Overview | |
---|---|
Headquarters | Cape Canaveral, Florida |
Reporting mark | NLAX |
Locale | Kennedy Space Center |
Dates of operation | 1963 | –present
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Electrification | No |
Length | 38 mi (61 km) |
The NASA Railroad (reporting mark NLAX) is a Class III industrial short-line railroad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The railroad consists of 38 miles (61 km) of track connecting the mainline of the Florida East Coast Railway and trackage at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.[1] NASA uses the railroad to deliver large or bulk materials to support its operations, particularly solid rocket boosters and chemicals such as helium and oxygen for rocket fuel.
YouTube Encyclopedic
-
1/5Views:356 38236 7342 572739884 575
-
Space Shuttle Era: NASA Railroad Keeps Boosters on Track
-
NASA Railroad Keeps Boosters on Track
-
NASA Has Trains?!
-
NASA Train Upgraded Using Shuttle-Era Facility
-
How Astronauts Train Underwater at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab
Transcription
Narrator: NASA's space shuttles are some of the most high-tech and complex vehicles ever built, but they couldn't fly without the help of a much older technology: the railroad. This is no ordinary train -- it's the NASA Railroad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It carries extremely dangerous freight... one of national importance. Chris Bryant, URS Locomotive Engineer/Mechanic: "It's not something to just kind of sneeze about, you know. When we're hauling in, we're hauling four to five million pounds of explosives." Narrator: One shuttle solid rocket booster contains four motor segments packed with a hard, rubbery, volatile solid propellant. Every space shuttle launches with two boosters, which give the vehicle the extra thrust it needs during the first two minutes of the climb to orbit. The large, heavy motor segments have to take a week-long, cross-country train ride from the ATK manufacturing plant in Utah to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Dave Hoffman, Former NASA Railroad Manager: "And shuttle of course, with the segments, it is absolutely essential, because you're looking at an average of approximately 150 tons per segment, and, with eight of them for launch, there really isn't any other, better way to get them here from Utah. It's just an essential lifeline, is what it boils down to." Narrator: Today this important, but hazardous, job is handled by URS Corporation engineers and mechanics in the railroad shop. The 11-member team takes care of all the rolling stock and the track system -- including electrical work, mechanics, painting, welding and even fabrication. That expertise is essential when it comes to handling the solid rocket booster segments, which travel to Kennedy on cradles inside custom-built railcars. During the trip to Florida, the segments are handed off from rail company to rail company, with the final handoff at NASA's Jay Jay Railroad Yard north of Titusville, Florida. The Florida East Coast Railway, or FEC, delivers the segments to Jay Jay, and that's when Kennedy's railroad team takes charge. After a thorough inspection, empty "spacer" cars are added to prepare the train for the trip across the Indian River to Kennedy. Will Eriksen, URS Mechanic: "The main purpose for us is to distribute the weight on our bridge coming across the Indian River. If you have all the heavy cars tied together, that puts a strain on the bridge. So, try and separate the weight." Narrator: The Kennedy rails can handle speeds of up to 60 miles an hour, just like FEC's mainline track. But because of the heavy and volatile cargo, the top speed here is only 25 miles an hour, and the trains typically move slower than that. All the work is done by a 1,500-horsepower locomotive known as the EMD SW-1500. NASA has three of these workhorses. They were built by General Motors between 1968 and 1970, and put to work for the space agency when shuttle loads demanded a lot more horsepower. Bryant: "They do have a lot of backbone. And again, when we bring in the segments and the spacer cars, we've got probably close to four-and-a-half to five million pounds that we pull with the one motor." Narrator: Once the train arrives north of the space center, the spacer cars are removed and taken back to the rail yard. The booster cars are kept at Suspect Siding, an isolated staging area near the shuttle runway, until they go to the Rotation, Processing and Surge Facility to start final launch preparations. When the boosters are recovered after launch, the same team loads up the spent segments and sends them back to Utah. Mike Stephens, URS Lead Mechanic: "We've got a great track record. It's basically a pretty simple process. All the way from Utah, all the way to here, to getting it on the launch pad. And the system has worked great." Narrator: Kennedy's rail system was activated in 1963 to bring in construction materials for the growing space center, as new facilities were built for the Apollo Program. But throughout the years, the Florida climate took its toll -- and hauling shuttle segments presented unique challenges of their own. Hoffman: "Well, fast forward 20 years, and the Space Shuttle Program was starting. We were looking at freight cars that were somewhat longer, and a lot heavier, and had a higher center of gravity as well." Narrator: FEC was paid to upgrade the aging system with heavier rail, welded joints and concrete crossties. Along with rolling stock standards, like hopper cars and gondola cars, Kennedy also has some cars that were modified or even designed here. In fact, Hoffman himself designed the "booster structures" car. Hoffman: "These are custom-built cars. It's a concept I came up with to improve on the delivery, or the movement, of the solid rocket booster aft skirts, the forward skirts and the frustums." Narrator: Many other commodities have traveled these rails, such as nitrogen tetroxide rocket propellant... Air Force Titan rockets... Navy Trident missiles... and the shuttle-derived booster segments for the Ares I-X test flight. Stephens: "It's not just moving segments. We've done so much more. We've rebuilt the Air Force locomotives. We've built rail cars. We've done painting. I mean, this locomotive here, you can see how much better it looks than the other two and everything. So we're a pretty diverse group and we stay busy." Narrator: The result is a vital and successful rail line that has stood the test of time. In May 2010, the last load of shuttle solid rocket booster segments came to Kennedy. Bryant: "For the most part, it's kind of like any other railroad, so to speak. We don't run the speeds. But the things that we do and have to do when we're loading and unloading demands your attention, demands respect." Narrator: The NASA Railroad at Kennedy Space Center has played a quiet but critical role in the Space Shuttle Program, and the hardworking team hopes to put its talents to use on future spaceflight endeavors.
History
In 1963, the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) constructed a 7.5 miles (12.1 km) branch from its mainline to the Kennedy Space Center just north of Titusville. This connection joined 28 miles of NASA-constructed track at a junction named Wilson’s Corners. The FEC built two yards, a seven-track yard originally called Cape Canaveral Junction (now known as Jay Jay Yard), and a second seven-track yard called Wilson Yard. East of Wilson Yard, the line divided with the nine-mile "West Leg" branch going south to NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building and the Kennedy Space Center Industrial Area, and the other nine-mile "East Leg" branch which ran along the Atlantic Ocean to serve launch pads 39A and 39B, as well as to interchange with the former Cape Canaveral Air Force Station railroad.
During its first five years of operation, the railroad delivered over 30,000 carloads of aggregate that was used to construct the crawlerway that connected the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pads at LC-39. During the Apollo program, the railroad regularly transported the 56 carloads of propellant that was required to fuel each Saturn V rocket and even ferried Apollo astronauts to an area known as "The Sandpile," which was used as a lunar testing ground. During the late 1970s, as NASA transitioned from the Apollo to the Space Shuttle program, it acquired three World War II-era ex-U.S Army ALCO S-2 locomotives, which provided local switching around the Vehicle Assembly Building and within the KSC Industrial Area.
In June 1983, NASA purchased the 7.5 miles (12.1 km) portion of the railroad line owned by the FEC, which included the drawbridge over the Indian River. It was during this time that NASA decided to completely rebuild and upgrade the railroad due to the hazardous materials that were being hauled, particularly the solid rocket booster segments for the space shuttle. The original track was a combination of 100 pounds (45 kg) and 112 pounds (51 kg) jointed rail laid on wooden cross-ties with crushed limestone ballast. It was replaced with 132 pounds (60 kg) continuous welded rail laid on concrete cross-ties. The work was done by the track maintenance subsidiary of the FEC and was constructed to 60 mph (97 km/h) standards, which was FEC's mainline running speed. However, normal operating speed was kept to 25 mph (40 km/h) or less to reduce maintenance and increase the life span of the track. Soon after the railroad was rebuilt, NASA replaced the aging ALCO S-2 locomotives with three EMD SW1500 locomotives, which were built between 1968 and 1970 for the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway. Each locomotive was painted into the NASA Railroad red, gray and black color scheme and were renumbered 1, 2 and 3. They were stored and maintained in-house at the NASA Railroad Shop at KSC.[2]
NASA primarily used the railroad to transport equipment which could not be transported over the road to and from other NASA locations. Rail transportation also offered cost savings over transporting bulky and heavy cargo via barge or aircraft. Much of the rail traffic was devoted to sending segments of the reusable solid rocket boosters (SRB) from the Thiokol plant in Utah back again for refurbishment after Space Shuttle launches and recovery. A total of 24 cars were devoted to transporting the SRBs.[1] However, with the end of the Shuttle program in 2011, the railroad's future became uncertain and went under review by the government. One possibility that was being considered was the delivery of equipment for private space launches at Cape Canaveral.[3] In 2012, the program's helium tank cars, a liquid oxygen tank car, and a liquid hydrogen tank car (all of which were acquired from the U.S. Bureau of Mines) were transferred for delivery to the SpaceX engine test complex outside McGregor, Texas, where they were re-purposed to support their engine tests. Eight other cars were shipped to California and are currently on lease to SpaceX to support Falcon 9 rocket launches from Space Launch Complex-4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base. SpaceX already uses three helium tank cars at Space Launch Complex-40 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, which were previously used for the shuttle program.[4]
In 2014, NASA donated locomotive #2 to the Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Miami where it remains on static display. In spring 2015, it was announced that the NASA railroad would formally cease operations. The remaining two locomotives, #1 & #3, were pulled from service and delivered via the Florida East Coast Railway to their respective new homes. Locomotive #1 was sold to the Natchitoches Parish Port in Natchitoches, Louisiana, while locomotive #3 was sold to the Madison Railroad in Madison, Indiana, where it is used for regular freight service and passenger excursion train service.[5] By 2016, much of the trackage along the East Leg as well as in the KSC Industrial Area had been pulled up and was presumably scrapped, while the majority of trackage along the West Leg was left in place and simply taken out of service.
In 2020, NASA reopened the railroad to support the new Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle.[6] The railroad took delivery of a train loaded segments of the two shuttle-derived solid fuel rocket boosters that will be used on the initial flights of the SLS. Each booster will provide 3.6 million lb (1.6 million kg) of thrust by adding one additional solid fuel propellant segment to the modified shuttle boosters (five sections for the SLS versus four for the STS). This SLS booster will be the largest, most powerful solid propellant boosters ever built. The boosters are by manufactured Northrop Grumman (formerly Orbital ATK) in Utah and shipped cross-country to KSC by rail.
Equipment
The NASA Railroad formerly operated three SW1500 switcher locomotives, each former Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway units, as well as 75 railroad cars.[7] The fleet was maintained by the NASA Railroad shop, which also maintained locomotives and railcars for the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.[1][8] Upon the railroad's reopening in 2020, several industrial railcar movers were purchased by NASA and currently serve as the railroad's only form of motive power.[9]
Locomotives
Model | Built | Acquired | Number | Disposition |
---|---|---|---|---|
EMD SW1500 | 1968 | 1983 | 1 | Natchitoches Parish Port, April 2015 |
EMD SW1500 | 1970 | 1983 | 2 | Gold Coast Railroad Museum, March 2014 |
EMD SW1500 | 1970 | 1983 | 3 | Madison Railroad, April 2015 |
Rolling stock
Type | Built | count |
---|---|---|
Flat car – Spacer – 70-ton | 1952 | 2 |
Flat car – Aft SRB skirt – 70-ton | 1985 | 2 |
Flat car – 90-ft | 1961-1969 | 8 |
Flat car –60-ft; 100-ton | 1968 | 3 |
Flat car –Pig -70-ton | 1968 | 2 |
Flat car – 100-ton | 1952 | 14 |
Flat car –65-ft; 90-ton | 1965 | 1 |
Helium Car | 1961 | 13 |
Nitrogen Car | 2 | |
Hopper car 100-ton | 1968-1979 | 11 |
Tank car – 70-ton | 1982 | 2 |
Tank car – 100-ton | 1962, 1975 | 4 |
Gondola car – 60-ft | 1966, 1960 | 2 |
Gondola car – 74-ft; 100-ton | 1976 | 2 |
Cover car | 1960 | 2 |
Boxcar – 70-ton | 1970 | 1 |
Total | 75 |
See also
References
- ^ a b c d "NASA Facts: The NASA Railroad" (PDF). NASA.gov. October 2007. Retrieved December 26, 2010.
- ^ "The NASA Railroad" (PDF).
- ^ "Rail Insider-Short lines: NASA Railroad's future in question. Information for Rail Career Professionals from Progressive Railroading Magazine".
- ^ Grossmann, Jim (2012-05-23). "Media Detail National Aeronautics and Space Administration John F. Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center, Florida 32899 FOR RELEASE: 05/23/2012". NASA Kennedy Media Gallery. NASA. Archived from the original on February 16, 2015. Retrieved February 16, 2015quotes public domain text from NASA
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ Dean, James (2015-05-24). "NASA Railroad reaches the end of its line". usatoday.com. USA Today. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
- ^ Leman, Jennifer (2020-06-17). "NASA's Famous Rocket Railroad Is Back in Business". Popularmechanics.com. Popular Mechanics. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
- ^ a b Archaeological Consultants, Inc. HISTORICAL SURVEY AND EVALUATION OF THE JAY JAY BRIDGE, RAILROAD SYSTEM, AND LOCOMOTIVES, JOHN F. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA (PDF). pp. 3–8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-02-17.
- ^ "NASA Railroad rides into sunset". Florida Today.
- ^ Potter, Sean (2020-06-16). "Rocket Motors for First NASA Artemis Moon Mission Arrive at Spaceport". NASA. Retrieved 2021-09-11.