Drove around town and took a few shots. I was listening to the scanner and was lucky to catch this conversation: CSX CI in Jacksonville, FL: "CSX CI to Buckhannon AO Operator, over." A&O Yardmaster in Buckhannon: "Buckhannon, over." CSX CI: "Buckhannon, what is the status on Extra 736 West?" A&O: "The crew died at 1145 hours." CSX CI: "Wha-What'd you just say, Buckhannon?" A&O: "CI, The crew of Extra 736 West died at 1145." CSX: "Buckhannon Operator, what happened?" A&O: "CI, CSX musta done it." At that time I lost the signal. The phrase "Died" is that fact that the crew for that particular train had worked the 12 hour limit and had to stop for a crew change. It was hilarious listening to CSX CI in Jacksonville freak out. Now for the pictures: Extra 736 West that was tied down. meanwhile in town, a Locomotive Maintainence guy tested the rev limiter on 5107 (NS 5451, Conrail 6???), Ok, so maybe he wasn't testing a rev limiter, but I've never heard any prime mover sound so loud or run that fast......Load Test? Jerry can answer that when he get's back online.
Sounds as though they're short of crews. Where did it die? By that I wonder if at a terminal? Or on the road? If on the road, that means a dog catch. Which normally costs the RR extra money. If I were the A&O, and such an event wasn't normal, we'd be rather careful about upsetting CSX dispatchers. Otherwise, I guarantee, they'll dump on the A&O in return! Which will lose the A&O money. Have seen it happen at many another RR. Oh well. At least there's some interesting radio action! Boxcab E50
They parked it between two grade crossings so keep traffic flowing, but the problem is, there is no place to put a train, the only passing sidinggs in the area are too short (might hold 60 cars) and in too bad of shape. Where this train stopped was near a grade crossing not more than a mile from the HQ for the railroad. They couldn't stop closer without blocking grade crossings.
