Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS monster freights

Has NS cooled off on running the monster trains it started running last year? I live next to the Dayton (OH) District and have not seen any DPU trains in some time - probably since before Christmas.

Overall, the traffic has been light during that time. Perhaps that could be part of the reason why I haven't seen any DPU. i.e. not enough traffic to wait to tie 2 trains together. What is it like elsewhere around the system where they added DPU to merchandise freights last year?

Here in the southeast, NS often runs 154, Birmingham to Linwood as a DPU train. I know it ran this past Tuesday with mid train DPU.

Regards
Russ

Back to the future! SOU and NS ran 154 with mid-train helpers. They lasted on NS into the early '90's.

SOU was running 200 car freights in the 1960's with what was then called by a derogative term but I'll change that to remote units mid-train. I saw a few of them. They were so far ahead of times and things to come!

I don't think that "slave unit" is a derogatory term, nor was it meant as one at the time.

Any more than most houses today still have a "master" bathroom or suite, although a few realtors have taken to calling them "owners'" bathroom or suite.

try running 240 cars with only 3 units on the head end