HOW RAILROADS WORK Ep. 1: Freight Yards 

Thought I'd stop by for a revisit. Back in the day, I hired on with the SP. After two weeks of OJT, another newbie and I were assigned as part of a road crew to work in Englewood Yard in Houston for three months. Some kind of deal had been worked out by SP and the union that required the road crew off the Houston & Texas Central [SP]. That was an experience. We, the newbies, worked with an old head engineer and conductor. Our job was to walk the 'completed' track and couple cars and then pull them out and spot them elsewhere. After completing said task one night, I gave the engineer the sign with my lantern, climbed the ladder and sat on the edge of a gondola with one leg on the ladder and the other inside with no support. Stupid I know. Now the tracks were supposed to be collared for our safety, yet another car rolls in while we are pulling out and slams into the gondola. That's when my back issues began, but we won't go into that. The switches in the yard had to have been installed in the 19th century because it took a PHD in switches to make sure you had them aligned correctly. The funniest event I witnessed, if you want to call it funny, was an autopak car, which in those days was wide open, come off the hump and slam into a line of cars. New Pontiac Firebirds went everywhere. I'm sure all responsible got fired, or at least I would think so.

I married a retired engineer and really didn't understand how much work was involved until seeing this. He began sending me videos of trains and I enjoyed them so much told him more...almost 8 yrs married and didn't realize all of this, now off to part two. TY so much for this, really am enjoying it!

Where was the part explaining (part of) how railroads work? This was interesting, but it seemed like more of a railfan-oriented random collection of activity than an explanation of railroads or how yards fit in.

Great video. I have a hard time understanding why anyone would give a thumbs down. Not just to this but lots of other videos. If it's not to your liking, simply stop watching it.

I could watch this all day

I will never get tired of this one! Thanks AC.

My kind of fun watching this vid. Thanks for posting and the description.

Excellent photography, and excellent narrative captions. A primer introduction to the operations in a yard. Thank you!

I'm amazed at how wavy and worn some of the tracks look. And the sound of metal scraping against metal...!

Very interesting and informative! And I would like to hear about the locomotive fire on train 37T!

Just found you. What a pleasant discovery. My one granddad worked on the Southern Pacific and other granddad worked on the Pennsylvania RR. Trains are in my blood. Nothing in the world like the sound of the whistle in the night. So glad I can hear them still. Thank you for all these great videos.

Thanx 4 the video. Always interesting to see a few of the many things that need to be done to move goods from A to B.

If you're a train lover like me you'll love this video. It's super.

Great video thanks for sharing lot of different stuff going on got to stay alert dangerous jobs

Awesome video AC thanks for sharing

As a kid, I recall the yard in my hometown of Hearne, Texas. The SP lines came through Hearne from East St. Louis. Trains would either take the line to San Antonio and on out west to LA, or they could continue south towards Houston on the old Houston and Texas Central, for which I was assigned as a brakeman back in the day. The yard had 12 tracks, a car shed for repairs, a working turntable, an icing rack for reefer trains, a switch engine, which we called the Dinkie, as well as yardmen who bled off the air for trains to be switched, as well as oiling 'boxes'. The Mop crossed the interlock system on the north edge of town. They did some switching, mostly cotton gin mills, or position cars for unloading at this very large covered shed. About five miles west of Hearne was Valley Junction, where east/west MoP trains could either continue or wye north/south. The MoP did their switching at Valley Junction. At the interlock with the MoP was the depot, where the Sunbeam, complete with yellow steam engine, would stop to take on and drop off passengers. The MoP Eagle would cross the interlock and stop at their depot about a half mile from said interlock. From steam engines of the SP with those round tenders, or MoP steam engines with that flat tender, to F units and on to the Alco's and early GP's, I guess I was very fortunate to have grown up in a railroad town. Today, it's all owned by the UP and the Hearne yard is deader than a doornail. No switching is done at Valley Junction, either.

Great Narrative in the Video. 👍

Love 🚂 videos I watch them all the time since I've been little love watching 🚂 now 43 still love watching 🚂 and the videos 💯💯👊👊

Nice video, loved it.

I really enjoyed watching some train switching, I used to work for BNSF inTulsa OK as yard foreman and hostler and road brakeman now and then

Thank you very much for this perfect Intermodal Taylor Yard video quite a lot of movement and a very busy with the coming and going of Switchers, Locos, Trucks with load loaders, and the Tractor units with Containers, I have to watch part 2 to get the latest follow up thanks again for your wonderful videos and what a fantastic website you have well done

Watching this is soothing

Looks like a quality work crew.

That track crew was frightening. No lookout, no PPE, shorts, no shirts, no hard hats. Accident waiting to happen. They were definitely not NS people.

Good job I'm proud to have work for the R.R. 42yr and 19day !!!!!!!!

Nice to see the snoot still running

Great job this video is done very well!

And awesome video, would love to see more like this as Railyards as you said are sure a busy place lol!

GREAT video! camera everywhere!

WOW COOL what a magnificent Army of trains working together to get the job right thanks for sharing this video with us Trains21

EXCELLENT

Very nice video about trains

Thanks for posting this informative and well-crafted video. Double thanks for omitting the seemingly obligatory railroad bluegrass music. The natural sound commands our attention.

It is currently 2 am and this is just interesting to me

Love to hear it.

Greetings from the UK....great video, very informative keep them coming.

Awesome job buddy

Where I grew up in Carroll County, Illinois, The Milwaukee Railroad and the CB&Q both had freight yards in Savanna, Illinois. It was interesting watching the freight trains in the yards making the trains up. There was an overpass that you drove over the yards and you could look down and see the work being done.

Every time I drove over the ACCA Yard here in Richmond, VA I'm always looking and wondering how it all goes down, that and the seaports. Looking at a Satellite image of the Port of Norfolk, VA, just wow at the scope of things. So I'm checking out all your videos, very informative.

Awesome footage

Very enjoyable! I thought that hi-rail being towed was going to be torn in two for a second there.😉

INTERESTING. Thanks

GREAT VIDEO!

worked for Southern Railway and then NS Railway for over 25 years as a switch man/foreman in a freight classifying yard that operated 24/7 365 days a year. When I started we wore tennis shoes and shorts in the summer, made all switching moves with hand signals or flashlight signals, no radios, no safety gear. we would climb trees and power poles to relay signals around curves or over hills. We ran on the tops of cars (cars that were moving and sitting still) and jumped from one car to another to get better signaling positions. It was common for both switch men and the foreman to be on top of rail cars spread out over a 1/4 mile or more relaying signals. Switching on the hump end of the yard was fast and furious with 5 or 6 cars rolling into tracks at one time. One man kicked the cars up the lead while the foreman kept the switches lined and the third man kept the cars from rolling out of the tracks. On the hump job there was 2 speeds wide open or stopped. It was a dangerous job and we classified a lot of cars in a shift. 12 hr shifts were common and 7 day work weeks were normal. I remember once working 54 straight 12 hr days. I made a lot of money but was exhausted, totally exhausted. Then the railroads got safety conscious and we had to stop doing some of the wild crazy things we were doing. With all the rule changes and supervised enforcement and the new safety rules daily switching slowed to a crawl and became tedious and boring. The railroad went through a lot of changes in my career and for grizzled, tough, hard headed old switch men change came hard. The job lost most of it's fun and excitement and because I felt "too old change" I said "screw this" and just resigned.

Very Interesting, For Me It's Mind Bodeling But You Learn ❤.

I really enjoyed watching so I Just Subscribed 😎👍

Mucho trabajo. Las vías en no buen estado. El trabajo interesante. Gracias por el vídeo

Yeah I'd like to hear that story! Great Video!

I remember when I used to have more time to railfan..me and some other ole school guys shot mostly the power on the point..but I couldn't figure out what some of the younger guys were doing..Now I know..they were waiting for rolling stock with their tags on them..

Very nice video!!

I didn't realize how rough yard tracks could be. Looks like a rollercoaster.

Shoestring was the man! 🚂🚋🚋🚋🚋🚋🚋

Thank you.

I am mildly impressed that the graffiti artists don't paint over any of the freight car lettering (tonnage, etc)

Nice clip. Theirs quiet a bit of rockn action at 11:00, and at 25:00 that go to hell Ford wouldn't start hu?? So they called a wrecker. Nice catch 👍 thanks for sharing this👍👍

Cool! :)

very nice

Great video lots of action

It amazes me how those trains stay on those crapy tracks.

The NS SD40-2 3475 was originally built for Burlington Northern in 6-80 and was numbered 7227; it went to locomotive dealer FURX and became the FURX 7227 before being acquired by NS.

Awesome 359 Pete at 17:10

my dad was a yardmaster for the DL&W in Croxton Yard, secaucus nj, i remember it was a very busy place

Great video!

Love that horn on that RBMN @ 21:46 :)

Мне нравятся локомотивы США. Спасибо за видео.

Train fire! Who dose t want to hear about that. 😎😎😎😎

I Have just found your stuff and find it there good. As we have nothing like the same as you do here in the uk.

I’m watching this in my bunk on the southbound #11 Amtrak. My sleeper car is first car behind the set of P42s in the lead. Can’t tell if horn blowing is this locomotive or the ones in this video. I’m feeling the rail as well.

Thanks!

SD40-2s like 3475 are my favorite. Maybe because I can most easily identify them. They been around as long as I've been alive.

That yard is in desperate need of some track maintenance... Looks like they're riding a sine wave

I bid you Happy Railroading!

So how do railroads work?

Show some new ones you give me great ideas for my Layouts

That rail gang crew looks like they just came in from town 🤣

beeeeeeellllcch!!

NEW FAVORITE CHANNEL

I am a truck driver and I drive by that yard all the time it is amazing to see how it works good job!

yes, I would like to hear that story ! Thanks

R&N 3056 is a SD40‐2 "snoot". Looks like the low hood was longer than standard. But was sure if the yellow green livery just made it look like it was longer.

I see the spraypaint industry is still doing well............

Nice job. Very good video - quite the telephoto lens, too. Those rail lengths seem about 2". Two other things done in yards is car repairs & engine refueling. That track sure looks in need of attention. So ripply it made the engines sway. I worked for CSX - Eastern railroads seem older and dirtier than the midwest and western ones.

Since I'm not familiar with modern diesel electrics, Norfolk Southern is the only railroad that puts the model type on the cabs. If you could, do a quick zoom on the engine type. I appreciate all the work you do in shooting these railroads. This video really taught me a few things about freight trains. Keep up the good work as there are those of us who really enjoy these videos. Thank you for your post production work as well with the explanations of what's going on. And yes, please share the fire story. W Rusty Lane in eastern Tennessee (Witherington Place Railroad)

Story of the 8367 loco on fire... since I happened to find it pretty far down: "Anyhoots, the #8367 was the leader of 3 units on Train 37T out of Allentown on Thursday.... Don't ask me how or why but the train left Allentown with 1 unit (no fuel), another unit (no water) and the leader.... Coming through Taylor the crew reported 13 miles an hour and told dispatch that they weren't going to make the grade to Clark's Summit.... They were told to do the best they could (dumb). The train stalled (any surprise?) and the crew said over the radio, "And I think we're on fire, too!" That was the big joke for all of us listening!... So, the power of 11Z had to cut from their train at Dalton, go down and drag 37T up the hill, new power and crew had to be sent from Binghamton to retrieve the dead units and the train. The original crew outlawed and In the end you had a train with 3 dead units sitting on the hill. A lot of us think that someone should've been fired at Allentown as that's a major yard on NS."

Nice but it would've been 1000 times better if it were narrated.

Just found this video. Nice! I'm surprised the tow truck didn't damage the rail at 25:04 given the force he hit it with!

yes, let's hear the fire story

When I pulled for DART, I delivered and picked up containers and trailers from railyards. Some made up turn our lights and flashers on. Others didn't

Nicely done.

I like trains.

No better sound in the world than the railroad......GoUP....

That was really cool !!

what a awesome video

as I write this, I've watched only half of the video and already I wish it were longer. BTW, i'd like to hear the story of the loco catching fire

I didn't realize that the Taylor Yard was that busy and I lived maybe 15 miles from there.

Great video to show live operations - excellent inspiration for modelling. The mainline tracks look very smooth but the yard track are very humped. Obviously short sections of track bolted together... and they make the locos rock from side to side while in motion. Why is this like that?

I see the RBMN will offer a Steam excursion train from Reading PA to Jim Thorp PA

Does not explain a thing about how railroads work.

20:13 I couldn't entirely understand the person on the radio but his reaction was awesome.

Love those long focal length lenses. Obviously not shot with a folking lPhone.