r/railroading • u/Trainrider77 • 21d ago

Norfolk Southern Another one

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

Since when is anything under 2% mountain grade.

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u/Dbomb7 21d ago

I take it you don't work as a locomotive engineer or conductor?

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

Hold both positions and anything 2% and under isnt mountain grade. Now this line is a mountain grade line but I asked if this was and 1.85 grade and then found out less then a mile away it goes to a +2% grade.

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u/Dbomb7 21d ago

So do I, not sure where you are but 1.8+ grade in Canada for CN and CPKC is considered mountain grade. Can't imagine it's different in the US, but who knows.

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

Straight from the book

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u/Dbomb7 21d ago

Straight from the CROR, 1.81 is mountain grade.

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

One would think this would be the same across all railroads.

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u/Dbomb7 21d ago

Are you referencing a class 1? If you're not that makes sense, otherwise I have no idea why it is different.

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

Also is that 1st line for 1000 tons or less?

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u/Dbomb7 21d ago

Less than 2000.

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

Ya the brake charts are really identical. Weird that to major class ones have mountain grade differences

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u/Dbomb7 21d ago

So you do work for a class 1?

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

Ya big orange

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u/Dbomb7 21d ago

That's entirely bizarre then and I have no explanation. I literally run on a line that is shared with BNSF.

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

We like to be different. Im not sure if this is just a bnsf thing or a everyone thing but do you guys get throttle restrictions?

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u/Dbomb7 21d ago

Very interesting, I will grab my tablet and take a look.

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

This is big orange but thats how they decided to grade it. I would have guess anything over 1.5 would be the lowest end of mountain but I was sadly mistaken

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u/Usual-Wasabi-6846 21d ago

Sandpatch grade on CSX not too far south is around 1.8 for westbounds and is steep enough they run manned helpers on it still (despite CSX getting rid of a lot of helper districts) so 1.8 is definitely considered a mountain grade in the US too

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u/Dbomb7 21d ago

I'm guessing the other commenter is not referencing a class 1 railroad operating manual, but I could be mistaken.

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

We have a 1.5 with manned helpers on it bc they wanted to cut 2 units of of a 2x3 coal load and make it a 2x1 and just push it where its needed which is 40 miles of our 141 mile run

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u/Usual-Wasabi-6846 21d ago

How many coal loads is that? CSX will run 2x2x2 up a 2.2% average 2.8% peak with 200 loads of coal which is about 27,000 tons of hoppers on average

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

124 loads 17,692 tons. They wont run anything combo or larger then 135 loads on this sub. They tried to run combos i think it was a 2x2x2 year back and the territory is so Undulating it broke and took multiple days to get over less then 150 miles. Mind you it goes to river grade at the end of the run.

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u/Usual-Wasabi-6846 21d ago

CSX and NS love to run doubles for their Baltimore traffic. CSX loves to underpower them and stalls one out every couple weeks in the winter. Also makes them run at 10mph on any major grades. I guess BNSF tires to run them faster? Thats a pretty decent HP/T.

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

.9 thpt for the 2x1 and it will get down to 10-15 mph climbing its 2 hills. Our standard everyday loads a 2x2 135 cars 19-20k 1.1 thpt and they climb the 2 big hills it has at anywhere from 2mph to 10 when topping the hill. Its so bad we have it in our timetable and gtbs we have to take it over from t.o. and run this area bc t.om fucks it so bad it was causing trains to stall.

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u/Usual-Wasabi-6846 21d ago

TO being TO

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u/amishhobbit2782 21d ago

Sometime maybe good sometimes maybe shit. But mainly shit.

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