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IT's TEAM TRACK TUESDAY!!!  Share your team track photos here!  

Team tracks are a vital part of real railroad day to day operations.  Team tracks found in remote rural, small town, and large city locations accommodate the unloading of virtually all kinds of freight cars. ... some passenger train head end equipment ... and MOW equipment as well.  

On Saturday evening as I was getting ready to set up Team Track One with a scene for this week's TTT,  I was running trains as I worked and low and behold a Sante Fe boxcar, rolled through the TT One switch just a second before the P&BR VO 1000 switcher entered the switch on the intersecting track. COLLISION!!!   The switcher fell to the right on an angle but not touching the adjacent building ... it was in perfect balance.  The boxcar derailed but stayed upright.  AND there it was my TTT story.  I put some fire engines in place and a B&O MOW pickup, put figures in place and grabbed the camera.  Just as in real life ( and we model real life ... right? ) accident happened on the my railroad.  It was a fluke thing that the locomotive kept its balance and did not lean up against the building ... there was about a scale ft ( quarter inch ) between the locomotive and the building. LOL!!    So here is the complete story with photos as it appeared in the Patsburg Daily Trumpeter.  

This week on the Free State Junction Railway's team track one in Lower Patsburg, a run away Santa Fe boxcar ran through the  Team Track One switch into the path of a Patapsco and Back Rivers VO 1000 switcher which was on a transfer run.  Evidentaly a rail worker did not set the derail after the car was originally set out.  There will more than likely be a full investigation by the  Safety Superintendent and the ROW Super.    

Since locomotive fuel was leaking and the tank car right behind the locomotive was carrying highly flammable liquid, the Patburg Fire Dept. was called to Team Track One as was Big  Hooker, the railroad's heavy crane.    The area citizens,  however, were not evacuated.  It took wreck crews 9 and a half hours to get the locomotive righted, back on the track, and the box car moved to another track ... good thing the car was empty!    The daily west bound  Fast Mail pulled by a N&W J class was majorly  delayed because of the derailment.   It took just over one hour before the dispatcher was able to arrange clear tracks so  the Fast Mail could back up two miles  to Locust Junction and take the secondary main westward.   Luckily there were not injuries! ( Click on photos at bottom of this post to view captions )

Lets see your team track photos.  If you miss posting today, now worries, post any day of the week!  Have a wonderfully fun and creative week!!  See ya next week on the TEAM TRACK! IMG_7795IMG_7796IMG_7812IMG_7804IMG_7811IMG_7825IMG_7819IMG_7840IMG_7821IMG_7869IMG_7871IMG_7872IMG_7870IMG_7898IMG_7885IMG_7879IMG_7891IMG_7896IMG_7901IMG_7907IMG_7900IMG_7903

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Images (22)
  • IMG_7795: The collision point.  The J class on the point of the Fast Mail is literally stopped dead on the tracks.
  • IMG_7796: Collision point from slightly different angle
  • IMG_7812: What a mess
  • IMG_7804: Runaway boxcar & locomotive collide
  • IMG_7811: Off the rails!
  • IMG_7825: Patsburg Fire Dept and B&O MOW on the scene!
  • IMG_7819: Fire dept begins stretching a line to spray foam just in case!
  • IMG_7840: Getting ready
  • IMG_7821: "Stretch that line!!" Says the chief
  • IMG_7869: Another switch engine has pulled the train backward & out of the way. Some fire engines sent back to the fire house while others standby.
  • IMG_7871: To stop the leakage of diesel fuel, a tank truck is brought in to drain the locos fuel tank.
  • IMG_7872: A HUGE wheel loader to help with retailing efforts arrives.
  • IMG_7870: The loaders bucket will help hold the loco in place as workers place wood braces under the loco.
  • IMG_7898: With the braces in place, hydroloic jacks will be placed as the loco will be eased downward.  Loader helps hold the loco in place with heavy chains wrapped around bucket
  • IMG_7885: The BIG HOOKER arrives on the scene
  • IMG_7879: Getting positioned to lift the boxcar.
  • IMG_7891: Crew waits for the cranes boom to lower.
  • IMG_7896: Stand back!!
  • IMG_7901: One end of boxcar is moved across the tracks.  The crane will inch forward to snag the other half.
  • IMG_7907: The wheel loader aided with getting the car on the rails.
  • IMG_7900: BIG HOOKER now helps with retailing the VO 1000
  • IMG_7903: Back on the rails!!   The loco will now be pulled back to the Patsburg shops for inspection.
Original Post

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Looks like someone has some explaining to do Patrick. 

Fred, that is an interesting way to load 55 gallon drums. 

Have you ever wondered of what becomes of a caboose when it has reached the end of its useful service life? You may have thought they were simply scrapped. Surely some were and some are sold off to begin a second life, possibly on a tourist railroad, or saved for a museum or historical society. Still others are re-purposed as storage sheds, cabins or offices. This week on my team track, this old decrepit caboose is being saved from the scrap heap, if they can figure out how to unload it... 

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Images (9)
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Wow!!  Great photos everyone!!  

Charlie - thanks for your kind compliment!  Most appreciated!  Glad you liked the scene.  It really was a spontaneous creation inspired by the wreck.  Spontaneaty is the best source of creation, IMHO because it's born out of the moment.  

Brian - you find the most unusual and most interesting photos!  I love that rail bus!  That Seagrave fire engine is like the one in my scene.  I have three Seagrave fire trucks on my layout.... all different but the same 1950s cab style.  I always loved seeing Seagrave fire engines at parades when I was a kid.   The sailors were pretty cool too!  I imagine that engine is being unloaded at a naval base?    Then there's that caboose on a truck. I'm sure inspired by Mark Diff's post.  That truc. k driver must be taking her real easy so the caboose does not loose balance. LOL!

Fred - that is a great photo of the steel drums on a cart.  I assume that the entire cart being rolled into the boxcar will stay with the drums until the car reaches the final destination?  Then they will be rolled out the same way as they were rolled in.  Looks like the cars are being loaded as LCL shipments. 

Mark - wonderfully original!  Yes how do those cabeese ever get to their final destination ... I'm assuming a park, restaurant, museum?  Wherever that thing is going it seems to have really brought out the locals to watch it being unloaded.  I love the scenes with the onlookers!  

Thanks to all who stopped by the team track to take a gander of this weeks on/off loads!    Until next Tuesday have a wonderfully fun and creative week!  See ya next week on the TEAM TRACK!!

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