Seeing The Summit
The Alabama Southern is by no means a flat railroad. However, the elevation changes along the route between Tuscaloosa, AL and Columbus, MS are no too extreme but, when it comes to hadling these long heavy trains I'm pretty sure you must be a scientist with the throttle! What makes it even more difficult is the fact that it is mostly a 10mph railroad. Try maintaining that with 10,000 tons of train on this track! Here we are at Ethelsville, AL, which is probably the highest point on the railroad at a mere 378 feet in elevation, these guys with train 112 have climbed over 100 feet since Delmar, a couple of miles away. They can be heard struggling, then laying off the throttle not breaking the speed limit, then pulling hard again right up to here. Then all the kings horse relax and it's fun time with the air....again, at 10mph. Work is being done, but it appears to be a rather slow progress. In these parts, WATCO is certainly no "borg".
Seeing The Summit
The Alabama Southern is by no means a flat railroad. However, the elevation changes along the route between Tuscaloosa, AL and Columbus, MS are no too extreme but, when it comes to hadling these long heavy trains I'm pretty sure you must be a scientist with the throttle! What makes it even more difficult is the fact that it is mostly a 10mph railroad. Try maintaining that with 10,000 tons of train on this track! Here we are at Ethelsville, AL, which is probably the highest point on the railroad at a mere 378 feet in elevation, these guys with train 112 have climbed over 100 feet since Delmar, a couple of miles away. They can be heard struggling, then laying off the throttle not breaking the speed limit, then pulling hard again right up to here. Then all the kings horse relax and it's fun time with the air....again, at 10mph. Work is being done, but it appears to be a rather slow progress. In these parts, WATCO is certainly no "borg".