You guys ain’t gonna believe this!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hzQtnz2GuE&feature=player_detailpage[/youtube]
You have to wonder why they made the cross over temporary. You would think this isn’t the first time this situatuation has come up.
Very cool transfer table. Looks like a place I need to visit if I ever make it out West.
Ralph
And here’s how it could have ended…
(anyone who knows how feel free to fix the above … the link works. I removed the embed because it was screwing up the recent topics thing on the front page trying to, well, embed the movie in there!)
‘A prototype for everything’ is an old, but true, adage Steve. I guess those who need a crossover, but no space to achieve it, could make a temporary set up like this. 
Thanks for the post Steve; a very interesting video.
Where there is a will there is a way. Reason for not putting in a crossing is the price the folks would pay plus the cost of installing and then the maintenance cost to the museum. Not cheap now days. for no more than they probably do this, this is a cheaper way. Later RJD
Its not just the cost of the crossing itself, and its installation. There’s the signal interlocking that would have to be added to the main line, and the complexity that comes with that. Its simpler for the UP to treat these kind of moves as a special move (like having a MOW train on the tracks) than it is to build in the extra signalling and detection that would go with a dedicated crossing.
Looks like they have the install/remove process down to an art, so its clearly the less costly way to effect these tranfers. As stated above crossovers are a maintanece headache and thats a very busy rail line.
Matthew (OV) said:
And here's how it could have ended...(anyone who knows how feel free to fix the above … the link works. I removed the embed because it was screwing up the recent topics thing on the front page trying to, well, embed the movie in there!)
Interesting discussion on there about how that scene was filmed
It should be considered a crime crashing that 40!
Steve, nice video… thanks for sharing…
Get Pentrex’s Railfest 99 video… they show how they got trains into the museum… used to be diamonds. To remove the maintenance headache, they raised the museum tracks just enough so that removable rails can be bolted in place, resting on the mainline rails. Its really neat the ingenuity some of these projects show.
David Russell said:David, in the immortal words of Terry Gilliam in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail "...
It should be considered a crime crashing that 40!
"It’s only a model "
A mere flesh wound!
David Russell said:
It should be considered a crime crashing that 40!
Per the description said:So, you could re-create the crash scene in your own back yard :)
Now back to the real World. The budget didn't stretch to trashing a real loco - so they used a model for the train-wreck itself.
Great Video.
Nick
Bob McCown said:I truly don't know the answer to this, but has the buearacracy and regulations become so great that an unused crossing with derailers protecting the main line could not be hand signaled for an occasional special move, instead of a complete electrical signaling system with signals and detection gear?
Its not just the cost of the crossing itself, and its installation. There's the signal interlocking that would have to be added to the main line, and the complexity that comes with that. Its simpler for the UP to treat these kind of moves as a special move (like having a MOW train on the tracks) than it is to build in the extra signaling and detection that would go with a dedicated crossing.
Wow!!!
You know, there was an industry in St. Louis that was across the government subsidized light rail tracks from the mainline that had served the industry for the last, probably 80 years. Regulations and government said it could only be switched when the light rail system was totally shut down from 2 am to 4am in the morning. This was done for awhile, but the industry eventually went to all truck delivery and shipping because it just wasn’t worth it and was cheaper. Score another blow for great moments in government.