That particular type of locomotive, an EMD SD40-2, used to be the most common locomotive on the North American railroad network with over 4000 built between 1972 and the late 1980s. They have been replaced in that regard by larger, more powerful locomotives and as a result have been relegated to local service and yard duties. Union Pacific rebuilt most of their SD40-2s for yard service, and one of the upgrades is a remote control capability, which is employed within yard limits only. This train was running with a 2 man crew. As for what will happen to the locomotives, 1554 clearly has a bent frame so it will likely be scrapped on site. The other two looked OK, some bumps and bruises is all. Depending on their history they may get repaired by UP, or sold off to an equipment dealer. As for the freight cars, they often get scrapped after a wreck even if they look OK. Steel is 100% recyclable so it's not a big deal, especially since there is a surplus of freight cars.
Wow. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I gotta say, for the few train related videos I've got, I've actually learned a lot from the people who have left comments on them. I'm glad the crew was not injured,, or any of the nearby residents. It's really amazing that the spot the accident happened was the perfect spot to avoid any of the residents or real property other than the rails. On a side note, I was amazed to find out the Wild West history of that crossing and the ties to the Earp family. I got some footage at Morgan Earp's grave site and Virgil Earp's house, both nearby in Colton, but I decided it was off topic and if I use it, is should be a separate video. Thanks again.
@@SoCalCreature If you look at the location on the satellite view of Google Maps, to the right of the two bridge support piers you can see what looks like an incomplete turnout built into the track the train was traveling on. That turnout is actually a derail designed to protect the crossing from a runaway or unauthorized train movement. Either the derail acted like it was supposed to, or the dispatcher controlling the junction neglected to align it correctly for the train. The engineer would have noticed the problem but not before it was too late to do anything about it, so the train derailed there. It wasn't likely to happen anywhere else along that stretch. As seen in the security video the train wasn't travelling very fast but they weigh so much that the momentum of the train overcomes any possibility of stopping the train before disaster. In the video you can hear the crunching of railcars continue even after the lead locomotives have stopped. It's an awesome amount of kinetic energy at play. I'm guessing if you start the footage about 30 seconds earlier you would probably hear the emergency air brakes being applied. It would be a loud hiss of air followed by a booming sound as the brakes are applied and train slack compresses.
When you noticed the gas line warning, there was something that goes back to the late 1980 to early 1990s that you might look up: the Southern Pacific Cajon Pass derailment and the gas line explosion in a residential neighborhood 2 weeks later. Union Pacific merged with Southern Pacific a few years later. This line is linked to the SP line that had the derailment. The gas line pipe is likely part of that same gas line that caught fire 2 weeks later after SP cleared the tracks in the neighborhood where the train derailed. That neighborhood of homes is now gone. The cause of that derailment was brake failure, caused by underestimating the total weight of the train cars and inoperable brakes on several locomotives powering the train.
Scuttlebutt says the locomotive set and cars rolled away from the West Colton Departure track unmanned. Then rolled east towards the diamond. The diamond protection derail did it's job stopping the train. Heaven forbid that derail wasn't open and that runaway train hit a Metrolink or another train at the diamond.
Yeah, I'm curios about the official report. I had another comment saying that it had 2 crew aboard. But yeah, it came awfully close to the north/south lines. You were there the first day before everything moved around. Im guessing it was about 100-150 feet from that line. I'm amazed at how close it was to homes but didn't damage any property or hurt anyone. Almost seems like divine intervention. Reminds me of a time a drunk driver flew into my apartments and pin balled off two trees before wrapping itself around a third tree 10 feet from my front door and me on my couch. All 3 trees were were within feet of apartment doors, yet this car did not damage to any property other than scuff marks on the trees and a little torn up grass and nobody was hurt, including the drunk who tried to run for it.
@SoCal Creature the FRA investigation may take up to a year. Who knows whe UP will make an official statement. I am a railfan and wouldn't want to live that close to the rails. But to each his own. I have visited a lot of derailments over the years and in most of the ones.hve visited the cars slapped against each other side by side. I live in Cajon Pass and have visited perhaps 20 derailments over the years. Stand along along railroad tracks long enough and you learn stuff. The pipeline sign informs you there are pipelines under those tracks from LA to points north and east. (Check the Duffy Street derailment and fire in San Bernardino years back) The Southern Pacific Railroad used to own a pipeline company and there are some pipelines along their former right of ways. For xample from the tracks in Colton to San Bernardino International Airport. Railroad tracks used to serve Norton AFB... There are also telephone cables under there. SPRINT began as Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Telephony.
@@jonusle2937 I know of a mansion and some houses @200k short of being mansion that are 100 feet from two main lines Same company. One line is triple track and the other double. Not for me.
The locomotives will be shipped to North little Rock, Arkansas for rebuild and the cars will be scrapped on site. These locomotives are in yard service which means they was in remote control mode. The derailment was caused by the train running overall a DERAIL, a device use to prevent trains from making up authorized movement on mainline track from the yard. The device worked perfectly.
I'm a retired engineer, and I have no sympathy for UP, screw them and their scab operated engines. I never stole another man's job to keep my own, so I can keep working. I spent all my 36 years in engine service. I didn't spend most of my time on duty just sitting there doing nothing and getting paid for it.
The locomotives are EMD SD40-2’s that were built in the early 1970’s to early 1980’s the Union Pacific once had over 600 of them but only a few are left. The 1703 was built in 1976 and the 1554 was built in 1973 both were rebuilt in the Jenk Shops as SD40N, older locomotives like these are usually scrapped if they are wrecked.
Thanks. Curious where you get all the info on these power units? But yeah, from the comments by people who know much more about these things than myself is that because of their age, they either get scrapped or will be parted out.
Remote control locomotives are only used for switching in yards by conductors. They do however have a manual option so that they can be operated by an engineer. These would never be used on the main track in the remote control function.
Very good coverage. I'm sure UP would love this to be gone like the ad for 1 800 GOT JUNK but its so spread out and intertwined. I am surprised there wasn't more security. Three weeks ago Canadian Pacific dropped 11 cars at Pewaukee WI and had it back in service in under 24 hours. One was loaded lumber but 7 were empty 100 ton covered hoppers at least 30 years old. Today's wreck assessment is get the track open and then worry about cars. By the end of the week a backhoe with a shear reduced then to piles of metal. Thanks for sharing and yes they do have to go easy on that pipeline
As others have stated, all of these locomotives are EMD SD40-2s (or some rebuild of it). 1599 and 1703 have hardly a scratch on them and will probably return to service after some light work in the shop. 1554 is almost certainly a goner. It the frame isn't bent, it could get a heavy rebuild. Older locomotive frames are valuable because a new locomotive can be built on top of them and it won't count as a brand new locomotive, but instead as a rebuild. This means the locomotive doesn't need to comply with strict environmental pollution regulations that have the unintended consequence of making locomotives more unreliable.
As someone else noted, the "container" is actually called a boxcar. Containers (the big metal boxes you see on ships) go onto well cars, stacked one or two high. It does not appear any of those were in this wreck. The "lumber" cars are actually called center beam cars, due to the obvious central spine the pallets of lumber rest against.
Got it. I'm not too familiar with all the nomenclature for all the different types of cars, but I've actually learned a lot just from the comments. Thanks for chiming in.
@@SoCalCreature the one box car you looked into was loaded with paper rolls (and the inflated bag you see is known as a dunnage bag) heading most likely to a finishing company someplace. I used to switch 3 different paper mills here in Wisconsin every day and pulled lots of loads of finished paper going to the converting plant! company.
At 9:00 is a warbonnet scheme in the BNSF lettering. Those are rare engines that you don't see every day so your pretty lucky to have caught one on camera. Also wow that engine is destroyed
Just a follow up on the locomotives while they are equipped for remote control at lower speeds in yard switching they can also still go over the road as built. Also noted all the oil booms around the fuel tanks which probably were pumped out by your visit. Last item a bit of trivia but the blue lumber car and the mangled brown car both had reporting marks FDDM. These cars are under Union Pacific UP ownership and stand for Fort Dodge Des Moines & Southern RR which exists only on paper. The FDDM was acquired in 1965 by the Chicago & North Western RR and the bulk of it has been abandoned and ripped up. UP can still use these marks and it can result in favorable leasing or financing terms and helps keep them in current legal status. The most ironic part is that the modern centerbeam car was not built until the 1970s and early 1980s so the real FDDM could never have ownd this style of car. In fact after the track is relaid you .may see a ballast car painted Union Pacific but marked SI which stands for Spokane International acquired circa 1959.
Totally fascinating! Thanks for sharing this. Ps have you ever checked into a wireless lav mic for audio? Super cheap these days and a lot less clunky than carrying a corded mic (but the look of an old-school, street hip-hop video is fun too hehe)
Crazy how I was there 2 months ago on a trip. Thankfully, this derailment wasn't serious. I kept pondering to myself the whole time I was there: "What if a serious derailment happened? What would these folks in the nearby houses do?"
OK, so I know you were making comments about the remote control portion of the locomotive, 99% of the time big person who is controlling it is either on the nose or within sight of the locomotive,. Also the conductors and engineers chairs are still used on those when they are using the inside controls. Most of the damage to the engine is repairable. The parts are interchangeable. If you ever checked out some other videos they can show you that almost anything is removable replaceable reset. These engines are older engines that are now yard workers as opposed to Main line Road engines. They may not feel it is important to repair them over replacing them. Also they have hundreds of engines that are out of use at many of the rail yards. They could pull them into action versus repairing this one. Hope this helps.
used to work in West Colton, you had to be very careful pulling a train out of the yard with the Remote control locomotives. Often theres too much weight for those locomotives to handle, glad know one was killed.
Yeah really, and coming up to a diamond. I'd rather set my brakes early and stop short then have to start again rather than blow a derail. Imagine ridding the point on this one.
@@BossSpringsteen69 exactly, I would set the air well before pepper and drag it until it picked up speed, then throttle off. It was a newbie Conductor on this one, he forgot to cut in the air when they laced up
Thanks. Yeah, the sounds are the eeriest part. The footage missed a lot of the wreck, but you can sure hear it. The guy who gave me the footage said he woke up thinking it was trash collection at first but it wasn't the right day, so his wife ran to the window to see what was going on.
So the "remote control locomotive" is only used in the yards during amassing a train or shunting. The remote system only has a max range of 50 yards (variable based on the weather and system conditions)
In Anaheim California, the UP line alongside the Santa Ana Freqeway (Interstate 5), there is a remote warning sign where Crescent Avenue turns into Crescent Way. There used to be another warning sign in a neighborhood where the train goes under the Brookhurst Street/La Palma Avenue Bridge at the Interstate 5 Freeway, not too far northwest of where Crescent Avenue becomes Crescent Way. That railroad parallels the freeway for several miles into Norwalk California, and also parallels Firestone Boulevard through Downey California into Southgate. That line was a Southern Pacific line until they merged with UP. The branch line that runs north and south from Huntington Beach through Westminster, Garden Grove and Stanton joins up to that track in Anaheim.
A lot times with the engines we think scrap means their done when really their take out components, parts, salvage other electronic things. So it's definitely not going to a scrap yard. As for the cars it may be recyclable and scrapped at a yard.
Could be. It's interesting because I looked up a satellite image and see that the track that this train was on continues eastward and crosses the 2 north south rails. I thought when they built the flyover they removed the crossing at the same grade, but satellite shows the flyover right next to the crossing and the frogs. Maybe this train was supposed to curve and go northward but accidentally got on the rail that crosses the north/south and wasn't supposed to be there so it derailed. A couple people have commented that the derail was a safety mechanism and that it did exactly what it was supposed to do. So that would support that theory. Thanks.
Once all the contents from the remaining cars is removed, most likely everything there will be scraped except for the wheel assemblies, the cradles and the locomotives engines and generators.
So much misinformation in this thread regarding the remote control status. ** MU or Multiple Unit. Allows multiple locomotives to be daisy-chained together and act at one unit. Has been around 60+ years and every diesel locomotive has it. NOT considered remote controlled and no special signage on the unit. ** RCO or Remote Controlled Operation. What we have here. Same idea as the toys you buy at wally world. Operator on the ground with a (relatively) short range belt pack to control the locomotive. Used for switching in the yard or at a customer location. Look at the reply in this thread by Cody. All the "Remote Control" signage and warning lights to warn people that the locomotive can move by itself without anyone in the cab. Can not operate on the main in remote control mode. ** DPU or Distributed Power Unit. Being used more frequently as railroads move to longer trains. Allows a locomotive (or locomotives) to be placed further back in the train and controlled by the lead locomotive. Usually the DPU matches what the lead units are doing, but the DPU settings can be different if needed. Example would be a long train going over a hill where the front units would be on the downgrade and braking, while the DPU might still be on the upgrade and needed to push. The DPU units cannot move by themselves, only as part of a train. When the train is being put together, an engineer will have to be physically on board to move the DPU units into position and make all the connections prior to putting the units into DPU mode. Does NOT have "Remote Control" signs on the locomotive.
They will probably take the generators, tanks, electric motors and controls and scrap the rest. There is a guy oout there did a drone view of 192 Engines parked in the middle of nowhere Arizona. There is another yard with like 400 in Nevada. Scrapping these Engines is probably cheaper than repair. I believe the remote control refers to when multiple Engine's are connected, they are remotely controlled by the Engineer. All the wheels and axles will be reused.
Interesting. I've heard that it is illegal to fly drones over rails or rail yards. I wonder if they got in any trouble. I wasn't sure if I was on railroad property when I was there, or if it was undeveloped residential lots, but I looked it up afterward and saw that all of the wreckage was on property owned by either BNSF or UP. I hope nobody makes a stink about that.
@@SoCalCreature 1st Amendment my friend. You can video whatever you can with your eye in public. In California I know you aren't allowed to fly a drone over or near an active forest fire that is being attended to by fire fighting aircraft. You can't fly one in flight paths to or from an airport, around an airport or above 900', that is the low ceiling for private aircraft. Police and Fire are exempt. You can't fly one over an active police action being attended to by law enforcement aircraft. If you want to meet the Secret Service go fly a drone in Washington DC. You can't fly one over a prison however you can fly around it's perimeter, the same with a military installation, you can fly the perimeter, you will get harrassed by military police. Stand your ground explain they have absolutely no jurisdiction outside of the fence on public property. They will be full of testosterone and anger, then they will call local law enforcement. The best argument is to have pictures in your backpack of that installation you printed from Google Earth. They are way more intrusive than your drone on the perimeter. I have a friend that is amazing at flying drones. He takes me with him because I'm the confrontational backbone, he gives me a spare controller. I don't know how he does it but he casts the video feed from his drone to the controller I have. He conceals his location and I walk out in the open to be seen by those that believe photography is a crime. I look in the sky and rudimentary use of the controls like I'm flying it. They demand my controller, they demand deletion of the video, they demand I stop flying. Then local police do and say the same thing. I tell all of them if you have the authority and the law on your side then I encourage you to come and take it away from me. Badges and uniform patches bristle at this because I'm calling their bluff. Sometimes local police are so arrogant and out of control I get detained and handcuffed. I tell them the drone will crash and that I'm streaming to a cloud account. It just infuriates them. They demand I push the button for the drone to automatically return to the controller. My friend has the drone land and then he looks into the camera laughing his ass off. Then I explain to the officer it's time to get a Sargeant or some Stars or Bars out there cuz he's in trouble. It's a teaching experience for everyone and I get to be the teacher. I filed a complaint against one officer because he lost control of his emotions and he was so angry that he was humiliated in front of State Prison personnel. He broke my cell phone, the controller and the marks on my wrist lasted two days. My friend called his police station and said I needed help against the officer. He was concerned I was about to seriously get hurt. Cops came out of the woodwork, I was handcuffed and on my knees and the Sargeant lost his mind. I rode with the Sargeant back to the station to fill out the complaint and to make a statement. Sargeant lectured me that it was my actions that started this ball rolling. I said I respectfully disagree, pubkic photography is not a crime and that everyone that was there except me was happy to stomp on my 1sr Amendment right of Freedom of the Press. It's amazing how ignorant they are, they ask for press credentials. Press credentials are handed out by the police to let news gathering individuals closer access without an adversarial slant. Private events like the NFL hand out press credentials for those they allow into private areas. Our Constitution allows for all Americans to observe and report what is seen in public. I'm glad that security didn't harrass you on scene, it was great video of the aftermath. Keep doing what you're doing!
I'm not as concerned about them complaining about the footage itself, just that I posted video of what I later found out was me trespassing. I was like, "oh man, I'm gonna be on America's Dumbest Criminals." lol. When I saw the security guard keeping an eye on me I went over and struck up a conversation with him and pretty cool. He was the one who told me that it was the first day off the clean up crew had taken, and that the previous 3-4 days the place had been crawling with inspectors. I told him I was from "SCC News" which is technically true I guess, and he OK'd me to walk on site and get close ups. After about 25 minutes or so he thought better of it and came looking for me and said I should probably get out, but he let me go get some footage of the locked boxcar before leaving. Luckily he did because that's when I ran into the neighbor that had the security cam footage. That's sucks about all the harassment from using the drone. I've been thinking about using one, but now I think I'm gonna want to study up on the CA codes for that and maybe print some copies out incase I have to get into a legal debate with the cops. That sounds like such a pain. I have no interest in doing First Amendment Audit videos on this channel, but maybe just to keep myself out of hot water. Thanks for the input.
The open cars are 73' between bulkheads. Usely loaded with anything from 4x8 osb to 60' ewp..which is engineered wood products. Such as I joist or versa lam. Box cars is loaded with many things. I unload the center beams full of lumber. Up to 7 cars a day. Box cars I unload osb or plywood. I work Boise
Remote control (RCL equipment) is mostly for switching, yard jobs. Remote control units wouldn't ever reach any high speeds aswell. UP for being the big company they are, I'm sure a good portion of the locomotives will be fixed, but as for mainly 1554, I wouldn't be surprised if they use it for parts to a new unit, as the prime mover, and stuff on the roof seems in decent shape to only need minimal repairs. 1554 will either get swept off the roster entirely or they will get another unit to replace that number, either being another SD40-2 or something else they feel could be used. ; It also comes to mind that they could re-build the entire locomotive into an ECO unit of some sort, they got a big thing for doing rebuilds like that. Any questions from anybody, just ask :) (also wanna throw in, nice catch on the BNSF fakebonnet, haha)
1554 will more than likely be scraped because of it's age. But for the most part, if the base plate is not bent, it can be rebuilt, and the lease company that owns it may sell it to class 3 railroads. The cars will be scraped. Generally, remote engines don't leave yard limits. I'm sure someone was trying to cut corners and let it run further than normal to save a dime.
Wow... to see the thickness of metal that's twisted up. This was 2 weeks ago in socal and I haven't heard anything about this. I guess no harm no foul.
they will be salvageable cause if you watch the kismet train collision documentary all of the locomotives but 1 were repaired and the damage on those are nothing compared
I haven't seen anything official. A few people have commented that we may never know. They may just wait it out until people forget about it. Yesterdays news.
Probably a local switcher from Colton yard. Remote control units are operated by person on ground fairly close by.. Operator could have been at other end of train.
The way I understand it, if these are under remote control within a yard limit, they can be and are offten un-maned, theyre controlled using a belt pack. There's a few vidoes on YT showing them in opperation in the US and Canada etc. Would be interesting to know if there was a crew aboard for normal operation or no crew for remote opps in a yard. The pile of sqaure things are plastic pads and insulators that are fitted between the underside of the rail and the concrete tie. That other pile are truck side frames and bollsters that the cars sit on. Those large round things in that box car are rolls of paper.
Thanks for the info. It looks like the jury is still out on if these were manned or not. A lot of people said that they only run remote in the yards. I looked up the assessors parcel map for these lots and they are all owned by either BNSF or UP, or jointly owned by both, but it doesn't seem like this area is technically a yard. There are yards a short distance to the east and west of this crossing, but I don't think this would be considered a yard. Also, the north/ south line that this crosses carries not only freight but is the main line into San Bernardino for MetroLink and Amtrak, so I hate to think they would have anything in this area operating completely by remote if it could cross those passenger lines. I don't know though. This is just speculation on my part.
To my knowledge I think engines that are remote control are only unmanned in rail yards when they are switching cars from one track to another. Derailment clean up usually start right away. Is that where the cars ended up? Or were they moved there by heavy equipment?
These were definitely moved around on the site. After I published this I did see some aerial footage of the accident right after it happened. I wish I had seen that before I did this video because it gave some perspective on how it played out. The red bulkhead car that had the end ripped off was the first freight car in the line, and it was the one that was attached to and smashed into engine 1554. So that connection is where the worst of the damage occurred.
Locomotives should be easy to fix. Frame doesn’t look to bad and the buckeye couplings should be easy to. But as for the freight cars, they’re deemed beyond repair…
Remote control, means it's probably a DPU, and can be placed mid train as a helper, or on the rear as a pusher, and is controlled by the lead locomotive with the crew.
Yeah, I'm learning from the comments that the blinking light probably meant it was under remote, but a lot of people are saying that there probably were at least two people somewhere on that train. I really don't know and haven't seen anything conclusive. Thanks for the comment.
Speaking as a railroader, freight train conductor and Remote Control Operator……Your information is not correct. The wrecked UP locomotives in the video are RCO that normally are controlled by the conductor who wears a remote control strapped on his chest. Those locomotives are not capable of being DPU’s and when in RCO mode have a max speed of 20 MPH.
@@cj4276 OK, I wondered about that, since they were in a manifest freight? I've seen videos of switchers that were used in yards, or industrial sites that were controlled that way. But didn't think they were used in mainline trains.
@@cj4276 There you go i was going to say that. Interesting your initials are the same as the guy that ran into me head on at 10mph. Pushed the drawbar into the no six traction motor and shorted it out. I can say that story now covid took out that brother a couple of years ago. I'm sure he told the story himself because he was off for 30 days.
Thanks. Glad you liked it. I was really excited that I ran into the neighbor who got the footage and he was cool enough to send it to me. He said he sent it to a couple local news channels also but this is the first time I had seen that footage.
sd40-2 #1554, engine, controls, and the front would be saved for parts the rest of it SCRAPPED, sd40-2 #1703 and 1599 would be repaired and return to service
Very common to see remote control units doing yard work or local runs. Engineer and conductor will always be present on train while under remote control…
Locomotives alone are about 200 tons. They start smashing into each other accounts for the damage. Yard locomotives are always on remote control from usually the ground crews. the railroad is very unforgiving. The railroad owns that lumber ...they smashed it they bought it.
Remote control just means that the lead locomotive controls all the others in the train. There's always an engineer in the lead engine if the train is on the main line.
ALL THE LOCOMOTIVE CAN BE REBUILT OR SCRAPPED ON THE SCENE ! HOPEFULLY THEY ALL WILL BE REBUILT ! THE LOCOMOTIVES CAN BE RUN BY REMOTE CONTROL OR MANUALLY !
Interesting. You're comment made me wonder if the head of the FRA might be an ex executive, lawyer, or lobbyist for the railroad industry who was put in place to dismantle the regulatory entity from the inside, but it does not seem like that is the case, right now at least. Just seems like a career transportation guy. Who knows though. I'd be disappointed if they just wait for time to pass and for people to forget. Disappointed, but not entirely surprised.
Definitely in RCL mode. The leader was the controlling unit they were operating from. As far as being on the point it seems like probably not. As you know, not being able to feel when the train starts to sit down you can easily miss judge speed and distance. I would have set brakes early and slowed it down.
Amtrak had a repair shop in Beech Grove Indiana and if you would have seen some of the wrecked trains that was brought in there you would go wow that can't be repaired and then see them when they was done they didn't look the same
The remote control is only to start the train engine by satellite for cold weather but it will not move without the key the sign is to let people know it can start at any time
I'm sorry but, that's not true. They don't start by satellite. Satellite is used to locate the position of the locomotive. Auto start starts the locomotive if its active. There is no key. You got the sign part right though.
Yes it is true on northern southern they can and do start them in cold weather I know this by getting certified to run them for the company I work for and you need the key to move the train
I've had comments that these had two crew, and others saying that they were all remote. I think all we can do is speculate at this point. I'm not aware of any official report. I hope if one comes out somebody will comment here with a link. Thanks.
@@SoCalCreature for the love of God. RCO usually has two crew members with two remote boxes that share operation. One can be used to make cuts while the other operates. One can be on one end of the yard, the other can be on another, controlling and protecting moves and shoves, lining switches, etc. Our RCO in the yard has two crew members per shift, twelve hours each. The crew doesn't physically need to be on the train. You wear a collar and an RCO box attaches to it. It's how you remotely operate the locomotive you're linked to. You can be standing in the yard and the head end of the train can be a mile away, while you're working at the rear, flat switching or licking cars. Yes, you can be on the locomotives while operating the box. Once you pull your build into a yard track, you can cut away and ride the locomotive(s) back to the yard.
Yes. Still a lot of work to do. When I stopped by on Friday there were about 20 bundles of good lumber stacked at the edge of the street on wood chocks so it was ready to forklift out of there, and it was gone when I returned on Saturday to get footage. So the majority of the good lumber is gone now. It's almost down to the train debris. Who knows how long they'll take to remove that though. I looked up the property on the Assessor's Parcel Map and all of the wreckage is sitting on land owned by either Union Pacific, or BNSF, or jointly owned by both of them. Maybe they are not in a hurry to remove the train debris since it is on their own property. I don't know. I'll stop by every so often and check though. It's not far from my house and I pass by there often.
Shows you don't know jack about these trains. Do some actual research and you will find they restore trains a lot worse then these. Even the worst one will get restored
As far as the "remote controlled locomotive" is concerned, they can all be remote controlled, but, one end of the combination has to be the control end which is where the engineer is. There can also be engines in the middle or on the tail end of the train that is controlled by the front engine where the engineer is. The difference is that when you have more than one engined combined, they are connected together with cables and when there are engines in the middle or on the tail end they are radio controlled by the front engine. Of coarse they have safety precautions built in that will shut an engine down if something goes wrong or if it looses control from the controlling engine.
