Branchline Train Chase, a GE B23-7 Running On Rough Track

[TheTriforcebearer]

lol the train driver must of been entertained by constantly seeing you

[2557shane]

I love U-boats;)

[diecastcollector83]

where did his grain hopper go to man ? It was GONE at the very end of the video . Just wondering .

[CaptainZster]

@diecastcollector83 He probably dropped it if thats what your asking.

[crazydriver1869]

at the end you can see how bad the tracks are by the way the car dipped going over them.

[royalflush5000]

@crazydriver1869 That's because it was just a really rough crossing. By the way, this crossing has been fixed and a second track is being added to it due to a new rail interchange with the CN being put in.

[megatwingo]

That must be the limit of bad tracks that a standard gauge train is able to master without derailing. Very interesting and well filmed. Thumbs up! :)

[inels100]

wheres the lighting?

[Nandinhoization]

Bad tracks! Why don't they fix them up?

[yurrri1978]

Противный такой звук у этих пиндостанских паравозов. И сигнализация на переезде допотопная типа "традиции не вырубить и топором".

[gedebage]

Do the crew take seasick pills when they are on that line?

[Boss302fan]

@gedebage The issue isn't motion sickness. It's being rocked to sleep that is often the problem.

[ModalTrains4884]

I live in Rockford and have never seen this.

[arlingtontrains7]

where did the coverd hopper and boxcar go at the end?..

[k4ldh]

It DID derail @7:15.....30 pigmies were killed

[BBT609]

I love that crossing where you see the distant signals, It rings 3 times, pause, then 3 times.

[royalflush5000]

@BBT609 With the bell ringing like that, it should be replaced. That's an analog bell right now, it should be replaced with a digital bell because of how often the signals are on. This crossing is just north of the Canadian Pacific (former IC&E) interchange with the Illinois Railway, so it gets a lot of traffic.

[theamtrakvirus]

what kinda horn does that have?

[EMDlocomotives]

@theamtrakvirus p5

[GrafVonBecker]

We have here, in Argentina, bad track in main passenger lines (Retiro - Rosario) with more bouncing, more "exciting jumping" and so on...

[Boss302fan]

@GrafVonBecker Argentina hauls some amazing tonnage down there. I did some work out in Rosario a few years ago. Great food. Friendly people. Damn you guys do good beef. Good beer too.

[MrGobare]

this track has been the same as long as Ive been alive.

41 years

[royalflush5000]

@MrGobare This track has been here for as long as shortly before World War I. Most of this rail is 90# jointed rail, much of it dating back to the 1910's and 1920's. (Rail way back from 1912 can be found on this track.)

P.S. This track once carried soldiers to Camp Grant, which was where the Rockford Airport is now. (The airport is seen at 7:09.) The sign next to the tracks that says "Camp Grant" is still in place further down the line.

[PRL2204]

Classy shortline railroad work :) engines like these fit the shortline railroad scene PERFECTLY.

[royalflush5000]

This line is 10 mph trackage because of all the rocking and bouncing the train did. It is suitable for light density freight traffic only. No medium to heavy density freight or any passenger traffic. Any rail traffic more than light density freight or any passenger traffic would require the line to be completely rebuilt to FRA Class 3 standards.

[Boss302fan]

@royalflush5000 When you use the term "light density"....what do you mean?

[royalflush5000]

@Boss302fan Light density means that it can't be used very frequently anytime. If the Illinois Railnet (Now Illinois Railway) ever needed more frequent use, (e.g. medium to heavy density use) they would have upgrade the line, more likely completely rebuild it.

[Boss302fan]

@royalflush5000 So you are saying that this line can handle heavy tonnage cars? Just not frequently?

Now I am aware of many railroads running daily grain trains over FRA Class I track. They just have to do it at 10 mph.

I'm not aware of any FRA regulation that covers "frequency" of use.

[royalflush5000]

@Boss302fan Too much weight, too fast of operation, and too frequent use will tear up these old rails (some of them nearly 100 years old) really quickly. It's the laws of physics that tells you this. This line is composed of mostly 90# jointed rail. Just think wat would happen if you were to put a well car and two containers, an autorack with 15-20 cars, or a tank car with heavy ethonal on this small, old rail.

[Boss302fan]

@royalflush5000 A well car with two containers weights far less than a load of plastic. An autorack with 20 automobiles weighs far less than a load of potash. Tankcars of anhydrous, propane, chlorine and ethanol are handled safely on lines with 90 pound jointed rail all over the US, Mexico and Canada. Look at CIND handling new Hondas in Ohio for example. Or numerous shortlines moving LPG all over North America. It happens all the time. Not unusual at all.

[royalflush5000]

@Boss302fan Read my comment I said to MrGobare. That and simple physics will tell you why frequency of use, rail car type, and speed are so restrictive on this line. Top heavy and cars with shifting loads (like tank cars) will almost certainly fall over due to all the rocking.

[Boss302fan]

@royalflush5000 You are completely wrong. Tankcars are safely handled on 90 pound jointed rail all over North America. You say almost certainly fall over and yet thousands of such ""top heavy" or "shiftable" carloads cross lines of this nature each day. They do so at restrictive speed and they do so safely. Your analysis of simple physics is basically wrong. These moves happen all the time every day in high numbers.

[royalflush5000]

@Boss302fan Okay okay, I take your word for it. I just have never seen tank cars, intermodal traffic, or autoracks on this line and I thought the reason for it was because the track was in such poor condition, but I must be wrong.

[Boss302fan]

@royalflush5000 You may be absolutely right about that particular line. The reason you don't see that type of traffic there is that there are no ports or automobile facilities on it. In general railroads route that traffic over high speed lines. Want to see stack trains going over bad track...go so some of the smaller ports. Or go watch TTX Honda racks go over CIND at 10 miles per hour. And watch anyhdrous tanks go over some the the small shortlines. They're out there. Peace!

[royalflush5000]

@Boss302fan Oh, I just remembered that on the Union Pacific KD spur, which is Class 1 trackage too, I've seen tank cars. (The KD spur is also bouncy, and composed of 90# jointed rail. I know this because I've ridden on that track on a trolley.) and we've never had a derailment here due to bouncy track. So, my bad about saying that bouncy track composed of 90# jointed rail can't handle shiftable or top heavy loads. Tank cars run on this track quite frequently. Search "KD spur" in Youtube search.

[royalflush5000]

The other day in the paper, I read that Chicago needs a third airport. The price tag for one is around $15 billion. This track runs along the Rockford Airport and there is consideration that passenger trains might use this line to serve the Rockford Airport after all. The route would traverse the existing MD-W Metra line, take the UP Belvidere Subdivision to Rockford, turn on the line seen in the video to go by the airport. At Davis Junction, the route will take the ICE line back to MD-W line.

[royalflush5000]

Cont. from route explanation: The cost of this rail loop from Chicago to Rockford would be about $700 million--A lot less than the cost of a new airport.

P. S. The skies in Chicago are already congested with airplanes.

[bigwesj]

full load? judging by the shaking from the hopper I would guess so...

My grandpa could predict the weather just by listening to a trains horn echo off in the distance... on the clearest day he would tell us this, and then it would storm.

[IAISrailfanner]

Great shot! These guys run on weekdays only do they?

[hoosierhobbies]

Davis Jct. looks way different than the Milwaukee days, I haven't been there since 1979!

[somewhathigh]

wow that engine has some loading issues, great shortline RR video. if we still had *'s it'd get 5

[NorfolkSouthern1]

Gotta love that horn!

[NorfolkSouthern1]

Gotta love that horn!

[JayJr2007]

Coulda chased that train on the back of a donkey ... crazy slow. Nice vid though.

[RailfanTube]

Very interesting! There's just something about watching branchline railroads that has always fascinated me.

[TheZeke1974]

Like the cool sounding horn!

[saintangerinc]

i meant the track not the movie

[saintangerinc]

holy crap thats bad!

[Heyde1979]

they need to fix that line of train track or these trains will derail

[karelfromholland]

Maintenance, that's what that track needs.

Your video is great. Nice to see one engine pulling the train for a change.

[huettmr]

doesn't seem very profitable..long way to go for just 3 cars

[melisluv06]

That crew's gonna need a neck brace after that trip! It *is* very interesting to see how much a train can really wobble, though. Thanks for posting.

[coldsyringe826]

That is some shitty track, but cool to hear.

[mjet401bnsf]

hmm what type of horn is that it sounds like a p5 but witha horn missing lol like a p4

[bnsf4]

I just love this erea. Doesn't this railroad split off the BNSF track that goes through Rochelle? I have always wondered that.

[royalflush5000]

@bnsf4 Yes. It does that at Flagg Center, which is a couple miles northwest of Rochelle. This track used to be owned by BNSF.

[WisdomVendor]

that track has definitely seen better days.

[caribbeanQTNY]

That horn is so weak! I think the horn on my Honda is butcher! LOL

[jimc137]

Great video - thank you! My son enjoys it daily, and I learned a bit about video editing.

[bimmerben76]

Is this line still in operation. I saw some of their engines sitting in a yard near Galt around Christmas. I would like to get out there and chase their train to Rockford. I love short line railroading!

[HernanKuku]

how did you do to rush from one spot to the next so quickly???

[thetrainman407]

@HernanKuku - Its called a car... Look at the speed the train is going, it wouldnt be hard to chase it. I chase DM&E trains through here going 15-20 miles per hour. It is way easy to overtake them.

[trainz675]

this in the worst video on utube. NOT this is awesome! 5*

[XxWisdoM96xX]

just one question.why ?

[xThomas79x]

It's a matter of safety!

German lines for example were mainly used for passenger transport (but that will change the next years). So another reason is comfort. Freight traffic by rail is not competitive to transport on road.

State-owned German Railways had also an absolute monopoly for a long time, and it was no problem to maintain and repair the tracks with money from the taxpayers.

BTW: European / German trains are much lighter and shorter (may not be longer than 700m) than American ones.

[xThomas79x]

Great video, thank's a lot.

In Germany it would be forbidden still using tracks like these ones. Often you can't even see any damages, but the authorities close the railway nevertheless.

[LJJ23ARSRUL]

why sit so rougth n bumpy plz some one tell me

[GeoffBlackmore]

Great video thanks. Take a look at the video called "Hautapu Industrial Branch". It's a similar short branch chase, but with the track in much worse condition!

[legominifigure7]

anyone know the horn type?

[roundhouser]

Sounds like a P5

[miklyd]

gosh...i wonder if the crew took dramamine first...

[Bus7777]

That's a bloody long train! :P

[cagorrie]

Nice video, must have been a fairly easy chase. Is that railroad still operating ?

[clinton984]

Yeah, weak track but old fashioned railroading.

Great vid on this shortline. 5*

[farouqleftback]

1"09 looks like it is going to topple over

[vicguy12]

Great video! I prefer the shortlines, they seem more interesting!

[ggg2561]

1ra vvez que veo que lleva pocos vagones

[NSengineer17]

Now theres a GOOD GE!!! Better than the trash 9s and Geevos on Class Is!!!

[JDeereGP]

Great video! I like these kind... Nothing like watching shortlines at work.. Thanks

[EnginesandRails87]

Back with yet another question, what kind of camera did you use to film this? when I set it to play HQ, it was some of the most clean and sharp footage I have ever seen!

Again, 5 star video!

[trainzeiro]

Nice video. Sometimes the train tilting ..

[Boss302fan]

I like this video. Great shots. Steady. The storm sets the scene.

For those of you not familiar with the challenges of operating a shortline, this videographer did a nice job of capturing them.

[IsaiahWEJackson]

I think the ONLY times that I have heard that horn was when a NS train ran through Columbus, OH. I actually watched the whole video. Those tracks ARE garbage. I bet those engineers (and/or their family pray extra hard before they go to work).

[Boss302fan]

Not at all. You're usually running slow and derailments (if they occur) are just not severe.

I would rather derail on poor track at 10mph than fast track at 70.

This is just normal branchline rail operations.

[Superedit]

Great old B-boat. Nice to see it still running.

[Saugertiesrailfan]

nice horn!

[Livingchaos5623]

I hate that almost everytime they throttle up giving that classic GE smoke it's always just as it's heading out of view so you miss it. Almost like they were messing with you.

[thenewUSA]

they need to fix that track!

[Boss302fan]

Yeah.

Are you somehow aware of the financials available to this shortline holding company?

Do the revenues support the level of track maintenance that in your expertise you deem sufficient?

Or...would it be possible that for shortline operations this might be adequate for the tonnage moved and speeds operated

[royalflush5000]

@thenewUSA The track isn't used enough to justify fixing it. Trains run on this track only 2-3 times a week or so.

[FOGBIT44]

Looks like a storm moving in!!!!!

[EnginesandRails87]

Also forgot to add, love the shot at about 7:15, I thought that thing was going to come off the track!

[ic6071]

Thanks! Yeah the IR has rough track, that for sure!

[Boss302fan]

@royalflush5000 no modern intermodal, autorack or tanks? Is that the local operating rule? (Certainly not a Class 1 FRA imposed rule)

[Boss302fan]

@royalflush5000 You missed my question. I can talk train dynamics with you all day long. My question was where did you get that a Class 1 rated track cannot take intermodal, autorack or tankcars?

Did the rule change today? I missed it. I just sent a crew out with 10 tankcars on Class 1 rated track. Up until today I thought that was perfectly legal.

I have about 200 autoracks stored here on Class 1 track.

[EnginesandRails87]

Nice shots, that rail is really light weight though! BTW, did you have a bad storm coming your way? The sky looked pretty ugly in some of the shots.

[ic6071]

Thanks! Yes actually, we hit one heck of a storm on the way home.

[TrainmasterCurt]

Love the shot at 3:49, looks like an old steamer comin down the branch!

[TrainmasterCurt]

That's gotta be 60 to 85lb rail!! Love the old-style rock n' sway motion!

[ddmcgee241]

Love the shot at 3:32

[modeltrainman]

This video is just great i lived in rockford way back when,and when bn owned these tracks the nightly local had 2 sd9s and about 30 cars for down town rockford and the speed limit i beleave was 25 then again i am talking 30 years ago.times sure do change 3cars and 10mph what a shame those tracks have not seen any work in at least 20years.

[BWMax1282526]

You remeamber the good "Green" days, one good thing that I can say is I worked on the railnet lines for a year, almost like following in my fathers foot steps only 20 years later and a differt company. I was a brakeman for this job, and I tell you what, the track is crap on a good day, North of the ICE is 10 mph, and south was 25 mph, I do not know what it is now, it has been a while ago when I worked at railnet, my trackage was in oregon, IL. I have photos and videos I will try to post soon.

[Lehnerd57]

You like jumpin tracks Try the CSX spur use be seaboard coastline thru lawrenceville n gwinnett county n beyond at near crossin at switch off for side track they zip so fast cars bouce back n forth i afraid be a de-railment at same spot again

[thetrainman407]

at 5:42, 3:38, 355, & 7:15, i thought the poor thing was going to derail!! thats some bad track!!

[thetrainman407]

awesome adam! is that by chance and ex, rock island, SF, or NP. sure looks like one of theose AWESOME VIDEO!

[BNSFnick]

Great!

[FlyBikes089]

Great video!

5 rating!

Plus, *add favorite!!!!!

[cagorrie]

Great video mate !

[CNrailfan50]

WOW! That is some rough track. And i thought the EX-CP line was bad here! Great video!

[wle200]

9 min. into video that red car looked as if it was going to pull out in front of the train then changed it's mind. Maybee not. There was a few times i thought the train was gonna derail! That was a nice, long, awesome video!

[miketlow]

Thats a great video!!...this is the theme I am going for on my HO layout..shortlines that get the job done and help the 1st class railroads reach all parts of the US!!

[pranxter08]

you know trains are getting shorter and shorter where i live in Pa trains are only a few cars long like this one and they only come around 1nce a day!! but i know they are starting to come back bacause with the price of gas today cars will be leaving this planet just as fast as they came and "Trains WILL Take Over"

[UPTurner]

Awesome Video!! I like those old Dash-7s!! Nice horn too!!

[dragonhighlorde]

Great work on this piece. I always enjoy watching the smaller lines do their thing! 5*****

[ic6071]

Thanks a lot! Good to hear you liked it. Yeah, I'm a fan of the smaller roads to.

[streetcarbrad]

Rock solid camera work, great job on picking positions and that poor car at the end really drives home how rough some of that is. Thanks really enjoyed it.

[ic6071]

Thank you, appreciate the kind words. I'm glad that you liked it!

[Texaslobo]

Nice work.

[ic6071]

Thanks!

[Andrewsaxamophone]

I've always wanted to see that train.

[ic6071]

Well, the crew said it usually runs Mon thru Fri, and they usually leave Hemstock Road at around 6 PM.

[Andrewsaxamophone]

Wow, for real? Thanks a million for that information ic6071!!!!!

[ic6071]

No problem!

[stuntedcards]

there was a CNW line that went through rockford back in the 80's i got friends that live in Belvidere and there was a CNW line that went through unless they ripped that out

[ic6071]

Yeah, it is still in, the UP goes up there. The go to the Chrysler Plant almost everyday I think, and then to Rockford every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

[VespineVid2]

Nicely done! Classic power.

[ic6071]

Thanks! Yeah, I'm not a real huge GE fan, but this was awesome to see.

[LenaVideos]

Nice love the power and exost. I saw two of those bu it was the Illinois Rail Net in Oragon.

[ic6071]

Thanks, glad you liked. Yeah, this is still the Illinois Railnet, but just a CSP engine.

[sjtom57]

I'm not usually a fan of such slow moving trains, but really enjoyed this vid. Thanks.

[ic6071]

No problem, glad that you enjoyed it. Yeah, I'm usually not a fan of slow movers either, but I guess when it is on a rickety old branchline, there is something different about it.

[trainsmaniac2009]

It has been awhile since you filmed thi, hasn't it? Nice video! Awesome horn, I think!

[ic6071]

Thanks, yeah, it was filmed on 6-12-08.