Locomotives down on their knees. Nothing like heavy mountain railroading. 

To bad the traffic levels have dropped since these videos were taken.

There is nothing like mountain railroad. All that horsepower fighting those mountain grades. Thanks for watching...

+ButThatsShacksTrain That;s the way to do it. I never heard with headphones, but I have a pretty good sound system hooked up, and man! It will vibrate stuff on my desk. LOL ... Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to you as well.

+iusetano Ah yah, The sights, sounds, and the smells. Nothing like it...

jackmp294.5™ - I love the smell of creosote in the morning :)

Thanks Jason. Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for watching...

Your not kidding! What a fantastic sound. Thanks for watching...

I can think of one. Two 645's in full song, resonating against each other. mmmm music

This guy... +1

Mountain railroad at its best. Thanks for watching.

+b3j8 Someone else said the headphones are unreal. Thanks for watching, and glad you enjoyed it. Hope you had a Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to you.

+jackmp294.5™ And the same to you sir! Thanks again for all the great video!!

Thanks for watching

Any time bro ✌👍

+Jeff Bennett Thanks Jeff, glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for watching...

Your welcome!

For sure Ronnie. They run them till they drop! Thanks for watching...

@@1jackdk , I Love your Vids Jack, I don't Railfan as mush like I did from the 1980s - 2000's. But Still make it to PA/NY for the Alco's about every two years : D I live in Exeter, NH, right on the B&M (PAR) mainline !!

Thanks Robert, glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching...

+chris shoulders Thanks Chris. Glad you enjoyed. Merry Christmas to yah, and have a safe and Happy New Year.

Fire trucks

Oh no....

They sure are. Working their guts out. Thanks for watching...

Thanks Marco, and thanks for watching.

They where headed back to Welsh to push another drag up over the hill. Thats all they do. Run light one way, push like crazy the other. Thanks for watching...

It sure is. It works them to the limit. Thanks for watching...

And the best friend of railfans, lol.

What the h*ll do you know about trains ....you're a da#n cat!

one of 'em was in stealth mode

+PingasTheFourth If that is true then, I would think those fans are exclusive to the 40s and nothing else. You hear nothing like it on other units as far as I've heard or seen on videos on this medium...but it's all good and to me are a distinction of those ipunits if you can't see and only hear em on the lines...

+PingasTheFourth ...foamer...nice....this is now something new I must investigate more as I did with other components and thanks for the info as you must be/ have been an employee or know someone in the business...I've got a million questions as I watch these vids and always love to learn--no matter how foamy it gets..

The main alternators scream pretty loud on EMD's when at full output too. Just an all around loud machine with cooling fans and truck fans etc...

Probably not, but they are still doing better than you probably think. There are a _lot_ of tons on that train. I doubt it's less than half that number, probably better. If you count _just_ the part where they are climbing the mountain on full throttle with multiple helpers, yes, it's going to hurt economy. But they they get a downgrade and can coast for the next fifty miles. It usually averages out over any sort of distance. Anything that's not up-then-down is flat ground, and that's where railroads excel at lugging heavy weights long distances for low cost per mile in fuel and labor. That's why they don't just use trucks to transport coal.

Interesting point. Although that specific point would vary a lot depending on output of each unit, traction, and how the track runs. But at any given moment, I guess you're right. I can't quite decide; you might also end up with several cars in the middle (or thereabouts) that are equally being pushed and pulled. But then, the moment that the net output of the leading engines drops slightly below the output of the pushers, you'd end up with the whole train pushing slightly ahead against the leading units, or vice versa. I honestly can't quite decide just how that would work out. Now you'll have be lying up at night thinking about it, damn you!

LOL Sorry. It's a bit mind boggling for me too. Surely the point will be constantly changing. Just theoretically speaking if the lead units could move the whole train efficiently it wouldn't need rear helpers. Let's say in a 100 car train that the lead units cannot pull the entire train up an oncoming grade but it could manage 75 cars. The rear units would only have to be capable of moving 25 cars by themselves.

I believe that is correct Thomas. That was suppose to be the lastest, so I would say Dash 8

No, it was just a bit of sand... correcting wheelslip.

They were huffing and puffing

Maybe a week.

I say 2 days, Looting will commence soon as the word gets out supplies aren't coming

I'll give it five minutes before the dumb arrogant majority starts killing each other. The sensible ones will band together and start a new era. Accepting that the current era is dead.

It's been said that most societies are 3 meals away from breakdown and chaos.

Depends whether you live in Detroit or Wyoming. In Detroit they already do. In Wyoming, you'd probably not notice for a few weeks. It would be amusing to see Wall St bankers begging for scraps of bread off the Amish.

Ohhhhh yahhh!

Its very possible Lewis. We had one here in PA last spring. With this ne PTC, it shut the lead motors down on a 156 car freight. The manned helpers on the rear were still shoving in notch 8. The empty cars in the middle of the train scattered everywhere. Thanks for watching...

jackmp294.5™ thanks for your reply.When the pulling engines shut down do they become free rolling or does their drive train create resistance to rolling?

They free roll, but the weight does cause resistance. Sometimes they run light power past the house with about 12 locomotives. They usually have the first 2 running, and the last, or second from the last running as well. They probably put another on line when they head up into the mountains.

Not a dumb question. Very logical. And yes, helpers have to be careful or they will buckle the middle of the train and shove cars right off the track, especially on a corner. Pulling locomotives can yank couplers out, pushing ones can shove cars right off the track. A diesel-electric locomotive doesn't have a "drivetrain" like a truck does, so the engine (or 'prime mover', as it's called) won't act to brake the locomotive if you shut it down while rolling, like a truck would do if the engine died when it was in gear (or if you let off the accelerator). The diesel drives a generator, which creates electricity, which is used to power traction motors in the axles. When you shut off the engine you just have a free-rolling chunk of steel. There is no transmission, or no gearbox, to be exact; diesel-electric is a form of "transmission" in the technical sense of the word, as it transmits the power from the prime mover to the working unit, or wheels. This can also be done with a single or multi-speed gearbox, as seen in trucks, ships, or other machinery, but rarely in locomotives. A diesel engine can use the traction motors to brake the train, but only by putting them into the "dynamic brake" mode, which turns the engines into generators being driven by the wheels and the momentum of the train. On an electic locomotive, the power generated is put back into the power supply wire or rail, which is one of their big advantages. On a diesel-electric, the generated power is simply routed into "resistors" on the roof, which are basically giant electric heater elements. Mechanical brakes turn momentum into heat by friction; dynamic brakes turn it into heat by making it into electrical power and heating resistor grids. Which I think is very cool (although technically both are a big waste of energy).

Kel Harper Thanks so much for the explanation. I found it quite interesting. I think I will read up on the mechanic s of the modern locomotive. They are quite awesome and many folks I am sure see them go by and never realize the complicated designing that goes into making such a durable and powerful machine that operates safely. Thanks again.

nightlightabcd only if they were not running properly. A diesel will give off very little smoke when running well

Bobby Paluga sometimes they are planned. But it usually just depends as to whether or not the trains departing yard has surplus power or if they are low

They usually station helpers in places where they will be needed, so they don't have to make the whole run with twice as many units as necessary. Sometimes a train will just be assigned more cars than it can handle; they usually have a certain number per train, sometimes there are more, sometimes fewer cars. Sometimes it's right on the margin where they _think_ 4 units can handle it, just barely, but they are wrong. But in this case I'm pretty sure that these are units stationed here to help trains up this specific grade. Coal trains need to run regular schedules, and it's easier to know just how many cars and how heavy they will be. It doesn't say that the train stalled out anywhere, it's more likely that the helper units in the beginning were headed down on schedule to meet the train (or they may even be for a following train, and the one shown was already on the way up the grade when they passed). The compelling evidence is that there was a second set of helpers headed down the grade as the train was pulling past, like clockwork. You think that TWO trains stalled out on the same grade, one right after the other? And they called in two sets of helpers that both got there just in time to help each train up the grade? No, I'd say that was a regular scheduled helper heading down the grade to meet the following train waiting at the bottom for the first one to reach the top. They probably just finished unhooking from the last train they helped to the top, and headed back down.

Not sure, but it gets pretty steep there. I wish I had the track charts for the Pokey Division.

I would be surprised if the steam locos were pulling 100 ton hoppers. Probably 70 tonners. And most likely did not have the same number of cars per train. That's not to say steam locomotives were not extremely powerful.

Tractive effort was much higher on steam engines, it takes 4-6 diesels to pull same weight a allegheny or y6b was capable of

Steam locomotive's are very powerful but aren't exactly safe. All it takes is a valve to get stuck and you have an entire crew dead. They also tend to start fires since they're basically rolling furnaces. I believe it was more for safety than anything else.

anna jeannette Dixon , I wonder what kind of steam powered locomotive could be built today using modern materials, engineering and processes ? Probably a pretty bad a** one !

anna jeannette Dixon nothing can beat steam....

skinheadgay22 only need red if it’s on the rear of a passenger train

Oh boy I did say and mean rear bankers. Which are the ones at the back.

skinheadgay22 your question is why do they have the headlights on the rear engine instead of a red light, correct?

Oh boy. Sorry I get what you mean. It's only for a passenger train that they need red lights at the back. So freights don't? That's different from the whole world.

skinheadgay22 no biggie. I just wanted to make sure I understood your question.

Roger that Joe, thanks. I changed it, but its #6503. Thanks for watching...

jackmp294.5™ it's a great video i love hearing EMD'S and GE'S in the mountains

Run them to they drop. Then it shuts down the railroad. Thanks for watching.

Could use all the help they can get. Thanks for watching...

That is for sure! Hardly worth the 4.5 hour drive for me to go there anymore. Its a shame. It was such a neat place to go to spend a week.

@@1jackdk My primary motivation for going up there every year were the old N&W CPL signals. Those are now gone, and with the lack of traffic, it's not even worth my 7 hour trip to get there. Fun while it lasted!

I live in Southwestern Virginia. I miss hear the diesels coming up the line from Buchanan County at night. Now it may be once or twice a week I hear them. It's just something really special to hear them coming thru at night, up the line.