Richard's American Train Adventures

[richard carr]

It took about 2 hours to drive to Davenport, it's on the Mississippi about 30 miles south of Clinton. We tried to get a good view of the UP yard in Cedar Rapids, but there is so much new construction going on that proved impossible, it looked like huge data centres under construction.

So we followed US 30 back towards the Mississippi we saw a couple of trains but both times the train appeared when the line was well off in the distance where as most of the time the road is parallel to the railway line about 100 feet apart.

As usual when we arrived in Davenport we saw a train heading north as we descended the hill into the town, so we went and checked in and dumped our bags, of course a south bound train now went through.

We headed out to the yard to see what was there. There are 2 yards close together this is the northern yard, it's fairly empty, this is a CP GP20 ECO



We then went to the southern yard, the south bound train had stopped in the yard and was switching cars.











A long cut of cars, including this 1980 hopper car




Finally the locos came into view




An equally old Missouri Pacific hopper car



This loco wasn't working



This monster was doing all the work





Eventually after plenty of toing and froing, these two locos parked up the fuelling tank On my scanner we heard the driver being asked to leave the CP loco in DPU mode.

 

[simond]

leave the CP loco in DPU mode.

that begs a “DCC question”.

when the locos are consisted and working a train, how do they ensure that the correct loco gets the correct commands? Not an issue on the wild prairies, where there isn’t another loco in sight (or radio range), but in a yard?

Do they have to somehow bind them as one would with Micron RC or Bluetooth, or is it an address (eg cabside number) process?

cheers
Simon

 

[Jordan or Plymouth Mad]

that begs a “DCC question”.

when the locos are consisted and working a train, how do they ensure that the correct loco gets the correct commands? Not an issue on the wild prairies, where there isn’t another loco in sight (or radio range), but in a yard?

Do they have to somehow bind them as one would with Micron RC or Bluetooth, or is it an address (eg cabside number) process?

cheers
Simon

Wireless Radio Link: The primary control method. The lead locomotive sends encrypted digital commands via dedicated VHF or UHF radio frequencies. These signals sync the remote engines to mirror the lead unit’s throttle and dynamic brake settings automatically.
The settings can be adjusted, for example on grades, so if the lead locos are over the summit & going into dynamic braking, but the DPU is still climbing, the DPU will be set to still be pushing under power.

 

[Jordan or Plymouth Mad]

Re some of the photos in Richard's last post....


Set track points are SO unrealistic, aren't they? Though I do note the self-guarding frog.


If you can't get a bus on a bridge, what's the next best cliché..?


Wibblewibblewibble....

My apologies, yes I've got better things to do on a work morning

 

[richard carr]

I thought you might like that one Jordan.

The yards are full of self guarding frogs, I think it's wht the tyres appear ti have a shiny edge as these rub on the self guarding frog rails.

Richard

 

[richard carr]

After all that switching we made our way back to the hotel to get some food.
There is bar that has outdoor seating with a good view of the tracks, so we got seats there and waited.
Eventually this turned up, an Iowa Interstate grain train




Then this ethanol train arrived on the CP main. It was getting dark by then





Finally David's burger turned up too, I'd already eaten my pizza so we got that for free.

The hotel is very near the tracks, so I heard the trains come through at 1:45, 2:45 4am, and another just before 6.
The GP started at 8am so we had arranged to meet for breakfast after it.

About 9am I heard a train, it was the local double headed taking about 30 loaded freight cars up the hill to Eldridge.
We met up at 10 and went for breakfast by the Mississippi, once we had finished we set off after the local and found it just west of the crossing on North Brady Street



I have no idea what it was waiting for but it was half an hour before it finally headed east back to town










The branch turns west of the mainline just be the restaurant we had been to for breakfast. The switch is manual, so the train has to stop for the conductor to operate the switch , then move through it and hten the conductor puts the switch back to the main line and then walks the length of the train back to the loco. It's not exactly a fast way of operating.

We got back to the junction well before the train and waited.



The train parked a good distance from the junction before pulling up to the switch







The train drew forward then it took the conductor 10 minutes to walk back to the loco, that cleared the crossing and we could leave, we headed to the yard at Schmidt road and waited for it to turn up.



The tracks on left lead up to the Iowa Interstate route that passes through the town.



The train headed into the yard and carried on going, we drove round to the next crossing and caught it there.