FRA Approved For .0005 MPH

Just another very typical day in the short line railroad business.

That's all either Class 1 or Excepted Track, good for 10 mph. In the short line business there is rarely a need to go faster than 10, so that track will work fine for them for many years.

I should have clarified the reason for posting this. Most model railroads in relation to real railroads, have "perfect track", run at either outrageous speeds ( like mine) or presenting speeds on mainline Class One Track. And, after seeing this video, I couldn't help but think that this branchline or shortline profile with it's weed covered tracks, that is probably on a up and down profile ( The old IT comes to mind) would make for an interesting layout, one that would be unique. Although I don't know how you would model weeds on the track..or the rocking and rolling but this sort of prototype like I vaguely referred to has charm. It's typical but I have not seen it modeled as most shortline layouts have "perfect track." At a slower speed it might make the layout seem longer, and with the speed controls now available, I couldn't help but think of these things when I watched the video.

Hmmmm.... Modeling a decrepit branch line, complete with bad track and low joints every 39 feet. What a great idea!

Sounds like a good how-to article to me. Get to work!

Thank you for a rather different take on today's slow train.

In a world where your job depended on arriving plus or minus 10 minutes to your assigned delivery, watching this video was quite rewarding.

I know someone who worked on that line when it was Indiana Hi-Rail.  Apparently things haven't changed much, other than the Alcos being gone.

Sad in a way rhinking at one time it was probably a mainline with trains moving 40 MPH or so.  Then it was downgraded to a branch line, then to defferred maintance status replacing every 4th or 5th tie as needed, until reaching the state shown in video.  Even though it is excepted, I would think the FRA or who ever would step in at some point and say enough already.

Probably the cat was walking faster than the train!.  And the "Be careful" stenciled on the footbords.  Careful of what, that you might be walking faster than the train and arrive at  the desination before the train?

Don't know that I would want to be that close to the train videoing.  A rail could turnover and then things can happen quickly even at 0.005MPH IMO.

In Hi-Rail days, the ties weren't "replaced" so much as "flipped over and put back".

Why? As hard as you may find this to believe, that track is perfectly serviceable in the 10 mph world of short line railroading. Hundreds of trains run on track like that literally every day!

By its very nature, Short Line railroading is a slow-moving business. Speeds higher than 10 are not needed. Track maintenance is VERY expensive, and many short lines can barely eke out a profit even without spending money on track. That's why there are often local, state and federal grant monies available to help with track maintenance.

There is nothing for the FRA to "do" here because the operation is perfectly legal. If it is Class 1 track, they can even run passenger trains at 15 mph if they choose to. If it is Excepted Track, then no passenger operations can be run and they cannot handle any haz-mat cars. But they can still operate on the track, with the known risk of possible derailment lurking in the background.

Short line railroading is often a balancing act between spending money on track or saving that money and deferring maintenance until such time as grant money can be found. The short line operator is betting that he can run trains at slow speeds and not derail. However, if he loses that bet and has a serious derailment, the money he has to spend to clean it up AND fix the track at the derailment location might be more than he would have spent to fix the track in the first place.

If short line railroading was truly profitable, this scenario would not exist. But the little short line that moves maybe 60 cars a month and has 20 or 30 miles of track to maintain is not going to make any money. A good rule of thumb to determine if a railroad can sustain itself is that a short line needs 100 cars per mile per year to survive. Got 20 miles of track? You need 2,000 cars per year to just scrape by. I'll bet that this short line does not have that level of traffic.

Thanks Rich for clarification.