Norfolk Southern East Bound -Rural Ivesdale, Illinois (144 Cars)

Wabash Cannonball 2020 version..Thanks for posting!

Looks like a train from the 1970's playbook on the SP Sunset Route

Nice catch! 

That is really an awesome consist right there!!! Very cool video!!

Nice catch. NS does run some monster length trains through and out of Decatur on a regular basis.

Rusty

Watched it all the way through, very good video.  

Nice video - did everyone notice that "most" all the cars had some type of graffiti

sprayed on their lower sides? 

Thanks N&W 1218 for a great video. As an "O" gauge 3 rail model railroader in the land down-under (Australia), can I ask what the "stacked" objects were on the flat cars.

Don't get to see things like that on our freight trains.....normally any freight that long is a coal train approx. 2 km's long coming from "outback" open-cut mines to the shipping ports on the coast here in sunny Queensland.

Peter (Buco Australia) 

The flats are carrying automobile/ light truck frames on their way to assembly plants. It is likely the boxcars have some of the associated parts and stampings; the autoracks are probably en route to the assembly plants to receive the most recent output.

What I noticed was the low number of old Conrail marked cars and the much higher number of even older GT (light blue) marked cars.

Thanks for posting this.

Chuck

One aspect of this train that I've often wondered with other manifest freights is the blocking of the consist. For example, you see the flatcars carrying vehicle frames spread out through the train. It would appear on the surface that they're all headed to the same destination, and would thus be all clustered together in one block (much like the 86-foot boxcars on the head end). I've seen the same curiosity in another "really long train" video, this time a manifest with several distinct cuts of flatcars carrying pipe loads:

(BTW, anyone else think the MTH flats modeling the ones in the above video thumbnail come up a wee bit short in the diameter of their pipe loads? all the real-life examples I've seen look like the ones above)

---PCJ

This train is grossly long!  (144 is a gross!)

But there has to a cost in time and money to build and break up a train this size.  Can the yards take it?  Doubling and trippling to build.  At least in Houston, UP Englewood would choke!  And if you have a breakdown mid train, ouch!  Are passing sidings long enough for two of these monsters to pass?

Thanks Uberstationmeister:

I stopped the video at around 1:38 and studied the load.......you are so right......chassis of some description. Like I said, we don't have freight loads like that here in Australia.

It is mostly "container" cargo to regional towns from the major shipping ports....no heavy industry use of trains within Australia. Just the long coal trains feeding shipping ports to get the stuff to China.

Peter......Buco Australia

What aboit irone ore in Down Under?  Unit trains for thr ore?

Hey Dominic:

Yeh, we do have mile-long ore trains here as well, but that is on the other side of Australia - the western side, where the population is sparse. I live on the eastern side where the majority of Australian's live, and especially so in Queensland, where we are famous for our huge open-cut coal mines. These are the trains I get to see.

Peter (Buco Australia)

Been to Ivesdale many times.  Great morning location for east bounds!  I like Sadorus as well....

Very nice video, I really liked it.  Thanks for sharing.

Check out Virtual Railfan on the tube.

https://www.youtube.com/channe...kT9bq-1N2BvrsBjhNlag

lots of long ones.

@R Nelson posted:

Been to Ivesdale many times.  Great morning location for east bounds!  I like Sadorus as well....

There’s a siding just west of Sadorus that goes all the way to the Sloan elevator. It’s named after my Dad. “RUMPLE” siding. If you have a NS timetable it’s listed also. My Dad worked for the Wabash, N&W, and retired from Norfolk Southern. After his retirement the NS honored his dedicated service of 44 years by naming a Siding after him. Ivesdale is my hometown!

Yep....I am familiar with Rumple.   I have shot many a westbound trains at the first crossing east of Rumple.    I also like the old elevator at Piatt, just east of Wiggins.     I want to get out west of Decatur on the Springfield Hannibal District, out near Lanesville, and Niantic.