Absolutely, one of the most informative how to, and how not to, tutorials on KZfaq! Thanks DJ awesome job!

Plus chicks dig engineers! Love that one.

I have to say that your one of my top 3 model railroad you tubers DJ. Heck your number one because you are actually working on the line, sort of the boots on the ground. The info you give from a railroaders perspective helps in my planning all the time. Thanks and don't stop doing what you love, you are a great asset to modelers and railfans alike.

Great video. Thanks for telling your story. I've been a model railroader for 38 years and still learned several things. This will be a great video to share with my 13 year old son so he can hear someone else besides me say "find your era". Thanks again!

Awesome video…. You content is amazing. Love the fact that you mix real railroading with model railroading. Please keep this great stuff coming!!

I just started watching your videos and i can’t stay away

Very enlightening information during the Q & A section. Good stuff. 👍

You insight into the railroads is most appropriated😀👍👍👍👍👍

Good video, nice to hear the industry perspective. I appreciated how you highlighted some of the changes throughout time such as double track + lots of small trains compared to single track with big trains - made me realize some additional reasons I am planning to model Donner Pass during WWII era that I simply hadn't considered but fits in.

Great video

This is the video from the Railfan festhival. I watched it. Now im here and a fan. Thumbs up

Excellent information, very interesting!

Great info thanks for the insights

Nice informative video! Thanks for making this.

I enjoy hearing the engineer side of train operation and I enjoy your drone footage

I appreciate you sharing your know how. I'm just a medical guy who had an HO scale layout in my parents basement when I was in junior high. Now just about retired I want to get back into the layout scene! I don't even have a place for a railroad yet, and the very first step is to convince the wife for some space...

Absolutely amazing video and your explanations of everything!

Looking great, DJ. Happy 2023 my friend!

Awesome video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience of the workings of the railroad. 👍

Fascinating insights DJ. Thanks for this. I really enjoy your channel.

@djstrains - just getting back into my n scale model railroading and came across your channel - wow! I am LOVING your content! Thank you for such excellent work, insight and experience.

Thanks for posting these. I've been looking at trains as a kid but didn't have the any real understanding about operations until these videos.

DJ, I have been enjoying your videos for about a year now, Thanks for what you do! I drive a OTR flatbed delivering OSB out of the Weyerhaeuser mill in Flatwoods WV. At about the 6:00 mark what do I see, probably the most despised delivery we do, Allegheny Millworks right beside the 10th street bridge! This place is an absolute nightmare to get into and out of! Anyway keep the great work! Thx!

Well done video. Thank you.

Good stuff man, thanks for putting this together and sharing it with us.

Great video. I always learn something new. You give great advice and have made fall back in love with the hobby.

Absolutely awesome video, so incredibly informative! And thank you for answering my question about train lengths/size. Sorry I'm a little late here to see the video!

Fantastic video, lots of very valuable information. I really enjoyed watching it & I think it's one of your best yet. Thanks for putting it together & publishing it.

Great video DJ Very informative really enjoyed it

Lots of valuable informations. Helps as to built better Layouts! Thanx DJ. Greetings from Germany!

Thanks for sharing railroad knowledge.

What a wonderful video DJ. Thank you.

Great overview and insight especially from a engineer. Keep the videos coming. Much appreciated

Awesome video, very knowledgeable and list of great tips on such a short vid! Thank you.

DJ, very enjoyable, interesting, and informative video. Nice job. Thanks for your time and effort. Rich

You make such great videos. I enjoy them al and I have learned a great deal.

Thank you for such an informative video.

Cool! Thank you for sharing your story with us. I can honestly say I'm always learning something from every video and that's pretty good.

DJ you are the man, just love this and the commentary and explanation of the RR wow I never this or that. Thanks again you are the engineer that rocks 🙂

Excellent video DJ. Awesome drone footage.

Another Great Video DJ 👍👍👍 ! I learned a lot from you , always a Big Thanks 🤩 !!!!

Very informative!

Hi Dj,I love your channel and your humor.you are one of the best youtubers I've ever seen. I have so much fun watching the channel. I have a big bedroom floor layout that is a double track mainline with an 8 track rail yard and I am thinking about replacing the 6 inch curve pieces with the 1 foot curved pieces reducing the string line derailments.the trains can be longer than ever. I can finally have 34 car trains on my outside loop. And I have 12 trains in total some of the engine bodies are H O scale with wheels that would fit perfectly on the wooden train tracks. That way I can operate the trains by hand to save electricity to reduce electric costs for my home and my grandmother. I also do that so I don't have to get track cleaning supplies for every single engine that is HO scale. But then there are costs of all the locomotive wheels from whittle shortline railroad and the 5 8ths screw in couplings for the trains. That is why I have a wooden train layout in my room. And I also like to make my trains look nice and clean. I am so glad I could make the trains very big and so much fun to operate on the railroad. I also deliver the freight from point A to point B and I haul everything coal to gifts and recycling materials to the costumers all over the imaginary Island Of Poultney. I got that from the Island Of SODOR from Thomas and friends. I love that show except All Engines Go. I hate that part of the show so much. I would rather watch chuggington. I think All Engines Go is the worst train show I've ever seen in my life but I like Big World Big Adventures because they got a new engine for the steam team on SODOR. Her name is Rebecca. She is very very kind and helpful to everyone even to devious Deisel who tricks her into doing the jobs that the other diesels were supposed to do but he gave her the wrong destinations to get the other diesels into trouble with the fat controller. Rebecca found out about the plan after she delivered the cars to the wrong place and told the fat controller what diesel told her to do and that got him into trouble and I think he deserves it. Rebecca is one of the best Engines ever. Sorry for going off topic. Thanks Cory Mears

A very nice and very sincere video! Great work!

great info

Great informative video, abd honest also, keep up the

Thanks!

Thank you for this insight, a very good moment, besides your other good videos.

I agree with the others! One of the very best channels on KZfaq!!

Great video DJ! That's how I got started in my railroad career.....retirements were happening faster than they could hire.

Again another great video. Thank you!

I'm hooked! Love the content!

Great and helpful content.

Railfanning, stopped doing it since I work for the railways. Although the occasional oddity still can capture my attention and if time permits I happily take a picture.

You gave me some good advice! I'm in the planning stages, at 58 years old, to model three switch yards I grew up on as my Dad worked for the SOO LINE RR for over 40 years in Wisconsin and Michigan. I just bought a house with an open basement and I'm getting the plans together. Thanks for what you're doing.

Best RR set-up video I ever viewed! Ty for your RR insights relative to model RR-ing!😊🎉❤

great video and grone shots thanks

Great video and info!

Thanks for your knowledge and tips.

This is an excellent video. Thank you very much!

DJ, this video is soooooo informative. Thanks.

Wow, very educational experience. You are a able to describe something while keeping the subject interesting, educational and easily understandable all at once. Not everyone has this ability. Many in the education sector could learn from you

I'm doing a freelance "what if" road. The question answered is, "What if steam and turbine power never went away?" I use modern era rolling stock and non-railroad construction, but steam and turbine motive power with the associated infrastructure. I do have a few diesels, but they're mostly switchers. Up to third-generation, with minimal road engines. No F-units, no E-units. I do have modern electric engines, though. You might see an Acela or a GG1. But for the most part the road engines are either turbines or steam locomotives. Additionally, I use three-rail O-scale for more realism and less setup for signals and accessories. I also use speed-controlled slot cars wired to a set of timers and signal units, similar to block signals on the rails, in order to make realistic car traffic. When the crossing gates are down the street signal is red and the slot cars in the block, stop. Then when the gates go up the lights turn green and the cars move again. The cars are wired internally to have headlights, tail lights and specialty lighting (for emergency vehicles). My layout is hi-rail, but it is extremely realistic apart from the "what if" factor. It's basically "Budget Miniatur Wunderland".

loved this video

Really great video DJ, so broad and informative. Thanks for validating my trigger of plywood spaghetti 🍝 double track 4 - 8 layouts. I can’t wait to get my prototype scene based layout started! On foam. 😂

Very nice collection of railroad/model railroad stuff!

Bro, very educational! Good job

Thank you.

Very educational. Thanks.

Around the same time you started on the railroad I started over the road trucking, I wish I could go back in time and stop myself from climbing into that truck!!

Good video, DJ!

Catching all this back catalogue; another great segment. I was fascinated by so much of this, and particularly interested in what you had to say about appropriate train building, because you can actually see similiar physics at work with a model. I have some vintage hoppers that are diecast, and they track real nice, but if they're at the back of the consist and there are any unweighted or underweight cars in front, watch the fun begin! 😣😉

I appreciate you candid, blue collar viewpoint on labor and business. Congratulations on your successful, self-made career. Takes discipline to weather the changes and downsizing while keeping a good professional attitude. Safety and environmental was always job 1 with me, even if I felt my employer was paying lip service to those priorities at he expense of expediency. I too enjoy drone videography and your Phantom 4's perspective adds a neat dimension to your channel and is a real help for diorama building.

I have just found your channel. I live in North Texas. Except for the Houston Ship Channel we do not have legacy waterways that carried freight or passengers. Also don’t have a lot of mountains to cut tunnels through. We do have big flat prairies. So I chuckle when you talk about building next to a river. In fact a river in West Texas may have less water than your creeks and streams. I do enjoy your videos and RailRoad experience. I just wanted to thank you and have a little fun. I live in Dallas, which is one of the largest land locked cities in the world.

Probably have past by me! I retired 2years ago at At&t and went to work taking care of a long line fiber that is on CSX right away in Ohio and West Virginia. I don’t know many engineers, but know almost all the road masters, yard forman, maintenance, etc in both states.

DJ THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS WITH ME I APPRECIATE IT AND YOU HAVE A GOOD DAY TODAY 😊 JIM KAMMERER OF PHILADELPHIA PA 👌

Well then...thanks for saving me from double tracking this year, passing siding with only 3 engines in my collections DCC roster, and a small yard (literally 4 tracks, one for breaking down & building trains, one for a team track, an interchange to the SOO/CN and the final one for a bulk transloading facility). My area of interest sees coal, lumber, and agricultural products, and car storage for 2 & 3 bay covered hoppers, surprisingly covered hoppers & boxcars are more common than coal gondolas, tanks & standard gondolas in the prototype area.

I worked at Elliott Turbomachinery a while back, when there was quite a bit of trackage on the plant property. The siding is under the truck, crosses Harrison Ave and proceeds to the right down to the PRR main in downtown Jeannette.

On a layout, if you have a passing siding that holds 20 cars, that takes 15 ft so you are almost running double track any way. So two passing sidings and you are doing 30 ft. of track plus approaches and switch leads.

Planning to join the railroad

Nice video! I have seen CSX 6440 twice in northern Indiana

In Ft. Wayne, IN there is a rail line that goes for almost a mile and a half from the mainline to serve a bulk material facility (for the INDOT facility nearby?) and a few warehouses/lumberyard suppliers. The tracks cross Butler Road via a creepy (wooden?) bridge. I’ve seen in the late nineties an SD40-2 being used retrieve cars from the sidings. Nowadays I believe NS uses the SD40E?(SD60) as local switchers. I might never get around to doing some sightseeing (from the streets) one of these weekends for an update.

Excellent video. Problem with railroads is that they are controlled by Wall Street ( W/S wanted 1 man crew - are they insane- image if airlines only had 1 crew

Good video

Very informative! New sub here

Hi DJ, Been trying to get back into the hobby, the pandemic hasn’t helped at all as some health issues keep me out of big box stores, hardware stores, hobby shops, train shows etc. My uncle worked for the B&O, Punxsutawney to DuBois until his retirement back in the late, 80s or 90s. Don’t know what his job was exactly but did watch him work the yard in Punxsy when we were up from D.C. back in the 50s I remember parking ear the tracks out of Union Station and watching the trains going to and from. First lots of big black steam, then diesels and the electrics of the Pennsylvania R.R. I’m not going to try to replicate DC Union station or up around Punxsutawney but I do like that era. My trains, HO, are from the Sixties and Seventies and are DC. So I need to decide to convert to DCC locomotives from DC and get everything out of storage. I intend to begin with Four modular sections, as being in my 70s my daughter and granddaughter will eventually have to move them out of the basement. This will also allow for expansion. Watch your videos plus about 4-5 others to get up to date on all the changes. Thanks for the videos

There is those familiar GNWR hoppers. The 4750CF ones will likely be disappearing from salt service, they aren't loaded at American Rock Salt anymore, now the AEX cars are 2 bay hoppers mostly 3281CF cars lettered AEX/CAEX. Yes I only will buy stuff that fit what I will be doing.

I like your video from drone I worked for Chessie System Pittsburgh division in early 80s up until csx took over they combined the seniority rosters I was on the track gang loved it but they did not have enough work for me to stay

Hi DJ, Great video full of information. The railroad I work for sent us to their training center for 2 months in Georgia all expenses paid. Now the motel was more like Motel 6 and most of our meals were taken at Subway and Fast Food restaurants, as you were only given so much money per week on your meal card. But all in all it was a very enjoyable experience. Also I don't know if you didn't want to go into a lot of detail, but it's the GE's that give you the load limited warning when the water temp is below 155 degrees. You know the railroad I work for but I'm not really announcing that, big brother does watch social media and my comments are my own and do not reflect those of the company. Having said that, our locomotives use AESS (Auto Engine Start / Stop) system that will shut the locomotive down, but monitors things like temperature, main reservoir pressure and battery voltage. Of course you have to let AESS shut the engine down, if you hit the EFCO (Engine Fuel Cut Off aka red stop button) you disable the AESS and the locomotive will not restart until manually restarted. Now onto the model portion of my long winded reply (ha ha ha) I love switching operations but have been unable to choose a specific railroad or time period. With my very limited modeling space I choose to create a fictitious or freelance branch line serving a small town. I want the layout to look like a little piece of the real world, but I don't get stressed if my tracks don't have drainage ditches. I'm not knocking anyone who does enjoy modeling that detail, that is the great thing with this hobby, there is room for everyone. My branch is loosely based on branches like the P&LE Ohio River Branch or their Ellwood City Branch, but I didn't want to limit myself to just the P&LE. So though out the year you'll find different railroads operating the branch, but one important thing you mentioned you'll only find railroad cars on my layout that are associated with the industries served on the branch, no stock cars or well cars on this branch line. Also something I learned years ago, never say never in the railroad world. Yes railroad of today want all their customers to be located right along side the mainline, but that wasn't always the case. A couple examples, the Montour railroad had branches that reached coal mines in Westland, PA and Library, PA. Plus the above mentioned P&LE that had a branch that went to Shippingport. Cheers, Rich S.

Sweating isn’t always from physical labor, an intense “oops” episode will do it, too! Damn good video, once again!

8:55 Nice shot of the Everson SWP connection track there 😏

Excellent video DJ, always informative! Question- what engines do you find best for flat switching, GP 38,39,40’s? GE B units? Slug or no slug? Keep the great videos coming my man👍🏼😎

Fantastic video as always! This video answered so many of my questions, thank you! I saw a SD40-2 leading a AC4400CW in McKeesport the day before Easter. And the engineer gave me a few extra honks. If you want to see that video I think it’s one of my most recent video. If I had to pick a fallen flag to work for I’d pick the B&LE. And recently they put in this coaling station near the CSX yard in McKeesport. Do they load coal train there?

Very nice! I missed seeing your face though. --dunc

I used to live in Pittsburgh, I love seeing it today. Would you explain CSX signals? I am an S scaler. I got my first AF in Pgh. Switched from Ho to S. Now I am working on Scale.

You say to model what I grew up watching? Well we would sit backwards on the top set of bleachers behind the local high school. There were 4 sets of tracks that went straight in both directions left & right and there was a locomotive manufacturing plant a couple miles to the right. It was fun to watch the trains go back and forth from the plant but that's about it 🙃😜👍

Hey DJ can you do a video explaining remote jobs? There's a second CSX job that services the industrial park near my railroad's interchange that usually passes through while we're firing up our loco. They always have their RCL strobes going, is it a choice of the crew to use RCL vs doing it the old fashioned way? We also got PSRed and had critical cars with held, we raised some hell and they sent out an extra in the middle of the day that also came as a remote job, both crew members had control packs. What's up with that?

DJ could you explain how the yard trains operations are carried out ! My father was a rate clerk many years ago when computers were just coming in for the Atlanta and Saint Andrew's Bay Line and I've always been fascinated.

I’ve been taught physics for years and being very interested in full-size trains and models was great to hear you talk about the physics of driving a train. I would like to know what happens if you lose contact with an engine In the middle or rear of your train. I believe this is a radio contact. An explanation of the way this works would be very helpful to me. Thank you

How about a video of your top 10 favorite locomotives