"Rockets & Rails: The NASA Railroad" (Video)

[Earle Baldwin]

One of the more fascinating applications of rail transportation can be found at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida where the NASA Railroad operates forty miles of trackage to serve the base’s many needs.

 

Beginning at its interchange with the Florida East Coast Railway, the railroad winds throughout the vast facility as it transports its precious carloads of fuel, sensitive components, rocket engines and other materials essential to the success of the space program. Its motive power roster consists of a small group of tastefully painted EMD SW1500’s which replaced a similar number of vintage ALCo switchers. The locomotives are maintained at a well equipped open air engine house. In fact, the NASA Railroad’s reputation for excellent equipment maintenance has resulted in other government facilities sending their units to NASA for heavy maintenance.

 

“Rockets & Rails: The NASA Railroad” provides the viewer with an in depth, behind the scenes look at operations on the NASA Railroad. Trains are shown in many different locations in the facility’s outlying regions and main base area. We observe the loading of recovered rockets aboard specially configured flat cars and are taken inside the aforementioned engine house. The program is very comprehensive in its coverage and illustrates just how vital the railroad is to the space program. The next time I watch a shuttle launch I will find it quite gratifying to think how none of it would be possible without the NASA Railroad!

 

The program, released by Green Frog, is 44 minutes in duration and has a list price of $29.95. A check of the producer’s website at http://www.greenfrog.com lists it currently on sale for $17.95. Given the unique nature of the subject matter, the program’s purchase is well worth your consideration.

 

Happy railroading,

 

Earle