ND&W Railroad PREX 1601 Creeps Down Bad Track Napoleon Ohio 

Excellent video. I enjoy watching these slow freights running over old lines like this. It's incredible some of them are still functional. My compliments to you.

8:03 is just killer.....the lean and the roller coaster rails!

Thanks for posting, Scott. My grand parents used to live by this line in Defiance. They lived on north side of what the railroad trails down into a giant gully before it crosses the river in town. During my visits there in the 60's N&W had already started running stuff on this line and I was mesmerized as a GP9 or two would bring a short train through. My mom of course remembers the Wabash through there. I feel terrible for the track! It makes me wish I could win the lottery or something so I could go make it better! I remember seeing those machines that completely take a track apart, spread the ballast, lay cross ties, bring new rail on, cinch it down and pull the ballast back into place; in short, a complete overhaul. That is what this line needs for sure! All it takes is money, right? LOL! In this case, MUCH more than I will probably ever see. It was good to see some familiar territory, but disappointing to see the tracks in such a state. Run up and down the line and post some more for us when you get the chance. Thanks for the share. John

They brought in another 7 loads of ties recently. Been a month since I filmed them. My ND&W engineer friend passed away this month.

I remember seeing this unit as it road the decatur junction railway. Always wondered where it went. Good video.

Nice video my friend. Quality work. I look forward to other videos from you in the future.

Oh this is a fantastic video! I love seeing trains running on beat up tracks like that. If I would have seen those tracks first hand. I would have assumed they were abandoned. Aside from the obvious clean look of the top of the rails showing that trains rolled over them. Great video thanks for uploading this one.

I love these backwater spurs, reminds me of times when I was a kid lol. Nice catch =D

Flexicoil wheel trucks are actually great on old track like that. You need tons of wheel articulation to keep every wheel on the rails. Nice footage.

Thanks for the upload.

This rare/unusual mileage footage is great...keep up the good work!

well do a little track maintenance every 100 years or so.

those track dips are close to 6 inches, incredible footage!

I have seen better track on abandoned railroads . seriously ? its hard to believe no one is working on this track .

You should have seen the tracks in Coldwater,MI before the Indiana Northeastern RR took over . They are doing a fine job of rebuilding between Hillsdale and Coldwater.

Great video and thanx for sharing! Bad track indeed! I'm surprised the train didn't derail even with that slow speed.

and here i am crying about potholes...

Awesome vids Scott.

This is amazing, I thought the short line track in my town was bad but it's great compared to this. Nice video!

When I was eight years old I was standing on the gravel section alongside a railroad track near my house. A neighbor (god bless her) came out of her house because I was much too close to a passing train. She made me cry. She died many years ago but if I saw her today I would shake her hand and thank her.

Omg that’s the road close to my old childhood house! At least I’m sure I used to see that train all the time from my bedroom #1601 and that is on Jahns Road it has a farm near it and the road twists a little it’s also near the highschool

I loved seeing that 0:30 steam locomotive charge by, I never seen a big steam engine like that move by where I live, that's awesome

I was sure at a few places that the train was going to topple over!

Thank you! Glad its getting green out!

Maybe take a big prybar with you......while waiting for the train you could straighten the rails.

Great video! They really need to work on the track in Napoleon.

awesome video!

Great video. It's a wonder you were able to stay ahead of the train, LOL. Very nice camera work on a interesting railroad.

Watching that engine and those box cars rocking back and forth like that is scary as hell! A major derailment in the making! I hope you'll do a follow up video of this section once Pioneer repairs it. In the meantime, fingers crossed. P.S. I too worried about your car in that opening shot.

Great video

'Bad Track' is a major understatement ! Horrid is better !

This line is similar to former Penn Central's, former Pennsylvania Railroad's, Newton Square branch which was hideous in the East Lansdowne / Fernwood area before Conrail abandoned the line.

Why do people have such a penchant for covering freight cars with graffiti? It looks awful! Whatever happened to the days when freight cars all had a road name on them and advertising slogans for the railroad Like "Ship It On The Frisco," "Route of the Zephyrs," "The Route Of Phoebe Snow," "The Bridge Line to New England," etc. Do the people served by this line ever complain about its condition and why it takes so long to get a car to them? Amazing!

But, you did capture some serious boxcar art, especially the last car.

Thanks!

I enjoy your video technique. Other railfans should learn from you. Well shot Scott. Hope the Pioneer folks can save it. The odds are tough given the condition of the roadbed beneath the track itself. A friend who worked on the line back in the NS days told me they could go out and pound ballast all day long and the only thing that happened was it came out of the ground in China. When your sub roadbed is that bad ballasting and tamping sometimes only gives you temporary respite.

OMG awesome vid!!!

You know, when you see something like this where a small railroad is willing to do whatever it takes to survive and then you look at the other side of the coin where we have a perfectly good former main line railroad here in Southern Ohio known as the Peavine that NS won`t use, It just makes you mad. The `Vine is still in great shape and gets used once a week and NS wants it shut it down. I bet these folks would kill to have a line in as good a shape as the `Vine, at least they would use it.

nice video , thanks

LOVE the sounds of spring in the back ground

The line is a truncated remenant of the old Wabash mainline, latterly Indiana Hi Rail and Maumee & Western. That is my understanding and the line appears not to have had a proper maintenence regime for several decades. I don't know US practice but in the UK we have tamping machines to regulate the alignment of the track, taking care of the wayward geometry. It all depends on the income of the line: Is there the cash for hiring in the machinery or a gang to work their way down the line and correct the alignment? Depends on if the rails are badly worn too. Between 8:00 & 8:45 I expected the driver & brakeman to be hanging off the high side of the locomotive like yachtsmen do to balance their craft, or ready to bail out if she tipped over. Looks terrifying.

Looks like the old Penn Central to me. Down in Fort Wayne, this used to be about the norm back in the day! And hey, great job yelling at your dog to shut up when the train wasn't even within earshot yet! Lighten up there pal...

i love watching freight trains especially if they are old

Im from Cleveland and want to come down and check out some of these shortlines, how do I know when they are gonna be running? and are there resources to know which lines to check out?

Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment! I'm always uploading new good ones!

Nice vid!

Interesting video, no matter what. Railroads want to make the money, the track comes second. A railroad worker told me that years ago. Anyway good entertainment, if nothing else.

Amazing to watch trains on it too.

Ok how is this safe?

7:59, now that is just ridiculous! That is also one brave driver.

They send one "train" a week out to the end of the line to pick up untreated rail ties. Basically 160 mile round trip with 1-6 cars, many are tankers that are just there to knock the rust off the rails so the crossing lights will work, sort of. There is a new customer on the line at the old Ford plant in Batavia that will need 5 day a week service, and the rumor was that Ohio had to force NS to service it or else the company that bought the place wouldn`t move there with about 250 good jobs.

r they still up dating this line, and r they replacing any of the rail.

Well thanks for tellin me updates on tracks..sorry you lost friend who was engineer for ND&W .

How do they get clearance to operate on tracks in such bad shape?

Still hard to believe that used to be a major Wabash line. N&W obviously did a lot of deferred maintenance on that line! Hope the Railroad survives and gets some of that track repaired.

Scott, does Pioneer also operate in Mississippi? There's a video on youtube of the Mississippi Central by a poster called redekerrailvideo (sp) that shows two locomotives on that line painted nearly identically to this one and numbered as 1604 and 1605. Just curious, thought you might know.

reminds me of the penn central days

Anyone know what the structure is at 6:24 in front of the loco? I have seen it several times when ive been in Napoleon. It looks nothing like a grain silo.

There is an old journal box on second axile!

Why did you cut @ 9:54. Wanted to see it go over that rollercoaster track !

+Scott Taipale >>> How much 'rail twist' can a locomotive handle before it derails?

Train is moving a lot faster since the track repairs began

Have you seen it in person? In Defiance? The locomotive you speak of works on the Connersville and New Castle (CNUR) which is owned by the same person who previously owned the ND&W. I have seen videos of it but cannot locate any at the moment.

All terrain locomotive!!! Looks like someone just rolled out a roll of track through someone's woods years ago. No roadbed or anything.

where is this train going too? i thought this track was abandoned

Usually in model railroading you can do things that cannot be done on real life railroads. This time, the real life railroad has track so bad you CAN'T model it and have a train stay on the tracks! I just messed around with some extra rail and ties I had and I couldn't keep a train on the tracks when I tried to emulate the ND&W's track!

Crazy. Wonder how many times they have derailed. lol

That was insane, especially the part around 9:30. Is this track a dead end?

do the cross bucks work?

This is NOT a 79 mph line handling huge trains day and night. It IS a branch line and moving four boxcars does not make a million dollars. The police don't have laws about such things, its the FRA and this is probably what they call 'excepted track', speed is 10 mph or less and the track is NOT condemnable. So why don't of you smart arm chair railroaders jump in and fix this all up with your own money and see how far you get. Pioneer is doing more than the previous operator by a long way.

I really enjoy your videos, Scott. We should meet up sometime!

It safe to say that if your car dies on a crossing your most likely fine

Its funny how the train has to go up and over the bridge, LOL.

The progress they have made so far is amazing but still way behind any of their peers.

How high is the rail?

Why there is no repair for this railroad? Any safety rules and regulations which prevent any train to pass through this poorly maintained actually "never maintained" rail track? Anyhow thanks for uploading this really amazing video.

Locomotive is a low-hood GP9 without dynamic brakes ?

O.O That train went over the toughest sections to traverse over.

Yup. The crew does their best!

I still don't know how trains go down these tracks. Any updates on improvements?

Well it's official, I've seen a train take a dirt road...lol.

As top-heavy as the locomotive looks, it doesn't topple over when it leans like that.

I don't know why NS is trying to kill off the line and not turn it over to a shortline. I've seen video of trains on it in the past.

Wow , and I taught Poland had some bad rural side tracks !

Now I know why these loco's were nicknamed "jeeps", taking tilt and approach angles it has to negotiate on this railroad it must have some terrain capabilities.

Is it like that most of freight trains in US have only 4-6 rakes? too short.

lmao SHUT UP!!!! at his dog.

That's some bad track Harry.

why is the track not well maintained?

The conductor followed along in a black ford and flagged the crossings.

do the rail road crossing lights actually work ? noticed lot's of cars running the crossing

Ya some spots its good enough for 7mph or so.

That engineer has to have nerves of steel.......

And hold up at 3:59 that's a candy red caddy on swangers.. Is this near Houston?

how do they start a railroad

From the country that brought you... the space shuttle! Guess there's no need for movable barriers on those crossings. Nobody outside america knew about this sort of shambles before the internet. I can just hear John McEnroe shouting "you cannot be serious!"

Thanks! If your in Ohio let me know, I may be free. Probably going to Montpelier tomorrow if its not pissing rain.

When you go four wheel drive on a train track.

How does that thing NOT fall off the tracks? How is that train even allowed to go down that?

I did also notice at crossin even thou the train was comin cars were crossin right in front sad to me supose it had better tracks before...and was able to move people are supose to stop when Train comes i thought..i hope you understood that statement thank you!