The Pennyrail Online Edition

Tom’s DVD of the Month Review September 21, 2015

September 19, 2015 Jim Pearson No Comments Rail Flicks, Tommy Johnson

Title	Cascade Snow Fighters
Producer	7 Idea Productions
Format	DVD
Playing Time	1 hr. 5 min.
Purchased From	Trainvideodepot.com
Date Purchased	8/17/15
Price Paid	$26.95

We get the usual high quality videography that 7 Idea Productions is known for in this DVD. The video was shot in widescreen format which makes the scenery even more impressive as we watch snow removal activities on the Union Pacific’s Cascade Sub in Oregon. Some of the scenes go back as far as 2004 and some are as recent as this 2013.

We see Nordco M7 snow fighters, flangers, and Jordan spreaders in operation. The Nordco M7 has a blade on one end and a snow blower on the opposite end. It is powered by a supercharged Cummins six cylinder diesel engine. There are 16.5 feet blades on either side to push the snow away from the tracks.

Flangers, of course, are similar to cabooses with belly blades to remove the snow from between the rails. There are some nice scenes from a nighttime cab ride in a locomotive pulling a flanger.

Jordan spreaders are the last line of defense on the Cascade Sub and are put to use when the snow is too deep for the M7s or the flangers. There is some very good spreader action and we even get a cab ride.

The excellent snow removal action, the beautiful scenery, and the high quality widescreen image make this video a keeper.

Living in the Cincinnati metro area, in my opinion, it’s less stressful to take public transportation to and from work and not do battle with I75 traffic. Recently, because of street car construction, specifically track laying, the bus I use, started taking a different route.

Some of you may know that Cincinnati was a large railroad town. Prior to the 1960’s there was probably at least 5 major railroads that pulled into Cincinnati and many used C.U.T. (Cincinnatti Union Terminal). I digress. One morning when we first started taking the new route, I noticed a building that had the wording on the side of it “ Baltimore and Ohio Railroad freight station & storage warehouse.” That evening, when I got home from work, I did some research about the building (most of this is information is gleaned from the internet).

The building was built in 1904, it is 5 stories tall and 1,277 feet long. The length of the building was the first thing I noticed about it. And because of it’s close proximity to C.U.T., I suspected it was probably used by some railroad. There are 80,000 feet of pillings used to support the concrete foundation. There are 4.2 million bricks used in the walls. There are 2.5 million board feet of lumber used for floors, joists, roof beams, etc.

The lower floor was designed for inbound freight and the 4 (four) upper floors were used for storage. The facility trackage could accommodate 125 cars. Other facilities included a boiler house, a 6 stall roundhouse, a coal tipple and a US Customs Bonded Warehouse, for the care of imported goods. The building is listed in the National Register of historic buildings. However, to my knowledge, you cannot go into the building as it current used by private businesses.

For more information about the building, google: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad storage Cincinnati.

Paducah and Louisville’s engine 4522 by Jim Pearson

September 10, 2015 Jim Pearson No Comments Jim Pearson, Photo Section

Fresh out of the paint shop at NRE (National Railway Equipment Co.) in Paducah, Ky, Paducah and Louisville’s engine 4522 sports a brand new UK paint scheme showing all the years that the University of Kentucky has won a NCAA National Championship. This is one of series of photographs I’ll be doing for P&L over the next few months. Thanks to P&L for allowing me to share it with you. – Tech Info: 1/800sec, f/7, ISO 140, Lens: Sigma 24-70 @ 24mm with a Nikon D800 shot and processed in RAW. – Jim Pearson