Think the water tower is gone today. Those shots came from the late
1970's. Merrit is such a cool place to watch a few trains go by. While
this is my only photo sequence from Merrit, I did get 3 trains here on
hi-8 video and transfered to DVD but have not found a way to get
it on-line yet. Say I never get the video on line, I can say the sounds
the trains make (or dont make) depends on the direction of the trains
passing thru Merrit. High mountains all-around and the train whistle is
surreal along with all the reverberating motive power on the westward
trains getting ready to do some "2.2". Its all "echo" with any train passing
Merrit. I got all the sounds of Merrit on DVD. Just the perfect place
to listen to trains without seeing them.
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If you are in a horror movie, you make bad decisions, its what you do.
Krink, what you call coasting is also called "throttle modulation" and on paper it is the prefered form of train control in these parts. The WC thrived on it with its fuel guzzling SD45's. There are places on my run where with the right train, I can coast for 30 miles. Unit trains and intermodal are the best candidates, as a slop assed drag freight with all sorts of cushion draft gears, etc. is asking for trouble. You are pretty much using the roller coaster principle, gliding down one sag and having the train push you up the other side. As for coming down the 2.2% in just dynos, I have my doubts. 2 Dash 9's can't control a 7000 ton train down my hill and it's only 1.8% at its worst. And on the former DMIR, 3 SD40's dynos aren't nearly enough coming down the 2% of Mintac Hill. Sure, you use them, but along with a properly timed brake pipe reduction.
But when you have things set up right and the trainis running itself, you can put your feet up, blow for the crossings, acknowledge the alerter, and enjoy the ride.
Those that run down longer and/or steeper hills may have more to add to this.
-- Edited by BlackDog on Sunday 5th of January 2014 01:04:01 PM
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Some people say I have a bad attitude. Those people are stupid.
I thought of making this a new topic but it fits in real well right here and that is "brake-shoe smoke". I managed to find a few pictures of mine where there is "very-notacible brake-shoe smoke". All are associated with the last mile or so of coming downgrade. At Skykomish it's a 2.2% that levels out for about a mile and westward trains going from full dynamic to coasting and using the brakes and creating the brake-shoe smoke for a short while. The "English Hill" on the BNSF Bham sub north of Everett has always been an obstacle for the "underpowered" south bound freight. A short hill of maybe 2 miles but it slows a train up going southbound to a crawl over the years. Going down English Hill you can be doing 50-60 mph without really trying until you hit that curve at the bottom at Silvana and the brakes are on hard creating considerable brake-shoe smoke. The other example is in my old hometown of Bham where there was ruling 1.1% grade leaving northward. Southbound freights could come down the Bham Hill a little hot and create some brakeshoe smoke. Rare pictures.
-- Edited by The Krink on Monday 6th of January 2014 03:00:31 AM
You may have seen some CP SD40-2's with the dynamic brake "blister".
The CN dint need SD40-2's "with dynamic brake blisters" because they
are blessed with the flatest railroad in North America. The whole million
miles of trackage in Canada has no grade more than 1%. Then they
bought the Illinois Central which is flat as a pancake with a locomotive
fleet with no locomotives with dynamic braking because it has no hills.
The PGE/BCRAIL had a shitload of hills and need for dynamic braking
and a brave motive power fleet that could handle it. But one day CN
shut it down except for one train a day on the PGE/BCRAIL. So
a whole bunch of BCR locomotoives became on the market
and many interesting railroad pictures of them just about
anywhere in North America.
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If you are in a horror movie, you make bad decisions, its what you do.
Getting back to "coasting" I saw a great example of it on the UP across
Sherman Pass in Wyoming. I spent a couple days between Cheyenne
and Granger on a video mission. This one coal train was down to a
crawl for the entire 10 minute video getting over some serious
uphill. Bunch of GE's chugging their hearts out dragging this coal
train up the hill but never lost a beat. End that shot and get ahead
of the train aways and things are totally different. Where I shoot from
next this UP coal train that was doing 13-14 mph not so long ago
now its on a "free-ride" not making a sound if it werent for some
noisy joints from a cross-over switch at 40mph or more. The gas
was off on those locomotives and they can make track speed easy.
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If you are in a horror movie, you make bad decisions, its what you do.