Union Railroad: MP15s between Pittsburgh's Steel Mills! 

This is PA, not chicago.

Me too. A very picturesque, yet gritty railroad!

Thanks! Maybe next time I’m back in town I’ll catch a train at Irvin Works.

Thanks. That means a lot!

Thanks! I would’ve loved to stick around for their departure, but wasn’t sure how long they’d take to load the train.

That depends. If they have loads already to go at Clairton they will return with the loads. Sometimes they will run lite back to yard or shop. I also have seen them park the power at the plant after bringing empties in. So..... it's a gamble.

Thank you! They’re one of my favorite railroads!

Thanks!

Thank you!

Still a lot of steel making done in Pittsburgh! Thanks for watching!

There is 1 mill left in braddock, pa. About 10 miles east of pittsburgh.

The Union has been running their trains since the early 70's with 2 to 5 unit sets of MP15DC's. They tried different locomotives from time to time. But haven't found a replacement for the tried and true MP15DC'S.

@@DoriClement-fe6tj thanks for the input my dear I never knew that women like railroading it's definitely a rarity that's for sure my mother hated that me and my dad went out training she always said oh you going out to see your choo choos for some reason she always found it to be some kids thing but we always have to explain to her it's a hobby. She finally started to realize it GP40s would pull this with ease I would say that you would need 2 or 3 GP40s to pull this load at least. SD40-2 you would need just the same 2 or 3 at the minimum and I believe that these cool cars were d but they were heading to the place to get them filled up so I'm guessing that they pull the same load to when the coal cars are full. That is a lot of weight I wonder what the model number is on those units 🤔 going to have to do some research especially on the pulling power of these in particular road switchers. I always loved switcher engines they can pull a lot of freight with little horsepower. I believe these models have anywhere between 1,000 and 1500 horsepower possibly 1800 at maximum. So it's somewhere between there 1,000 - 1800 horsepower somewhere between there I'm going to look this up after I send this message to you and I'm going to find out the exact horsepower on these units is it just seems so unlikely that these units can pull all that freight like I saw the length of this train and I almost 💩 myself for switcher engines pulling all that freight that's very impressive for those units.

@@DoriClement-fe6tj I was right 1500 horsepower so with the 4 units that's 6,000 horsepower so that's equivalent to 3 GP 38 s pulling this load and I could see three Jeeps pulling that load yeah they might struggle a little bit but they could do but these switcher and just man must be really struggling with a load like that

You should see and hear five of them on a ore train out of North Bessemer Yard.

You don’t really notice the grades in this video, being from above but the grade from Clairton to the coal valley bridge is almost 2%. Watching and hearing 4-5 MP15s taking a loaded train north is incredible. Screaming in notch 8 and on their knees pulling their guts out. From the coal valley bridge to Dravosburg is about 1 1/2% and then about 1% to Bull Run.

Thank you! I’ve seen some of DJ’s drone videos and they inspired me to make some of my own! Glad you enjoyed.

Thanks!

Tracks going everywhere! You wouldn’t be wrong in saying that!

Thanks!

Your welcome @@SamLovesTrains!

@@jsax4heart I record audio from the ground and then dub it onto the drone footage.

An intra-plant switcher. Quite common for mills and other large facilities that do a lot of switching to have their own switchers. If line haul railroad did the switching, facility would have to pay big fees to the line haul railroad.

Thanks. Those are old electric switchers that came from a coal mine and are used for loading the coke cars. They’re super cool. Built over 100 years ago.