This is one of the best cab ride videos on you tube, in my opinion. Thanks so much for sharing it with us! I just love the turbo whine of the EMD SD series locos too. You did a great job showing the engineer controlling the train plus the spectacular scenery, and the sound of this video is awesome too.
Great video , reminds me of when I was riding welded rail trains for Union Pacific . I picked up the old rail that went to the salt mines south of New Iberia . What a job that was , great people to work with and enjoyed every bit of it . Beautiful country down there , hell of a lot different than we have here in central Arkansas . Rockin and rolling on 40 mph track .
Thank you for giving us a really cool view that most people in the public never get to see. The bridge crossing was impressive but it is scary! Especially at 10:00. Seems that when you look down from the cab windows, there's much below except a big drop. The horn and Gyra-LIte brings back memories as I remember the Gyra-Lites on Amtrak SDP40Fs and miss seeing them in action. I often heard the RS5T horn on SCL U33/U36B locomotives back in the day. That unique sound was hard to forget!
@Dexter- that's an oscillating headlight, aka mars light, gyralite. It was a twin beam headlight/spotlight designed to get motorists attention at crossings. When the fra mandated ditch lights in the early 2000's the kcs did away with the mars lights.
Could never understand why the line south of Latanier was signaled and north of it to Shreveport was not. Switches (at least back in 2007) between Latanier and S-port weren't automatic either. Meets always necessitated the opposing train having to stop and reline the switch for the train that went in the hole. Used to hate that among other things - like the crappy hotel in Alexandria. Every room had something wrong with it from water on the floor to heat/cooling units not working properly. Was always a crap shoot, too, if they were going to give you a ride to the hotel in the first place from the yard - which was around 10 miles each way. They were always stingy about giving your train enough power as well. You'd start out underpowered as it was and then they'd want you to pick up at that paper mill half way down.
Coming into Morganza. A few years earlier you guys could have caught Billy , Wyatt , and George on their choppers getting laughed at in Meloncon’s Cafe
Id rather wake a few people up than hit a car with a bunch of teenage kids out late... Because that sticks with you forever... Most people forget about the crews aspect and just go on about how crappy trains are. We work on them every day its our job to blow the horn...
710 is the best locomotive sound, followed by 645 and 567, then GE and ALCo's 4-stoke, they are also good hearing. Actually I love all diesel sounds. 22:24, you passed a switch that against you ? When you see a vehicle stuck on track, you will emergency brake, but how is the operate? Hit emergency botton or switch directly? Or set throttle to idle, then set brake handle to full(emergency)?
Shell refinery in Norco, La., marathon oil in reserve, la., Kaiser aluminum and colonial sugar both in Gramercy, La., and a brick spur in Gonzalez, La.
How was the line dispatched on the line that the video shows? Was it TWC or DTC block authority on that part of the great kcs? And what is the name of the subdivision? And is it still in operation? author Stillwell would be amazed that the kcs uses ge locomotives and husks coal and how long were Mars lights used on the kcs for? I love the kcs myself and where does it start and end? And what are those silver metal parts used for when they are part of the hotbox detector on the kcs line that the video shows?
Leave the zoom alone, makes for sickening feelings after a while. Set the focus on manual so the camera doesn't try to compensate for everything you are doing.
+plaros23 I kind of agree. If you get the chance to make some more vids like this I'd love to see them. Really I'd like to see it all from the engineer's perspective, even just plowing through the most boring, central kansas, aint nobody out here territories.. What are the gauges doing? What are the signs and lights? The radio coms? Most importantly.. the engine sounds
