World's slowest freight train, the Napoleon Defiance and Western
I began exploring the Napoleon Defiance and Western on Friday morning (13th October) starting near Woodburn, nothing was happening, I did see a rail road vehicle passing through Antwerp and quite a few freight cars parked on the "mainline" but no action as I worked my way north through Cecil, then Defiance, then Jewell and Okolona. I did keep seeing what appeared to be a boxcar parked on the track ahead in the far distance. That turned out to be the back of the second train moving very slowly.
So once I found them there were 2 trains moving north each with a GP20 on the front. The first has the repainted one in pioneer rail livery, the second was in the original Santa Fe livery. They were taking boxcars to the logistics facility in the north of Napoleon. There is a short siding there, long enough for one of the trains. It appears to work by the leading train pulls ahead of the siding, the second train engine then can run round it's train in the siding. The first train then pushes back to the second. The first train engine then moves out of the way on a spur. The second train engine then pushes all the cars to the end of the line.
After they had done this, they picked up a single boxcar from a spur on a different warehouse. The second train engine then headed back south. The first train engine had already left it's spur so was now in the lead southbound
You will also see that they has a GP9 already in one of the spurs and that was pulled out and left in front of the boxcars.
I came back on Monday morning, the GP9 was switching the boxcars brought up on Friday. The 2 GP20s were heading south with other boxcars.
Пікірлер: 50
These tracks may still need a lot of work but they’re a lot better than before. At least there’s actually ballast now. Before they were literally sinking into the swamps below. Pioneer Lines spent some good effort on repairing this old line.
@marka5478
4 ай бұрын
@SagePerkins-le2ej There isn't enough traffic on this line to justify double track. This line was always single track.
@barneypfeffer3032
3 ай бұрын
Between sealy texas and katy texas got these trains beat about being slow that's union pacific
@GoodbyeKamala2024
Күн бұрын
Yes, things are slowly getting better for the Pioneer Lines.
They don't make a profit on speed, profit comes from revenue plus NOT making a mess from unnecessary costly derailments.
Also, the track sure seems a lot better than the last time I watched. The cars were really rocking, even at such slow speeds!
Doesn't get really fun until the track goes down into 5mph FRA "excepted" status.
Great to see so many GP20s in one place still doing real work at 60+ years old.
It's nice to see the old Wabash Railroad restored back to the condition in which it should be. I've seen older videos of this railroad and it was a bit of a shock to see how trains could even run on it. Under the Maumee and Western, the tracks were crooked and even sinking into the ground. I'm surprised that they ran trains on the tracks even if they were running at 5 mph on a trip. Sinking and crooked tracks were what you get when you defer maintenance for 60 years.
The track is a hundred times better than when the line was the Maumee and Western. I don’t think that they would have any problem in running B40-8s and GP60s on it.
Good to see all the boxcars still moving!
Between sealytexas and katy texas up got this train beat.
wow they reaaly rebuilt the rail track since I last saw this. Search for older videos from 8 years ago
Nice catch of the ND&W gathering some loaded boxcars. Its a shame they have to run so slow but i understand due to traxk conditions. Glad to hear they've replaced quite a bit of the rail along with ballast. Thanks for sharing this video with us RC along with your time and effort! Cheers from Laurel, Delaware USA.
WOW ... That Pioneer looks like it rolled out of the show room floor yesterday!!! Very cool indeed .... Thumbs up
Wow what a improvement ! Im impressed....
If I was in the management of the ND&W, I would have a couple of the GP20s fully repainted into the Santa Fe paint scheme.
I think it’s worth noting that the part of the line between Cecil and Defiance was completely rebuilt last year and there is a 10 mile stretch with amazing rail on it. Where this video was filmed it’s still somewhat subpar, though better than before, so a slower speed is still warranted.
@richardcarr9095
9 ай бұрын
Unfortunately, the part of the line from from Cecil to Defiance, is pretty in accessible, you can see it from route 24 , but there are few places to stop and film, and there were o trains that day as I went by. Hopefully I can catch themon the next trip.
@chuckgilly
9 ай бұрын
The railroad has come a long way since the days of Napoleon Dynamite & Wobbling (ND&W)
I rode and drove The Mississippian, and the Mississippi Central and both were 10 mph roads.
I caught them today in Antwep, of course i was in a hurry to get somewhere.
Awesome Video!!! Thanks for posting!!
I'm no train expert, but, it's pretty difficult to see cars running a crossing when you're facing the wrong way LOL
Cool video and channel just subscribed. Cool Santa Fe locomotive
I Patriot Rail bought out Pioneer Rail. I know they have been replacing power on a couple of lines here in Georgia.
Pioneer rail got a new paint scheme
Id like to say that these tracks are definitely better. I saw the old condition of the tracks and to tell you the truth, i wouldnt have run my toy trains over them let alone my real full size trains😊
Looks like they've come along way since the beginning I tell ya that! I'd rather watch a slow moving train anyway...
POV: you are going to work as slow as you can
That's funny, the Wheeling and Lake Erie was worse than that and they still ran at 10 to 20 mph. Is it because the engine didn't have ditch lights?
From Worst Railroad In America to Shortline Of The Year. And Millions of Dollars made the difference!
By the way, the locos I saw were all ex-BNSF GP20’s. Possibly all were ex-ATSF, not sure about that!
Good video! Those box cars they brought in all sounded like loads. Do you know what’s in them and who they’re for? Seems like an awful lot of traffic for one customer! It would take them a while to unload them all!
@bryanlosen3262
9 ай бұрын
Tomato paste from Campbell's in Napoleon...
What’s the track speed - 5mph? 10 mph?
That's ridiculously slow. Go see the trains in Iron Mountain Michigan..., hahaha hahaha hahaha hahaha hahaha 😂
Does the track run right into Fort Wayne?
@johnspencer7291
9 ай бұрын
yes
@richardcarr9095
9 ай бұрын
It does link up to Fort Wayne but the interchange point is just south of Woodburn. The Norfolk Southern local picksup and delivers the cars there and services the BF Goodrich plant nearby.
@NormanJaquemotRebel
9 ай бұрын
@@richardcarr9095 : Thanks for the info. Do they intend to run down to Fort Wayne any time soon?
american infrastructure be like:
Can't be profitable running this slow. Time to turn in the towel.
@darrencatenacci2737
9 ай бұрын
Speed has nothing to do with profit. Reliability and efficiency do. If their customer is happy with their service is all that matters.
@marka5478
9 ай бұрын
FYI the rule of thumb to determine the viability of a railroad is 100 carloads of freight per mile of road per year. therefore, ND&W has to handle about 5,000 carloads a year. Also, in case you missed it, the ND& W will be serving 2 new shippers. Refer to the Ohio Rail Development Commission's website.
Video is nice but you really need to get into your channel settings and block adds from popping up at random intervals.
@richardcarr9095
9 ай бұрын
Thanks for that, I'll take a look and see what I can do.
@timothystrauss3838
9 ай бұрын
Hi Richard do you ever get up near Delta,Ohio and record trains going through or switching I have a question if you do if you give me your email or a way to contact you I will ask it thanks.
they upgraded some tracks to class I standards (10-15mph), yet they still drive like 5mph on the upgraded tracks, why?