Building an intermodal train on the BNSF, Seattle, 8-10-2010, part 1

A crew brings 5 Dash-9s into Seattle's Stacy Street Yard and begins making up their intermodal train.
First, the Dash-9s are brought off the Champion servicing tracks and into Stacy. Two are left on a track to be used as DPUs. The remaining three engines then grab two separate strings of loaded well cars to form the train.
If you like to watch railroaders doing their jobs up close and personal, you'll like this pair of videos.

5094 / 5378 / 1003 / 967 / 748 - all C44-9Ws

Due to length, this video is in two parts. This is part 1.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• seattle
• bnsf
• train
• c44-9w
• intermodal

[MrJimmybgood]

HELLO ALL I DONT KNOW IF ITS TRUE BUT I HAVE HERD THAT THE CABOOSE WILL MAKE A COME BACK IS THIS TRUE. THANK YOU FOR ANY IMFO ON THIS SUBJECT. A FAN.

[SeattleRailFan]

@MrJimmybgood Zero chance of seeing them regularly on the big Class 1 railroads. The FRED (Flashing Rear End Device) & the cost of the old 5-man crews spelled the end of the caboose.

Cabooses are seen occasionally on both Class 1s & shortlines when a job requires shoving cars a long distance. You don't want to have the conductor hanging off the grab irons for 10 miles - very unsafe. In those cases the conductor will ride in a caboose, also called a "shoving platform".

[inels100]

what is a Champion Track?



[SeattleRailFan]

@inels100 The "Champion Tracks" are a small 2-track yard where engines are stored.

In this case, hostlers brought the engines down from Balmer Yard and dropped them off at the Champion Tracks several hours earlier. At the correct time, the road crew brought the engines out of Champion and into Stacy Yard to make up their train.

A train that ends its trip at Stacy could also have the engines moved to the Champion Tracks where the hostlers will pick them up and take them back to Balmer.

[jpfrench325]

How do you know what those people are doing as well as whats happening?

[SeattleRailFan]

@jpfrench325 Some things are obvious, like a crewman throwing a switch to line the engines onto the correct track. Experience helps with other things. When they left 2 engines on a track I knew from experience those would be used on the rear of the train. I also have a scanner, so I was listening to the crew talk amongst themselves on the radio.

[SeattleRailFan]

@hardwork454 I'm not a railroader but from what I've seen it's hard in that you're constantly walking, climbing on cars, setting handbrakes, wrestling with brake hoses, etc. You have to do that in all weather conditions: 95 & sunny or 10 degrees & snowing and everything in between. You have to have a good head on your shoulders as there's lots of rules and procedures to know and follow. And it's not a 9 to 5 job, you'll be working all sort of crazy schedules. More of a lifestyle than a job.

[hardwork454]

Great videos, im starting at kcs in a bout a week as a conductor trainee and wanted to know what you think of the job like is it hard or just hard if you don't like to work, im looking forward to starting my career cause im 18 and just graduated and see this as a great thing.

[SeattleRailFan]

@micksquizzy I was at maximum zoom in from the start until about 5:00, when I started zooming out to get a wider shot. At 5:18 I was maybe at 1/3 of max, by 6:10 or so the lens was at it widest as the train approached.

My camcorder has a 12x zoom (35mm equivalent is 40-480mm).

[micksquizzy]

are you zoomed out all the way at 5:18?