Some new pictures

[ICG/SOU]

Just some stuff I saw or was able to stop and take a picture of:

Southern Belle hopper on a westbound KCS mixed freight, Vicksburg, MS:

Coil load on same train:

I'd like some of these coil cars in HO:

Plate steel load on a flat:

Ancient Waffle Box:

Old ICG covered hoppers:

What are these squares on the top of the cars? Vents?

Levee Street Station, (ex-Yazoo and Mississippi Valley RR, built 1907), Vicksburg, MS

Ex-ICG Centralia Shops caboose in MidSouth RR, Vicksburg

One of 3 or so tunnels in Mississippi, exx-A&V (Alabama and Vicksburg), built 1898, on approximate site of old A&V station, Vicksburg

NS SD60 at Meridian, MS

NS Greenville 7000cuft woodchip hopper (these cars are HUGE), Meridian

A newer looking NS SD60

A nice D8-40C in new paint

Old interlocking tower (the only one I know if in Mississippi), off McNutt St., Jackson

From what I can tell, it controlled the crossing here from exx-A&V, ex-IC, now KCS from the east, and exx-NOGN, ex-IC, now abandoned ROW from the south. There is an interchange track that goes from East to North, where the old Capitol Yard (GM&O) used to be, now almost all gone.

The building is brick, and the windows are aluminum framed, so it looks to be post 1950's construction to me.

Is this a defect detector? (Looking east of tower)

I used my digital (a slight step above a point and shoot), and remembered in Vicksburg why I went to film for photographing trains. The auto focus isn't fast enough for objects in motion, and often time focuses on the wrong thing. The train at Vicksburg had a nice Southern Belle SD70ACe on point, but came out blurry because the auto focus focused on the small magnolia tree in the foreground.

 

[UP2CSX]

Trey, those are some very nice shots. The better grade digital SLR's have multiple focus points so you don't have the problem of the camera picking just one wrong point of focus.

The KCS sure has the most nicely manicured roadbed I've seen in a while. Any idea what the structure is with the steps leading down to the track? Maybe a bridge tender's house?

I've never seen those square things on a boxcar either. If they are vents, why on just one side of the roof? Maybe someone else has the answer.

Beautiful restoration job on the Vicksburg station. I'd love to have a model of that.

That thing in the last picture is indeed a defect detector. If you have a scanner, these things are really helpful when you're chasing trains, since they call out the milepost a train is passing and give you advance warning so you get set up your shots.

 

[ICG/SOU]

Jim, thanks for the compliments.

The grounds there are for the Mississippi Welcome Center, and I'm sure the state does the manicuring. A lot of that track, though, in the area, seems to be recently ballasted and new track in place.

Above the track, to the right, is the entrance ramp to the old bridge, which had been built for US HWY 80. There was a toll booth or something there (can barely remember, but as a kid, we always had to stop first before crossing the bridge). I think there was even a weight scale or something for the trucks. Vehicular traffic has been banned from the bridge for probably close to 15 years or more, with all east and westbound traffic on the IH20 bridge, just a few hundred feet to the south.

The boxcars had them on both sides, for a total of 8 per car. In the larger version of the picture, they can be faintly seen.

The SPV Atlas I have didn't have that defect detector listed. I've found some changes in active and abandoned lines in the book, which is expected, since my edition is almost 10 years old.

 

[jbaakko]

I'd like some of these coil cars in HO:

You're in luck, Atlas has been hinting at these cars for some time. There should be an announcement soon.

 

[Trucklover]

Nice batch of pictures! I especially like that last photo with the truss bridge with the switch right after, that looks neat and like it would make for a nice scene and space filler

 

[Trouble]

the last photo shows an AEI reader. on the sides of every car and locomotive are little gray magnetic tags that, when they pass the reader, give off a specific id number to a computer, which says "car number XXXXXX just passed the reader at this location, it is in the train and moving" usually you will see them near yards and interchanges, so the receiving railroad knows what's headed it's way. should have been another, smaller box on the other side of the track too

 

[UP2CSX]

Rats, it is an automatic car identification unit, not a defect detector. I should have know, since it has no VHF antenna.

Trent, I don't have a clue about those things on the roof of the boxcar. I can't imagine why they'd have such small vents and the cars don't look pressurized to me. Is that the old bridge I can just barely see in the background? Can you still walk it or is completely closed. I love old bridges.

 

[Trouble]

if i had to take a guess, i'd say those vents are a field modification. they look a little like the roof vents you can get at home depot for your attic. those cars might carry something volatile but not haz-mat, like car batteries or something that can't be super heated. or needs to be vented. you can imagine tons and tons of soda or beer left sitting on a hot day... one story we were told was an incident where a shipment of car batteries, in a tightly sealed box car, were left in the sun over several very hot days. the gas given off by the batteries was bottled up and pressurised in the car, untill it went down the hump and hit a car in the bowl. biiiiiig boom!

 

[MGWSY]

Is this a defect detector? (Looking east of tower)

Actually that is a AEI tag scanner which scans the AEI tags on the sides of the car and then sends the info to the RR to get accurate train lists. There should have been another one on the other side of the tracks. Here is a little info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Equipment_Identification

And if you want to really get into it.

http://www.aeitag.com/index.html

As for actual defect detectors there are 3 common type.

Dragging Equipment Detector - Checks trains for anything dragging under the train. You can tell these by the metal plates in between the rails.

Hot Box Detector - Checks trains for overheating bearings and wheels.

High / Wide Detector - Looks for cars that are to high or wide for the particular line.

See pics here.

http://www.baylug.org/zonker/railfan/detectors.html

 

[tankist]

The better grade digital SLR's have multiple focus points so you don't have the problem of the camera picking just one wrong point of focus.

Jim, its not the camera picking focus point, its the operator . even the cheapest digi-soapbox cam without any smart focusing features can focus on what you want it to. put the taget into the measurment box on the viewfinder screen, meter (press half way), recompose your shot to your liking, shoot. voila

 

[ICG/SOU]

I don't know if the bridge is open to pedestrian traffic, since it would be a great place to go and commit suicide (if the fall didn't kill you, the eddies and currents of Old Man River will).

I've seen a couple High and Wide detectors along the Sunset Route between here and Houston, and have seen these AEI detectors, but thought they were something else. I haven't seen dragging or hotbox detectors yet. Since it's an AEI detector, that's why it doesn't show up in the SPV Atlas page.

 

[UP2CSX]

Jim, its not the camera picking focus point, its the operator . even the cheapest digi-soapbox cam without any smart focusing features can focus on what you want it to. put the taget into the measurment box on the viewfinder screen, meter (press half way), recompose your shot to your liking, shoot. voila

Anton, true, for stationary targets. For train shots, you can get it in focus and, depending on the digital shutter speed, it can be way out of focus by the time the train moves and picture's taken. With multiple focus points, I can focus just ahead of the train and get better result than the single focus box of most non-SLR digitals.

 

[tankist]

Anton, true, for stationary targets. For train shots, you can get it in focus and, depending on the digital shutter speed, it can be way out of focus by the time the train moves and picture's taken. With multiple focus points, I can focus just ahead of the train and get better result than the single focus box of most non-SLR digitals.

true for anything motion of which you can anticipate (ie not kid who is running around). just as you said - pre-focus, you can do it with any cam. focus on something at correct distance, recompose, wait till the subject approaches, shoot.
but i'll agree that object speed measuring and focus anticipating dslr's are nice. not mandatory though. you should remember using manual focus lenses

 

[ICG/SOU]

The little digital has "scenes" that I can use for different things, but I haven't played with it enough to perfect it.

I know for hitting moving objects, you can either pick a fixed point and wait for the object to fall in your field of view, or you can lead the object and snap shoot. I usually use the latter since if I miss or have a bad picture, sometimes I can get another chance. I'm able to do the latter with the digital better than the film SLR, unless I am too close and have to take the shot before object is completely out of focus. With my film SLR, I can also play with f-stop and shutter speed.

 

[ICG/SOU]

I looked up the OAR (Old Augusta Railroad) info, and the company, a subsidiary of Georgia Pacific, produces lumber, wood pulp, tall oils/fatty acids. The 50' boxcars with the small squares on top are OAR rolling stock.

Whatever tall oil/fatty acids are result in a heavy boxcar. The LD LMT is 201,000lbs, or 100 ton.