[3N] If You Like Railroad Dramas, This Is for You! Hull - Comer, GA, 08/20/2016 ©mbmars01 

I'm a retired 40-year CSX Locomotive Engineer. I was a former Conrail employee, this so-called drama in this video is everyday business on today's CSX. The complete operation is a cluster you know what. We use to have a saying about CSX management "Screw up, move up". It's gotten worse now that lawyers are controlling everything.

It is all perspective. Railfanning with drama provides an interesting view of how the railroad works. Given the parameters, the dispatcher worked it out quite efficiently. Thanks to your coverage, I had a pretty good seat for the event.

Train drama is like watching oil paint to dry. But I still keep watching it.

Things break, priorities change, crews get short on time...just another day on the railroad. Interesting how he moved his traffic around but he got the job done in the end. Liked the commentary, and your choice of shots as well. Very enjoyable! Thanks!

Am I the only one who misses cabooses??

I am a retired control center operator from a major North American crude oil pipeline, and I got most of this ... enjoyed it a lot. Too bad I didn't see the final outcome!!

Your trains are MASSIVE compared with ours in the UK!

For those of us who have spent many hundreds of hours on this magnificent railway in Train Simulator (one of the early Microsoft Train simulator routes, it's still a pleasure in Train Simulator) and it's various variations, this movie is a real gem. We've all been here many times before !!!! Thanks for a great movie.

I am a train fan. I grew up beside the local goods yard but this is like watching paint dry.

My uncle was a switchman for Southern Pacific Railroad for 40 years. He hated to ride in cabooses. It was a sudden jerk when it got started rolling and a big jerk when it stopped. He used to say if you weren't ready for it, it would knock you off your feet or off your seat. Every coupling takes up slack when the train moves either forward or backwards. 100 rail cars taking up about a 10 inch slack space each equals one hell of a jerk at the back. This slack is necessary for the train to start pulling one car at a time so the first hitch doesn't snap off.

When the crew hits 12 hours, all movements stop if on the main. Sadly, have seen it happen too many times on Amtrak. When CSX does track work, almost all of the crews will go dead at some point.

I sit here in at my computer in Milton Keynes in England (between Birmingham and London) watching your videos utterly fascinated. I used to be a driver on the route from Rugby to London on electric units. The largest freights we ever see are our intermodal services which load to about 30 or 40 trucks, usually hauled by either single Class 66 or Class 70. The 66 is our specially built version of your EMD JT42CWR model while the 70 is a GE model PH37ACmi. They really are weedy little things compared to the monster trains you have there ! I only found your channel quite recently and I have to say I thoroughly enjoy your videos. Thank you for all the hard work you put into them.

I've loved TWAINS since I was a little boy.

Who could do without all that Graffiti? It's a Railroad tradition to have all that art work displayed.......

I can relate. Sort of. Back in the day, I worked for the defunct SP. Houston was the terminal. I worked the 'local' from Houston to my turn around, Hearne. The timetable scheduled us to leave Inglewood Yard Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 5 A.M. More often than not, I was not called out until 5 P.M. and after picking up the engine and caboose at Hardy Street and picking up our train at Inglewood, we might not leave until some five hours later. The Hog Law was sixteen hours then and there were times when we tied up in the side track at Bryan, twenty miles from our destination. That would be late 60's/early 70's.

Only heard bleeps until know. The whistle going on for the whole crossing of a street this close is amazing. Awesome

how tomorrow moves... cuz it ain't movin' today...

That fluster cluck is a classic example of the Right Hand not knowing what the Left Hand is doing .

more entertaining than the fall cbs line up

I gave up watching the grass grow, to watch this. What a good thing.!!! DA !!!

I used to do a lot of work for Canadian Pacific Rail. My work had to do with their computers and logistics. Those guys working the tracks really earn their pay. These guys on the ground are the ones keeping railways running from sea to shining sea

Don't know what it is but there's something about the design of these particular engines I just love. Still blows me away how much they can haul behind them.

That dispatcher may just have a future as an air traffic controller! :D

Thanks for sharing. Looks like it was a long day. I used to live in Lawrenceville, GA about two miles from where this line passes Briscoe field. Had some great fun chasing trains between Lawrenceville and Winder, and sometimes on to Bogart.

With these 9000 foot behemoths, short of two miles, it takes the guy nearly 40 minutes to walk that distance. Adding the caboose back into the mix could be considered as a safety measure.

As a former Norfolk Southern employee this is a everyday thing with the long trains & especially the man getting a drawhead. I’ve re-crewed a train & never turned a wheel because of the shit storm going on. Thanks, great video

Makes you wonder how anything gets delivered at times.

Thanks for the video. I never thought I would see a huge train move forward then have to back into a siding has this happen before. CSX has problems at times. I appreciate your work.

Well, at least at 7:08, the conductor paid attention to the "Stop here on red" sign!

The signs of trouble have been visible of the many problems at CSX for quite sometime and now it seems thats all about to come to a head,replacements crews or not. Great video my friend,thanks for the share!

My gosh, what a cluster of trains, trains and more trains!

Well! What can I say. I have been a railway / railroad fan all my life, but I never seen anything as awesome as this. We rarely have or hear of dramas such as this in the U.K. Great video footage though! Thanks for sharing and definitely worth watching. Best wishes. C.Davenport (Aberdeen) N.E. Scotland U.K.

Looks a normal day on the CSX. The big drama is where is the top for car # 499125, the rolled steel transport car. Seems the CSX is making it's own drama trying to run too many trains on a single track mainline. Thanks for the video.

Expertly done MB! You captured the true essence of railroad drama. Moving huge amounts of freight over a single track with all sorts of rules and regs to follow. Yet it gets done and done right!

At last, I can see (@ 5:28), where the loco chime coms from… I thought it was somewhere on the roof

I heard those similar situations happened on the BNSF this past summer. That's why I love listening to chatter on the main lines.

A frustrating day for you turned into one of the more interesting railfan videos I've seen lately thanks to your careful storytelling. A very insightful video for us less than hardcore railfan types!

Thinking they had major track damage, did a temp fix to get trains going, got a backlog of 6 trains, then had to jockey them all past the damage one at a time putting the others on sidings in somewhat complicated dance of sorts, NICE video !

mbmars01,thanks this old man in a wheel chair thanks you.

I worked for Union Pacific on the Desoto/ Chester/PeaRidge Subdivision as a locomotive engineer for 12 years from 1974-1986. I have to say that I had many a days like this were a engine cylinder failure, oil every were on a Ge U30 C . 1 of 4 shot craps and you were going up a 2% grade for 30 miles now with 3 units when you needed 4 for 50 cars of iron ore , 100ton hoppers. Running 2200 amps notch 8 sanders on just waiting for wheel slip and then the traction motors our so hot you can smell the armatures burning . You have to start throttling down have the head brakeman drop off and cut 25 cars to make up the hill. Set them out in a down hill siding 15 miles away set 5 hand brakes on the head end and 5 on the rear end . Run around your half of a train a go back and get the other cut of cars with a caboose and set that out on the main line. Set 5 hand brakes on the head end and 5 on the rear end. Run back into the siding and couple back into the cut of cars have the head brakeman release the 5 hand breaks on the head end and the rear brakeman release the 5 handbrakes on the rear end. After everyone is in the clear put the reverser in reverse and throttle in notch 1 with independent brake on and charge the cut of cars. Then you had to use the pea shooter because at that time we didn’t have dynamite breaking on the older units. Once you got stoped, call the dispatcher get permission to proceed thru the absolute red signal on the main line have the brakeman 104c the interlock switches, then he or she aboard’s the cut of cars reconnecting the train and releasing the 5 hand brakes and the rear brakeman releases the 5 rear hand brakes . Charge the brake pipe use the pea shooter get a minimum reduction and the poor rear end has to deal with the run in and out. I preferred to power brake down the hills with just a minimum reduction and keep the train stretched to provide a comfortable ride for the rear end. It also made my job easy in controlling the speed at 40 mph right there by just throttle up or down especially for the 22 mile 2% down grade with a absolute signal just around a curb. But in 1986 they had a $50,000 buy out and I took it and went to school and became a robotic engineer and controls programmer. So on your newer engines the touch screen that you use for the display and controls would be something that I would design and the PLC on the SD40-2 would be something that I would program, also I would design the electrical schematics and control wiring size and color. Now I didn’t do this on locomotives I’m just using it as a example what a robotic engineer does. I am now disabled but for those of you that are young don’t think that the Railroad will be a lifelong job. Not to scare you but I been out of the programming business for 8 years. The future is the locomotive will operate by its self and a very low payed employee will sit were you are and just be there for a emergency. From a remote location a engineer can operate 5 to 10 trains in the future everything you see here will see like the dispatchers control center. I am positive that I could do this. So if I could do this it is or has been already in the works or will be. The best advice is to live within your means and get a technical degree online to prepare you for that day of reckoning. When I became a robotic programmer my intentions were to make the job less stressful for the operators. But business took advantage of the automation and instead of having a operators of 25 to 50 people they were replaced by a $50,000.00 GE Fanuc rebuilt robots from the automobile industries. The 50 people were replaced by a control room operator with monitors and cctv. From my home I could remote into the plant and troubleshoot a failure or program a call to a maintenance company and display on a touch screen the SOP on how to remove and replace the part were it was located in the inventory. Now this was 8 years ago and the plant is a dark plant meaning that their is only a security guard on duty and minimum lighting. So when Trump tells you that he is going to bring jobs back he may bring a company back but it will be fully automated. For the 21to 30 year olds this is going to be a real crisis because there will be very limited employment and unless we develop new jobs that require manual labor your working is in real jeopardy. I am sorry to have to tell you this but your jobs or not safe. I really enjoyed the power of being a locomotive engineer but I just got burned out with being on call jumping from engineer to fireman and back and forth. Along with the 12 hog law and 16to 20 hours getting back in to terminal. I wish all you railroader much success but work all the miles you can. Also the Union has really failed the engineers on my old division were the conductor gets more mileage then engineer. Good luck to you all

I love your videos, but I have just a small complaint (or suggestion, if you wish). Your commentary tags don't stay up long enough to read. Great stuff, but it's a pain in the ass to have to pause, go back, find, then freeze and read. How about leaving them up a bit longer to give us older folks a chance, eh? Thanks, Rich

Looks like a typical CSX (Chicken Shit eXpress) move. I ran trains for them in the 90s and I recall once being on the engines for 14 hours (12 is going on the law) without pulling the throttle. Sometimes it just works that way. However when you rip up sidings, make all your sidings passing sidings (in theory because in order to do that your trains need to fit), make your trains long (saves money because they use less crews and rolling steel wheels get good fuel mileage) sure you are able to cut cost and increase profits. Only problem is when you plan on the minimum then when something happens you have nowhere to give. CSX likes to gamble and play the odds. I recall another time where the dispatcher put 2 opposing trains at the same siding without checking their lengths. He must have been new. Wow was that a mess. Only way it was fixed was by cutting the train on the main, with one behind it cutting away from theirs then dragging the extra cars back 10 miles to another siding and dropping them for another train to pick up days later. I'm sure it happens on all roads, just seems like CSX has perfected it.

Your videos are top-notch great angles, clean shots, excellent editing, along with pertinent information with scanner audio and on screen graphics. Keep up the good work.

A bad day on the rail is still better than a good day in the office.

I'm a 41 year retired CSX engineer. I watch this video, too much realism for me. My ulcers are acting up. I don't know how surivided 41 years.

Watching these giant majestical trains move is curiously therapeutic!......I feel better already! ( I live in the UK where trains are 5 feet long and pass by in 10 seconds)....great vid; thanks.

Thanks for the video. It's interesting to see what's going on in other parts of the world.Are trains limited in length due to siding size? The longest ore train I've seen was about 7,000 metres long (Just under 23,000 feet)

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry! Railfans included! LOL But you saved the for us and that is much appreciated. I always learn something from your videos, you know.

You have good camera techniques and interesting shots.

Really great video!! Lots of trains in this video! And to be honest, 2016 was way better than 2021 because of some nice locomotives that I missed and no longer used.

#16 has an AWESOME horn! 😀

I live 5 miles from this rail and this show. Wow!

6:36 longest horn blow I’ve ever heard

Man, Somebody is not having a good day. And this all started it off going down the road when you spotted Q667-19 then you have to turn around and finish working on a switches on Hull Siding. Then the malfunction gate. I'm not going no further than this. That's crazy. But other than that. No accidents which is a very good after all. Oh by the way, This is the first time I saw a tanker train with 6 wheel axles Carried by Q667-19. That's pretty cool. Keep up the good work.

Beautifully done ! What patience and what a camera ! Thanks !

You have some excellent videos. I am subscribed now. You are my new favorite mood videos while I'm in my train room !! Thanks

I allways wanted to know where that ding sound came from in freigth train thxxxxxx

I LOVE trains. And Firetrucks.

Why is this called a "Drama"? Isn't that being over Dramatic?

That was so good I had to go back and watch it all again.

Thumbs up as always! 🦃 🦃

Great Train Video...Thumbs Up! 👍👍👍

Another really good video! epic problems on that line..enjoyed the whole thing..keep up the great stuff!

great video! and no you are not the only one that misses the caboose (azzir325). I do too, it is not the same! there were so many different kinds off cabooses colors and shapes. it`s like the end was cut off the train, not the same anymore.

about like watching grass grow, they need a new dispatcher , its easy to see why BN and UP are the prevailing rr's

At 14:10, the reason for the rush to get a car carrying autorack consist thru is due to 2 things, unloading of the auto's and getting them onboard a RORO ship before the low tide and get it underway on the high sea's. Ships have deadlines also. I would guess these are Mercedes out of Vance, Al. headed for the Port of Brunswick, GA.

#16 with a real bell, awesome!

I really like your videos I'm in the UK where locomotives are nothing like the beasts in the USA.

I loved the part where the crooked mayor got nailed! But really surprised they got Dirk Benedict to play the engineer for Q675-19. His acting was right on point, especially when challenged by Johnny Depp as the conductor of q210-19! Did they use CG for the fight scene? They should have used a few more fusees though. . .

Excellent videography. Kinda reminds me of the way Trains Magazine videos told a story. Nice job.

Great shots my friend. Thanks for sharing!

One of the wonderful creation by Earthians. I like this.

Thumbs up to you. Great video! Thank you. I don't think I could have taken the whole 6 hours myself.

Re the comment below from azzir325, yes, I was going to say "what no caboose"? How come? Very interesting look at the experiences of American railway crews, and the only people I envy, oh to be on one of these fabulous machines! Great programme, thanks for sharing the experience.

That was a long train and yes I miss cabooses also.

Very nicely done video. I enjoyed watching it.

Very good camera work. Is it just me, I fail to find any"drama" here. (Yawn!) It sounded and appeared to be a typical goofy day.

Sometimes I see that one on our railroad tracks but it don't be long no more

Interesting to see such a low number 16 on that lead engine..

I really enjoy your work. I love to watch your videos for hours

I once watch a televised chess match between two chess dudes. It was at a venue with perhaps 2000 people watching. The two chess dudes were on stage and the chess board was on a big screen for the audience to see. One of the chess dude opened by moving rook something to field something other and apparently that was a highly unexpected move, because the entire audience went into a collective gasp - which made me wonder where the heck they found those people in the audience?? I've now watched 46 minutes of train video, figuring the word drama apparently has very different meanings?!?!

They never said a thing about road flares and guys with flags in drivers ed. But, the sight and sound is usually enough for me, I do slow down and look both ways.

6:36 That’s one long horn

very well done.....thanks for sharing

7:35 when your crossing gives up.

just saw this - well done summarizing this and editorializing what is occurring to make it entertaining.

Really enjoyed this ... just "GREAT" all around ! *right down down too the editing !!

Well I missed the whole thing! I love LOVE trains....but this one stumps me. Throughout all all that came to mind was "I think I can" "I think I can'! YIKES!

CSX 7337, Was it Not A Former Conrail Loco?

love the big tankers with 2 x 6 wheel trucks !

About as much "drama", as watching paint dry!!! 🤔

I remember we had a train that stalled on the Norfolk Southern Louisville District line i railfan about 2 years ago where a local crew (NS T19) had to get this stalled train and help him into town (NS 61A) with a Ex-CSX YN2 C40-8W Leaser leading the train! I thought that was funny at the time. Just thought I'd share that.

This was awesome fun thanks!

OMG the DRAMA! My heart could hardly handle it.

Oh the drama! 😆

Learning experience .. totally cool .. Thanks

If this is what they consider "drama", I'd loathe to see what they consider boring

Great video could not understand what was going on because I can't read the tags fast enough maybe have speech commentary , very good quality picture

Great video! You must have been worn completely out after 6 hours of watching all this drama.

Good job explaining all that. Brings back some memories during my time on the CSX. We never got such new power, though. You've got a heckuva telephoto on that zoom. Really compresses the train. Thanks for posting.