CSX Trains in the Street: Chaos at La Grange, Kentucky and More

the csx lcl subdivision in northern kentucky can be a busy place to watch trains you just have to know where to look formerly a louisville and nashville line the initials lcl comes from the lines builder the louisville cincinnati and lexington railroad which opened the route in 1869 the line stretches 101.4 miles between cincinnati and louisville averaging about 14 trains in a 24-hour period often csx will use both their lcl and indiana subdivisions to run trains directionally trains taking the indiana sub to cincinnati operate over the louisville and indiana railroads maine from louisville to seymour indiana where they then turn onto home rails going east the indiana sub between seymour and scentsy averages about 8 trains per day shorter sightings on the lcl make it difficult for long trains to meet in fact bank lick siding is the longest on the lcl and only extends 9870 feet so having both lines is ideal and makes it easier for csx to operate trains directionally plus if either mainline has a service disruption the class 1 always has a backup main on the lcl sub there are many great places to take pictures of trains however the most notable location is lagrange kentucky where csx trains share the main street downtown many small businesses are located along main street and lagrange has become a local hub for shopping dining and events like this wedding party the increased traffic means a lot of congestion whenever there's a train and sometimes it causes road rage but don't take our word for it just tune in to the virtual railfan lagrange camera on youtube to watch the chaos unfold for yourself on april 10th 2021 we visited lagrange to document two trains running down main street our first train was southbound manifest train q57510 this train originated in cincinnati at queen's gate yard and is bound for nashville tennessee it will work at osborne yard in louisville before continuing further to the music city [Music] uh [Music] two under the new operating practice of precision scheduled railroading csx trains have become longer the average train running through lagrange is often in excess of 12 000 feet whereas in the past trains averaged between five and eight thousand feet long these longer trains mean more congestion for the city of la grange creating a lot of impatient motorists and pedestrians [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] about 20 minutes later the northbound signal at the south end of the siding at lagrange changed to clear signifying that another train was approaching from the south we set up our cameras at the north end of downtown patiently waiting for the train to pass in recent years lagrange has become increasingly welcoming towards the railfan community in addition to virtual rail fans webcam which has made the town famous worldwide lagrange is also home to a small train museum which is located within the original lnn depot the town also built a rail fan viewing platform so that enthusiasts can watch trains at a safe distance these additions only add to the appeal of lagrange for the railroad photographer in the distance we could see the headlight of csx manifest freight train q352 as it approached main street led by two es44 locomotives with the lead unit being equipped with ac traction and the trailing having dc the head end of the train would slowly roll through downtown lagrange at a steady 10 miles per hour once the locomotives clear main street the train may accelerate to 25 miles per hour the louisville to chicago freight train takes a long roundabout trip by way of cincinnati after working queensgate yard the train then traverses the toledo sub to destler ohio where it then takes the west leg of the deschler y to run onto the garrett sub from dashler it's a straight shot west over the csx chicago line essentially this train makes a giant reverse c-shape between louisville and the windy city so so [Music] my [Music] um so [Music] [Music] [Music] this lengthy train of all auto racks originated in louisville's osborne yard the auto racks are likely hauling brand new ford escapes from the massive louisville ford assembly plant ford has been making cars in louisville since 1913 and started production of the ford escape in 2013 along with the new lincoln corsair because of the automaker's nearby presence the lcl sees a tremendous amount of auto industry traffic [Music] [Music] so [Music] this visit to lagrange marked our first in over five years the last time we visited was on january 2nd 2016. we arrived in the middle of the night hoping to photograph trains in the dark among the holiday lights unfortunately we didn't see a single train until sunrise but it proved to be worth the wait overnight train q 241 suffered a locomotive failure north of lagrange equipped with only two units a single locomotive wouldn't be able to provide enough horsepower to handle the heavy train on its own to remedy the clogged main line jacksonville decided to send a local crew with four axle power to save the day to our surprise a mother slug set was leading the train into town with former gp 30 number 2280 on the point q 241 is an as needed north bergen new jersey to louisville kentucky auto rack train me do so [Music] so [Music] the slug set was retired in 2019 number 7600 was retired and scrapped in 2017 leaving only c40-a number 7886 in freight service today [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] about 30 minutes later after seeing our first train we caught southbound manifest q 503 as it followed q241 to louisville led by 2-8 locomotives this train is bound for radnor yard in nashville tennessee the q503 originated in the belt railway of chicago's clearing yard on december 31st [Music] [Music] so so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] now that we've reminisced about our first visit to lagrange let's get back to our most recent visit to northern kentucky on the night of april 11th we decided to spend the night at the radisson cincinnati riverfront hotel the 18 story structure opened as a quality inn in 1972 and later became a clarion hotel today it features an upscale rotating restaurant on the top floor and is one of the most recognized buildings in covington kentucky thanks to its location near i-75 where tens of thousands of drivers pass by it daily the building overlooks the beautiful cincinnati skyline and every room features an open-air balcony for the rail fan wanting to document trains crossing the ohio river the radisson provides the perfect vantage point from our hotel room we were treated to a grand view of the former chesapeake and ohio railway bridge this 1575 foot long steel structure replaced an older bridge that was built in 1888 by a predecessor railroad the current bridge was opened for rail traffic on april 3rd 1929 alongside the original bridge on extended piers the original bridge was sold to the commonwealth of kentucky and was later retrofitted as an automobile bridge in 1970 the original railroad turned automobile bridge was demolished construction of a new automobile bridge began later that year in 1974 at a cost of 13.5 million dollars that's 68.7 million today the modern day clay wade bailey bridge opened for traffic today the current cno railway bridge remains open to csx freight trains and amtrak the bridge's center span over the channel is 675 feet between piers this impressive structure has likely seen over 1 million train crossings throughout its 91 year life span and will likely remain for many more decades to come originating across the river in queensgate yard csx train q505 is bound for louisville kentucky two ac 4400s were in charge of today's train with the second unit still wearing the yellow nose 2 scheme the lightning stripe under the cab road number on unit number 429 signifies that it's equipped with ac traction [Music] as the train makes its way into the bluegrass state we were treated to a view of the john a roebling suspension bridge originally known as the cincinnati covington bridge it spans the ohio river and was opened on december 1st 1866 at the time it was the longest suspension bridge in the world with a 1057 foot main span it served as the prototype bridge for roebling's most famous creation 17 years later in 1883 the roebling designed brooklyn bridge surpassed cincinnati's suspension bridge length at 1 595 and a half feet today pedestrians use the 155 year old roebling bridge to get between sports venues in cincinnati that take place at either paul brown stadium the great american ballpark or u.s bank arena it also gives them access to the many hotels bars restaurants and parking lots in northern kentucky the bar and restaurant district at the foot of the bridge on the kentucky side is known as roebling point so so check out that vandalized auto rack we're pretty sure whoever unloaded that car lost their religion when they saw all of the brand new automobiles coated with spray paint he must have thought that it was the end of the world as we know it [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] just a few minutes past noon csx local train j767 could be seen slowly making its way across the cno bridge into cincinnati powered by two sd-40-3s the train was headed for queensgate yard where it would drop off its train and return south a few hours later j767 is based out of worthville kentucky and brings cars to and from the carrollton railroad a subsidiary of csx that dates all the way back to lnn ownership in 1930. j767 is a sunday through friday local freight train with a typical length between 35 and 45 cars sd-40-3s are often the power of choice for this job the two on this train are of lnn heritage with number being a former sd-40 which has a shorter frame and number 4025 of former sd-40-2 the lead unit was rebuilt in 2015 by motive power industries in boise idaho while number 4025 was rebuilt in 2011 by csx in huntington west virginia it's easy to see the differences between the two locomotives from this perspective as number 4025 has a longer rear porch with an electronic handbrake stand while number 4288 does not [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] according to the csxt historical society the carrollton railroad is a subsidiary of csx but it's maintained as an independent railroad operating with csx equipment the men working for the carrollton railroad are csx employees working under employment contracts lnn had with the carrollton railroad they are officially known as csx employees working under the lnn carrollton railroad agreement as a result the carrollton railroad employees have no system-wide seniority their seniority is limited to the carrollton railroad thanks to multiple steel factories a chemical plant and a coal-fired power plant the carrollton railroad continues to be a profitable subsidiary of csx [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] after catching j767 we left the hotel after receiving word that the csx track geometry train was enroute to queen's gate yard out of louisville the train was coming off the lcl sub at latonia a neighborhood in covington and onto the cincinnati terminal sub where it would cross over the ohio river into queensgate yard at the time we had no idea what was going on leaving us to ask the question jacksonville queen skate what the hell are you eating latonya is also home to the railroad museum of greater cincinnati which features two nearly complete passenger train sets one from the b o railroad and another from the pennsylvania running is train w003 the geometry train was led by xmark gp40wh-2 number 99-69 at latonya junction the train stopped to pick up some csx maintenance of way officials before continuing north number 9969 was originally built for the new york central in july of 1967 as a straight gp-40 before becoming part of penn central and conrail it was later sold to the maryland transit administration and was extensively rebuilt for passenger service in the early 90s receiving a new cab dash two electronics and a head-end power generator after two decades of commuter train service mark sold 9969 to csx which purchased the locomotive and refurbished it for geometry train service in 2013. a year later it entered service with a modified yn3b paint scheme which features a gray roof line to match the passenger cars it pulls it also retained its operating mars light instead of ditch lights four years later though csx added ditch lights since the mars light was prone to mechanical failure [Music] it's a special train [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] after catching the geometry train we went back to covington to document local j767 from the air by mid-afternoon the clouds had cleared and allowed beautiful rays of light to illuminate the city skyline [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] we hope you enjoyed this brief look at two of our favorite locations along csx rails in northern kentucky with plenty of trains it's no wonder the lcl is a real fan favorite we thank you for joining us for this railfan adventure and look forward to bringing you more footage of csx in the bluegrass state until next time happy railroading from all of us at delay in block productions

Channel: Delay In Block™ Productions

Views: 82,038

Rating: 4.9069238 out of 5

Keywords: Trains, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Railroads, Amtrak, Norfolk Southern, CSX, BNSF, Union Pacific, Shortlines, Steam Train, Locomotive, Diesel Locomotive, Steam Locomotive, CSX Transportation, Freight Trains, Passenger Trains

Id: VfurYE8cX8E

Length: 46min 49sec (2809 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 12 2021