Part Four

“Weight”

A noun.  A body's relative mass or the quantity of matter contained by it, giving rise to a downward force; the heaviness of a person or thing.

Ten years ago on CBS Sunday morning, they did an interview of railfans at the Folkston Funnel in Folkston, Georgia, 40 miles north northwest of Jacksonville, Florida. One of the railfans interviewed said it best about railroads:

“Massive amounts of power moving massive amounts of weight.”

Up here on the Horseshoe Curve, weight is everything. It is pretty much a balancing act with what the Norfolk Southern Railroad does each day. Moving freight trains on level ground, like the Union Pacific does on the prairies of Nebraska is one thing. Here on the curve, it’s a whole different ballgame.

On Tuesday, a very special unit train came down the Curve.

It was a 101 car unit tank car train. Three GE Locomotives on the head end. Two EMD locomotives on the rear end; all running in dynamic braking.

According to the HazMat placards on each car, they carried the number 1987. According to the HazMat numbering system, this train was carrying alcohol. How much alcohol this train was carrying will amaze you.

Take a look at the picture below:

This is tank car TILX 351202. The car is leased from Trinity Industries, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas. The car can hold up to 31,000 gallons. On the car, you will see 2 weight indications. LT WT stands for LighT WeighT and it is 74,600 pounds or 37.3 tons. That is the weight of the tank car when empty. It is also known as the Tare Weight. LD LMT is the LoaD LiMiT: the amount of weight the car can safely carry. On this tank car, it is 211,600 pounds or 105.8 tons. Fully loaded out, this tank car weighs in at 286,200 pounds or 143.10 tons. Take the combined loads of these 101 cars and you have 21,371,600 pounds or 10,685.80 tons. Add the tare weight of the tank cars combined and you have 7,534,600 pounds or 3,767.30 tons. Add it all together and you have a train consist weight of 28,906,200 pounds or 14,453.10 tons. Obviously, liquids have all sorts of densities and what a particular liquid weighs per gallon.

For this particular unit train, the DOT Placard on each car has the number 1987 which stands for ALCOHOLS or DENATURED ALCOHOL, Class 3. For this example, we will say the cars are filled with denatured alcohol, used for industrial cleaning and for fuel. With a weight of 6.79 pounds per gallon and the car made to carry 31,000 gallons, the load of this one car would have a load of 210,490 pounds or 105.245 tons which is just under the LoaD LimiT of the car.  The total weight of the car would be 285,090 pounds or 142.545 tons. Doing the math for 101 total cars, the total weight of the train consist would be 28,794,090 pounds or 14,397.045 tons. Again, weight is everything when it comes to putting trains together, figuring out how many locomotives will be needed to move the train, and making sure the total weight can be moved safely.

Meanwhile, back at  the Curve, there are 2 ways to get to the visitors area at the top of the curve. One is the funicular, a cable-driven incline which has 2 cars fashioned after the Pennsylvania Railroad’s color scheme for its passenger cars from the 1930’s and 40’s.

The other way is the 194 steps that are built into the hill.

Back when I first got here, the steps were not the kind made with concrete. If memory serves me correctly, they were made of stone and there were fewer steps and they were slightly steeper. I have an old VHS tape somewhere in my archives of climbing the old steps and tracking my steps with my Cousin Marie’s old VHS camera. Pretty much ran out of breath when I reached the top. I remember at the time playing this tape back for my son and daughter and they got quite the laugh out of it.

And speaking of my son and daughter, we were here back in the early 1990’s; 1992 if memory serves me correctly. Chris was 9 and Caty was 6 when I took them here in June of that year. While we were here and they were going up and down the steps, a big motor coach pulled into the parking lot. Out come thirty-one lovely ladies all dressed in beautiful dresses and high heels and each were sporting some kind of sash. They came up on the funicular and one-by-one, they were lined up on the running board on the curve side of the GP-9 locomotive that is on display at the top of the visitors area:

Come to find out that these young ladies were contestants of the Miss Pennsylvania Beauty Pageant  and the then current Miss Pennsylvania was along also. We were watching a press junket. And Miss Pennsylvania took a liking to my daughter and next thing you know, my kids and I are talking to Miss PA all by ourselves. A very nice Brush-with-Greatness, to quote David Letterman. Next thing you know, they were on their way back to their next stop. Suffice it to say many of the railfans that day got pictures with Miss Pennsylvania and her entourage. Very cool, indeed!!

And speaking of that GP-9, some info from the park:

And one more thing for today. Below are pictures of a very interesting and protective device on the railroad.

It is called a hot box/dragging equipment detector, located next to the Brickyards grade crossing in Altoona. As you look at the pics, you will see a white box with a glass eye looking up. That is an infrared eye that looks for abnormal amounts of heat from the ball bearing journals. The blue boards that stick up between the rails look for dragging equipment, such as loose air brake hoses or parts of the trains’ undercarriage. If something is found, the detector’s radio in the brown bungalow will send a message on the road channel radio frequency and tell the engineer what type of defect it is, what axle the defect is near and what side, or rail, the defect is on. As always, safety is priority one on the railroad.

Anyway, a good day up here on the Curve. A few less trains than yesterday but still enough to boost the excitement of the railfans present. and before we leave for one last time, a couple of items. First, take note of the graffiti that I saw on some of the 100 plus auto carrier cars on a very long westbound going up the Curve:

Second, we were entertained by Rich and Gretchen of Tucson, Arizona. Or to be more specific, the train crews were entertained by Gretchen. Traveling in their RV with Jeep in tow:

They are on a cross country trip at several weeks in. Rich is originally from Altoona. Gretchen from Maine. Both retired Air Force. Every time the head end or rear end of any train went rolling by, she was out there dancing up a storm and trying to get the engineers to toot their horn. And they did!!

Thursday is a travel day. We head south past our nation’s capitol and head for the town of Ashland, Virginia, 20 miles north of Richmond. See you there.

And we end the day with westbound Amtrak train 43, The Pennsylvanian, as it climbs around the Curve. And that brief moment of the jumping lady? Well, that's Gretchen.

https://youtu.be/KCreok71j2Y

I’m Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Altoona, Pennsylvania.