In my neck of the woods the seaboard airline railroad now CSX.Well close to my old high school.There is a siding in indian trail n.c.This town is located between the the town of monroe n.c. and the city of charlotte n.c.For years the rail road has had trouble with more train and not enough track.The siding is now been lengthen to 3 miles now.Enough to put a fair sized train if things get backed up.And to think it only took 50 years to do it.
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Seaboard. I used to live in Matthews NC - just down the street from Monroe.
I have several good memories of railfanning that dark territory line. And I witnessed first hand issues with track warrants causing two trains to do a mexican stand-off at the block limits until dispatch figured a way to back one up and clear.
I could catch at that time (1993-1999) some interesting liveries including Chessie, Seaboard, and the nearby shortline Chester and Lancaster.
Three miles is a good sized siding.
There was a washout in Charlotte one day that sent a CSX unit into the wash below. Lots of film coverage of the moment the tracks let go. Thankfully the crew has left the unit prior to the collapse underneath.
Anyways, I'm at the crossing in downtown Matthews and sure enough see a Chessie Unit running long hood forward with the damaged engine in tow (with mud still on the nose of the CSX unit) go by. .... I raced to the next crossing at what can only be described as ludicrous speed and was able to catch the rather poor pics below. I believe this is 1997.
Thanks for the update on one of my old stompin grounds.
Paul
Paul
Conrail Dispatcher tried to put my three mile long train on a two mile long siding long ago. I notified them multiple times as to our train length. Their paper work said different so who was I (the engineer) to tell them. After that fiasco they ordered me to take the a restricting signal at NK Tower at Oak Island with 5 minutes left on the clock. We outlawed while stretched thought 3 interlockings. They had multiple crews outlaw waiting for a relief crew to get to us in the middle of a snow storm. This ranked up there with when they ordered me to leave South Kearny on the Mail Train with three units without any fuel in the fuel tanks. As it was stated "You only have 3 cars, what do you need fuel for?" Sometimes it takes a little while for the Dispatchers to figure it all out.
Forest
2019 saw them finally build a short line siding about a mile or little more long in my area in South Jersey. Refinery, trash to steam plants, and a couple of other businesses has increased their traffic. Managing that traffic by parking a gondola train or sometimes a mix on the siding has helped.
It took them 50 years to this, too. It was a double line back when with one line for commuter service that was torn out over the years.
The railroads still keep the economy going.
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