The weather was unseasonably warm for the beginning of 2005. After a few days in the high 40's all the snow had melted away leaving no trace of the after Christmas storm . CAS and Suleski Transportation was busy as always with its Intermodal service to the port of Salem. The success of this venture is growing all the time.
We attempted to run longer trains to test the ability of the engineers and see were we would be most economical. We tried 10 – 5 cars units and 7 single Intermodal well cars this made a train with a length of 131'. The test was run with a single stack order in case of problems. It turned out that motive power was not the problem getting up the grade, but physics was against us. The weight of the train and the curves caused a few cars to lift up and derail. We ended up running a train 94' in length made up of 8 – 5 cars sets without incident. However we are going to have to lengthen one passing siding if this will be the norm, so until then trains of 72' will be the maximum.
Here the interchange yard is busy with trains waiting. After the CAS train clears the main the ST trains headed up with 2-U25B's will head out in an attempt to make the grade with a long train.
Here the two U25B's stalled on the start of the climb so ST#6114 was run around the passing siding to add on to the head end. You can see the CAS SD40-2 through the trees waiting for the main to clear.
After crossing the switch the unit then backs down to couple on to consist.
Once all three units were running it was more physics than horse power problems.
Everything ran well on the down hill side as the engineers were able to control the train with dynamic braking in the lead unit.
Here the CAS SD40-2 brings its train down the grade as the Suleski Trans consist creeps in the siding waiting for the switch to clear.
The busy port of Salem yard.
ST is breaking up its train into the sidings to await loading on the ships. As CAS heads out with an off loaded Intermodal freight.
Passing on the double tracked horse shoe curve.
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