FULL THROTTLE! GE & EMD Locomotives Power 15,000 Ton Loaded Coal Train Over The Allegheny Mountains!

3/30/21:
Recently, I headed to Pennsylvania for a family vacation. Naturally, this included some time trackside in the Keystone State. While a longer video featuring all the action I caught is on the way, I thought I would upload this train separately (it will also be featured in the long video). This video features Norfolk Southern Loaded Coal Train #592 tackling the West Slope of the Alleghany Ridge in Cassandra, PA. For power, two GEVOs are on the head end, both in Notch 8, and on the rear, two rebuilt EMD SD70ACu helper locomotives, also with their throttles WIDE open. This was my first time seeing the SD70ACu engines in helper service, as the last time I visited this area NS was still using SD40Es. Hearing these engines giving it all they had to get this 100 car train up the hill, while still only making 10 miles per hour, was something special to see... so sit back, relax, and enjoy the sights and sounds of what it's like to witness a 15,000-ton train tackling the slopes of the Alleghenys!
Subdivision(s):
Norfolk Southern Pittsburgh Line
Location(s) In Order of Appearance:
Cassandra, PA
Thanks For Watching & Enjoy!
(c)2021 River Line Productions All Rights Reserved

[@FrehleyFan3988]

I miss the SD40Es. They sounded so great when there were 4 of them

[@am2261]

The torque figure for this video must be PHENOMENAL!

[@damaliamarsi2006]

The train going uphill is getting 40 feet per gallon, the downhill helpers, 400 miles per gallon. Would be interesting to see the economics of energy recovery methods on both sides of the mountain.

[@pootispiker2866]

Economics? Not worth bothering with.

[@kansas8312]

Economics in railroading never heard of it, fuel is fuel in a locomotive

[@jeffreysteijn9324]

Downhill it recreates the diesel and can use it later again 😜

[@ericcoffedgp40]

WOW! They're giving it all they got, it sounds absolutely fantastic!

[@paweszaduro7946]

Tractive Effort of these locomotives is really insane.. Brute Force

[@ernestpassaro9663]

There's nothing like the sound of a big bore diesel all spooled up!

[@railfan6116]

Oh my gosh that was probably the best SAAHC I've ever heard.

[@darrelgibbs4898]

I love this Big Norfolk Southern

[@MrVideoman777]

The PP&L trains with 3 Sd60I's and a 4 set of 40E's were equally impressive

[@csxchicagoline5523]

Awesome locations! Great video!!

[@jimnavins4533]

Great video and related information. Thanks!

[@NorthCountryTrains]

Can't wait for the full video! Nice captioning and information on this one.

[@cpeast]

Awesome catch! Thanks! Just like some of my videos! I love the sound of the engines working hard up the grade.

[@ClA-HoIe]

Having ran both GE and EMD, I'll take GE every single time.

[@TheMetGuy]

Great GEVO and EMD sounds

[@TheNomadicRailfan]

Nice video! Definitely my favorite spot on the Pittsburgh Line in this area.

[@keonikaig9247]

WOW, great catch....slow as ya go...Thank you

[@AMPProductionsVideo]

Great Video!

[@DirtyDickMurdoc]

Best train sound vid yet

[@chiconian49]

Nice catch

[@s1914]

Excellent vid and write up 👌

[@donconklin1770]

🔥. Nice Kerry!

[@Twostrokefan]

Two Stroke Sound is Awesome

[@adamwright4969]

I remember when I was a kid , staying at my grandparents house, the tracks were maybe 100 yards from her house and they would sound like a thundering tornado blasting down the tracks, i miss it.

[@davevonmuenster6649]

Thanks

[@chloeew4627]

Amazing 😊

[@EntertainmentWorldz]

great train video bro

[@RiverLineProductions]

Thanks!

[@TheMetGuy]

I absolutely love GEs

[@1999fxdx]

I liked the sound of the GE AC60 engines pulling uphill. Used to see them daily in the 90s. Guess UP didn’t like them, but nothing sounded as powerful.

[@nathanu.2061]

I love sd70aces my favorite loco they just sound and look so mean.

[@fakecumberland]

I like the SD70ACUs better than the SD40Es, but not as much as the SD80MACs.

[@Rob-tr1st]

The 80MACS we're beasts ahead of their time and should definitely be brought back into service to help heavy coal loads and such over mountains.

[@PT278DOT1]

Just to add my two cents, as some1 who lives along the Pittsburgh line, most coal drags are almost.always 130loads, anywhere from 16-18k tons, so yea heavy! Lol

[@lampitl]

2-stoke EMDs win the battle in gorgeous thunderous sound every day, no questions asked. GE might be better at doing the job, I'd choose EMDs any and every day if I was a loco engineer.

[@Afoamer]

Still Rolling Strong 💪

[@mpaulk2023]

I wish UP would run all EMD's as their helpers. I live in Eugene, Oregon and miss the sounds of the old tunnel motors and sd40's as they roared up the cascade pass. 42 miles of 1.8-2.6% grades at run 8 never sounded better. Now, it's basically all GE tunnel torchers and nothing else. I get it, they need all the power they can get (it's normal to have nice to ELEVEN locomotives per manifest train, and up to twelve units per oil train), but man....I really miss the deep whine of those old EMD's!

[@mpaulk2023]

Oh I forgot to mention, the consists here are typically as followed: Manifests: three to four units up front, four units mid-train, and two to three units pushing in the back. Oil: two to three units on the head end, five units mid-train, and three to four units pushing on the end.

[@am2261]

HHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAVE!!!!!!

[@ChaseActual]

I noticed that the helper on the rear had the device on the front that allows them to uncouple on the move. Not sure what the proper terminology is. Nice catch!

[@ClA-HoIe]

Helper Link

[@jamesburnside3023]

Always amazes me the weights rolling down the rails eh.

[@truckerdudexxl]

Did yall notice the short amount of time between the engines passing by and hooking up😮

[@spacecalander]

Too bad, cause they could have had 10,000 HP on the rear with 80 MACs

[@earllutz2663]

To the comment that said NS was cheap; I may or may not agree. But if I had my way, I would like to see the [C&O (2666) Allegany] steam engine, pulling a monster coal train, by "itself" But, I guess that's PRR & wouldn't be cost effective. At any rate, I very much enjoyed the video.

[@user-ff8ks7kg2o]

Nice horn.

[@dilligaf622]

Ah at the end!

[@bpp325]

on a curve too....😲😲

[@mcmobius1]

That horn at 6:35 lol

[@FECironhorsepro]

Nice can they hook while its moving

[@GachaRobloxianAndrew]

The engineer in the back waved.

[@erbewayne6868]

Was that Henry?

[@128789842]

In my opinion the world economy is running thanks to Diesel Engines...!

[@railroading]

Simple solution: Screw Tier 4 and get SD90MAC's. And before anybody says: "But NS made them into SD70ACU's!" They converted SD9043MAC's, not SD90MACS.

[@railroading]

@bill hammond iii True, but the same engine is used in the sd70 t4 and it doesn't have the same issues as before, so just take the new and improved version but raise back to 6000

[@railroading]

@bill hammond iii Well what I was suggesting is basically for emd to bring back the locomotive for sale, not rebuild options

[@dilligaf622]

Why no middle engine?

[@rc4lifebnsf]

Why is there ac and dc 4400’s what’s the main reason/difference

[@Touchstarvedguy]

Alternating current (ac) vs direct current (dc) referring to type of electricity used by the traction motors. 4400 refers to the horsepower.

[@SD70MAC]

Sadly NS SD70ACu no longer service anymore I think sold to Progress Rail

[@slee8475]

They're still in use for helper service

[@yankeesforlife24]

The sold a handful not all of them

[@cats0182]

NS is cheap? Probably could have used 3 up front and 3 on back.

[@rogerdavidson217]

They can't run over 100 because it will pull out drawhead or centersill.

[@Traumatree]

There are missing 2 PDUs in the middle for this train to move faster and safer.

[@TK-ec5bv]

Not necessarily safer

[@non_sum_nihil]

Gravity is horrible.

[@DeathByFishing]

When I listen to the train moving and the rails singing, it's annoying to hear the cameras clicking in the background. Otherwise great video.

[@Inferno-hn3zx]

4400hp or 8800hp is irrelevant. It's all about tractive effort. There's Dash-9s with 386000 lbs or something like that and then regular AC44s and Heavier than standard AC44s with 432000 lbs. More weight, better adhesion and pulling power even though they all have 4400hp. So just looking at total amount of HP doesn't tell much. 👍🙋🏻‍♂️

[@jordanalexander615]

It would lead someone to believe the higher horsepower generator could put more power to the prime movers though but depending on the model it's all over the place I'm sure. I know most hover around between 90k and 130k these days. Actually om thinking of older models . The sd90mac had three figures and the highest continuous tractive effort was around 165k which is insane.

[@Inferno-hn3zx]

@@jordanalexander615 well sd90 was 6000 hp! But SD70ACes are almost there as 90mac , so are ET44AH units close to AC 6000! Look at the shunting working power,, There's GP40-2 and sometimes two slugs, ( increase in traction power with 8 tm or 12 from same 3000 hp prime mover and alternator)

[@Inferno-hn3zx]

I think ex UP U50C had 448000 lbs, GTEL Big Blow have 442000 lbs each.

[@ClA-HoIe]

You are confusing tractive effort with weight. The Dash-9 weighs about 425,000 lbs and produces a maximum of 142,000 lbs of tractive effort starting and 105,000 lbs continuous.

[@daviddeeks3163]

/

[@rogerdavidson217]

The first video is 2 GE's the slaves are emd's .,Because they pull better.

[@yankeesforlife24]

The SD70s are pushing and manned. They aren’t slave units

[@nicholasj.baranyk4999]

I know that this Video is somewhat old, but it sounds like NS at the time was using Conrail's horsepower calculations: ~ 1-hp./Ton. If we just go by 15,000-Tons, the power was 1.16-hp./ton - simply insufficient to tackle grades. I know that it's easy for me to talk, but they would have been better-off splicing another 8,800-hp. mid-consist.

[@bosbrns4]

Rescued by EMD that GE junk couldn't make it!