Kicking Cars Along the Ohio River: Flat-Track Switching at Norfolk Southern's Portsmouth Yard 

The reason why those 2 BNSF units where running is either they had a defect that prevented the AESS (Automatic Engine Start-Stop) system from shutting down the engine (usually low batteries) or you had the shear luck of being there when they where running in between shut downs. Very rarely will crews do a manual shutdown, especially during the colder months where temperatures will drop below freezing. Railroads use water instead of Antifreeze to cool engines, so when an engine is shut down and it drops below freezing a safety valve known as a Guru valve will pop to dump the water and prevent engine damage from frozen water. (Its a pain to get it refilled, so no one on the railroad wants that to happen.) Those blue signs that you saw those men, who are called carmen, putting up are "blue flags". Blue flags are used to warn T&E crews (aka Engineer, conductor, & brakemen) that workers are underneath, on, or working on equipment, and that that equipment is not to be moved. Blue flags can only be removed by the person who placed it or a person on that person's team with permission in most railroads rulebooks. Those carmen, also know as Car inspectors, are not part of the switching crews. Their job is to inspect and repair cars after the yard crew sorts them. They are part of the mechanical department, and are a different "craft" . Crafts are basically job groups, but management is not a craft. (Also positions like IT and other HQ level positions) Conductors, Yard Foremen, Switchmen, Brakemen, Utilitymen are part of the T&E craft, but have their own Union. Engineers, Firemen are also part of the T&E craft, but have their own Union. (Technically they are a different craft but they are consider as part of the T&E craft) Mechanical department is part of several different "crafts" and unions depending on position. Same for Track Dept , B&B (Bridges and Buildings), Signals, Clerical, dispatchers, etc. I'm not sure exactly how NS does it, but usually the crews in the yard are Engineer, Yard Foreman (basically a conductor), and switchmen.

Thanks. Enjoy your videos. Like that you use the 8x.

Back in the old days, we would go to the footbridge that gave maintenance workers access to the yard. Employees never gave us trouble about being there. This old bridge was located at the base of the hump. It was torn down a long time ago. Power for the hump was C630s and yard power was T6s.

As always, fantastic footage and voiceover. Portsmouth was a major yard for the Norfolk and Western, one of the key predecessor railroads that eventually got merged to evolve into the Norfolk Southern. It basically sat at the fork in the road on their mainline where one branch of it split and went to Cincinnati, where they could exchange with the Pennsy and one branch went to Columbus where they exchanged with the New York Central. Perfect place to put a full suite of shops and multiple humps. The Cincinnati connection was a jump off point south and, more importantly, to Chicago, while Columbus ultimately allowed them to ship freight to Toledo, Detroit and Cleveland.

Fantastic video. Can't beat the variety of both angles and trains! Thank you!

NO Reason to Shut Down the Engine on a Foreign Power Unit. Maintenance don’t want to Waste Time working on a Foreign Power Unit if they Can’t get Restarted.👍

You have the best rail fan channel hands down facts!! The drone does you and us major justices 🔥🔥🔥! Thank you and blessings upon you and your family my guy!! Real talk!

I live in Portsmouth and I watch trains a lot. the yard used to have 2 turntables with 2 roundhouses. back in the late 1970's/1980's they had a strike, it was vary bad in Portsmouth, one the executives of the N&W, (soon to be the last CEO of the NW) was in Portsmouth to witness the damage done by the strikers and almost got hit by someone throwing a rock at him, another official did get hit. At that moment he said that will make Portsmouth a "whistle stop". The yard became an empty shell. It wasn't until around 2007 to 2010 that the CEO of Norfolk Southern mad a deal with the Governor of Ohio to reopen the car shops, a type of tax deal. Also, the Cincinnati Line known as the Peavine line closed back in 2003. Would be interesting to see how much more traffic on the rails, especially since it has already increased with the double stack trains.

Another entertaining and educational video. Your drone work and editing skills are on full display again. Absolutely one of the best railfan channels out there. Thanks for another great post.

Awesome Video 😍😍❤❤

Very nice ! Enjoyable ! Was there 4 yrs. Ago .

Another Excellent vid thank you

Hi. As DJ from DJ’s Trains has pointed out railroads recycle the ties and rails. They make money by tearing out the tracks. Sadly most rail yards are a shell of their former selves. Rail traffic has decreased and industry like the coal industry has really slowed. Great video! Thanks for sharing this with us!

Luv your stuff Bro!!

Another reason the BNSF motors might have been left running is when the temperature gets too low at night, engines won’t start if they are too cold so they’ll leave them running to keep them alive. Easier to keep them running then have them dead and not able to start

Yes, the brick buildings are original. There used to be a large roundhouse, and a footbridge connecting the locomotive/car shop complex to the north side of the yard. As far as switches, only the ones at either end allowing access to the to the mains, as well as those at West Avenue, are dispatcher controlled power switches. All the others are hand throw.

9:18 Those are Blue Flags that protect mechanical department personnel from rolling equipment being moved within the blue flagged zone. They also line the switches away from that track and lock them with their locks. As a conductor myself I can say that those blue flags are absolutely SACRED. A train crew member dropping a blue flag or tampering with their locking devices is the kind if thing that will get you fired and possibly decertified on the spot. If you remove or run over a blue flag, there's a very good chance you never move a train again.

Looks like exclusive,,,, ARMSTRONG OR ARMBUSTER SWITCHES TO ME!! 😬💯👍🇺🇸

Hey did a great job on this NS Rail Yard in Portsmouth Ohio that yard looks like it's not as big as it once was years ago

Locomotives have water cooled engines so they keep them running under certain temperatures. To conserve fuel many modern locomotives will shut themselves down over a certain outside temperature. I don't know what the setting would be on these BNSF locomotives but I would guess it's somewhere in the 40's F, with the thought that a temperature drop could be quite fast. Railroads don't use antifreeze for various reasons including cost, ease of maintaining and handling (of water), safety. etc.. Antifreeze is a poison and can be licked-up by wildlife along the tracks. Just about every terminal has a basic garden hose near one of the tracks for topping-up the water. That's about as simple as it gets. Also, maintenance personnel can drain water onto the ground, as opposed to having to capture antifreeze. I worked for CSX.

I never knew the yard was that large nor the general size of Portsmouth proper. Good video. Maybe you could do the yard and area around Parkersburg/Belpre

Blue signs are the blue flag protection for the car men to inspect the cars. Blue signs are put up and blue locks are out on the switches so the track can’t be accessed while the car man is doing his inspections.

They keep the engines running because if they sit cold too long the diesel fuel turns into a gel.

i normally cross the river west of there anymore but i can tell you that cable bridge ain't that old!! 25 30 years max!! and beyond starting the bastard then going to the office and completely forgetting about them the on;y 3 reasons i know of for running engines like that is one to check a repaired system two to drain the fuel tanks to work on it or three they're tapping power off it for something!

Check out Belen after dark, for a ton of blue lights and placards.

I'm hearing "dueling banjos" in the background of one of their radios

All the railroads I follow in the west use blue markers between the rails for a clear warning that men are in and around cars for an extended period. I'll bet NS uses the STOP marker to warn of a cut being aired up as well, but that is just a guess.

2:35 Coke empties heading for Suncoke at Haverhill. 3:30 Thats part of the old hump (known simply as the west yard now), the loaded coke train is in the flat yard), the video doesnt show it well but its actually pretty steep. I call it the poor mans hump. Can literally just shove them up the hill and pull the pin and they're roll down the hill (most of the time, sometimes you get a stubborn one). Spent many a night switching cars over there. It's always so cool seeing the yard from the air, such a different perspective.

Hyce would be proud

the bulkheads probably weren't bled out all the way or had a handbrake loosely on. Cars can get switched to the wrong track and destination fairly often. As a yard master. ill print out a track list and each car will be classed to either a customer if its an inbound to the area or its outbound destination if and outbound. I'll then designate what tracks I want the cars to get grouped to. It's up to the crew to then follow the list correctly, paying attention to the car numbers. some guys wont pay attention to car numbers and will just go by cut blocks and kick away. What you said about cars being spotted to be sorted, are sorted or put with to be dealt with later on ALL apply.

I wonder how many knuckles they break, some of those car hit hard.

should go over to the russell yard and do a video there, i live nearby anyways so it would be cool

Very interesting video, Hello from Kyiv. Ukraine

When switching and kicking cars, the crew will receive a “switch list” it has every car number, the destination for them, special car information (like danger information), the weight of the car, The track it needs to be put in, And a few more things that aren’t as important. It’s not too often that a good switchman puts a car in the wrong track sense it’s all broken down pretty easy for them.

The scope of the blue signal regulations is to provide protection for railroad employees engaged in the: Inspection, testing, repair, and servicing of rolling equipment, while. On, under, or between such equipment and subjects them to the danger of personal injury posed by any movement of such equipment

Blue flags indicate that Mechanical forces are working on equipment on a section of track. Switches are locked out and equipment is secured from movement. Operating crews are not permitted enter a blue flagged track. Mechanical supervisor or Foreman may not remove a blue flag until all Mechanical personnel are clear of the equipment. Likely Mechanical crews are lacing up the string of cars and testing the air brakes.

I cant tell you about portsmouth but i can tell you about switching. If you have a good yard master, your switch list will have a list of cars in the track that needs to be switched. The longer you switch the more you learn where certain cars go, most of them have the location they are going to or what industry local they belong to. Someone thats on a regular switching job long enough usually just gets their switch list and uses the tracks how they want to sort them out but often times the yard master will have pre sorted every car or block of cars and have it numbered on the switch list of what tracj they belong to. Say from here, cars theyre kicking into "track one" are going on an industry local, cars going to "track 4" is a block of cars going to columbus, cars going to track 3 may be going to the shop, track 2 may be going elsewhere. And track 6 may be for a different industry. I cant tell you much about this yard as ive never been in it but they have the luxury of a "hump" as you can see in the video which is great. A lot of times you dont even need to "kick" you just get your slack and the cars roll down the hill. The guy pulling the pin is the FO or conductor/foreman in the job, the guy throwing the switches is his switchman/brakeman. Conductor is responsible for making sure the right cars go in the right track, brakeman is responsible for making sure the foreman doesnt have to go throw a switch down the lead. Both guys will usually have the same switch list and a good crew doesnt even have to talk to each other. They know what each others next move ahead of time. Also some cars just dont want to dang roll. My solution is I usually close both knuckles and give it a good kick unles i know ive got more going into that track later that will likely move it. Or just go back later and shake the track up, meaning shove all the way until the last car moves and then pull them ahead and my brakeman will tell me if the last cars moving. If so, you know everythings coupled up and the track is solid. As far as cars being spotted up on one end of the yard, most yards have air on one end or the other. They are spotted to that end and the car department will bleed all the cars off to make sure the brake piston releases, walk to make sure, and then put them on air so they can do an a6 brake test and c100 to make sure all the brake pistons set up. Thats how you get your brake slip for those cars. If youre unfortunate to work in a terminal that doesnt have carman, you do your own brake test and c100. They also leave them on air for as long as they need to because if a car is off air for more than 24 hours you have to do another brake test on it.

When coal isn't present in the hoppers, isn't the whole string called a hopper train?

@ 3:23... flat switching with road power can be frustrating... road power takes too long to load when you're kicking the cars... also @ 3:40... hate that... that's the DO OVER 🤬🤬🤬🤬... depending on where you work, the guys will rib you for it 🤣🤣... @ 8:26... you mentioned about what are they doing with all the cars they are switching... no matter what, here's what happens at practically every yard... first, the run-through dwell cars are blocked (those are the cars that are on the dwell clock, so they have to be out of the yard before a certain time limit... if they aren't, the trainmaster loses his fat dwell time bonus for the qtr... so he is incentivized to make that the priority)... @ 9:50... a PERFECT example of run-through dwell ops... those road guys are ready to beat feet out of the yard with their train and the trainmaster is happy as long as that train is within it's dwell time parameters also, the local cars are placed on their correct track/s... the bad order cars are sorted... the RIP track is pulled and spotted and the RIP okays are switched out... also any local trains are made up... also, sometimes cars don't have a waybill, called no waybills (go figure lol), they are placed on a designated track until they get further forwarding instructions.... lot of stuff going on in a railyard

Tragically, the N&W depot was demolished in 2004.

The process for starting an engine is not an easy one...... Generally you need an electrician to do it, and they aren't always available, so they leave them running,it uses more fuel starting than it does just to leave it running......

I don't think I saw one boxcar in this yard.

Hello, we are two students from KTH Sweden who are about to start our thesis on rail yard design. So, we will compare only the design of them. I don't know how, but RU-vid started recommending your videos. And I realized that you know a lot about this. That's why I would like to ask you some questions if it's okay? Do you know any reports or where to find information about these things?

3:41 can confirm that is a coke train. Likely a 802 going to Columbus to head west toward Cincinnati

The blue flags are for the car shop guys to inspect a cut of cars likely for a pickup by a train going to Bellevue or Fort Wayne or Columbus

so many bad things, kicking cars (Lots of Damage), Riding on front of a car, very dangerous, to name just a few

Bread n butter bread n butter bread n butter bread n butter bread n butter bread n butter bread n butter 12:47

Ok, it's 8X speed, we can see that

Radio chatter is way off. Ask me how I know. lol