Spent a weekend recently on the Tallahassee line from Madison, Florida out to Cottondale and back. Saw some BNSF's, UP's and several interesting artifacts on the line.
As someone with profound hearing loss, it is wonderful to hear such clear, precise narration. No mumbly words or fast cadences. That is greatly appreciated and because of this quality, I learned a lot. Super camera work, especially the pacing scene and the canopy of trees does, indeed, make for some super scenery. Lots of CSX's old grey units are looking rusty and beleagured nowadays, but most of them in this video look washed.
Your videos are simply so awesome ! The amount of detail, the journey to the trains, the commentaries, the sound, the visuals.. just wow! Thank you so much for your time and willing to share what you experience with everybody ! And thank you so much for all the extra information you provide, makes my day to hear your voice!
Distant Signal, honestly in my area, I hear a lot of trains in my area and the reason on why I hear a bunch of trains is because it is a double track main, and at attridge rd in Churchville, NY, when a train gets on the west shore sub, I know that there is a limited clear signal. Since I used that how to read signals video, I know that trains getting on the west shore sub near my house get a limited clear.
Whenever I had to do a meet at a manual siding, it was common courtesy for the conductor of the train holding the main to Stop at the other end and line it back for the main so the other train's conductor didn't have to walk a whole train. Of course there were the occasional times that the dispatcher did not want us stopping for any reason, short of a safety issue / emergency. But in cases where the meets were restricted to 10 MPH, a quick stop to line a switch was no big deal and saved time for everyone else. Kudos on the video Danny.
Danny...every time i hear the trains..your voice narrating..i think of that great song.."City of New Orleans"..just so mournful and full of nostalgia...thank you for such great videos...
When I lived in Tallahassee I would fan that line and you brought back a few fun spots I had forgotten about. Great stuff as always buddy and thanks for having us aboard.
Another wonderful video. Learned of the spring switch and Douglas City, both of which I wasn't aware. LOve the footage and the sound. Made my day. Thanks Danny & son.
Don't know how I missed this one, but, wow! One of my faves! You are suited for the long form, Danny. I could sit here all day watching your catches and listening to your stories. So thankful that you share your passion and knowledge, and that you've exceptional skills for this medium. Keep on keepin' on, Danny!
Danny, Excellent job on this video and on all of your train videos to-date. Your narration of what the viewer is seeing is top notch. I really appreciate the maps you have included to see where you are at and/ or what you are describing ... very beneficial. I also enjoyed your explanation of the operation of a spring switch in live action along with the constant changing of the signal at the same time. Keep up the excellent train videos and I am looking forward to your next one. Thank you. John
Sorry you got stuck on the wrong side of the siding. Stuff like that happens to me occasionally too. Also, thanks for showing that spring switch - that is really cool!
Agree. Danny makes the best train videos on RU-vid. His knowledge is spot on. I'm a retired career railroader, and he knows as much as any employee. Most foamers are wrong on half the stuff they post. Not Danny. Keep up the good work Danny
Awesome as usual Danny!!!! Your videos are second to none! Just your knowledge of the whole system is so amazing. I can watch your videos for hours on end!!!!!
When I was a young lad (circa 1960) we would drive US 90 from Jax to Tallahassee all the time. I would just watch the tracks and the signals to see what is coming or going. It was a three hour trip, but the time just flew by as I kept looking for SAL trains. Went down to Woodville (south of Tally) and they had an SAL spur at that time. I played on those tracks (long before I knew better). That spur is now a rec trail. Danny, Thanks for the memories.
Hey Mr harmon. Love your videos. I just ns 137 on my route. Columbus ga to Birmingham Alabama with ex bnsf sd70mac and i notice the spring switch as it was crossing to the main. Nice action that switch! Nice videos once again. [Csx] 😀
Thank you for the awesome vids. I live in New England and understand the ops around here, but the amount of info you include in your videos makes me feel right at home and your narration is perfect, it is not just info it is educational. I love the background history and the understanding of the traffic patterns and dispatcher's moves. Thank You
I love this stuff on the details of what it takes to a railroad function. Danny your great narration is clear as a bell. And accompanying video is technically excellent. Thank you for your effort.
Excellent, informative! Photography and narrative equal to each other in quality! Learned a great deal from this one video! We had spring switches on the Chicago Transit Authority system, and I understood them in principle, but this is really illustrative. Intriguing mechanical interconnection with its signal.
Danny, thank you so much for this video. I have never seen a diamond before and after watching this episode my fiance and I drove from Dothan AL to Cottondale to see this very one. It was so cool to be standing there seeing what we just watched on your video! We even saw a train with 6 Union Pacific Locos running East to West on the Gulf wind route. We then saw the same train out in Chipley, FL. Thank you for your videos, we love them. Don't have FB or I'd leave you a comment there.
You have an awesome channel here! I really enjoy watching, and today I learned something new! I've never heard of a spring switch before! Very ingenious!
They're very common in the mid and western United States. As stated in the video, they save time and money and lots of walking. But they can also be problematic, which is likely why the switch position indicator was installed. I don't think he really pointed it out in the video about spring switches, but the "spring" action only happens when trailing the switch, out of the siding. If you were to come up on the point of the switch, you'd still have to get out and throw it like normal, and then set it back after you were in the siding.
I haven't seen a switch go front and back. Love your video's. ☺☺🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚂
Nice to see you in my neck of the woods. I'm in Tallahassee and was working the day you came into town. Would have been great to meet the voice of Fox 13 Tampa Bay. Keep up the excellent work :-)
Excellent video, I caught that first train with the 3 BNSF engines here in Pensacola Florida on November 22 2017. Title of video is (BNSF In Pensacola)
Awesome video Danny! You are in my neck of the woods now. I work in Quincy, live five miles from Chattahoochee in the edge of Georgia. Can you imagine the wait times before they built that flyover at Chattahoochee yard. You could set there for up to an hour waiting on the train to move. I know my dad lives just south of Chattahoochee. I also like to catch trains pulling the grade out of Chattahoochee either on Atwater Road, or in Mt. Pleasant. Those coal trains can struggle pretty good with that grade, at least for Florida anyways. I have sat watched many a train in Douglas City and never knew why they were going so slow coming out of the siding. Now i know.
I’m also a big fan of mixed freight trains! It’s the unpredictable factor of what freight car may come next and what’s it’s carrying makes rail fanning so exciting!
I've seen spring switches around before, mostly on ex-DMIR trackage, but I've never sen a switch indicator bounce between red and green like that. I'm guessing that's because iron ore cars (DMIR's staple freight) are only 25 feet long and the points can't bounce back with a wheelbase that short. I did see an indicator stick on red after a train cleared once, so the next train to approach it would have to stop and inspect that switch before proceeding. I would guess that that siding is probably older than 1993, though. I'm not sure when US&S stopped making those cool old colorlight signals, but it was probably before then
That was a fantastic vid, Danny. I really enjoyed the bit about the spring switch. I've never seen one in action. As a side note I noticed a Leslie five chime mounted on the top of the SD70 at 8:21. Great work!
I have enjoyed watching your videos. I have a couple of things I wanted to add that you may not be aware of. Chattahoochee, FL has a second CSX yard where crew changes and passing takes place. It is the old Apalachicola Northern Yard. The Yard is own by Genesee & Wyoming but leased to CSX. ANRR still makes deliveries and pick ups there once or twice a week (to and from CSX). As for the Bay Line RR, there are several others that are served almost daily besides the paper mill and Arizona Chem. The Panama City Port is serviced daily. The steel pipe cars you saw my have came from the PC Port. There are several other products that go in and out of the port daily. I will leave the rest to you to investigate if you wish. Keep up the good work.
Just discovered this one now...great footage. I love Florida and go yearly to visit my son in Port Orange. Probably moving down soon. Can't wait to do more railfanning there.
Another great video! Great action, plus I learn something new with every video of yours I watch. By any chance have you done a video about your railfan set up? Questions like, what type of camera you use? What you edit on? How you get such great scanner audio? Any other equipment you use? I know I can't be the only one interested. I looked through your videos and didn't see one but I easily could've missed it. Thanks again for the great content! I thoroughly enjoy watching and listening to your videos.
Awesome spring switch. My uncle used to work for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authorities(SEPTA) and he got me in the cab of one. I got to run it about 50 yards. We to a train back to Reading Terminal in Philadelphia and that is where we rode over a switch showing normal and it was awesome.
''4 Thumbs Down'' ?????????? How could one NOT like these videos ???!!!! I'm up here in Connecticut, enjoying your videos immensely --- Especially the 6 done about how to read track signals. Can't thank you enough for that, Danny !!!! muah !!!
Thank You, When I Was Smaller I Did Not Know Anything About Trains. And Now I Know So Much From This Channel And All The Info You Provide So Again, Thanks And Keep Up The Good Work!
You could always tell when CSX trains come where I’m at. Where I’m at, they only turn on when the train is in the block and shut back off when it leaves. It turns back on later when another comes close. With Norfolk Southern, they just keep it on and the only time you know one of their trains are coming is if the yellow light is flashing or it’s green. Theirs don’t shut off when a train leaves the block.
A week day would be best!! The main train that runs to dothan is a nightly train but you can find local runs to the mill, chemical plant and port, etc. everyday and even on Saturday’s alot of the time!! It’s a great little short line with a lot of history so if you ever get around to panama and need some information I’d be glad to help..keep up the great videos!!!
Tallahassee native here. Loved seeing those beautiful wooded shots around the Lipona yard. If you want some faster traffic, you might try your luck at Weems Road and Chaires Cross Road crossings.
Saw-by...so _that's_ what that maneuver is called! As for those flatcars at the Tallahassee crossing, I think they might be TOFC's, but I'm not sure. I've never seen any up close before, since it seems only intermodal Q100s and Q200s pass by my place
Great stuff as always and the greatest view of the spring switch in action you referenced to in earlier videos Sir....The audience can’t wait for another one I will speculate at this juncture...
That was cool! I have never seen a spring switch before. Awesome video. You give me so many ideas of places to visit when I have time to go rail fanning.
Enjoyed watching this video very much Danny. I appreciate your enthusiasm with trains. And, my wife, her twin sister, and I had a great lunch at Dee Dee's Diner in Ocala two weeks ago. Didn't see any trains come through while we were there, but we enjoyed the atmosphere.
Old Spanish Trail aka US90 which leaving Tallahassee, goes North slightly but parallels I-10. Going further West you get to DeFuniak Springs. Just a little bit North of DeFuniak Springs is Britton Hill, Florida at 345 feet tall it's whats called the highest point in Florida.
North Walton county towards the Alabama state line. I spent time at Spanish Trail Scout Reservation BSA while a Scoutmaster for troop 507 which was in Mary Esther, FL.My home of record for the military.
Danny, you would be correct about the autorack flats. The tall lever-style stands on either end of each car are handbrakes, unique to autoracks specifically.
I’m assuming it’s under Track Warrant Control. We have that up here in Wisconsin on the UP ex-CNW line between Chicago and the Twin Cities. Except it’s ABS/TWC along with PTC. Sometimes the dispatcher will give instructions on the Track Warrant to the train to leave a certain switch lined for the siding.
I have seen those flat cars before. I believe the are Intermodal Flatcars where whole semi trailers are loaded up on them without splitting the boxes off the road trailers.
Great video. With all the freight traffic on that route, it will be hard for Amtrak to restore the Sunset Ltd even three days a week between Jacksonville and New Orleans, as it once ran.