National Rail Safety Legislation announced

News or chat about railroad info that pertains to the entire United States, another state, or country.
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SD80MAC
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Re: National Rail Safety Legislation announced

Unread post by SD80MAC »

^ When a railfan thinks he knows how railroads work just from riding an Amtrak train and getting dizzy. L.O.L.
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CSXBOY
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Re: National Rail Safety Legislation announced

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A lot of people have said that track is extremely bumpy and rough. It needs to be looked at bit more. I believe that's why the builder derailed near Shelby back in 2021 or whenever the hell it was

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David Collins
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Re: National Rail Safety Legislation announced

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Saturnalia wrote:
Mon Mar 13, 2023 1:01 pm
I love how the foam always trashes whatever company had the most recent derailment rash. In a month or two the target will change. Remember when NS was the darling that ran tea kettles and had special paint on some locomotives? Man, they could do no wrong!!!
I agree, partially.

On one hand, foamers just don't seem to understand the fact that railroads are NOT required to make heritage/special interest units AND steam excursions on mainlines, also, old engines are retired at one point in their lives, just because they retired cool old engines doesn't make them a bad railroad.

That's why CN shut down the heritage unit program they were doing, because people were complaining that some of the paint jobs were inaccurate, and CN isn't required to fix it and/or continue, so they shut it down.

On the other hand, NS was good back then because the dude running the railroad (Wick Moorman) actually worked his way up the ranks for both the Southern AND Norfolk Southern, so he actually had railroading experience, unlike the hedgefund guys at the helm right now.

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Saturnalia
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Re: National Rail Safety Legislation announced

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CSXBOY wrote:
Mon Mar 13, 2023 5:14 pm
A lot of people have said that track is extremely bumpy and rough. It needs to be looked at bit more. I believe that's why the builder derailed near Shelby back in 2021 or whenever the hell it was
The Montana Division is one crazy railroad to try and maintain because it is trying to fit a ton of traffic down a single-track railroad. I can tell you firsthand that when you don't get good maintenance windows, your surface is the first thing that starts to suffer. Not dangerous per se, but you aren't going to get the time to keep everything as nice as you would like.

I'm sorta surprised that BNSF hasn't done more double-tracking on the Great Northern. It's kinda crazy how most of Marias Pass is dual main, but most of the rest of the line isn't.

That being said, you can run a railroad in less-than-perfect shape all day long with no problems. There are a multitude of reasons to keep the track as nice as possible, but sometimes traffic limits how nice it can be.
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Standard Railfan
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Re: National Rail Safety Legislation announced

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David Collins wrote:
Mon Mar 13, 2023 5:16 pm

On the other hand, NS was good back then because the dude running the railroad (Wick Moorman) actually worked his way up the ranks for both the Southern AND Norfolk Southern, so he actually had railroading experience, unlike the hedgefund guys at the helm right now.
Alan H. Shaw, President and CEO of Norfolk Southern has worked for the company most if not all of his career.

NSSD70ACe
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Re: National Rail Safety Legislation announced

Unread post by NSSD70ACe »

CSXBOY wrote:
Mon Mar 13, 2023 4:52 pm
The Montana division tracks aren't the greatest. That's all I will I say about it. After riding the empire builder the past august I felt dizzy getting off the train in glacier national park. It was like riding on I 75 near Monroe nearly. But the difference between BNSF and NS is that BNSF is privately owned. BNSF has done some PSR things that is similar to NS and the others. But Warren Buffett realizes that PSR isn't the way to gain service and improve shipping and etc. Why do you think they've been dominating Union Pacific for years and years in terms of revenue and traffic? Intermodal is higher on BNSF. Coal is higher on BNSF. Grain is higher on BNSF. Like all railroads, BNSF has done some stupid things but it's not at a consistent basis like the others
Christ I work for the BNSF and not even I drank that much kool aid. And yes, BNSF absolutely swallowed PSR hook like and sinker they just don’t call it that. And if you think Buffett is involved with our day to day operations you’re not paying much attention. We need more people, we need investment in our facilities, and we need to forget this whole idea of being “efficient”, because the efficiency they’re looking for is not giving them efficiency, it’s giving them a headache and a lot of pissed off customers.

Also: says he won’t say more about it, then proceeds to say more about it. :lol:
:roll:

the contents of the above post are my opinion and mine alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

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