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Trains and Tractors

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Kirk in PA

04-18-2006 08:05:51

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Took this picture at Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, PA this past weekend. Can't get any better than this.....mountains, trains, and tractors. All of my favorite things in one place. There is no feeling like being 50 feet from three locomotives making 18000 horsepower going about 10 mph climbing a 2% grade.

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Mark

04-18-2006 17:43:21

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Kirk in PA, 04-18-2006 08:05:51

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! I spent 27 years of my life as an engineer for CSX..I took an early retirement 2 1/2 years ago. If you had to sit 12+ hours a day on one of those throbbing engines, finding it impossible to ever get comfortable and with a 2 way radio blaring in your ear constantly with a bunch of garbled nonsense, all the while trying to keep 30,000+ tons of train going in the right direction and hoping some idiot doesn't pull out in front of you (they always lose) and do this with little rest..I think your opinion would be different. I don't miss it for one minute! When I went to work, they were still using some of the first generation diesels bought in the early 50's (GP7's)...railroading with a 1952 locomotive is no different than trying to farm with a 1952 tractor! Those old engines were 1500 HP. The latest generation of GE and EMD loco's are 6,000, but the railroads have detuned most to 4400...to save fuel....by turning the injector pumps back (electronically controlled). That old locomotive that can be seen is a GP9..I can tell by the dynamic brake grid louvers. They were a whopping 1750 HP. We called them Jeeps and the only thing good about them...they were quick...instant throttle response because of 2 reasons, they used a load regulator response system (later system was called throttle position) and they had no turbo (zero lag). They rode good and were tough as nails. Most of CSX's old Jeeps went to Mexico...I suppose to the NdeM. Over the years, I had the privledge to see all sorts of unique items being transported....nuclear weapons was one. The Fed's had their own armored cabooses they used. It was a regular caboose covered in armor plate and the windows were just slits like an armored car...all sorts of electronic gear and antennae mounted. Enough rambling...train fascination to me is like tractor fascination to a guy who has made his living glued to the seat of tractor for the last 40 years..ho-hum! But for the guy on the outside looking on...I understand it. By the way, that countryside there in Pa., looks just like it does here in eastern Ky.

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Kirk in PA

04-19-2006 04:41:30

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Mark , 04-18-2006 17:43:21

Mark:

I appreciate your response. I realize that railroaders do not have and easy relaxing life. My grandfather retired from the PRR in 1966 after 36 years. That's probably where I got my love for trains. I guess that any job is like that. As a kid, I LOVED cars. I have worked at one of the big three automakers for 23 years now. I have been in engineering most of that time and have even been a test engineer testing sports cars at the proving grounds. Now after all these years living with the crap that goes on, I can tell you that cars have almost no fascination for me anymore.

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Island A

04-18-2006 19:36:56

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Mark , 04-18-2006 17:43:21

Know what you mean Mark! I worked for CSX out of Baltimore for 3 years as a trainman before I had enough of the railroaders life. By the time I hired of course the Jeeps were GP38s and GP40s. For a while after the CR merger they took all our GPs from Benning yard (Washington, D.C.) and we were using the big AC units for everything. Try kicking a car with an SD80AC or AC44CW. No throttle response whatsoever.

It was a fun job for a while but in early 2002 after 33 days straight of working 12 and being called "on your rest" I decided I was going no where and quit.
Now I work 1 day off 3, shift work. NO PHONE CALLS. NO PAGER. And I dont have to lie and say I'm sick to get a day off.
No sir, do NOT miss the life of a railroader.
Dave

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Mark

04-18-2006 20:38:42

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Island A, 04-18-2006 19:36:56

Dave,
Congratulations for having the cojones to do the right thing! I hired out at Russell....hell, everybody on the CSX system has heard of Russell, Ky! It's a no-place run by a pack of ingrates..one of the trainmasters didn't know how to write! When I left, my road foreman was a man-boy I had taught how to run an engine maybe 5 years before...they like to get them like that...easier to brainwash as they blow that company smoke up their rearends. I was talking to a long time fellow engineer at a resturaunt a few days ago. He said the weed monkeys (officials) were worse than ever. He had just come in and was 4 times out....with 15 in the pool. I confess, I hated every day of it...but job opportunities were slim to none in this neck of the woods and so, I stayed with it. I actually threw my pager in the garbage! I go to bed when I get ready and never again will I hear that 2:20 a.m. phone ring..."Mista Harris, dis be da Crewcalla...got you called ona Q691 fo 4 a.m." Generally, I had just laid down at 11 p.m.! No..hell-no, I don't miss it or feel one bit of remorse for cashing that check from the RR retirement board every month!

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in-too-deep

04-18-2006 14:05:09

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Kirk in PA, 04-18-2006 08:05:51

A few years ago I rode an Amtrak on those rails, around horseshoe curve. I was traveling from Northern Illinois to Philidelphia to see relatives. I was pretty young, probably 10 or so, and I didn't really appreciate the trip I was on. I'd love to do that again.

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grub0927

04-18-2006 11:02:42

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Kirk in PA, 04-18-2006 08:05:51

I have stood in that very spot while on a trip to PA a few years ago. The RR museum in town is first rate as well. You're right about the thunder of those locomotives. In the museum you get hear what it's like to buck rivets inside a boiler with no earplugs- deaf in three weeks!
Thanks for the photo!

Grub

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Bob

04-18-2006 10:46:39

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Kirk in PA, 04-18-2006 08:05:51

That low-res photo on Today's tractors doesn't do justice to that photo!

Would you be willing to share a link to a higher res photo, or email me a copy? I've GOT to have that one in my wallpaper collection!

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Paul In On

04-18-2006 10:59:51

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Bob, 04-18-2006 10:46:39

If you can put a link up, the less you have to email. I wouldn't mind one either. Paul

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Bob

04-18-2006 20:20:58

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Paul In On, 04-18-2006 10:59:51

I checked my email, 2 messages! Yippee! Thought perhaps it was the photos, but, alas, a credit card offer, and and ad for kids video games!

I hope he will either post a link to the photos, or email them, as they are GREAT!

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CB in central NY

04-18-2006 09:50:02

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Kirk in PA, 04-18-2006 08:05:51

Great photos! I am a big railfan and feel like I"ve lost a friend every time a rail line is abandoned or torn up. Railways are a great means of transport (both for people and goods) and with gas going for $3.30 a gallon it"s time for rail travel to make a big comeback.

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JDknut

04-18-2006 09:33:01

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Kirk in PA, 04-18-2006 08:05:51

Way cool, thanks for the pics

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Tim Shultz

04-18-2006 08:13:51

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Kirk in PA, 04-18-2006 08:05:51

there is a RR track right back of my house.. I see a train full of tractor go by about every othere week.. pretty cool to watch all of them $$ go by.. lol
Tim Shultz

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Kirk in PA

04-18-2006 08:07:31

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Kirk in PA, 04-18-2006 08:05:51

Another Shot

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Harley

04-18-2006 08:24:40

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Re: Trains and Tractors in reply to Kirk in PA, 04-18-2006 08:07:31

That is pretty cool, especially if you have ever driven a truck through Pennslomania and tried to figure out how they ever got tracks over all those southwest to northeast running mountains. Harley

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