Eastern Railroad Discussion > Two Busted Knuckles 3-1/2 Hours Later “Well I'll Be”

As I do every morning around 5:30 am I fired up the bluetooth headset to listen in to the latest traffic on the Norfolk Southern here in west Georgia. Heard the NS 154 (BIRMINGHAM, AL - LINWOOD, NC) manifest on the Alabama Division East End dealing with a busted knuckle. Yeah not surprised. There is always a 50/50 chance that this train will experience some type of problem between Birmingham and Atlanta. This time between CP Sewell and CP Temple. For a while they ran this train with mid-train DPU's and after weeks of that arrangement they went to rear DPU's. With the help of the road foremen and the car department they finally managed to make the necessary repairs and put their train back together. Only to find another busted knuckle. Meanwhile the trains started stacking up east and west bound. By 8:45 they are on the move east bound. Decided to take a quick trip up to Temple and take a look at this train and the NS 225 (ATLANTA, GA- LOS ANGELES, CA (UP ZAILC) holding the siding with four UP motors. This is when things almost went south in a big way!!! A senior moment if you will... On the point of the east bound NS 154 is the Conrail NS Heritage Unit # 8098 . Holy Smokes!!! Break out the camera..what dead batteries? Nope forgot to load in the SD Card back in the camera after the last download. Not to worry..had a spare with me. Missed the meet with the UP units but managed a few shoots as this train headed east.
NS 154 with 3 head end units / 2 trailing DPU's / 166 cars @ 17,000tons 

1. NS 154 stops at the Ringer Road crossing CP Taylor so the road foreman can download the tapes. NS 225 is holding the siding.
2. Heritage Unit Conrail #8098 leads NS 154 on the mainline east of Villa Rica Georgia
3. NS 154 east bound into Douglasville,Georgia

 

 

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As the train approached downtown Douglasville it stop at the Depot in the center of town for a crew swap. Local A25's crew was assigned to take the train on into Inman Yard in Atlanta. 

1. NS 154 east bound with NS #8098 NS #9802 & UP #4303
2. DPU units NS #7505 NS # #9202

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I love Photo 2 with the curve & CR. Also capturing in that photo the engineer and conductor. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/16 05:49 by cornerfieldhobby.

That sounds just like CSX's Q616 from Atlanta to Hamlet.  They overload this train tremendously and I have watched several videos of this train busting a knuckle on the Abbeville Sub.  Also heard of it busting a knuckle on the Monroe Sub. 

NC_CSXFAN13

I do not know how old you guys are but trains with high car counts have been running in the South and other places for a long time. When I was a teenager about 1960 my dad was driving NE of Atlanta next to the SOU Washington main. We slowly overtook a long freight. I counted 188 cars pulled by six F units, some green & some black. I have records of long trains on many railroads. Famous photographers from the South David Salter and Curt Tillitson usually counted cars and have many photos published in Trains magazines and books. SOU was an early user of remote units. The main difference now is the cars and the trains are much heavier. But the locomotives, electronics, and DPU technology have also advanced too. I think this was just a bad trip.

Great thread.

It's interesting to think that in steam days, four units would mean four head end crews. Eight firemen and engineers, at a minimum.  Plus the back shop and maintainers to service them.  Now, two guys run 150 cars with little more service than sipping fuel every few hours.

Very nice thread, but the kicker for me is a great pic of the paint on the WRWK boxcar that I needed to color match,

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

Great point JLinDE and in fact there is a great article in the June 16 edition of Trains ... "Drag Freights" 
Wish it were so, a one time thing...and I'D bet so does the NS East End dispatcher. Line has a ton of curves and elevation changes.
Guessing crews are also learning how to handle these trains as well.

Interesting.  That same 154 didn't fair much better in NC either.  Looks like it left Spartanburg around 9 or 10 Friday night.  I found it tied down at 10am Saturday morning in Ranlo, NC (west of Charlotte).  Supposedly, they tied down with air problems about 9am Saturday.  I didnt count the cars, but it was right at 10,000 feet based on where it stopped in Ranlo.

Finally, at 4PM Saturday afternoon a relief crew eases it over the Yadkin River in Spencer, NC, about to make a left into Linwood yard at Duke.

Cooper 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/16 18:27 by SOU3921.

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I can't remember ever hearing of a broken knuckle in the Harrisburg area. Of course there are not many really long trains or heavy grades and haven't seen a DPU since they took them off the oil trains.

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