One Loud RS3LR Invades the UW-Madison Campus 4/30/2009

This morning I was in Madison for a job interview, which just happened to be on the UW-Madison campus. After it was over I drove up to the WSOR's Johnson Street Yard to see what was going on, even though I only had my little digital still camera with its MPEG-1 movie mode with me.

I circled the yard once, and could see a what appeared to be a complete train a ways down in the yard. I was stopped at a red light on my way back around when the signals turned on. It was "Grow Wisconsin" Map unit WSOR 4053 long-hood forward, on what looked to be a train for the Prairie du Chien Subdivision with loaded CSX coal hoppers for the UW power plant. If only I could have this kind of luck getting the job. :-)

Sure enough, I drove back to the campus and had enough time to find a place to park (try finding open public parking within reasonable walking distance of the spot you actually want to be on that campus sometime) and they arrived to switch the plant.

The dense population of students in cars, on bicycles, mopeds, and on foot (many of the latter treat the tracks, including bridges, as a public walking path) combined with the layout of the tracks around the plant (tight curves and several grade crossings that cut at a 45-degree angle through 4-way intersections) make this a hair-raising switch for train crews. The hogger makes liberal use of 4053's Leslie RS3LR, which screams out a warning each time the train starts to move.

First they stop to cut off their one car not involved in this switch (a loaded centerbeam flat), then reverse to stage some cars at the Park Street mini-yard. Next they pull through the crossing at the intersection of Dayton and Mills Streets, shove down the plant wye track across Dayton Street again and onto the Freeport Spur (remaining 3-block stub of the ex-Illinois Central branch line from Freeport, IL), where they line the switch and pull onto the plant spur to start spotting the loads.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• train
• railroad
• railway
• railfan
• Wisconsin
• and
• Southern
• WSOR
• EMD
• SD40-2
• locomotive
• 4053
• Leslie
• S3L
• RS3L
• RS3LR
• horn

[cbpd83]

I am from Clarion PA where some of the LEF&C (Lake Erie, Franklin & Clarion Railroad) cars originated. I saw several cars in this consist by pure luck!

[HighIronofWisconsin]

Yeah, I had never seen the LEF&C cars before, so I took some pictures of them!

[chuyflaco]

8:13 i would scream at that girl too for disobeying train crossings!

[lovelplants]

woot.. a lot of noise... :)

[12myoung]

At 5:10 the horn starts to squeal

[msk578]

Good video! Colorado State University students are lucky (if they appreciate trains of course) to have trains on the campus, but not only that they are running up and down the middle of Mason Street! The tracks look like they would be trolley tracks, but that's until you see a huge UP with a full load behind it blaring its horn.

[mafarnz]

Man I wish my college campus had railroad action like this!

[cbpd83]

From my son (7) - Dad has 4 trains like the LEF&C ones on his train set.

[CountVonBoco]

AWESOME VIDEO! I love interesting switching maneuvers like this. Thanks for sharing! :D

[DL2045]

that must suck if you are on the wrong side and then late for class.