Railway conditions in Ohio, probably elsewhere in the eastern US.

Railway condition somewhere in Ohio, probably elsewhere in the northeast:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1626356622279819264
from Jack Prosobiec, via Twitter.

I just find that hard to believe. Unless it was a work crew delivering repair material. And no RR would risk a multi-million dollar locomotive on that type of track bed.

All you can see is an engine. No train.

Thoughts, @Casey Jones ?

HawkTheSlayer wrote:I just find that hard to believe.  Unless it was a work crew delivering repair material. And no RR would risk a multi-million dollar locomotive on that type of track bed.

All you can see is an engine.  No train.

Thoughts,  @Casey Jones ?

Yeah, I had to cover that on other sites.

First, that's "industrial" or "exempted" track. Not mainline. Not even branch. NOT EVEN SIDING.

Limited use, probably a yard that is only occasionally used.

Second, he sped the video up 2x. You can see that by the way the power jerks on those bumps. In reality, a locomotive or heavy railcar...ANY railroad equipment...wouldn't jerk that way. It would come off the rails.

That is fine for light switching (a handful of cars) at ten miles an hour.

The markings on the power, I believe, are the Wheeling & Lake Erie - a regional railroad that's always just short of bankrupt. We called it, Work & Low Earnings.

Now. Why is the track like that? Because track maintenance COSTS - and in more ways than one. Upgrade the track, it's expensive...and then the tax assessor comes by and slaps a heavier property tax on that part of the railroad. Yeah, railroad real estate taxes are figured both on amount of use, and sort of usage.

For rails between yards, it can be quite a savings keeping the track "exempted." No signal system required. No dedicated dispatch system. With a big railroad, verbal permission to occupy the tracks is enough - as opposed to CTC, where it's all electronically signalled, or Dark Territory, where crews have to obtain Track Warrants by radio, following rigorous procedures. And where the Dispatch desk has to have safeguards that no other train is allowed into the area. Usually that's done by entering the Track Warrant number into a computer program, and if another dispatcher tries to put another warrant onto that stretch of rail, the computer refuses it.

For customers with limited shipping...that the railroad doesn't really want to service, but is obligated to (as a common carrier) the rough track is enough. Speed on such rail is 10 mph. He's probably going slower; and this agitator Twit is speeding it up, thinking he's clever.