Debunking: CSX-sucks.com

Most of the following is cross posted from my post on the deviantART The-Railfan-Nation. As co-founder of the group I originally posted it there but will share it here.

As a college student I learned much more about reliable sources of information. Well a reliable source can apply to any subject this is about a site designed to make a railroad look bad. In this blog many of you may already in fact know the facts but for those of you who don't reading this may be interesting.

CSX-SUCKS.COM SUCKS!

Time for a little muckraking journalism...

I've seen sites before where some people will criticize a certain railroad without looking at facts. It brings me back to a thought about a site that has been idle since 2005 but was very well known for dissing CSX railroad. I encourage you to take a closer look at them and compare them to what I'm about to show you about this site. The site can't back it's own facts up so I will back up my own facts using it's inconsistencies. If it is posted on the open internet then it is fair for me to criticize.

When you see a website titled CSX-sucks.com you'd expect the person to tell you why they think CSX sucks and back it with facts. Well to an untrained eye this site can make CSX look evil. Just simply post a ton of pictures of smashed CSX equipment and it appears you got it. However, if you dissect the facts you'll find this site is full of inconsistencies.

First of all I go to the home page I notice there are several buttons and a picture of a YN2 painted EMD locomotive #666 crushing a car. The locomotive has photoshopped white numbers on the cab. A normal CSX locomotive has gold numbers not white. Granted CSX does have a real locomotive #666 however it is a GE AC6000CW. Normally a poorly and obviously falsely photoshopped image on the home page is a big red flag.

Getting on to the buttons now. I look at the list. "Safety first" is the first one I visit. I expect to get a record on why CSX isn't a safe company from clicking on this but instead I get this. http://www.csx-sucks.com/?topic=safe This doesn't give me good proof that CSX isn't a safe company. Just because the admin of this site says so does not mean that the actual safety records are any worse than any other railroad. A graph backed up by the FRA comparing CSX to other railroads in accident records would be a more legit way to prove that CSX's safety record sucks. However, I see no such thing on this entire site. There are some stories from some people who are calming to be workers, probably some are real and some fake, but there is a whole lot of flaming. As for all these boards, verifying most of these stories is hard so it is very difficult to verify if it is a real worker or someone just trolling.

Under "Attendance policy" I find this http://www.csx-sucks.com/?topic=attend basically mocking CSX for working people on a crazy schedule. The thing about this is all railroads do that. Ask any crew member and I guarantee you if they work for a Class I or passenger railroad they probably work crazy schedules. Railroads do have rest policies which work I have seen no statistics that CSX crews are less rested more than any other railroad. For this like the one above a statistical info bit would be much more useful in proving that fact than someone insulting the company like a school child who insults their teacher. Same kind of text as In Safety first.

Skipping a button or two because basically the rest in the "CSX-sucks" Article section is repetitive crap. If you wanna see it be my guest but I feel by now there is no use in me describing it because by now after reading the above you know what I think there. I see several links on the side such as "CSX management" once again posting a picture of a guy in a bunny suit proves nothing to me about CSX. More variations of this is "employment" its a picture I assume of a civil war era of a chain gang. That proves nothing to me still. Under corporate info and history I find this which charges CSX is racist company http://www.csx-sucks.com/pics/history/ a picture of a KKK. Posting a picture of the KKK proves nothing to me still. This admin seemed to think that just because they posted a picture of the KKK on their site that they can paint CSX as racist. What would prove to me that CSX is a racist company would once again be statistical data of discrimination complaints none of which I see on this site. I have never heard of civil rights claims against CSX in the media ether.

Before I get to the photos they posted I wanna to show you these two links. http://www.chillingeffects.org/domain/notice.cgi?NoticeID=18 is a claim that CSX wants the site shut down. Among the claims in the letter is copyright infringement. But if you look real good it's hard to validate this as a legit CSX letter. It is addressed from San Fransisco CA the problem is CSX is an east coast company based Richmond VA with all offices on the east coast. I can understand leaving names out and concealing some private info but concealing too much and having false info makes me believe this letter was not from CSX but fabricated by the admin of the site. After seeing everything else on this site I believe I have good reason to believe this is fake as well. This is no exception http://www.csx-sucks.com/agreement/ claiming CSX signed a contract agreement with CSX-sucks.com From the looks of it, it may look like a contract. It even references to the Chain gang and KKK pictures I mentioned earlier under #6. Looks like an agreement the pictures wouldn't be used anymore however if you click on the links I have above they are in fact still on the site. If this were a legit legal agreement CSX-sucks would be violating their own terms. Furthermore it looks like the site's admin conveniently left our important details on this so called contract. If this were a legit contract I'd expect to see the whole thing no matter how important/unimportant some parts may be. I'm not big on legal talk but from the looks of it to me the admin of this site may be committing a form of forgery.

Finally they have a section called pictures. First photo to debunk is this http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?al_head_on.jpg which the admin claims is a head on collision. Look real good at CSX #401 and notice that it has no bent handrails or damage from a head on collision. I even found an interesting conversation on a forum about this incident. http://jeffreywimberly.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=csxt&action=print&thread=274 The 401's relationship to the wreck is often disputed but it certainly was not involved in the so called "head on." This photo appears to be a poorly photoshopped shot. If the admin was going to make it look like a wreck the least they could've done was make it look more believable even someone who has never taken any physics before would probably know that 401's handrails would be bent in if a head on had happened.

Many attacks range on spare parts used on locomotives like this http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?paint1.jpg which I believe are just dumb because the railroad often has to replace parts and sometimes no matter how it looks the engines need to be returned to service ASAP. You'll find that on all railroads.

As I go down the list I find an even dumber attack this is a Conrail era photo of a dash-8 catching fire. http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?fire2.jpg Given CSX later absorbed Conrail in division with NS I don't know why anybody would use a Conrail photo against CSX. However here's the kicker, what happened to the fire locomotive #757 after Conrail? That's right it went to NS not CSX after this Conrail era photo was taken. The 757 never ever was CSX property. According to NSdash-9 roster it is EX-CR 757, EX LMS 757 and is now known as NS 8450. http://www.nsdash9.com/rosters/8314.html Showing me a picture of a Conrail GE burning does not prove to me that CSX sucks in fact us railfans know that GEs on any railroads have a habit of catching fire. In an old photo and just one example in my gallery I caught this one with fire damage. This site uses many photos of GE's belching flames against CSX but they are biased and un-researched to treat it like a specific CSX problem.

Furthermore this photo http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?broken_rail.jpg after seeing and discrediting most of what I've seen I ask myself now do they have any proof this is CSX track or even active track at that? Once a site has provided me many discredited links its difficult to believe anything they say even if some facts may be true.

Then there's this http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?Johns-truck.jpg supposedly this is her husbands truck after being hit at a crossing but there is no details on the nature of the accident on maybe a crossing failure or if the driver was running the gates. So I don't know weather to say the parties involved have a legit complaint or the driver was just being an idiot. I don't plan on judging but to be honest can any of you make the call from just this info? I want to see an accident report posted online and or maybe even a news report.

This photo was a copyright infringement. http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?csx128.jpg The site claims this is a CSX bridge and this is a CSX train. However despite the locomotive being a CSX locomotive doesn't mean its a CSX train. According to the real owner of the photo Bob Smith http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=50742&nseq=12 this was an ex-SP now UP owned bridge and the train was being operated by UP. Railroads do borrow other railroad's equipment from time to time and this is an example. The site has committed copyright infringement against Mr. Smith and possibly several other railfans. This is unprofessional and really paints a black eye on the site. Also look at several incident reports about the 128 and you'll pull up some interesting convos on this accident. Interestingly also on the site CSX-Sucks.com here http://csx-sucks.com/pictures/ states that these photos become their property. So this means if someone were to swipe your photo and post in on CSX-sucks the site is calming your photo as their own and the admin doesn't even try to find out if the photos are in fact stolen much-less try to get permission from the real owner to use them.

How do I know this engine is on duty at the time? There is no proof. http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?new_hire.jpg Sometimes railroads hold public events and let civilians tour equipment I myself boarded and went in the cab of NS 4610 during one of these similar public events.

http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?needalift.jpg If this was an actual crossing collision you'd see the windshield of the car at least cracked. It looks like nothing more than an OLS demonstration.

http://www.csx-sucks.com/pictures/?goober.jpg OK WHAT THE HELL OVER??????? Poor administration maybe? Well if Ronald McDonald became a CSX engineer I would be disturbed however that will never happen. Just like proving CSX sucks I have heard of no reported Ronald McDonald sightings on CSX. I hope the person who posted this photo was a troll.

Most other photos are of wrecks but all railroads have them and once again this site has done nothing to prove to me that CSX has a higher accident rate than other railroads.

Those are just some examples. I can go on all day but I need to stop. This site has proven nothing to me on how CSX supposedly sucks now that I researched. It looks like some troll put it together in fact and I'd like to believe some troll did. Unfortunately it did have influence on people who never researched or bothered to gather legit statistics. So I ask everybody who is into railroads around the world to please take time to criticize sources you look at criticizing railroads before you use or believe their criticism. Make sure they are not unprofessional source like this one.

Signed,
Joseph W. Johns

Braves Game 5/20/2010

I know by now this is old news as this happened last year. But because I was not keeping up this blog I was not able to post this event. Went down to turner field with my HS buddy Shane on May 20th to watch the Braves play the reds this would be the first Braves game I'd see in person. Right-hander Tommy Hanson would be taking the Mound. We arrived at the Ted before batting practice and yes I did bring my Nikon so expect some sports photography. The first thing that happens once we get in the stands for BP Chipper Jones rips a ball right in front of Shane he got it and gave it to me and yes I got it in a safe place. I later gave him a ball that one of the Reds hit that almost clocked me in the face. Times like this though I wish I had one of those wall apparatuses that could retrieve balls that fall between that cavity between the wall and the stands. It's like a 20 foot drop over there.

So after the Reds finished their BP me and Shane were fooling around the bullpens. At the Braves Bullpen we found Derek Lowe throwing a session. He wouldn't be pitching that day but it is a scheduled work-out that starters do. After watching Lowe throw a few pitches we headed toward the reds bullpen but something interesting happened that stopped us from making it there. A guy working with the Braves stopped me and asked me and Shane if we wanted to compete in an event. The event was called "throwing gas" I would be competing against Shane. In the end it was win-win. Because anyway it went we were getting a $100 steak dinner at one of the most expensive steak houses in Atlanta. The object was to throw the fastest pitch in two throws. Obviously Shane being the baseball player had the advantage. I've never pitched in my life. Only remarkable thing I had on Shane is I know how to throw with both hands so I figured Since I knew I wasn't going to beat him the least I could do is lose in style. I got to throw first so I started with my natural right hand and reached a blazing 36mph then I switched to my left and hit 38mph. Amazing my left threw harder and more accurate than my right. Shane threw and doubled me with 65mph but of course no surprise to me because I'd never pitched in my life.

Featured on the Jumbotron in the 5th inning.
Me Throwing right handed. I wasn't able to get a good shot of my left handed throw.
Shane's pitch

Well we were all decided on dinner that night needless to say. With a few more minutes to spare til first pitch I decided to try a little exploration of my own of the stadium. So we found our seats in left-field then I went by myself to the stadium balconies to try and get a good skyline shot on Atlanta. The upper left-field balcony was my perfect shot I took the escalator up about four stories and rested my camera on the concrete ledge. Got the footprint of the old Fulton in front of it and almost every important skyscraper in Atlanta including my personal favorite Westin Peachtree plaza. If I ever get the chance to do a time exposure from this angle at night I really want to it would look even better at night.

After that it was time for the game to start I'm sitting in left-field so my 300mm telephoto lens would come in handy for catching some plays. If I had 400mm lens though that would've been best.
So when it comes to un-cropped photos this is how they tend to look. Here is Tommy Hanson throwing a pitch. This would become one of Hanson's worst starts as he wasn't on his game that day he gave up eight earned runs but not to worry as ugly as it looked early things would change dramatically. I recall when things went really bad though. I saw bases loaded with Red's first-baseman Joey Votto up his BA was like .321 and I turned to Shane and said Uh-oh Hanson needs to be careful with this guy. A few pitches later POW Votto has grand slammed. Hanson only lasted 1 2/3 innings and they had already got 8 runs off him by the end of the 2nd inning.On the other Hand Reds Starter Mike Leak had a good start and allowed about 3 runs the thing is he wouldn't be getting the win at the end of the day.
Chipper didn't show up in this game a lot but I had to post this photo because come on it's chipper Jones.The Braves were able to Chip away a little bit through out the game tallying a few times on plays like this RBI by Jason Heyward.Rally Killers hurt the Braves through the game here Brian McCann made it to third on an Eric Hinske Single however the next batter Yunel Escobar hit into a double play. Escobar would later be traded in July for Alex Gonzales and I'm glad he was. I remember Shane on the ride to the stadium saying he hoped Escobar fell down the stairs so we could start Omar Infante instead.
Also got some interesting defensive plays. Here you see Miguel Cairo being forced out at second base by Second Baseman Martin Prado.Craig Kimbrel who pitched a scorless ninth would eventually be the winning pitcher he is now Atlanta's closer.

In the Bottom of the Ninth Nate McClouth connected on a double to right-field to plate Troy Glaus and Eric Hinske making it 5-9 reds still lead.
Martin Prado whacked a ball to third baseman Miguel Cairo that should've been an easy double play however for some reason Cairo froze and threw the ball late. Yunel Escobar Scores on the playmaking the score 9-6.Brandon Phillips suffered for Cairo's Late throw as it pulled him over a sliding David Ross.

As things came to a head With bases loaded Reds called to the bullpen and pulled out their Lefty specialist Arthur Rhodes who was having a good season to face Left Handed hitter Jason Heyward. There were no outs and a Heyward Homer would result in a Braves Walkoff. Dusty Baker made the smart decision as Rhodes was able to strike out Heyward leaving it bases loaded and one out.

After Heyward went down Pinch Hitter Brooks Conrad stepped in. Reds sent out their closer Fransisco Cordero making Conrad hit from the left side. I don't know why he didn't leave Rhodes out there because Rhodes was pitching better than Cordero. I was on these last at bats pitch by pitch my Nikon D3000 on continuous shutter and getting about 5 shots per pitch. Conrad ran the count up to 2-2 then on this pitch he whacked it into left-centerfield. The braves walkoff with the 10-9 victory. Here you can see his pre-swing.


Watching his homer
Laynce Nixs tried to catch the ball but instead it deflected off his glove and flipped over the wall.BRAVES WIN!

All around a pretty good game and just goes to show you anything goes in baseball never take a big lead for granted. I really liked my first MLB experience and after this it helped me gain confidence that with a little equipment upgrade I could be a sports photographer for MLB or at least that would be my dream job.

Signed,
Joseph W. Johns

Just a brief rundown

I have noticed that I committed a big gaffe by deleting stuff off my photobucket as all my photos in my Mountmorenci blog are now whipped out. Not to worry I plan to comeback and edit that and correct that mess in fact it should be back better than ever soon because I will re post those photos got a few other edits to do as well.

Grantieville, SC

As an avid Cyclist one of my favorite places to ride to is Graniteville because it gives me a good 14-mile round trip workout. Most people know me for making trips on bike to Edgefield or Montmorenci, but before I could do that the challenge was riding as far as Graniteville. When I moved back to Aiken County in 2005 this was actually considered a long trip for me. The first time it did take a toll on me but now days it's nothing for me.

I've carried my camera almost every time I went there and despite the fact that the mill no longer operates there's still several photo opportunities there. I discover something new almost every time.

We all know about the train wreck that happened in 2005. I wasn't living in Aiken County at the time but my dad was hunting in the vicinity of Vaucluse at the time. I also knew several people in this town already and had some family in close vicinity to the accident.

I mentioned I have pictures as old as 2005 and some of these shots can never be repeated again because certain parts of this town have changed that much. The differences in the pictures may be small but if you can't find them I'll point them out in the text below.
This was in September 2005 before the mill closed. Very different scene now as the grass has already started growing through the pavement. This was the Spur line that the train wreck happened on. The place where I'm standing when I took the shot Is just about where the locomotive's made impact. The recent road changes also eliminated the railroad crossing in the background.
How the scene over here hasn't changed much at all. These structures still stand, but the grass isn't maintained. That's expected for an old mill though.

This was the switch that was improperly aligned and caused the train wreck. I always tried to catch it when it had a train on it but never got lucky. I knew at the time that it wouldn't be long before it was closed, but I guess there are some things you just can't accomplish.



These aren't authentic old photographs. I hate to disappoint you if that's what you're looking for. These are from October 2005. I manipulated them into a sepia color. I do have a color photo somewhere but I can't find it. If I eliminated the date and copyright signatures from the photos, I might could pass them off as old photos if printed on a special kind of paper. This building I believe was a rebuild of what the mill used to look like. It was a historical version of the mill if I'm right. This part was torn down and doesn't exist today. I haven't seen any other photos on the internet of it so I figured I'd share what I have.
This shot is from November 2005; the difference here is now the crossing is gated and the tracks are shifted a few feet. Two Months before the Graniteville train wreck somebody driving a small car decided they didn't have to wait for the train. The train hit their car killing all five people inside instantly. Until they installed gates, every I saw a train coming, I kept seeing people run the crossing. I was always worried I'd end up witnessing an accident here.
Here's a little shot I especially framed in June 2006. This was back when the train tracks divided canal street. All Northbound traffic on the left and all Southbound traffic was on the right. If you look at this photo real good it shows just that happening. The Silver car is in the far lane on the Northbound side. You can also see a red wrong way sign. Wrong way drivers were common, because coming back from Vaucluse if you were southbound you'd have to turn and cross the tracks. Otherwise if you just went straight you'd be going the wrong way. It was really easy to make that mistake to. Now the wrong way signs are gone. The road above the wall is both northbound and southbound however the street just in front of my position is still southbound. Also that green sign has been moved, and several railroad crossings pulled up.

The Mill was closed a few days after I took the train shot above. Obviously, the mill closing left several unemployed not only in Grainitville but all over Aiken County. Business as an American Textile mill was already miserable and the train wreck damaged the mill. Despite the money they received from Norfolk Southern for damages, they couldn't stay in business. However Avondale still owns the water in Graniteville. From Vaucluse pond down to the creek they own that. Nobody can swim in it, nobody can hunt or fish on it. In addition Avondale still owns the water system. They won't own it very long and that's a good thing. They unfairly increased the water rates by 700%. This is just sickening seeing that several of these people lost their jobs and already have trouble keeping up the bills. Now the water company dose this because they want more money. It won't be long, Avondale will no longer own the water system by next year but I guess you can consider the water rate increase an unfair parting shot to an already wounded town. I hope the local politicians get their way and get these ridiculous increases axed.

This image was taken on November 11, 2006. This is a memorial to the victims of the train wreck. Something about getting this picture at night is a lot better than in the day. I don't have a close up of the scriptures on the monument so I guess that adds me a "to-do" next time I'm over there.
This is a gamma adjust photo manipulation I did in 2007. The Actual image was taken on October 27, 2007 I thought the water tower made an excellent backdrop with the sunset.
This small spur line was also pulled up. Back in the days of the Southern railway it was more often used for passenger trains. I only saw it used one time and was occasionally for leaving freight cars. I don't have any images of that.This was the fate of the infamous switch, and yes it still stands in the same place. But I figured I'd get a close-up of the tag on it.
Even-though the mill is no longer operational the Graniteville company flag still flies under the American flag. Some of the offices are actually manned as well so there are some people who work on parts of the mill and what their jobs are I don't know.

EST. 1845

Steven's steam plant's steam valves are still intact. Much of the mill is starting to look just like the Clearwater finishing plant. It's only been a few years to but that's all it has taken.Grass is already growing through the bridge on the spur line.This fire hydrant dates back to 1942.

This was actually more recently. This is the gate to the Gregg plant and I was wondering why it was wide open. Looks like an open invitation for any illegal trespasser to just waltz right in and do whatever they want. Many windows are already shattered as well.

I spot these geese out here a lot here. It's a sign nature is taking it back.The Canal hasn't changed much at all.

The access road through the mill is still open to traffic.
Grass growing through the pavement.
Late day always cast a big shadow.
This is a private access road to the mill.
Despite the fact that most roads going into the mill were closed this one road that goes straight to the accident site isn't and these were offices not with boarded windows and nature is already reclaiming it after just more than three years. I'm an urban explorer but whenever I see a sin on certain roads that says no trespassing I don't go down them. I keep it legal and don't go on any property unless I have permission. Many urban explorers trespass and that's illegal. I stick to the road.
This I believe was a drop box of some sort.
I like to call this the super structure of the mill.
This was Steven's steam plant's water tank. It can hold 394,800 gallons of water.
In some places this mill looks still operational with people coming in and out of the offices but in others it beingins to look more and more like the Clearwater finishing plant which you'll see in another blog later. This right here is the very ugly part. To me it looks like an Earthquake happened here.
The cross at the accident is another memorial to the victims. It probably won't be too easy to view before too long because the growth is getting thicker. Hard to believe that five years ago this was all a paved parking lot.
However on the bright side this area of the old mill no matter how trashed it may appear, it is still possible to produce some awesome sunset images. One example was this one above when I saw that the cross on topthe church lined up with the sunset.
As far as the trains this is the section of track that now curves when they shifted it over. It creates an awesome curve shot. If your camera has a 10x or higher zoom you can shoot a train clearing it all the way from Vaucluse highway just like I did here.
This is GVW's prize engine, and boy this is one nice Ford.
I took this during their annual Christmas parade.

Finally we visit the graveyard. This place is even little creepy in the day. Many of the oldest graves date back before the civil war. The above photo is the Grave of "The Unknown boy." Sadly around 1855 this sick boy, believed to be about five, was found on a train at the Warrenville station. Appearntly he was so sick he couldn't talk. How he got separated from his family is unknown. Where he came from is unknown as well as obviously his identity. Back in that day the technology to track missing children wasn't as good so chances are if his parents did contact the authorities the chances of the child being tracked were very slim. The boy succumbed to his sickness and the town donated money to have him buried here. The Grave is located at the Southwest corner of the Graveyard. People leave toys and pennies at the site. In fact when I visited I was looking for this specific grave and while on bike I actually passed by it four times without noticing. Someone had taken most of the toys off the grave and that's the description I was given, so that's what I was looking for. When most of the toys I'd seen in a previous picture and a few changes caused by vandals it really threw me off. The Epitaph was turned around backwards to further my searching problems. I learned from looking at many graveyards that vandals really have no respect. I've seen graveyards where someone literally drove through it and destroyed head stones. It's really upsetting to think oh how disrespectful people can get.

I have one video I posted and a few videos others posted that I'd like to show here. Remember how I said some parts of the mill are still active? Well a week ago I was riding around on bike at night. In the video below you can hear gas churning through the lines in front of the Woodhead division plant. The Woodhead division happens to be the most active remaining part. There are still lights on there so there is some kind of business there but what it is I still don't know. Only problem with this video is you can hear my footsteps loud and clear so you have to listen good to the quite parts. Some rumors say the new owner may turn it into a water park.

In addition to some stuff I also out that someone made a song about Graniteville. It gives me the creeps to be honest. It's a folk song and it dose serve its purpose real good. I'm not the biggest folk fan, but I'll give something a chance. I found it as actually both a creepy but meaningful song.

Also for many old Grantieville videos you can check out this youtube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/imokb1

Sorry it took me so long to post this but college has had me busy.

~Joseph W. Johns

The Vaucluse blog is next!