F-7 crossing the main Union Pacific Line. THE HARD WAY!

I was around in Omaha about 15 years ago when the UP moved the Big Boy across the BNSF tracks to get it to its current location up on the bluff overlooking I-80.  They were using something like 40 sets of hydraulic wheels, and some of the slipped.  The huge engine was stuck on top of the BNSF line for quite awhile.  I heard BNSF wasn't too happy.

Kent in SD

This video was posted before.

video posted before,but i like it...thanks...

Thanks for the enjoyable, very well-made video!

Well done Don.  Thanks for posting.  Did they get the temp tracks off the mainline in time or was Amtrak delayed?

I saw this awhile ago and thought it was interesting. Thanks for posting.

scale rail posted:

Don't know if I ever posted this on the forum. Just before we moved off the mainland I did a video for the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento California. While filming in the back shops someone came up to me and said "you should film this". Vicky and I ran out and this is what we filmed. It has more than a million and half hits on YouTube. Enjoy. Don

I've seen the video several times and really like it. I didn't make the connection that you were the one who shot it. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Interestingly enough, the old "round warehouse" in New Jersey (as I recall) used a similar technique in a "folding crossing" to allow equipment to cross a pair of complicated switch arrangements.

Joe, those guys have done this more than once. If you notice they don't have to even talk to each other about the job. Loved watching them work. Real railroad men. Yes the Amtrak Train made it on time. Matt, talk about a fast shoot. Vicky my wife did the sound and we had to run everywhere to get those shots. Fun shooting. Don

If I'm not mistaken there is a one-way low speed diamond there now.

Matt Kirsch posted:

If I'm not mistaken there is a one-way low speed diamond there now.

Please explain "one way". Do you mean that equipment can only cross in one direction, i.e. not being able to return back into the railroad museum?

Jack, I have seen the term used in Trains magazine to describe a crossing that only has flangeway grooves in the "High Speed " track and not on the crossing track, where the flanges just bounce over the high speed rails.

Doug

Great video. How'd you get over there to film this? I was at CSRM once and they were moving a few cars and a locomotive across the main, and they wouldn't let the public anywhere near that crossing. I couldn't make out how they were doing anything as we all had to stand right at the edge of the main turntable. Nobody was getting over to the shop area, either. This was in 2005, though...

Lee, it's one of the best old railroad shops I have ever been in. What a treasure trove.  We were doing a video for them so I could go anywhere. Loved it. First shot is me on the left shooting the Army switcher on the transfer table. Don

challenger3980 posted:

Jack, I have seen the term used in Trains magazine to describe a crossing that only has flangeway grooves in the "High Speed " track and not on the crossing track, where the flanges just bounce over the high speed rails.

Doug

Sorry, I meant to say that there  are flange grooves FOR the high speed route, not IN the high speed rails.

 I can't recall the exact issue of TRAINS, but I believe it was the article about Diamonds, "Diamonds are NOT a a Railroads Best Friend", or something similar to that, in which I read about the High Speed/Low Speed Diamonds.

Doug

Thanks, Don!  Great to see ... glad you re-posted this.  Worth looking at multiple times.  

Great video, Didn't see it before but glad you reposted it. 

I've seen this before too. Even more amazing now to hear the story of how it was shot.

Thanks for sharing.

They have a special diamond in there now, I was just there a couple weeks ago. trains magazine did a good job of pictures and description, so i never thought of taking a photo.

Clem