Eastern Railroad Discussion > So what is MPCX 5002 used for?

On this first day of the 2021 I was out along CSX's Trenton Line in Hillsborough (NJ) when I came across this MOW car parked on a siding. My new year's resolution is to discover what this is used for? Have a good new year along with staying safe and well!

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         Laying fiber optic cables via the big plowing blade. Sprint had a train years ago that did this too if I am correct.

Pattenberg,
Vibratory plow, covered recently in this thread.
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,5161102,5161199#msg-5161199
Gonut

Gonut1 Wrote:
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> Pattenberg,
> Vibratory plow, covered recently in this thread.
> https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,
> 5161102,5161199#msg-5161199
> Gonut

Thanks for the link to that thread, much appreciated. Stay safe and well!

Interesting piece of equipment! Happy new year Thom!
Dan

Posted from iPhone

On track vibratory plowing is not a new concept by any means. Back in the early Eighty's when fiber optic cable (FOC) was in its infancy, Henkels & McCoy/Conrail
teamed up and constructed 2 on track plows from modified flat cars. These trains were laying FOC for AT&T, RCI and other companies willing to lease space along
the right of way. The trains were pulled by GP30's or SD40's equipped with creeper control typically used in hump operations. The consist typically included the plow, 3 high side gons with reel stanchions and a cabin car for plow employees and conductor to ride in when in transit from storage track to work location. AT&T would plow corrugated innerduct containing a pull line. Once all the innerduct splices were in place, another team would pull in the FOC with the pull line. One plow started near New York and the other started near Chicago. The 2 plows met at Berea, OH for AT&T. Subsequently many other major city routes were quickly added. The FOC infrastructure eventually replaced much of the underground coaxial cables and microwave network due to expanded bandwidth and data transmission speed capabilities that we are familiar with today.
    The plow train operations led to some long days as there was a rush to be the first company to have a working FOC link between major cities thus capturing market share. As another person commented, it was amazing what artifacts, discarded scrap, old water pan foundations, pipes and etc. from past history that were located and recovered from the plowing operations. Occasionally active water, natural gas, underground power lines and pressurized sewer lines were located by the plow blade that were not marked by municipalities which led to some interesting CYA scenarios.  Those sudden surprises are a hot and stinky topic for another day discussion on the Nostalgia forum.

Yessir...fiber optic cable is right.

There’s one of those same contraptions parked in the old auto tracks at Interbay, been rotting there at least 15 years. Odd looking things.

Posted from iPhone

Texican65 Wrote:
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> There’s one of those same contraptions parked in
> the old auto tracks at Interbay, been rotting
> there at least 15 years. Odd looking things.

That was finally billed out six months ago, or so.  It's last job was laying the fiber to the MP 10.4 intermediate at Carkeek Park.

If you recall when the "Sprint" long distance network was first introduced the calling card was, "You can hear a pin drop", The TV ad displayed a straignt pin dropping and bouncing on a hard surface. Most of us had no clue that the origin of Sprint was a subsidiary of Southern Pacific Company. Fiber Optics and Compact Disks changed audio in many ways!
Gonut

Was it a GE B30-7? 

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

I was curious about the GE donor frame also. Perhaps someone on the forum can comment on its heritage. The FB-2 style trucks
were unique to late Universal Series and B Series 4 axle GE models.  Railroad personnel affectionately referred to locomotives with the FB-2
style trucks as Teddy Roosevelt engines in reference to their ride quality.