Exploration trip in Indiana

[E.M. Bell]

Saturday 02/16/08 JR and myself decided to head up on the Middle District of the Illinois Div to explore a little. It had been a long time since I had been West of Duncan, so it was a (re) learning trip to say the least.  We went armed with Two GPS mapping systems, laptop,  radios, maps, timetables and the usual backseat full of camera gear.  I drove JR's truck, and he played the all important roll of navigator and finder of the trains. 


Arriving in Louisville at sunup, we heard a 61A getting ready to head west. We just missed him but that gave us an idea, more on that later.   Train 168 was getting his air test and was ready to leave right behind 61a, so we managed a so-so artsy fartsy backlit silhouette shot of him on the East end of the K&I Bridge in Louisville



Shortly after that shot the air was filled with the melody of hard working EMD's, but alas, no train, just a towboat on the Ohio river...I never knew boats sounded like this




We headed West into  Indiana and decided to follow the 61A steel train all the way to its destination of Rockport Indiana. There did not seem to be much else running and neither of us had been out the Rockport Branch before. The steel train was a good way ahead of us but we finally caught him at the Tunnel near Marengo.



A westbound chase (not that hard really, they dont seem to move fast up there) netted another shot of 61A at MP 212W, just West of Birdseye Indiana. The clouds and become thick by now to, no more sun for the rest of the trip.



At Huntingburg Indiana, 61A turns off the main onto the Rockport branch. Here he is just coming off the wye.



The branch runs almost due South, and would have been in perfect sun, had there been any   We scouted out a few places that have some killer angles...like this spot near Dale.



It was a slow trip for the train, but they finally arrived in Rockport. Seen here making the tight turn off the branch into AK steel.



After getting our last shots of the steel train, we headed back for the mainline, and on West a bit to Ayeshire Indiana, where the radio had promised a 4 train meet. First up was Eastbound 285, seen here at the old AW&W connection.



And right on his heels was one of the Test coal trains they are running this month. Here is Eastbound NS 720 at the same location.



We chased the 720 back towards home, but only got a couple of shots before it got to dark.  Here is the 720 at Saint Anthony Indiana.



All in all a good day. We scouted out a lot of places, and know that we want to go back...on a sunny day...oh, and dry to. JR was lessed than pleased at the condition of his usually pristine truck, but what was I to do...muddy gravel roads will do that

[Norm]

Good shots.  I've never seen a steel train that didn't have at least some of the coils covered.  Also for no reason in particular I would have thought a steel train would have four units up front, maybe because of the weight. 
What are they testing with the coal trains?  New routes, motive power configurations, or what?

[E.M. Bell]

It depends on the type of steel, as to if it gets covered or not.  The train in this series, 61A, is a 365 day a year run from AK steel in Middletown Ohio to Rockport Indiana, via Cinncy, Danville and Louisville. It carries "raw" rolled steel from one plant to another. Middletown makes it and rolls it, Rockport takes the rolls and finishes them into different grades and products.  You will see covered coil cars on the train, but not near as many as the uncovered ones.  The 61A we chased Saturday had one covered car that I remember. 

When I worked for the KXHR in Knoxville, we served the American Waterheater company, which received a massive amount of coil steel. They got three kinds, a hot rolled "raw" steel (uncovered), a finished grade (c0vered) and some kind of coil that had to be covered with a insulated cover.  I remember riding on some of those insulated coil cars and the fact you could still feel the heat. 


NS only allows a certain amount of powered axles on a train. Perhaps Bob or JR can explain it better, as I have not read a updated train handling rule book in a while.  It kinda gets complicated as not all powered axles are the same, it depends on the type of engine ect..  I believe that when it comes to the D9's ect, you can only have three units on line.

[E.M. Bell]

I did a little research and trains other than bulk commodity trains are limited to a max of 24 powered axles.   Bulk Commodity trains can have a max of 32 powered axles. 

How they actually figure the number of axles is kinda funky..  ie A Dash 9 = 8 axles, a  SD 70 = 8axles, a   GP 59 = 5 axles, and other older power (GP38 ect ) = 4 axles.