While Class I railroads may not seek out these businesses, Class II and Class III railroads/shortlines use this as their bread and butter. The ideal relationship is Class I railroads transporting these cars from Point A to Point B, and smaller railroads dealing with the customer. Everyone makes money and the customer is happy. Source: I'm a conductor for a Class II railway who left a Class I
Crews on these jobs also get to know their dispatcher quite well. Sometimes it can be downright comical to listen to their conversations with the funny things they’ll say to each other. A breath of fresh air amidst the organized chaos of railroading. 😉 Really nice video and excellent use of the drone.
Yup I used to pick up a lot of traffic like that on my scanner many years ago. One day the conversation was quite comical because the dispatcher holed up the local for a road freight and got them stuck for quite sometime. The back and forth conversation was funny to hear.
Sometimes you can get finds. I bought a box of stuff for $1, mainly for a ceramic rose which would go for $50 on eBay if I was to sell it (my SO found it in the box and had me bid on it).
Another beauty Danny! "Lets just say....budget priced items"....lmao. The video is great but as usual, it's your story telling that makes it all the better. Cheers Gregg.
mile57.2 galtsub Probably because the Class 1 railroads decided Unit trains and intermodal services are huge timesaver trains and cost far less to manage and operate than the carload customers. In the late 70s to early 80s, they cut their nose off to spite their face when they did a lot of closing roads with only carload customers on them. When the ICC created the Surface Transportation Board to regulate the railroad industry primarily to keep them from killing so many branch lines, they began selling their branches to shortlines who could make a decent profit from carload customers and then turn over big cuts of cars to the class 1s. Of course they still have to maintain their infrastructure including classification yards but CSX is taking the first step towards shutting that part down as well.
EXACTLY what I mean....here where I live, in Winnipeg, we had a huge map of different spurs every which way. But, things changed let's say around in the early 80's, I remember at least 2 spurs were taken out. Then, in the later 80's the great CN yard in the downtown area was all redone, and the old tracks all removed, and all became as a terrorism spot. Later, at least in 2000, a line of trackage was all taken away, so were the spurs in the one part of the city were I closely live near by....and got all redeveloped. Many more places got their tracks removed, and got redeveloped, and so rare to see spur lines having trains on them...working to deliver to small/large businesses, now mostly all done by semis.
4 decades ago truckers had much smaller trucks with the average load weighing far less. These days it is very difficult to stay competitive with trucking (and intermodal)
You have the best system with great info perfect sound with the trains sound low enough to enjoy and able to hear everything you are telling us. Delay in the block has a loud train sound that's annoying if you turn up the sound to hear the information being spoken. Your absolutely the best railfan production
All that creakin' and groanin' sounds like me getting out of bed in the morning! Nice job with the drone, as always. Great to hear your voice again. Greetings from Fresno CA.
This kind of work is fun. I love riding the point in wooded areas to spot a load or set out a cut of empties on a spur. One night on one of our locals I was on the back of the train on the last car with my trainee, riding downhill, around a corner, with tree branches smacking us the whole way down - and as those tree branches were smacking me and I'm shining my flashlight down the track looking to clear the switch at the bottom of the hill to then line us in for the long shove back on our spur for the setout, my only thought was "this is f'ing fun"
This is the most fascinating kind of railroading and I've always enjoyed watching the local do the switching. On my virtual railroads, I always have a bunch of industries which need a boxcar, hopper, or tank or two. This type of operation can keep me busy for hours. The distribution building the train was servicing at the end reminds of one of the models I have. I think the creator used this industry as an example because they also create a Plant City passenger station as well. Where I live in eastern New England, we still see lots of 4-axle power. PAR only recently started phasing out their GP40-2s in favor of some recently acquired former CSX Dash-8s. For many years, the SD40s and GP40s were the mainstay and they're still plenty about on the system.
The smaller railroad customers just getting a car or two have always been more interesting to me from the operations standpoint than the mega industries receiving and shipping several cars at a time. I remember railfanning back in the 1960s, almost every town along the RR of any significance had at least one or two small freight customers to switch, be it a feed mill, fuel dealer, lumber yard, or similar small businesses. Nowadays most of these same towns just have a main track going straight through. The former switches, sidings, and active customers are history with the old loading docks facing trackside many times bricked up or otherwise sealed shut. I know the railroads make more off of mega customers but it's still kind of sad for me to see the smaller industries fall by the wayside over the years. I'm amazed when I see a smaller business still receiving a single car or two these days.
Yes, I think the railroads are finding ways to serve these small customers through intermodal nowadays. It's cheaper and faster than spotting boxcars on industrial tracks. Of course some commodities still need it the old way, like newsprint and mechanical parts. Boxcar traffic is till alive and well, though. I see 50 - 70 cars cuts of boxes in roads trains even now.
Very nicely put together, and extremely well explained. We have a very similar switching puzzle up here in Akron, Ohio. This job, done by CSX's D750 is a daily move. The way the track is lined up with one of the customers, D750 has to leave their cut of cars from the customer on the No. 2 main, run 15 miles to the next Absolute Signal and Crossover, and crossover to the No. 1 track where they will travel about 20 miles in the opposite direction on the No. 1 track in order to run around their cars and get on the rear end of their train. And that is just for one of their customers. D750 services about 5-7 customers on the CSX Newcastle Subdivsion every single day, and as the one dispatcher (BEH, Brain) puts it, "I got people up here that know how to pay us dispatchers well." Too bad they don't know how to pay the head-end crew as amptly as they do the dispatchers.
When I was a kid in the '80s I lived near the end of the track w spur in deland Florida . It was always fun to go up high Street and see the train dropping off Hopper cars for Sherman medical and box cars at rinker concrete and every once in awhile dropping off a single propane car at Florida gas .
Just happened to stumble across this video and while I normally am not a fan of commentary for train videos this definitely the exception! Your commentary makes this video and I look forward to watching/listening to more of your work in the future ☺ keep up the splendid job!
Nice switching video, Danny. Switching cars is the backbone of railroading. I had just recently built an Inglenook Sidings model railroad layout in N scale.
Really enjoyed that thanks Distant Signal. Here in the UK we abandoned wagonload freight forty years ago as uneconomic and now only have company or block trains running without any attaching or detaching. It feels like we lost all the interesting operations that make railroads worth watching.
I can guarantee the cars are loaded. If you look at the springs on the trucks you can see they are depressed indicating the cars are loaded...great video
This is why I appreciate the smaller railroads like RJ corman. They take the smaller customer's and shuttle it to the class 1s . Allowing more businesses access to rail transport.
It's always real neat to get up close and personal with a switch job such as this one. How blessed we are as train watchers/railfans/train buffs, and especially the crews, are to still have industrial rail in a country that wants rail transportation gone. This is railroading at it's very best. I only wish I got to see cool stuff like this more often in my area, as it's mostly just CSX and NS, the locals are just so hard to capture. I guess I better find a schedule for the I&O. Great video Danny.
Tell me you make a living with your voice? If not, you could and should. When you say "CSX" it makes me believe that you ARE CSX! Professional, top quality video! First class all the way! Thanks for the effort! 👍
Your videos are so good! I seriously get so sad when they end. Actually, this one felt so short. However, as always, you learn so much from watching you. Although it sounds cliche, please keep up the good work. I can’t tell you how much you have reignited a passion for me in trains in general. All the best to you and thanks for all you do and these amazingly produced videos.
"...it's risky to run anything heavier than four axle power on many of these old industrial tracks.."... unless your Trainmaster says to. Then put it in notch 8 and give it some sand. Love your videos. Great stories attached to every industry
Nice to see. In a lot of places throughout the USA, the large class 1 railroads have left this type of work to smaller short lines. The short lines can do it quicker and cheaper and so many are growing and actually replacing old track in these industrial areas and laying new ones.
The Interbay line where you recorded was on Pearl Avenue. Several months ago that street crossing was rebuilt. It's now lined with asphalt. A lot of locals complained to the city that the [missing] wood lining that crossing was causing a lot of suspension damage on their vehicles. It's much smoother driving over them now.
Top notch as always Mr Harmon. I requested a shout out for International Paper, and you obliged. Many thanks from an IP HR Manager and railroad nut in Chicago.
Oh c'mon now! You don't get a thrill from a 150 car piggyback train going by at 60MPH? I like the local switching, but the main line stuff is exciting too! :-))
I work for international paper in California. We get alot more than 1 box car at a time. More like 8-10 at a time. I also get to unload the rail cars. Which is fun cause I love trains.
Love this little detour from mainline videos. I guess it is because I am a modeler and industrial spurs becomes more and more interesting. But no means I don't want you start to chase all these jobs as you are by far running the very best videos I have ever seen on RU-vid. Cheers from Sweden!
Great video as always Danny and did you know there's actually two customers on the Plant City Sub? There's the classical International Paper but there's also Highland Packaging Solutions, which receives Covered Hoppers and is located between Paper and Lake Wales Junction. You can view their siding from Gordon Food Service Drive, which despite the sound of the name is actually a public road and crosses the Plant City Sub behind the customer.
Having done local customer switching it’s nice to see some video of it. Very time consuming to pick up and drop only one car like that. I love the drone footage. It really adds to the videos. I’d love to get one some day.
Nice to see old Y225 working South Tampa. I used to live there and that is true, he usually would only come around in the evening, usually Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Then, he'd wake the neighborhood going back to the yard at 11PM and beyond. It's nice to see again, even though I now live near much more railroad traffic.
When I was working on the Connecticut Southern we were low on power and had to use one of the SD40-T2 snoot nose which originally started its life in 1965 on the UP needless to say it was rather scary on some of the industrial tracks spotting cars
Super video. A friend recommended it and I’m glad I did. Nice video work but the real gem is the investment you’ve made in the narration. Nicely designed script that was tightly executed. The story is easy to discover and become engaged in. Thank you.
Got a kick out of thisB seemingly mundane operation. I've been there & done that on the CSX Baltimore sub & yes, thinking ahead really helps. No, it's required! Thanks for doing & posting. I loved the drone shot at the end. I think if I were still on the rails, I'd bring a drone along to video my work!
Nice video Danny. Locals are my favorite type of railroading and I miss them. I grew up on the west coast of Florida south of Tampa and in the 70's and 80's did most of my railfanning with the locals that ran that route. Unfortunately it's all gone now. The track south from Clark Road is a bike trail and there is only one local operated by a shortline who has made it their goal to drive off customers. One two car train every other Monday is just pitiful. Looking forward to retirement so I can get out of Florida and move to a city with a rail depot and freight and passenger traffic.
Danny a way of telling if a enclosed freight car is loaded or empty is looking at the springs on the trucks. If they are compressed it is loaded. Unless the boxcar is loaded with feathers. LOL!
It is sad to see alot of these working spurs gone, or abandoned. In North America, before the "high paced" future we all live in now, and before trucks, we all had many working spurs; many people had jobs doing whatever they needed to do to keep the trains...let's say rolling. Now, it is so rare to see working spurs, and the real working horses of the days...after and during the days horses still were doing the work as well. But, which I love too, however I think very dangerous on highways, trucks are doing the transports, however trains still do alot of heavier, bulkier, and more supplies back and forth...from cost to cost...than trucks, just that they do less small buisnesses, and less working spur lines to any buisness....which I think it is a great lost.
