Conrail WPFJ-10 Street Running on busy Bleigh Avenue in Philadelphia
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- čas přidán 31. 07. 2019
- Conrail Shared Assets Local WPFJ-10 is the M-F daytime job out of Frankford Junction Yard in North Philadelphia, PA, working several industries along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor between their yard and the Eddington Siding in Bensalem. One of their customers is Northeast Metal Traders, which is accessed off the 0 Track at Holmesburg Junction, through Bleigh Avenue Yard and down Bleigh Avenue itself via street running, where loaded scrap gons are pulled and empties are spotted. This involves a move through several busy intersections , namely State Road and Bleigh Avenue to complete the move, where the crew must not only battle the traffic, but follow the traffic light patterns to do their work..
March 29, 2018 was the first time I witnessed this move, WPFJ-10 used NS GP38-2 5302 today to pull four loads and spot four empties, and they had a tough time making the pull with the recently dampened rails from a little rain earlier in the day...
April 4, 2018, I returned for more shots of WPFJ-10, this time with CSX power in charge, GP40-2 6201.
Finally, March 6, 2019, it was CSX GP40-2 6212 who did the job as they only pulled and spotted two cars. - Auta a dopravní prostředky
I always drove over the tracks in this intersection wondering if trains ever passed through still. Well I got my answer one day when a train pulled up next to me at the light. Needless to say no one believed me
Nate- are you here in Philly? I am close by.
lol. i was saying the same thing after. 25 years going over those tracks ive never seen a train.
Drive over these tracks every day going to work for a decade. Never saw a train
Making the train follow traffic lights is dumb. They should make the lights turn red for all traffic like seen on most street running tracks.
@Amed Tajan Pre-emption is a common thing where the traffic light controllers utilize track circuit sensors to override and, basically, switch to another phase - It's really no different than monitoring an induction loop in the road to switch phases for on-demand intersections (where a main road is almost always green except when a vehicle trips the sensor on a side road, for example). It would take very little to add pre-emption circuits to the track, or a control box that the train crew can get out to trigger to allow the train passage when needed. It would certainly speed up the process, in reality probably causing less traffic tie-ups than are currently experienced when the train takes 6 tries to be able to even enter the intersection and then is in the intersection for much more than a single phase of the lights.
And seriously? That is THE SHORTEST green I've ever seen, that's hardly long enough for one vehicle to pass through.
There is a street train that goes through my town, and the traffic lights near the tracks are all synched up so that traffic doesn't build up on the tracks and the train gets the green lights all the time.
I live near a similar situation and they fund a very simple solution. There is one central switch which switches all traffic lights to "train mode", then any light crossing the tracks is yellow flashing instead for green. This way all drivers are aware that they have to give way. No sensors, no connecting circuits required. Obviously with more trains you might want a better solution.
It's Pennsylvania, they have the worst DOT in the country!
they have horns if the driver cant hear that & see it oh will there fault getting hit but if u born deaf u have to look around
Train should have right of way all the time especially here where it has to stop on a hill.
Signals need to be upgraded and synced to the regular traffic lights. SEPTA's trolleys have a separate light in which a lighted horizontal line means to stop and a lighted vertical light means to proceed.
Yes I agree I'm observing the the video the train should have the right-of-way all the time regardless of what intersection that it goes through it shouldn't be stop go stop go especially with a several ton load
Here in Poland traffic lights for cars and trams are synced
No train should have to stop
Needs more powerful locos
13:06 Imagine stopping at a red light and a train pulls up next to you!
HEY! HEY!!! WaNnA RaCE!?
"CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO GET TO ATLANTIC AVE.? WHAT?? I CAN'T HEAR YOU..."
Don't forget: "Pardon me...would you happen to have any Grey Poupon?"
@@killersopinion1829 LMFAO
I know right?
You know what I love about trains? They are massive and compact at the same time. Long and tall but narrow enough to fit through pretty tight spaces.
This is something of a rarity in the UK so hats off to the Engineer for taking this on, patience must be a requisite for this job. Well done to the guys.
Awesome times trying to get through the intersection with 8 seconds of green light.
Gonna go through a lot of flares lol
they gave him a whole box of flares hes going to use the whole box of flares
Heck yea. This is great. Tossing of the flares from the cab is the absolute best part. Love it!
*traffic jam happens*
Car Drivers: Honks horn
Train Engineer: Hold my horn
Could you imagine how much fun you can have if you were the engineer sitting in traffic. You could
1. Ask for directions
2. Drag race a Prius
3. Laugh at a trucker
4. Ask the gas station attendant if they have diesel.
4A. Ask gas station attendant to give you $50 of diesel
4B. Ask gas station attendant to check oil and wipe windows clean
5. Give the finger to everybody who cut you off
6. Tell women you have an engine that purrs
7. Challenge everybody who owns a pickup to a tug of war
8. Talk on your phone and tell drivers next to you it's ok because you dont have a steering wheel.
9. Tell cops you wont fit under the bridge and have them help you deflate your tires.
10. Tell a toe truck driver that your engine died and you need a jump
Wow. I am so glad that this street running is still in operation. This is just awesome. And we must remember that trains were here before automobiles so TRAINS RULE!!!!!!!!
Street running local handling the local industry is awesome, I love it. Thanks for posting this!!
I'm thinking that first NS locomotive had a problem. It shouldn't have been a struggle to handle 4 loaded cars. That's the first time I've ever seen a train stop for a street signal.
Track looked wet - pay close attention to the area by the wheels each time they make an attempt to start moving into the intersection - looks like they're sanding the **** out of the rails trying to get traction.
It’s a 50 year old DC Geep, these grades and stop starting, out of its league. Needs an AC switcher.
@@jaysmith1408 do we even got AC switchers? I know we got AC road units but never seen AC switchers
Vein Banger93 some GP rebuilds
Honestly think it was having to stop on the wet rails. Black Hills Central RR in SD uses a GP in the rain or shine or snow on non-steam days with 7 passenger cars on a nearly 6% grade hill. Never seen engine 63 have a problem with it.
8:23 that truck reversing out of there looks like a comedy incident waiting to happen
My only question is how many times a month do they have an accident there? I assume that moving this crossing is economically and operationally impossible.
For those who suggest moving to trucks, the tonnage this train moves makes moving to trucks impossible. it would take 30-50 trucks to replace that train.
The tracks were there long before the town. They should move the road.
@animalover64 Not to mention even pedestrians having to deal with this....or vice-versa...LOL
It astounds me how much Americans seem to have a “can’t do” attitude sometimes. Can’t move the rail lines, that’s too expensive, can’t move the road, that’s too expensive, can’t shift to trucks cos the load is too heavy, can’t move the facility because there’s no space, can’t make the crossing safer because that’s inconvenient. It seems people have forgotten how to make changes.
@@cjeam9199 It's 'won't do' instead of 'can't do'. Here we have a perfect example of developers who have moved in over the decades and we see the result. It would cost millions upon millions to move anything, thus the status quo. Now the idea of a train having to follow traffic rules is absurd. The rest of the nation has no problem with controlling the stop lights and street running, I guess the people of Philly can't grasp that idea.
@@cjeam9199 Railroads in the US are private corporations. Because of that, decisions about things like moving the tracks, syncing the lights to track occupancy (which I'm sure the local government, ie. the city of Philadelphia) would insist the railroad pay for, are made by accountants, not engineers. And accountants would follow ROI, Return On Investment, which means if the cost to do something exceeds paying for itself within a set period of time, they won't cough up the money to do it. Whether it makes sense to do it or not doesn't even come into play. I see it all the time where I work, the decision makers would rather pay $15000 over ten years repeatedly paying to have something fixed that could be replaced for $7-8000 so it doesn't need to be repaired all the time. It seems shortsighted from my perspective, but according to the rules the accountants play by, it's a perfectly adequate cost of doing business.
I find this hilarious, just seeing a huge train that's meant to have right of way, just stopping for a red light.
Amazing! What a rare and surprising train this was for me. I had no idea that those tracks were actually active. It’s been a while since I’ve lived in this area of Pennsy. Great catch!
Aliyah Noreas hey thank you!! I didn’t know until about a year and a half ago myself!
I've been looking for contemporary videos of this operation forever. Good Catch!
that GP38 was getting a workout pulling that train
and the GP40-2 just sang right through it.
It's raining and miserable outside today so this video made my day. Big as Milwaukee is sadly we don't have many interesting switching operations left much less street running. Just the thought of that scrapyard being on a single stub track makes it double the fun everyday with those bombed-out overloaded former coal cars. That poor GP between the wet pavement also whines up with all the grease probably autos and trucks that pass over it so that's steel is ultra slippery. Perfect capture wish I had been there to see this in person. It did remind me a bit of following a SOO Line train in Chicago on Goose Island a former Milwaukee Road line sadly now relegated to history
I’m glad you enjoyed the video! I don’t believe this customer gets served as much as it used to when I recorded the footage either. I do enjoy some street running and a share your pain of seeing former industry and operation drying up.
Nice street running! Thanks for posting!
I really enjoyed this. The railroads where I am from are never in traffic like this. It was interesting to see this.
Cool video! Thanks for sharing this! I used to be a conductor and love stuff like this. Espec the crew using fusees to mark the unlighted crossing. Thanks! =)
I’m loving it, never seen nothing like that in my life.
I agree. As long as no one gets hurt and no sheet metal gets bent, that was cool.
They need to give the train operational control of the traffic lights
In Upstate New York in Cohoes there is a paper bill that has been there forever
If there's a siding that runs across New York 32 and there is no Gates or whites and there's a four-way intersection with traffic lights
They put in a control boxthat the railroad has a key to and they open it up and they flip the light to go from green to yellow flashing
Then it goes red flashing all four ways and then it goes solid red all four ways
that's what they need to do here to make the light go read all four ways or all six ways until the train passes through and then they can flip the switch to resume normal traffic light operations
It is totally nuts to have a situation like this
trains always have the right-of-way and whoever started this thing where the train has to wait especially on a hill is crazy just crazy
At the very least!
I agree, but with only 3-4 wagons, I can't help but wonder, why not just use trucks?
@@icebolt0864 Each car can haul around two trucks worth of scrap and save a transload point.
Good ol' Mohawk Paper. Used to love watching that swap.
Even better. S#!t, they could be the first in the USA to use Electric Rigs the size of Aussie Road Trains. As Don King would say "Only in America" I'm Canadian so it's not just the 'erb takin', it would be a great idea and way cleaner!
For me its so mind blowing andvery very interesting to see trains next to cars on an intersection :D. Love it
Nice video in Philadelphia Pennsylvania middle of the track busy highway good job
Craig Palmer thank you!
I always thought that rail was abandoned, but you apparently proved me wrong! I'd never expected to see a train there I've been to that intersection and certain parts of the track area are all covered with dirt and whatever. Also that parking lot from where that train comes out of would really prove that no train would run there.
Really enjoyed this! Thank you.
Great street running Video!
3:15 the car just hit the brakes in a what the hell moment, then was like oh its just a train
Gotta love the Del Val International trucks delivery van going through the intersection right to left at 4:00. A former employer of mine at the time. Lol!
Imagine a car pulls up to the light and yells wanna race off the line lol
Keith Russell lol
LMAO! Empty locomotive vs fire truck 🚒 That’d be fun to watch. 🤣
@@robertnuttall9599 ... Catastrophe's waiting to happen! (SMASH!! ) Ugh!!! [SEVERAL bystanders who happen to be BOTH pedestrians and motorists accordingly dial 911 in order to report the long-avoidable but now catastrophic accident... and then wait seemingly hours for the wounded firemen to get whisked away to critically urgent medical care. ] [( Sighing and groaning in grief, in or with fatigue, and in disgust ) ]
Excellent video my friend !!! From Argentina !!😍👍
This is the puzzling thing I've ever said to myself when I saw trains following traffic lights when traffic takes a break
5:23 the train just got tired of waiting and just went for it lol
Once you enter the intersection, you keep going. There's no other legal way for anyone, trains, pedestrians, bicycles, trucks, etc. to cross.
Hello, I just subscribed to your great channel. This is about one of if not the most interesting and enjoyable railroad video I have seen. I have always been crazy about the railroad from a small boy on up. My great grandfather and my two grandfather's, were railroaders and my wonderful late mom and aunt worked for the railroad too. I came very close to becoming a locomotive engineer. Again a great video and God bless.
Jody Grubbs thank you!! That’s a really cool past, a family of railroaders, awesome, thank you for sharing!! I’m glad you enjoyed!
Excellent catch 👍
New York Railfan thank you!
@@trainutjob you're welcome
Been watching videos of Upstate NY train silliness. User to live in Philly too so this is pretty funny
Weird & wonderful at the same time! 😮😊
Agreed!
Anyone remember the small rail yard at State Rd., just next to I-95, where State Rd. curves toward 95 ? This was Conrail, Penn Central era... If so, does anyone know if that little yard had a name or designation of some sort ? There might've been 5 or 6 tracks that compiled that "yard" for local work, and usually had a switcher engine or two stationed there. Usually an end can type switcher with a rounded cab roof, like maybe an SW-8/800, that type of locomotive. None of the Morning Sun publications or books on Philly railroads I own have anything about this small staging yard....🤨
I wonder if "Caveman" still lives under I-95 down in that area. Genuinely nice Vietnam Vet who will only ask that you donate any money toward food for his German Sheppard, or not give him money, just dog food... Talked with him several times, seems a genuinely good soul.
I was in Philadelphia yesterday. I didn't catch any freight, but I saw a maintenance crew on CSX's Philadelphia Sub, and Amtrak's Avelia Liberty in storage with the original Acela, two Dash-8's, and a few cars in Pennsy paint.
I've gotten stuck by this train numerous times over the year's. Used to work 5 blocks south.
So can the train turn right on red or?
Ha ha! I'm the 30th like!
Those railcars really took a beating over the years!
Old coal gondolas re-purposed to haul scrap and/or demolition material. Most cars in this service are thoroughly beat-up.
How hilarious! I've never seen a train stopped at traffic lights. Holy moses, he was having a struggle pulling up there
Great video!!!
A train crew walks in a truck stop, the truckers there ask them, “where is your rig?” The engineer says, “on the tracks”
“Are you stuck?” “No the engine is our rig”
Wow, this is very impressive. I'm just wondering about the fact that nobody asked this before: why did the conductor throw fireworks (5:25) out of his cab? Is that usual practice in America? In Germany he could probably look for a new job when doing so...
It's been answered a couple of times above. Federal-level rule/s requiring either a flagman or flare in such a crossing whenver a train has to occupy it for any length of time.
I just realized that Four Seasons Total Landscaping is right next to this intersection (Bleigh Ave and State Rd).
That first gon MORX 121 is sagging in the middle and almost looks like it will snap in half. This is a very hard op to find on youtube and its awesome that you got a glimpse of a very hard Conrail run in Philly. I have researched the Conrail operations in this area for years and it looks like WPFJ-10 is on duty at 7am monday to firday with relief days of saturday and sunday, at least according to my records from the late 90s early 00s. I think this business used to be called Prime Source or Morris Iron and Steel, thats what my records say and they are from the Frankford Junction crew paperwork. It used to be that this was a much busier yard, Bleigh St. with more customers like Roosevelt Paper, Merriel Lumber and Poly Sat along it and the NEC but I think they aren't rail served anymore as the tracks have been ripped up on google earth sat photos.
7am monday to friday. Doh. Don't type whilst simultaneously reading and looking at a map.
@@Zach_Bloomquist nope
As much as i love mixed street/railway layouts, whoever thought of a scheme where train must obey traffic lights should be hauled to scrap with the metal. (altho, he might have die of old age, before gets there)
But the critics aside, i could listen to those 2stroke EMDs for days
I remember as a kid in the 70s when a lot more train's were still running, like the old Penn Jersey line with ceiling fans and windows that opened like old school bus windows. I rode out of Elizabeth NJ wear towards PA until the wreck that out the train in a River :( then someone tried to burn the Elizabeth station down. So much history and how we build this country almost gone today.
That is some of the most bettered rolling stock I have ever seen.
Hauling scrap metal (or demolition material) is a rough life for gondola cars. Doubly so if they're already beaten-up from years of coal service like these are.
Sensacional esses trens cargueiros nota 10 parabéns á todos maquinistas de todos países do mundo
Se fosse jovem seria um excelente maquinista abraços á todos maquinistas Deus abençoen vocês todos .
Thought that rail was abandoned, it’s nice to see conrail run on that track probably for the last time
They need to re-do this intersection that allows the train to get through!
Busy is an understatement, Exit off of I-95 is quite literally right there.
yes indeed right at the 6:50 Mark there is i-95 right there isn't it Rollin by
They have a similar situation where I live. The tracks cross a major 4 lane road. The train signals to have all the lights change red
Awesome video if you go to krewstown and Bloomfield there's trains all day and night keep it up
I see you're a Korn fan as well. I am going to see them and AIC in Camden tonight.
michael macheese right on bro!! Hope you had a good time, I’m sure that was an awesome show!
this is reason they need railroad crossing arms. So they can just keep moving.
Engineer: "let's see, If I run this yellow, I should have green lights the rest of the way."
Police Officer: "Sir, do you know why I've stopped you today?"
Conductor: "No idea Officer."
Police Officer: "Well you were going 5Mph on a 3Mph street. Also you stopped on top of a crosswalk. Licence and registration please!"
Too funny. 🤣
Train conductor says fuck you and pulls away at high speed.
GENERAL KENOBI police: STOP THAT TRAIN
@@Thatonerandomguy1331 we need Spike strips
Eliyah Pinedo you really take things way to seriously when clearly they are having fun
I love the smell of burning traction motors in the morning, it smells like overtime!
Lol
6 minutes from my family's first house. I now live in Oregon. What a culture and geographic change.
What's the deal with the flares (if that's what they are) being thrown out the window at 5:46 ?
That is to let traffic know to keep an eye out for the train ... safety at an ungated crossing. It's required by rulebook.
Presumably because trains don't have lights on their sides... and they are on a road, so by public highway rules they are required to throw flares in lieu of side lights.
It's pretty dumb though and a better option would be as other people have stated, to let the train operators have control over the lights to stop all traffic when they are coming through.
Just so traffic knows he’s not moving
Just in case you don't see the train.
Here in az the train controls the lights.
@ 5:30... pretty good toss with the fusees… every time I threw fusees like that they got snuffed out... this dude threw TWO and they both stayed lit
Love the thrash from 5302 as it's trying to pull away from the lights
The cars talking to the trains be like “haha you have to stop for us now how does it feel punk”. Lol
Train should have flashing red and blue lights for intersections. Cool video!
My only surprise is that the motorists aren't laying on their horns and aggressively challenging the train!
Hi Everyone, I am the locomotive engineer on assignment YPFJ-02 (formerly WPFJ-10). Just a few random thoughts,comments and observations on the video. My conductor threw out those fusees as a safety courtesy as it was raining and snowing so drivers would be alerted to us moving over the grade crossing. We do not flag on a lite engine for crew safety, I don’t need my conductor getting run over for a lite engine move. The conductor always protects the shoves on the other side of the car for better visibility. Street running was more prevalent in the past and vehicular rules govern us just as if we were a motor vehicle. It is a heavy grade up and conversely when shoving down. The Morris Iron and Steel cars are extremely heavy and due put a strain on the assigned locomotive. As an aside the NS5302 had seen better days and was no where near its original horsepower rating. We now use CSXT locomotives to comply with mandated Access PTC equipped equipment.as far as the issue of stress, we love this assignment amend there is no added stress on this job. The issue of seniority of the crew was brought up, we are actually a senior crew who chose this job because of its work and relief days.the issue of trains inside of city limits was brought up, we wish we had more industry to serve like we do on The Mighty YPFJ-02. Service by Rail as pointed out previously is both more economical and in actuality more environmentally friendly. I would gladly answer any questions anyone has and am Extremely Proud to work for Conrail ! Happy Railroading and Stay Safe.
nice info... are you a former conrail employee??? ... and how does seniority work within former conrail territory when you have a former conrail man still working in that same territory???... can a NS man bump that conrail man... i would imagine not
@@25mfd I am prior Conrail who couldn’t stay at split date. When I was able to flow back I retained my seniority as if I had never left. I’m in the twilight of my Conrail career.
ns people with no prior Conrail seniority cannot work on Conrail crewed assignments
interesting info... i was a chicago and northwestern switchman from 93 to 2004... worked with oldhead switchman that were part of the 1968 chicago great western merger... those guys had similar rock solid protections... they even had protections against other original cnw employees at the time of the merger... so a cnw milwaukee switchman who was assigned to the yard at the time of that merger couldn't bump another cnw yardman who worked in green bay... years of seniority didn't matter either... there were two guys, when i got there in 93, that hired on in 1956 but after the CGW merger, those 1956 men couldn't bump a man who may have just hired on months prior to the merger... we literally had yardmen that never worked on the road, couldn't copy a track warrant if their life depended on it but could follow a switchlist blindfolded... on the flip side we had through freight guys who never worked in the yard, couldn't follow a switchlist but were adept at getting their trains over the road
That would be cool to model. Great video
Some people do model street running. Like Lance Mindheim.
If you're interested look up Nexeo in the Morrisville area, about a 20 minute drive up 95, there's a big railyard up there and the business I mention gets quite a few cars switched. I don't know the schedule but I've talked with the conductors before. Awesome guys.
That same loco was just switching out a load out in streator Illinois earlier this month
I got frustrated and half pissed off just watching that poor bastard. I cant imagine what the operator was saying the entire time
was saying nothing
11:09 Anyone else notice that work van driving on the tracks where there's a sign saying "don't drive on tracks"?
Awesome! I film street running trains also. I just filmed a few in Elizabeth, Pa and Franklin, Ohio
Jaw Tooth thank you! Very cool! I like street running.
You should come up sometime and film here, lots of action
Snail: I’m Slow As Fuck
This Train: Hold My Beer
Awesome moves, awesome video Trainutjob Videos!
If I was driving I'd say fuck the traffic lights I'm driving a fucking train
Craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life
Obviously you've never come into contact with a mirror.
Rob Dewey why would I
Cool video.
michael macheese thank you!
Trucker: I’m running my 18 wheeler down the road, and you.
Train driver: my 100 ton train
With 500 on the back
40,000 ton those mile long ones
If that's the case then they need those trolley signals.
It seems like the traffic lights would be connected to the train signals to respond to oncoming trains once they get within a certain distance.
That's how Michigan does
At 3:12 motorist requires change of underwear and a pacemaker.
Most folks don't see the train through here. They assume the line is defunct. It most definitely isn't. I see these guys occasionally while I'm out with my truck.
🤣🤣😂😂😅😅😏😏
Did anyone notice the conductor sticking out his arm, signalling a left turn.
PhillyDOT needs to look into upgrading the signal at Bleigh and State Streets to allow for the train to have a right of way first.
Wow! I thought that was abandoned! Is this a daily occurrence? What time does it usually pass through? Amazing video!
The Railroad Crossing Channel thank you! It seems to be most days of the work week between 10-Noon!
@@trainutjob thanks! I'll stop by one day
@@trainutjob Sooooo... Every weekday?
Good stuff
9:23 That Honda Accord driver is listening to 98.9 and "Tryin to catch me riding dirty" plays.
This looks dangerous. If I'm ever in Philadelphia, I know to avoid Bleigh Avenue.
During rush hour bleigh can be a life saver. I-95 backs up very commonly there.
You're a pussy
You can just avoid most of Philly, tbh.
Maybe some crossing lights are needed
That is the fastest light I have ever seen in three decades of living...
This is by far the weirdest industrial run I’ve seen! It’s cool though. What were the flares for though? Only saw one crew use them.
Did that truck blow it's horn to tell the train look out?
Awesome K5LA action
Wow! They need some signal lights up at this place ...jesus H! Somebody's gonna get nailed!
the poz from oz you mean crossing signals