Yup, same track ... Hyndman, PA and Mance Curve 4-2-86

We begin at Hyndman, PA at the foot of Sandpatch Grade and catch the Eastbound Capitol Limited crossing Wills Creek and passing the town.

Next we go up to Mance Curve where we see two hot trains heading upgrade, on the same track, with the second train nearly in the lap of the helper engineer on the first one.

I remember some good natured banter between the engineers. "Hey why don't you pull over and let a real train by?". and "Hey helper, do you have that thing in run 8 or in dynamics?" The dispatcher was referring to to them as "Chicago Trailer Jet" and "St. Louis Trailer Jet". ( I forget which one is which on the video.)

Not being very familiar with Chessie at the time, I don't know if these were the actual train designations or just colloquial names. Maybe a Sandpatch regular can leave a comment with the answer.

Anyway, the second train stopped while the first cut away his helper at the top of the hill. I just cut off of the second train where I did in the video because I couldn't stand any more of that abominable flange squeal.

Closing out the video, a mixed manifest train heads downgrade.

This and the Horseshoe Curve tape are from the same trip. For some reason I had bought two Scotch brand videotapes to use on that trip. Those have not held up as well as the rest of my VHS which are mainly Maxell and few Fuji. The colors had shifted etc.

I worked quite a while on both tapes, but the Sandpatch stuff really took a lot of work. I figured nobody wanted to see "Chessie System Green" instead of yellow.

Stay tuned to this channel.....

VHS Master Recording

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Hyndman
• Mance
• Sandpatch
• Chessie

[troy12n]

Something is very wrong here with these 2 trains operating in the same block. I would like to hear a rational explaination from a railroader on how this was possible. I know this line and at the time, it was dispatched by train orders and ABS signals and those trains should not have been able to occupy the same block like that.

[yankinga]

@troy12n Grade signal: A permissive signal used along a steep climb and identified by both a number plate and a plate with the letter "G." The governing rule is usually that a full-tonnage train climbing the grade may pass a grade signal indicating stop without stopping. Grade signals are used to keep heavy trains moving under conditions where the stopping distance is greatly reduced by the hill and restarting would be difficult.

[griffix01]

Pure awesome! I've never seen anything like it.

[yankinga]

@griffix01 I still remember my dad's comments at the moment when the second train rounded the curve and came into view: "Holy crap! Look at these cowboys!" Pretty much sums it up.

[400exNick]

Nice video!

[DaCaptain924]

wow, p3 horn on that 2nd chessie train. that's rare. nice stuff. :-)

[Runkleforskin]

@troy12n why dont you build a time machine, go back in time and fire the engineer of that following train then you nut sucker.

[rager522]

@yankinga yes but it also requires restricted speed and I'd say thats a little bit faster LOL!

[McClain808]

anything with Chessie is cool by me, great video

[meccaturbo]

Can't understand how and why they'd allow two trains that close together.

[cheechchongfan97]

What a nice K5LA on that Chessie train!

[Nbuilder1]

Now that's a nice syncronicity.