Recovery Engines Hook to Stalled Train in Highland Cut - Norfolk Southern 6K4 Ethanol & C80 Light
510,009
Published 2022-09-13
Although I did not hear the initial calls regarding the problem, it seems as though an issue on the Union Pacific foreign power locomotive #5690 resulted in a loss of power. It sounded like, once restarted, a crew member was manually holding a breaker to keep the engine online until after the head end crested the summit, but I cannot confirm that. Light rain conditions may have also contributed.
Highland Cut is the highest point on the Ft Wayne Line between Chicago and Pittsburgh, with the western approach being the steepest side as well as having several compound curves within a distance of only a few miles between New Galilee and The Cut.
In the past, Penn Central and Conrail ran manned helper service through this area on coal loads and other select trains though this practice has now been largely eliminated in favor of distributive power units, or DPU locomotives, in the middle or rear of the consist. This train had only two head end units with no DPU power added.
General Electric Wabtec AC44C6M engine #4379 & #4242 were dispatched to assist, under local symbol C80. After running Main 2 to release handbrakes on the tail, approximately 2 miles to the west, C80 traveled east to CP WOOD and crossed to Main 1 then ran back west to couple on the head end of 6K4.
Once coupled, and after safety checks were made, Conway Terminal gave a favorable signal at CP WOOD while all four engines were brought online and slowly throttled up to bring the loaded tanker cars over the crest of the hill before rolling down the eastern slope, through Highland Crossing, towards Homewood Junction and Conway Yard.
Finishing out the video are some 35mm black & white photographs that I took while testing a few different types of b&w film.
Music is Arlo Guthrie, City of New Orleans
All Comments (21)
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Pure Muscle here ๐บ๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒHello from the UK ๐ฌ๐ง๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ
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Man that overhead shot is absolutely amazing!
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Iโm sure I can hear at least one mighty GE engine in there with its characteristic exhaust miss-beat ๐ช๐บ๐ธ
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Hands down one of the best train videos on YouTube
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Well done guys the other two drivers would been also happy to see you guys going to help out ๐๐๐๐
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HistoricBF, kudos for your very detailed description of exactly where your video was filmed (towns that can be found on maps) and exactly what happened. Those of us that donโt have the entire US railroad system memorized find it hard to locate where most all videos are filmed. DGBryan
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That old GACX airslide buffer car , I've unloaded it a few dozen times , good catch
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Good footage and many thanks. I very much like the way you always appear to answer questions; top marks for that. Btw, I'm a 77 yr old retired Brit living in northern Spain and a great British steam aficionado but also a great fan of Norfolk Southern. I'm on board your channel now for sure. Again thanks
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some good old fashioned smoke!
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I was born and raised not far from that location. In fact, my earliest years were spent in a neighborhood near a very busy train route along the river, so we were used to the sound of rail traffic, horns... I appreciate you (HistoricBF) posting this, and providing as many specifics as you did, but you did not include something I consider a very important part of the story: The actual elevation of that high spot, and the gradient specifics. Without much difficulty (an elevation filter layer on Google maps), I was able to determine the high point is 1057 feet above sea level. The start of the Ohio River in Pittsburgh is just over 700 feet above sea level, which gives some perspective about the regional geography. On that rail line eastbound after passing through New Galilee the elevation is 950 feet above sea level, and within less than 1.5 miles from the peak at Highland Cut, that line climbs 100 feet in elevation. Combined with the curves you mentioned, that indeed is a good reason for any long train to struggle getting over that hump.
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Great capture of this situation. We enjoyed watching and have a great rest of your day.
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Man that UP engine has seen better days. love your tripod setup. Awesome of you to include that picture. Keep getting those ACUs. I hardly ever see those
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Thanks for sharing
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Magnificent catches of the train coming by and pass, I like it 5 stars, keep up the great work, my friend, Greetings from Portugal to the USA.
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Such a great place to make it video with having a ground level and over head view. A lot of people use Drones to take great videos but you can't here the ground sounds of the Locamotives or anything else. Thanks for the good job.๐
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Excellent HistoricBF video with that country music at the end. B&W photography has always been part of this hobby. Very good A cordial greeting from the city of Cordoba, Argentina
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I used to live above the Erie Lackawanna line in Ridgewood NJ above the big incline and would go to sleep and wake by the thunder of frieghts hourly and multiple passengers trains in the morning as 4 sets of rails ar this point.
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Thanks for that, from France ...
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Precision railroading strikes again? Nice catch!
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That emd is clean burning.
