Eastern Railroad Discussion > Huge Q300 Lv Wilmington 7/4

On July 4, Q300 engines 917 - 5006 arrived Wilsmere with 121 cars and many long ones. It set off about half the train and left 4 hours later after picking up 103 cars here including more long ones. I watched it leave in Wilmington; it had 169 cars, 72 long ones and 40 sixty+ ft cars. I call that 261 car lengths or 12,267 feet. I knew where the head end was but had to guess a bit about the rear. On Google I measured that as 12,433 feet.

Did anybody hear that train by a detector that goves footage or have the factual details on it's footage? It was one of four trains on CSX that rainy day that had 9000 feet or more of train.. Yesterday afternoon Q373 left here with 161 cars 9964 feet.Thanks.

And a crew member is expected to walk the entire length should something go wrong ......... no wonder why CSX can't seem to get out of its own way on most days.

Its becoming a issue all over CSX. A friend reported a 220 car 13400ft (Q)348 last week on the Indy line.

I watched I364 roll by last thursday. Not terribly long at 576 axles but heard at least 5 cars through out train that had hand brakes tied or stuck. Where i was at Sidney, Oh most trains are near track speed at 50/60mph. The three locomotives were working hard but only making somewhere near 20mph. Train was crawling up Bellefountaine hill at 7mph when a locomotive died and the train stalled. To add to the fun the train had a hazardous tankcar on rear so no pushing over hill by next train. Heard later CSX luckly had a light engine move in the area pull it over the hill.

Tripping over dollars to save dimes....

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/15 12:59 by howeld.

i just looked at the train, 12,425 ft 12,590 tons

I'm sure the customers are happy too...........????!!!!

Thanks #1 , for the good info. The new plan at Wilsmere has utility men help put the re-arranged trains together. It worked this day as the U-man took the conductor in a company supplied vehicle to at parking lot near the head end about 200 feet away. But if a conductor had to walk that far for a train problem it would be terrible, since CSX does not keep it's right of way as neat as NS, but at lest this line and most of the distance between JD in Washington and Selkirk used to be double track there should be a bit of room, altho overgrown after 40 years or more.

I should add that the engineer of this train did an excellent job getting this monster out of Wilmington .Most of the train was on an .80% ascending grade, wrapped around several decent curves, but the last 4000 feet or so was in Wilsmere yard with several switches involved. Trains to and from Wilsmere should be limited to 8000-8600 feet depending on which tracks they arrive and depart from. That would work best.

Todays Q300 left Wilmington with only 236 axles. Saturdays huge train had two cuts of the orange Bishopville trach cars. Seems to me some of them could have been left here along with other empties to fill out today's train. Q301 left here this am with only 36 axles followed by q439 with only 244x, whereas last Saturday it was 11,000 feet with 56 waste mangement trash on front. seems to me holding less important traffic a day or two would balance things out. They are using utility men in the new operation here and they have a company vehicle. Last Saturday  The U amn and conductor put the train together the the U man drove the conductor to the head end, fortunately the head was near a spot with access.