Glad I came across this video! Very nice to see a full, unedited cab ride on a US rail carrier. Plenty of them from Europe and other places, but seems hard to find similar for mainline US. Appreciated that there was no commentary, no music, no edits; just the ride. So thank you! And hopefully more will come out!
Thanks for posting this video....It brought back some great memories for me being a conductor on this route...We would start out In acca yard and end up yarding the train in newport news yard...Thank you again for posting it.
Brings back some old memories of when I rode the C&O Fast Flying Virginian from Ashland, KY to Norfolk, VA back around 1955. We had to take a C&O ferry boat from Newport News to Norfolk. Thanks again for posting this.
Yes, but my trips on the C&O always started at the old Ashland, KY depot before it became a bank. Rode the old C&O on trips to Detroit, MI and Lexington, KY; even took several special trips to Cincinnati, OH to the old ballpark where the Reds used to play.
This shows Norge station where it was before being moved next to the library near the bridge overpass nearby. It's now a museum with a caboose off of Croaker Rd.
Thanks for posting this, I've been staying in the Hampton Roads area for 2 years now and its interesting to watch the NEC from here and its curious to watch the line. Especially that far back I still think 2003 is not that long ago, but its 14 years! I was looking at the scenery in Williamsburg and everything is still there except 1:22:26 the cantilever has been replaced by modern signal posts, 1:23:05 the grade crossing across HWY 143 is gone and so are the buildings along HWY 60 on the other side. 1:23:12 the shack off to the right is now a 7 eleven store and the motel block further up is gone and replaced by Riverside Hospital tucked way in the back. The signals at LEE hall have been upgraded to modern posts and rearranged but its still a signal hub.
Geez, how utterly depressing. 25 minutes to get from Staples Mill Road station to Main Street station? When I rode it back in 1967 it was a double-track Main Line all the way from Hampton Roads to Richmond. Now the former Hampton Roads station is the Newport News station, the Newport News station doesn't have tracks running to it any more, and Lee Hall isn't even a station stop any more.
No need to remind me; I am shocked that AMTRAK - or Amazon for that matter - did NOT put a VRE station in the old RF&P intermodal facility between Crystal City and Alexandria. VRE uses the tracks, and there is even space to put such a station in the shopping center where the yard used to be! (Why did I bring up Amazon? HQ2 is - literally - just north of the space in question - Potomac Yards.)
@@PGHammer21A I worked at the old Southern Railway yard in Alexandria in the mid 80’s and stayed in a house across the street from the Amtrak station there. I went up there because I was laid off from my Sou. Ry. job in NC, and I couldn’t believe how many trains came in and out of Pot yard in a 24 hour period! The place was basically a funnel through which moved pretty much all rail traffic between the northeast and southeast, and was used by Conrail, Southern, RF&P, C&O, B&O, D&H etc.. Used to love to sit at Crystal City and watch the action! Still can’t believe it’s all gone!
@@tomt9543 RF&P owned the tracks between Richmond & Alexandria, they probably made more money from pulling someone else's freight than from running their own.
@@checkyoursix5623 Oh they were a running railroad for sure! If memory serves correct, all their even numbered road engines faced north, the odd numbers south! Another unique practice was sticking switchers in engine consists if they were short on road engines! RF&P bought their switchers with trucks geared for mainline service! Really a shame the “Run Fast & Push” is gone!
Very cool and entertaining. I've never been on the Amtrak, but live close to Newport News. Lee Hall and the Newport News station are two of my favorite train watching places. I've never realised how much of the Newport News area is single track. I'm very surprised that no westbound coal trains met you on that run. Looking forward to seeing more of your footage.
Yes I too enjoyed the country freight train ride, listening to Alan Jackson and viewing the lovely scenery. People like to rush here and rush there but this ride was a nice pace to travel on rail. Lots of cross roads, over bridges. You do like sounding that train horn, don't you USA?
❤ it ! I live in Richmond. Saw "crossings" that I stop for on a weekly basis! Nice video, but who the heck was that talking so much ??? Have they ever heard of the word - HUSH ?! 😊
Thanks for posting, brought back some memories. I was a qualified T&E employee from Baltimore to Richmond on CSX in that era. I had to go to Fulton yard a few times to get a coal train (yard at the end of the James River Viaduct), but was never officially qualified past South AY, always got a pilot. So I never saw the railroad east of the Fulton yard office area. Not very scenic is it? Really sad it takes over 30 minutes to get from Greendale station to past Fulton Yard, but for one train a day each way not really worth the money to upgrade and bypass a lot of the yard stuff. Was Doug Ridell the engineer? He's a great guy if it was him.
Interesting video, one of these days I'm gonna take a cross country trip on the train, guess I'd better bring a good book it'll take a while! Still, it's something few Americans experience.
@@amtrakamerica1913 it might have been a k5h i mean i cant tell because im not that good at guessing but its somwhere in there maybe a really fouled up k5la. Usually though k5la's have a bit more lighter sounding note
This is a cab-ride in an Amtrak passenger train. Starting a passenger train is always gradual for the comfort of patrons who may be walking in the train car aisles. Note that the first signal bridge is YELLOW which signifies a maximum speed of 40 miles-per-hour prepared to stop short of the next signal, and that the next signal is a red-over-yellow signifying crossing-over to another main track at the prescribed speed being prepared to stop short of the next signal, which is "all red" (red over red over red). Pay attention to that signal when the bottom signal changes and goes red-over-red-over-yellow! I do not like the way they re-built the tracks due to railroad mergers and I definitely do not like their signal system. I also do not like the air horn habits of this engineer but modern train operations have changed greatly from when I was a locomotive engineer! Also notice the great speed handicap that Amtrak has today which did NOT exist during the days of steam and pre-Amtrak! This is not railroading at its best!
Departing Richmond this train was following something slow for some time. Also, don't assume that things were waster back in the day. Most terminal areas were low speed operations (15-30mph).
Things have gradually improved over the years as money was put in to improve service.. less coal service and better track allowing 75 to 80 mph on some stretches. Richmond has and continues to be a very slow area
What exactly do you mean air horn habits? I heard nothing wrong, in fact he did a pretty good job of trying to quill the horn sometimes which is pretty hard with a button. Man i wish they still had levers for that sorta thing
FYI...at 1:32:30...it's Oriana...not Orina. Not trying to be a jerk or minutia freak...just thought I'd point that out. But that doesn't take anything away from this being a great video. I'm glad you posted it Mike.
@Ethan McDowell -- The bug splat is at 40:19 and it's the only thing that happens, making it the video subject, besides moving the camera at 1:02:19, so the bug smash is now on the left side where it remains, all the way to the end of the video! So the video should be titled, *Amazing Bug Splatter on Windshield **40:19** Gets Moved at **1:02:19** -- Stay Tuned for Sequel!*
The interlocking you called AY is actually NA. The one you called South AY is actually AY. Hermitage Road (the first time you called one Hermitage Road) is actually South AY... the second one you called Hermitage Road actually was Hermitage Road. The intermediate they went by after Hermitage is called Dog Pound. Most of those signals at Fulton are gone now. Heading the way they were now it's just Coney Island -> R Cabin (with no cabin anymore) -> Darbytown.
I've seen freights do faster over the road. This engineer was certainty not in a hurry. Never seen one that drug his feet quite so much. I notices a track speed sign of sixty five and the engineer kept it a 35 or 40. Remind me never to ride this train. It's a wonder why Amtrak trains are late most of the time with timid engineers such as this one. I don't think he ever reached sixty!
nishioka.com/trainmap/fm8_qz7wrhk.html is a page i wrote which shows the current position of this train on Google Maps. It also shows speed and elevation.
I love watching American cab rides after watching British and European cab rides. Obviously, those 'across the pond' do not understand that passenger service should be limited to 35 mph or that American passenger trains travel as far side-to-side as they do forward on any given day.
@@PositionLight That's a British term and practice. They usually have a station person on the platform to signal to the driver when it is OK to depart (usually by blowing a whistle).
Possibly a stupid question, but why every so often does the locomotive make a "thud...thud...thud...thud" noise almost like an unbalanced washing machine? It happens several times throughout the trip, is it the air compressor or something? Or just a phenomenon that occurs when the diesel is at a certain RPM?
@Adam M -- That would be the lone passenger pounding on the cabin door trying to tell the conductor to do something exciting because he's bored out of his mind.
