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Post by oldrail on Sept 23, 2013 23:58:53 GMT -5
When I started on the Soo Line in 1978 there was still 85lb rail on the main track in North Dakota. The maximum authorized speed was 40 mph for both Soo and CP SD40/SD40-2. This was still in the day of the maximum 263,000lb car weight. At the same time Soo was operating 267,000lb four axle units on 60lb rail (at 10 mph) on branch lines, which weighed more per axle than either the Soo SD40-2's or the 263,000lb cars.
Good tie and ballast condition are more of a factor than rail weight.
Dick Haave
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Post by NS91 on Oct 8, 2013 17:00:07 GMT -5
CofG had boxcars equipped with MU cables to spread locomotive weights. I've seen it used between GP7/9/18 and RS3s.
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Post by icghogger on Oct 10, 2013 9:35:17 GMT -5
Good tie and ballast condition are more of a factor than rail weight. Dick Haave Dick is absolutely right, rail section /weight are only a part of the equation. Weight restrictions on a given section of track typically were the result of bridge issues. Bridges are rated on a scale called "Cooper Rating" and can limit the weight of a locomotive that moves over it. Branch lines, and a lot of the small short lines, lack the dollars necessary to upgrade bridges, so the weight restrictions apply for the whole line. Rail section is the girder strength of the rail and is only a factor when tie condition, ballast section and drainage become marginal due to lack of maintenance.
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Post by Lfire83 on Dec 9, 2013 19:26:46 GMT -5
Run that line a few miles more east to White Oak... Georgia Pacific lumber mill and a GSWR interchange... although the line from Eufaula to White Oak is being pulled up this year.
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Post by Randy Earle on Dec 9, 2013 22:38:28 GMT -5
So I guess a unit like my freelanced SD15T would fit the bill exactly.
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Post by jmlaboda on Dec 13, 2013 11:39:04 GMT -5
"CofG had boxcars equipped with MU cables to spread locomotive weights. I've seen it used between GP7/9/18 and RS3s." Before the boxcars they used old heavyweight coaches with a long m.u. cable ran straight down the aisle, end to end. One of the boxcars later was used on a Southern branch into Shelby, N.C. where traffic had increased on an old branch there. Closure of the plant that had helped to increase traffic has spelled the end of that line, which used a portion of the CSX/SAL Charlotte - Bostic line west of Shelby to reach the plant so that the original line's tall wood trestle could be abandoned while still allowing access to the plant. And a personal favorite... the former Gainesville Midland EMD SD40, which, like the Columbus & Greenville SD28s, was built with a super-small fuel tank to allow for operation on light rail... www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=281628www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=296604www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2711121www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=87526Examples abound as far as six-axle power being used... in addition to EMD's early SDs there were also ALCO RSC2s and RSC3s of Seaboard Air Line and, Baldwin DRS-6-4-1500s and AS416s of the original Norfolk Southern and Savannah & Atlanta in the southeast, as well as ALCO RSD5s and FM H16-66s of the Chicago & Northwestern and Milwaukee Road in the upper midwest. Talk about your erotic exotica... B )
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georgiaroad
Chairman
Purveryor of all things of the prototype freelance GEORGIA ROAD
Posts: 250
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Post by georgiaroad on Dec 22, 2013 0:07:53 GMT -5
I suggest you take a hard look at the RailTex version of the Georgia Southwestern (GSWR). The railroad started in the late 1980s as a spin-off of CSX. GSWR was the ex SAL, and the Georgia and Alabama (GAAB) was the ex CofGA. They tried to operate a shortcut to Albany from Dawson as the Georgia Great Southern (GGS) until Opal ruined the SAL between Columbus and Cuthbert when they used federal disaster funds to lease the old CofGA from Columbus to Americus with trackage rights to Smithville and Albany.
The start up power was ex Chessie GP-9 units and some ATSF GP-7u units. Later they added some GP38s and later a gaggle of GP40s as business increased. They got a stone hauling contract from Columbus, GA to Bainbridge in the mid 1990s to supply aggregate for the FL I-10 upgrade and added a couple of ex DMIR SD-9s and a GP38-MATE SLUG set. Track was not that great, but they managed. If I were you, I would rewrite history and maybe take over the GAAB along with your route, and maybe add the GSWR also, but at least get the whole line form Smithville, GA to the end of the line past Ozark. Get the Eufala-Montgomery section for a mainline interchange and you could go from Hurtsboro to Cottonton on the old SAL that CSX abandoned to the paper mill at Cottonton. You have a AL version of the GSWR.
One more line to look at was the BAYL. It had three SD-7s and a single SD40, GP39 some GP38s and a few GP-7s. Their track was jointed and light, but well maintained. Most branches in AL and GA were still sporting steam era 90lb rail with 70lb spurs and such. This was the limiting factor for six axles along with a lot of restricted timber and pile trestles. As rail was stepped up to 110 or more, the light rail issue was reduced, since the six axles actually spread the weight over a larger area.
Pulpwood and Peanuts are heavy, so having six axles with the right combination of horsepower would actually be better on the track than a four axle second generation unit. Some shortlines had a written limit on how much fuel the six axles could carry, usually a half or quarter tank to keep weight down. Looking at the unit, you would think it was right off the heavy main line, but limits on fuel capacity would allow it to "step lightly" on old steam era rail on these branches. Many branches were abandoned not because they had no traffic, but because the cost of bringing them up to even modern Class 3 standards was obscenely prohibitive in an era where five man crews, cabooses and some really archaic train handling and tariff rules were still in effect. Southern just flat hated the CofGA part of the system and did all they could to reduce or dismantle it in favor of the SOU routes that paralleled them.
Jerry mentioned the GM. That was a VERY odd operation in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was steam era track laid right on top of the undulating ground. When the Russian decapods gave way to diesel, it was the run of whatever SAL had running in the area, mostly first and second generation Geeps. The construction of various soy bean production and feed mills around Gainesville added heavy grain trains . The rip-rap topography including some hard grading out of the Oconee River Valley forced SAL and later SCL to add six axle power not only to move trains, but to spread the weight over the less than ideal jointed track. It was nearly unheard of for any railroad to run six axle power switching in the 1980s-1990s on such branches and secondary track, but it happened on the GM. It was why the only new diesel ever bought for them was the SD40 in the links above, though I have never seen it with anything but a full size fuel tank with timetable limitations on how much fuel it could have when working GM track. I remember watching a couple of GP40-2s and a GP38 switch all day in Gainesville during the 1980s building the southbound train which was full of chicken feed and soy bean meal, then pick up a couple of SD40s to pull it to Athens for interchange. They even added ribbon rail on the grain lead so the six axle unit could stay with the switching set later on in the 1990s. Today, two AC units are common on the Athens-Gainesville turn. The rail is now a combo of 110 and 132lb ribbon rail in most places.
During your time period, you had ex SOU SD24s and SD35s, ACL SD35s,ATSF SD26s, MILW SD40-2, MILW SD7, MILW SD10, PNC SD18s,SP SD9s, SP SD35 and Chessie GP and SD 9s and loads of CR and its predecessor minority builder stuff floating around in the resale and lease market.
H in AL
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georgiaroad
Chairman
Purveryor of all things of the prototype freelance GEORGIA ROAD
Posts: 250
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Post by georgiaroad on Dec 22, 2013 1:00:38 GMT -5
I will throw one more at you---
www.carrtracks.com/gm8069.htm
ICG spin-off Gulf and Mississippi (GMSR) ran a bunch of ex BN and IC Geeps at start up. Later added some ex CR GP38s after trying ex GN/BN SD45s for a while. The big SD45s murdered the track and they rarely got from Artesia-Meridian to Shreveport without derailing and tearing up a lot of track. Midsouth took over when GMSR broke the bank and sent the big boys packing by using its own CF-7 and GP-10s.
H in AL
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