Where in the World?

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Ask the Readers Railroads: ,

Panama Canal Railway Company #1861

Between December 10th and December 17th I will be visiting Panama in Central America. As part of the trip, I will have an opportunity to visit and ride the Panama Canal Railway Company. The Panama Railroad was originally built in 1855 by New York investors looking to shorten the sea route to California. In the late 1990′s it was privatized and is now partially owned by Kansas City Southern. The railroad moves containers between the Atlantic and Pacific ports in additional to local commuters and tourists.

While it’s a little outside the realm of Ohio, I will be writing a full write-up of my experience on the , and I will for sure put up plenty of photos.

Anyway, thinking about it has lead me to an interesting question that I would like to open for discussion. If you could ride any railroad in the world, where would you go? For the purposes of the question assume there is some form of passenger service, be it regularly scheduled or an officer’s special. If you really want to get creative you can expand the question to include both railroads past and present.

So how ’bout it? Where would you go? What would you do? Let your imagination run free in the comments below!

Photo of the Week: Der Zug

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Photo of the Week

Der Zug

This week’s photo is courtesy of Ben Smith. Ben took this photo of a (hopefully stopped) train in West Chester, Ohio.

If you have a photo of your own to show off, put it up on your Flickr account and add it to the Ohio Valley Railroads Flickr Pool. Include some details like the date, location, and subject matter. You might see it featured on the main site.

Also I hope everyone is having a Happy Thanksgiving. Eat, drink, be merry, and watch football. That is the American way.

“Unstoppable” Movie Review

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Updates

Denzel Washington and Chris Pine star in "Unstoppable".

I finally got a chance to see the movie this past weekend. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good action flick. Of course there were some issues on the railroad side of things, but that is to be expected. My favorite were the locomotives that exploded for not apparent reason and the whole “running around on top of the train” business. I also spied a couple of Buckeye Crossbucks which made for a fun easter egg.

I would love to write a more in-depth review of the movie, but the whole college thing is doing me in this weekend. So instead, I will link to this Trains Magazine Review that accurately sums up my thoughts.

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I do recommend. With an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes it certainly appeals to the general public. And railroad people should at least appreciate the visual appeal of a speeding SD40-2 (amazingly with 5,000 horsepower….).

Ohio State’s Railroad

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: History Railroads: ,
OSU Railroad Equipment

OSU Railroad Equipment

As a student at Ohio State, I take particular interest in our local railway history. Nothing is more local than a railway that runs right through the center of campus. While I was aware that at one point a long coal spur ran to the power plant, I never had been able to find the right resources to write a more substantial article.

That changed the other day when I discovered the Lantern’s on-line archive. The Lantern, Ohio State’s Student Newspaper, has been continuously published since 1881. I found a number of articles describing key features of the school’s private, industrial railroad and was able to piece together enough for this article.
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Photo of the Week: Ballast Train

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Photo of the Week Railroads:

Ballast Train at Siam, Ohio

This week’s photo was actually captured by yours truly. I took it as a surprise shot on my way home from Northern Ohio. While traveling south on Route 4, I noticed a couple of parked trains on the Sandusky District. I figured they were waiting for a train to past on ’s nearby Willard subdivision, as the at-grade crossing was located just a bit further down the road in Siam.

Sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed when I crossed the tracks and noticed a locomotive headlight in the distance. I immediately turned right in an attempt to double back towards the track. However, as the embedded map shows, the small side road instead turns south. I didn’t have time to turn around, so I pulled over, zoomed in as far as I could, and tried my luck.

The sunlight angle was difficult, and I was still zoomed out pretty far, but I’m proud of this shot I took of this CSX ballast train. I would have never photographed the train in its entirety if I were not forced into doing so.

If you are tired of me tooting my own horn, consider uploading some photos to the Ohio Valley Railroads Flickr pool. I try to showcase different photographers in different parts of the state, but with only 11 members in the group it is sometimes difficult to find variety.

Off-Track: Light-Rail Track Replacement

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Off-Track

Church and 30th St. San Francisco MUNI Construction from Ken Murphy on Vimeo.

Do you ever wonder about track embedded in pavement? How easy is it to maintain? How do you repair? And most of all, how do you replace it?

The video embedded above is time-lapse showing the replacement of a section of San Fransisco’s MUNI light rail system. The replacement took three days of 24 hour work. The time-lapse was set up to take one photo every 15 seconds. The resulting video is about 12 minutes long.

And yes, I do realize that San Fransisco is a little far off from Ohio. Sometimes I just want to share. That’s why I call this call this Off-Track.

CSX #8888: The Real Story of “Unstoppable”

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: History Railroads:
CSX #8888

#8888, shown here in Woodland, Georgia. Photo by Bart Youngblood. Used with permission.

This Friday is the premiere of the movie Unstoppable. Staring Denzel Washington, the movie tells the story of an unmanned runaway train and the attempts made to stop it. You can watch the trailer for the movie here. While there’s no doubt that inaccuracies will abound (it is Hollywood after all), it should be at least remotely entertaining.

What many of the general public do not realize, is that Unstoppable is a dramatic retelling of real life events. On May 15, 2001 CSX #8888 escaped from Stanley Yard in Toledo, OH. It quickly began a high-speed journey south along the Columbus Subdivision through the communities of Findlay, Bowling Green, and Kenton. The 47 car train reached speeds upwards of 50 miles per hour while authorities made multiple attempts to stop it. Eventually, through the actions of second locomotive and crew the train was safely brought to a stop, 2 hours and 66 miles later. Miraculously, there were no injuries.
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Photo of the Week: CNRY Fireworks Train

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Photo of the Week Railroads: ,

CNRY Fireworks train

Today’s photo comes from Nate, who submitted this lovely shot of #85 and the Cincinnati Railway’s recently painted Montreal commuter coaches. #85 is an ex-Nickel Plate GP30 that made it’s way to the CNRY via the N&W (#901), (#2901), and (#85). It is currently scheduled to be repainted in its original Nickel Plate colors sometime soon.

If you have a photo of your own to show off, put it up on your Flickr account and add it to the Ohio Valley Railroads Flickr Pool. Include some details like the date, location, and subject matter. You might see it featured on the main site.

The “Miracle Express” & A Call to Arms

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: News Railroads:
Norfolk Southern OCS

4271, shown here in a photo from Norfolk Southern’s Facebook page, was on-hand to lead NS’s special for the Children’s Miracle Network.

I’m not sure how I missed this initially, but Norfolk Southern recently posted a press release calling attention to their “Miracle Train” that ran last month. The special trip was organized specifically for Children’s Miracle Network, and ran from Cleveland to Toledo. On board were over 200 passengers making up 30 families with ill or special needs children.
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Postive Train Control: A Basic Primer

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Modern Railroads
CSX Signal

With PTC, signals like this one along 's Columbus Sub maybe someday be obsolete.

According to a post on the Western Ohio Yahoo Group, last Monday CSX officially installed Positive Train Control on their Indianapolis Line. For those who don’t know, the Indianapolis Line runs from Bellefontaine to Indianapolis.

By now many of you have heard about Positive Train Control, or PTC, but just what exactly is it? In short, Positive Train Control is a collection digital signaling and communication technologies designed to control and monitor train movements safely. PTC is designed to be compatible with and someday supersede line side signals and other communication systems. In 2008, Congress mandated deployment of PTC systems across major railroads by 2015 (specifically those lines that transport passengers or hazardous materials).
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