The LNER Encyclopedia

I dont know if anyone remembers the live railcam at Roanoke I posted a while ago ? well this is another but with sound this time, its at a diamond crossing / level crossing at Fostoria where the CSX & NS lines cross. Its a very busy crossing, over 100 trains a day, the locals must get fed up of waiting at the crossing as some of these freight trains are immense with well over 100 cars in tow.

http://www.greatlakeslive.com/F-town_CAM_1.html

American railways never fail to amaze me, a single Dash 9 NS has just gone past the cam with 96 cars in tow, the power of these locos is immense.

Amazing to watch.
I agree, those loco's are amazing.

This is amazing!! I've just watched 4 locos hauling 125 bogie wagons, taking about 10 minutes to pass. If the wagons are 60 feet long (I'm not familiar with US railroads) then the train including locos would be nearly one and a half miles long!!

Bearing in mind the local time was 05.45 I wonder when the residents sleep.

Keep coming back to this web cam ...just seen a triple header (N&S) go through, what I find interesting is you can hear/see (depending on the direction) the train approaching and it's horn sounding but the barrier's don't go down untill the train is nearly on the crossing, they stay down for longer after the train has passed. Seems the complete opposite to this country - barriers down, long wait, then lift just after train has passed.

There seems to be three main companies using the tracks, the far two CSX and various odd liverys, the near two N.S. & Union Pacific. Looking on Google Earth, Fostoria is just a small place, probably an original railway town, there are marshalling yards quite near. The locals must be used to the loco horns as they start sounding for the crossing quite a way off plus the bells of course.
I watched what looked like a Possum the other night rooting around the crossing, as soon as it heard the loco horn it was up on its hind legs. had a look, then off, a streetwise Possum no doubt. One thing I have noticed, even though you know you are going to have a bit of a wait when the half gates go down Iv'e not seen any crossing "jumping" around them to beat the train.maybe this is why the gates dont go down until the train is nigh on upon the crossing or the loco starts sounding its horn such a long way from the crossing.

Just seen the shortest train go by....double headed with 5 bogies on.

A single loco with 96 cars is a bit unusual - they tend to overdo the locos. For example, this weekend I was down at San Antonio for a show: very little rail activity on the way down but we did see two locos with only about 20 covered hoppers. Similarly, switching tends to be with two locos permanently coupled - that is what the local yard does. A small yard of less than half a dozen tracks but some industrial spurs to service, still manages to have own permanent allocation of two switchers! A case of the prototype copying from model 'selective compression'?

The Show was good as we had different layouts (modules - I was with an NTrak club) and different railroads. Our own club has a lot of the same we see at every show, so it is good to see some other railroads! My 2ft UK module got quite a few compliments. It was 'finished' a few years back but it is the first time it has been to far south. The DP1 also got a lot of compliments, and quite a few people had heard of Deltics before. The Thompson B1 had some pickup problems - quite a few liked the look of it, even it someone did call it 'quaint'!

Richard