International Railroad Discussion > MRS empty ore in FCY - part 1 (Brazil)

Hi, today I passed by Carandai, MG (FCY) during a trip to the ranch and I could watch two empty ore trains at the crossing level. FCY is located in the Centro Line of old EFCB railroad, later RFFSA. These tracks watch trains in one direction only, mostly empty ore.

1) The first empty ore approaching the crossing level;

2) The 137 GDT class ore cars speeds when the train reaches the end of the siding. Each car has a gross weight of 130 tons, what means 17,810 tons in total (not included the locomotives);

3)  Different style ore cars. The new stainless cars in 739xxx series are a bit different from the old ones.
 

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,




Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/23 18:53 by pedrop.

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4) The video.
That's all for now.
Pedro

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

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For those who like maps, here it is FCY by Google maps.
FCY siding
Posted from Android

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



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/23 18:29 by pedrop.

Nice video Pedro! Does the crossing protection operate by the flagman? Nice to hear a real bell on the flasing lights at the grade crossing. The train was running quite fast towards the end of the video Looks like you are have storm clouds.

Larry

Larry, some crossings on MRS tracks have flagman to control the traffic and also some persons that approaches too much to the trains. The bell and lights operates automatically by sensors. In FCY there are two crossings controlled by flagman and they talk each other by radio about the trains approaching. Today I met a talkative flagman that told me many stories about the trains in FCY since he joined the railroad operations in the 1980's.
Yes, we have a big storm today. In fact, the road to the farm collapsed in a hill and I will need to take another way when going back to home.

Ritzville Wrote:
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> Nice video Pedro! Does the crossing protection
> operate by the flagman? Nice to hear a real bell
> on the flasing lights at the grade crossing. The
> train was running quite fast towards the end of
> the video Looks like you are have storm clouds.
>
> Larry

Posted from Android

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

Thanks Pedro for the interesting info. Sorry you are having so much extra rain with road damage. We need some rain in Ritzville.

Larry

Which route do the loaded trains follow?

I added some labels on this map showing MRS tracks.
Old RFFSA built the Ferrovia do Aço - FA ( Steel railroad) in 1989 after almost ten years of construction. The 354 km of tracks were planned to be dual tracks and electrified, but not all tunnels and bridges were dual tracks. There are 108 bridges and 88 tunnels. The biggest tunnel has 8,640 meters and the biggest bridge has 667 meters. Since the dual tracks on FA was never concluded, the Centro line was kept in use, but they chose a carousel style of operations, using the FA for loaded trains on the way to the port in Rio de Janeiro, and the LC to empties retuning to the mines. On the Mar hill we have trains in both direction since it has dual tracks there.
Here there are two nice videos showing action on FA:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bos5UGbemgE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgK9xGrfvYU

Cabrito tunnel is called the most difficult tunnel in Brazil, since it has more than 2% grade and just 8% of oxigen inside. This is the tunnel that reproved the SD70ACe in the FA. Only GE AC44 and ES44 can lead trains there.

86235 Wrote:
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> Which route do the loaded trains follow?

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



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/23 13:19 by pedrop.

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