BNSF's Bridgeport Manned Helpers: Angora Sub

BNSF's Angora Subdivision that runs from Alliance, NE to Sterling, CO. This 115 mile stretch of railroad plays a vital role in BNSF's coal operations. At Bridgeport, coal trains coming from the southern end of the Powder River Basin, from the Valley Sub, and some will head north towards Alliance. These trains will battle a 1% grade for thirteen miles between Bridgeport and Angora.

At Bridgeport, BNSF has based a helper pool to assist the underpower coal trains up the grade to Angora. Generally, coal trains that have a power configuration of 2x1 have a horsepower to tone ratio (HPT) of 0.7. Trains that have a HPT of 0.7 or lower will get assistance from the Bridgeport Helpers.

At Bridgeport, the helper locomotives will couple up to the rear of the coal trains behind the distributed power (DP) locomotive. Once they conduct the proper air tests, they begin the trip north to Angora. Once at Angora, the helper locomotives will uncouple from the coal train with the use of "Helper Link" (An up close photo of Helper Link can be found here https://flic.kr/p/2o9r3TX). Helper Link is a device that allows the engineer to send a radio signal from the in-cab radio to the Helper Link box, which will uncouple the locomotives from the train on the fly. This eliminates the need of stopping the train, as well as allows for single-engineer operations.

Enjoy this series of videos of the Bridgeport Helpers shove heavy 17,500 ton coal train over Angora Hill.