axle units. I believe
> this is now Q117 but the move is less common,
> although I did get it a couple of years back with
> 8 new GEVO's in four back-to-back pairs perfectly
> matched. Pretty impressive to see these trains.


Often Conrail originated no trailer trains at all out of Beacon Park on Sundays. As soon as TV-10 got in on Sunday morning, its power would be combined with TV-14's and an ENG-301 or ENS-301 symbol would head west. By the time it got to Springfield, this light-engine move sometimes would have as many as 15 locomotives, once power had been plucked from Framingham, Worcester and/or Palmer.

CR did the same practice especially on MAIL 9 out of New Jersey on Monday mornings during the late 80's. I spent many a summer early morning riding bike to towns on the Reading line to catch this train because you could often catch 10+ units on the head end.

Posted from iPhone

dschlegel Wrote:
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> CR did the same practice especially on MAIL 9 out
> of New Jersey on Monday mornings during the late
> 80's. I spent many a summer early morning riding
> bike to towns on the Reading line to catch this
> train because you could often catch 10+ units on
> the head end.
>
> Posted from iPhone

It was also common for them to run a Sunday evening set of westbound power that would commonly be nicknamed the "Chicago Lights."

Caught them more than a few times off the extra list, back in the day.

And then there was TV-11E, which accomplished the same purpose for all the empty intermodal flats that would otherwise accumulate at North Bergen and other eastern terminals -- a westbound baretable train that left on Sunday night and usually made Chicago by early Tuesday....