Eastern Railroad Discussion > Thomasville and Dothan Subs question

What is the speed limit for the Thomasville and Dothan Subs.

Thomasville Sub is mostly 40 MPH from Waycross to Valdosta. West of Valdosta mostly 25 MPH. CSX is currently upgrading the line to 40 MPH and wants to eventually run all the New Orleans trains on that route according to a CSX employee I spoke with.

Well if that's true, CSX is about to reverse a PSR decision that reduced speeds between Montgomery and Valdosta to 25 mph. At the time CSX said that there was enough capacity to run New Orleans-Florida trains via Waycross, Manchester, and LaGrange if necessary... longer distance than via Dothan, but faster track. 

Montgomery-Waycross doesn't have long sidings, either, and New Orleans-Florida trains via Dothan must pull past Bell St interlocking in Montgomery and then be pulled out in the opposite direction, whereas New Orleans-Florida trains via LaGrange can run through on diverging routes. 

The second version of the Florida panhandle deal with FG&A allows CSX to run through freights New Orleans-Florida only during emergencies. The first version would have let CSX run them at will.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/19 05:04 by ctillnc.

Remember the 'smart' people sold their railroad across Florida's panhandle.  Somebody got a promotion for his good idea, but he has now retired.  The remaining yokels now have to figure out how to make it work.

So, let's see: the cost of lengthening sidings will be $100M; the cost of upgrading to 40 mph is another $100M; backing up 150 car trains is a sure nightmare scenario.  

But CSX management is intelligent............kind of like sawing off a few of your fingers because you very rarely use them.  

>CSX is
> currently upgrading the line to 40 MPH and wants
> to eventually run all the New Orleans trains on
> that route according to a CSX employee I spoke
> with.

Operationally it doesn't make sense to run the New Orleans - Waycross over the Dothan sub because of the runaring maneuver the trains would have to endure when they get to Montgomery. A smarter idea would be to take the northbound trains of Q512, Q514 and Q648 and put them on the Waycross to Montgomery route while leaving their southbound counterparts on the B’ham to Waycross segment. In other words, CSX should make the routes from B’ham to Waycross semi directional for traffic that goes through those points. Coal traffic could also be routed similarly with empties taking the Waycross - Montgomery routing while loads go from B’ham to Waycross.

BNSF does similar oneway directional traffic with their overlapping lines in southern Colorado.

Posted from iPhone

And it would cost a lot of money to build a direct connection between the ex-ACL and the ex-L&N at Montgomery to eliminate the runaround. For the most part, I-65 is in the middle of the two lines so there would have to be an expensive bridge. There is half a mile where the ex-ACL and the ex-L&N are on the same side of I-65, but to avoid a ridiculously tight curve the connection would have to plow through a neighborhood or an active commercial district. 

Also the fact that CSX in early 2018 made the entire route from Montgomery to LaGrange CTC/PTC compliant implies that they want to run trains on the old West Point Route. Operations are faster than the prior TWC method they used and less radio traffic. I just wish CSX would put a controlled siding in between the ones located at Loachapoka and Gabbettville. That section of track is 40 miles with nowhere to easily meet trains. There is a siding at Opelika but only the south end is controlled by the dispatcher. The north end is a manual switch.

Yes, CSX realigned the ex-ACL and ex-A&WP in LaGrange to facilitate run-throughs Atlanta-Birmingham, but it allows Montgomery-Manchester run-throughs as well.