Comments on: Learning how to run a railroad, one failure at a time. The Mack truck hauling hoppers must have been deemed a failure because now a Track Mobile has arrived to operate Ingenia’s spur. I believe its first run was Monday, running light from Ingenia to the interchange, and returning with two hoppers uneventfully. Today they attempted to haul three presumably empty hoppers back to CN but failed to do so. They stalled at Greenwich Street with the three cars so left two behind and ran to the interchange with only one. They then returned to retrieve the other two and stalled again… blocking Greenwich Street for quite a while and royally messing up traffic at the adjacent intersection. They tried again hauling just one hopper and again the Track Mobile stalled. I don’t know if it had a mechanical issue but you’d think it could handle a few empty hoppers. Anyway after a few attempts they gave up and parked it. Mack truck, Track Mobile… I wonder what they’ll try next?

By: Aaron Skillings

Aaron Skillings — Sat, 27 Oct 2018 22:14:00 +0000

Stephen, I did know that for the most part. As much as I would like to see locomotives on this line again it belongs to ingenia and they will do whatever they feel is more cost efficient. From a railfan perspective it is unfortunate, I’m sure everyone would rather see a lcoomotive than a boring track mobile. But I guess that’s business

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Sat, 27 Oct 2018 21:51:40 +0000

Aaron, Railfan dreams rarely translate into business reality Mine or yours both are just that, fantasy, fiction.

By: Aaron Skillings

Aaron Skillings — Sat, 27 Oct 2018 17:42:51 +0000

I wonder what Ingenia will do when winter arrives. Maybe OSR can offer them a locomotive to use, as expensive as it may be at least they will be saved a lot of trouble when there is a long train and/or snow storm

By: Joseph Bishop

Joseph Bishop — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 23:43:47 +0000

Graydon, Ingenia is about as close to a railyard as they can be in this area. The spur is perfect for them to get cars brought in. It is just the matter of cost for the contractor/equipment to move the cars and have CN deliver them. Think of the millions they’d spend to build a new plant.

By: angelok

angelok — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 21:42:25 +0000

Better MU some trackmobiles..

By: rsmith

rsmith — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 20:15:44 +0000

Thanks for the information Paul. Very interesting. I found a 9TM brochure online and it states its capable of moving up to twelve 100 ton cars. They just made a successful turn up to the interchange and back; I could hear it from the office!

By: mercer

mercer — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 19:17:55 +0000

Agree with Paul. The important factors are weight transfer (from railcar to machine, for tractive effort) and rail conditions/alignment. Nothing is worse than trying to pull railcars around curves, especially non-mainline curves.
As for stopping, Paul, although it would be hard on the flanged wheels, the Operator can always “dump it”.

By: Paul O'Shell

Paul O'Shell — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 17:29:04 +0000

My observations would be … It is certainly not new, and, I cannot comment on its condition as far as refurbishment goes. It does however appear to have a fresh coat of paint. The unit appears to be an old Whiting 9 TM that has had some work done on it. The 9 TM was first introduced in 1967. There are a variety of factors that can affect the performance of any vehicle trying to move railcars. General condition of the unit(engine, transmission, horsepower/torque, wheel to rail contact, weight transfer from railcar to car mover) to name a few. The operating environment (grade, curvature, tight gauge, low joints, greasy rail) among others, can also affect performance. Also, once the railcars get moving, you must have the ability to bring them to a controlled stop. And finally, as we all know, size matters.

By: Stuart Streit

Stuart Streit — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 17:11:27 +0000

Please keep in mind that locomotive operation is horrendously expensive with 92 day inspections, crews and security, etc. All that is needed is realistic expectations of whatever ‘Mighty-Mite’ type unit can handle.

By: Railfan99

Railfan99 — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 16:35:13 +0000

Wow Ingenia will never give up their rail service huh? Wonder if they ever thought of moving their plant closer to a rail yard to help their expenses go down?