The train thread

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Message 1705963 - Posted: 28 Jul 2015, 13:53:11 UTC - in response to Message 1705959.  

Oh dear, I have egg all over my face!!! I didn't check properly, profuse apologies :-( I knew it was a Class A4 4-6-2 Pacific, and in Blue, but I should have noticed the number wasn't 4468.


Not just the number. That photo clearly shows three words which are Sir Nigel Gresley. How one can mistake that for the Mallard....
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Message 1705975 - Posted: 28 Jul 2015, 14:40:18 UTC
Last modified: 28 Jul 2015, 14:40:29 UTC

...SpecSavers....
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Message 1705976 - Posted: 28 Jul 2015, 14:45:12 UTC

...not sure if they do specs a la Dennis Taylor :-)
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Message 1706032 - Posted: 28 Jul 2015, 20:25:24 UTC - in response to Message 1705854.  
Last modified: 28 Jul 2015, 20:26:12 UTC

They won't even allow other UPs. Just their own 844, 3985, and eventually 4014.


About 10 years ago, when UP 844 paid a visit to the Omaha, Ne/Council Bluffs, Ia area, all manner of hoops had to be jumped through to get her from Omaha onto a stub at the park in Council Bluffs where she was to be displayed. To get there, a very short section of BNSF trackage has to be used. But 844 wasn't allowed to just call in for a verbal track warrant, as is the usual case when a UP train has to access this short spur... get the orders, pull past the switch and back onto the spur. Instead, one of the BNSF Gibson yard switch engines had to pull/shove 844 into place. After her weekend visit, an equally convoluted tow job back onto the UP main was required. Steve Lee was present throughout all that local switching and was less than impressed with "these damn railroad politics". On subsequent visits from the UP classic steamers, they've kept them in Omaha on all UP property.
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Message 1706042 - Posted: 28 Jul 2015, 20:38:57 UTC
Last modified: 28 Jul 2015, 20:40:49 UTC

A train near Echo, Utah, pop 56(2010 Census), by Michael DeSoi Sr.

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's
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Message 1706502 - Posted: 29 Jul 2015, 23:25:21 UTC - in response to Message 1706032.  

They won't even allow other UPs. Just their own 844, 3985, and eventually 4014.


About 10 years ago, when UP 844 paid a visit to the Omaha, Ne/Council Bluffs, Ia area, all manner of hoops had to be jumped through to get her from Omaha onto a stub at the park in Council Bluffs where she was to be displayed. To get there, a very short section of BNSF trackage has to be used. But 844 wasn't allowed to just call in for a verbal track warrant, as is the usual case when a UP train has to access this short spur... get the orders, pull past the switch and back onto the spur. Instead, one of the BNSF Gibson yard switch engines had to pull/shove 844 into place. After her weekend visit, an equally convoluted tow job back onto the UP main was required. Steve Lee was present throughout all that local switching and was less than impressed with "these damn railroad politics". On subsequent visits from the UP classic steamers, they've kept them in Omaha on all UP property.

I am not surprised.

I forgot to mention, the appellation of most beautiful locomotive in the world is not necessarily my own opinion.

UP will at least do a ferry move of other steam locos. CSX, on the other hand, won't even let one roll on its rails in tow behind a diesel, even for a mere ten miles on a little-used branch line. You want to move steam on CSX, you have to put it on a flat car.

Re: Chris's recent question about seeing various railroads' power running on each other's tracks, there was an excellent article about it in the July issue of Trains magazine. Perhaps you can order one from their web site, http://trainsmag.com.

(I just finished reading it this morning. Now, if I can find it, I can start on the August issue. The September should arrive this weekend.)
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Message 1706503 - Posted: 29 Jul 2015, 23:32:13 UTC - in response to Message 1705092.  

One pic for you.

I made this the cover photo on my Facebook account.

But now I will confess: I only had my hands on the brake valve because I knew he was taking pictures of me. Otherwise, I held onto the gate or car frame for stability and only touched the valve to blow the peanut whistle or to actually stop the train at the west end.
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Message 1708163 - Posted: 3 Aug 2015, 19:12:46 UTC

Word is that AMTK 652 is on train 6 arriving Chicago today, last reported almost 8 hours late out of Omaha, and 653 is on 6 arriving tomorrow, 36 minutes late out of Glenwood Springs.
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Message 1708169 - Posted: 3 Aug 2015, 19:35:03 UTC

Yesterday was the 25th annual Vintage Transport Extravaganza. Operating trains were 1630 on the coach train, North Shore 749/714, CRT 1268/1797 (in place of the CTA 4000s, which were buried behind the CRTs in the barn), and our four newest CTA L cars, running on the main instead of the Jefferson St. shuttle in place of CA&E wood cars (not enough crew). Also, the Nebraska Zephyr, pulled by CB&Q 504 instead of 9911A. Between them, they did a total of 28 mainline trips.

On the car line, CTA 3142 ran 29 laps (which is close but not a record), CTA 4391, and me on VC 19. My conductor was the guy who was supposed to run the CA&E train. We were the last out of the barn and the first to quit, so we did a mere 19 laps.

I have two complaints about 19. The first is minor: the motorman's seat is a small stool with a wooden seat. My butt still hurts. The other is major but harder to prove: it shocked me. Literally. I probably shouldn't give the details in public, but I'm going to be a lot more careful if I run it again.
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Message 1708200 - Posted: 3 Aug 2015, 20:33:03 UTC - in response to Message 1708163.  
Last modified: 3 Aug 2015, 20:36:29 UTC

Word is that AMTK 652 is on train 6 arriving Chicago today, last reported almost 8 hours late out of Omaha, and 653 is on 6 arriving tomorrow, 36 minutes late out of Glenwood Springs.

Well if the 6 today keeps to the ETA of 9:29pm CT, that will be 3:29am here and a much as I enjoy watching the unusual on the cams I enjoy my sleep even more!!

Yesterday the 6 came in on one P42 #158, so seems like another breakdown.



Also it seems I failed to actually post sad story of the 4 back on the 27 July

According to "Track a Train" it was getting later and later.

Before I went to bed it was about 8 hours late. In the morning it still hadn't arrived at Chicago and was nearly 12 hours late.

So I decided to watch it arrive even though it was close to 3 am local and dark!

When I hear what I assumed to be 4 arriving it didn't sound quite right more like a freight.



It was BNSF 5479, however as it came into view I suddenly reaslised the problem!!



Oh dear SWC 4 had broken down!!

Even with 2 P42's it had to be towed



And of course those C44-9W's are not exactly built for speed!! Therefore making it later and later.

There was a footnote to this the next day, The Metra line on the camera is run by BNSF and the resident switcher there is 2661 a GP39-3

Normally it keeps to the far track, yesterday however it came across to the wye.



It was reversing towards the station and I wondered just what it was doing.

Well all was revealed a little while later when it reappeared.



With 5479 in tow. if you remember 5479 was the one that rescued the Southwest Chief in the early hours.

I assume that it was left in the Amtrak yard and there wasn't a spare BNSF crew available.

Not often you see a GP towing a C44-9W :-)

Stranger still 2661 has not been seen since. It seems to have been replaced with 2655

Today this appeared.



BN 1706 an SD40-2. Whilst it is missing the BN logo it is still in BN green, it also had these in tow



Can't see much detail as it is just too far from the camera but it is not 2661 in the middle but 265? looks like a zero but just might be a sploge!!
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Message 1708263 - Posted: 3 Aug 2015, 23:27:06 UTC - in response to Message 1708200.  

Word is that AMTK 652 is on train 6 arriving Chicago today, last reported almost 8 hours late out of Omaha, and 653 is on 6 arriving tomorrow, 36 minutes late out of Glenwood Springs.

Well if the 6 today keeps to the ETA of 9:29pm CT, that will be 3:29am here and a much as I enjoy watching the unusual on the cams I enjoy my sleep even more!!

Yes, I didn't expect you would wait up for it. I'm certainly not going to. Latest report is still 8 hours late out of Osceola, IA, but the map shows it only about 20% of the way from there to Ottumwa when it should have gotten there by now (update: in the nearly an hour it has taken me to examine your pictures, find my own examples, and type all this, it has advanced to about 90%). I'm thinking there may have been a delay for a crew change. I believe conductors on that train run through from Omaha to Chicago. If the conductor was on duty at the normal time instead of waiting for the train's lateness, they probably figured he wouldn't make it to Ottumwa on his 12 hours and held it at Osceola for his relief to be cabbed out.


Yesterday the 6 came in on one P42 #158, so seems like another breakdown.


I heard something about that one being hit by a car. The incident would have caused at least a couple hours of delay, and then setting out the engine somewhere was likely another big chunk of delay.


Also it seems I failed to actually post sad story of the 4 back on the 27 July

According to "Track a Train" it was getting later and later.

Before I went to bed it was about 8 hours late. In the morning it still hadn't arrived at Chicago and was nearly 12 hours late.

So I decided to watch it arrive even though it was close to 3 am local and dark!

When I hear what I assumed to be 4 arriving it didn't sound quite right more like a freight.



It was BNSF 5479, however as it came into view I suddenly reaslised the problem!!



Oh dear SWC 4 had broken down!!

Even with 2 P42's it had to be towed



And of course those C44-9W's are not exactly built for speed!! Therefore making it later and later.

I'd think they're good for at least 70 mph. Checking that train's history, I see it lost an hour between Barstow and Needles, CA, then another four hours to Kingman, AZ. I'm thinking all this was due to either the wild fires out there, or this is where whatever happened that caused the BNSF engine to be added. The delay grew incrementally to nearly nine hours out of Kansas City, but jumped again by almost 2.5 hours to La Plata. I'd guess another crew issue there. Once again we see incremental increases the rest of the way in.


There was a footnote to this the next day, The Metra line on the camera is run by BNSF and the resident switcher there is 2661 a GP39-3

Normally it keeps to the far track, yesterday however it came across to the wye.



It was reversing towards the station and I wondered just what it was doing.

Well all was revealed a little while later when it reappeared.



With 5479 in tow. if you remember 5479 was the one that rescued the Southwest Chief in the early hours.

I assume that it was left in the Amtrak yard and there wasn't a spare BNSF crew available.

More likely it was cheaper to do it that way than to order a crew just to go over there to move it those few miles to Cicero. I wouldn't be surprised if union rules would require a crew to be paid for an entire 10-hour shift just for doing that.


Not often you see a GP towing a C44-9W :-)

Stranger still 2661 has not been seen since. It seems to have been replaced with 2655

Today this appeared.



BN 1706 an SD40-2. Whilst it is missing the BN logo it is still in BN green, it also had these in tow



Can't see much detail as it is just too far from the camera but it is not 2661 in the middle but 265? looks like a zero but just might be a sploge!!

That does look odd, all three parts of it. (I'd really like to know what that car is, too.) The 6 and 5 almost look hand-painted, not properly stenciled. The blob on the right could be an open vent cover... maybe. Refer back to the pictures of 2661.

The thing is, BNSF 265 is a six-axle yard slug.



But wait! That info is out of date! BNSF 265 is an SD75M fairly recently renumbered from 8265. (I don't know what happened to the slug.)



I'll make a couple of inquiries to see what I can find out. I may even drive down there tomorrow.
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Message 1708429 - Posted: 4 Aug 2015, 8:04:08 UTC
Last modified: 4 Aug 2015, 8:04:40 UTC

What I posted yesterday was a screenshot so I waited till the whole thing was in shot.

However I usually take a video as well and can advance it frame by frame for the best shot

I think it is 2650



Which doesn't have a RRpic for the last two years and that was in Texas, add to that 2650 is the addresss of the BNSF offices, so putting BNSF 2650 into a Google search gets a lot of non relevant hits!!

I tried the same trick on the car as well but no extra details are visible.
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Message 1708477 - Posted: 4 Aug 2015, 12:08:45 UTC

Well according to the heritage units map the elusive NS Executive Train with both F9A's and both F7B'spassed the chesterton camera at 00:30 local which is 06:30 GMT.

Once again I missed it and once again at night.

I suppose it has to sneak around at night to be ready for the bosses early in the morning.

Not sighted since so I have no idea where it was going, it was headed west towards Chicago.

I would just like to see it in daylight once!!


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Message 1708535 - Posted: 4 Aug 2015, 15:49:56 UTC - in response to Message 1708477.  

Well according to the heritage units map the elusive NS Executive Train with both F9A's and both F7B'spassed the chesterton camera at 00:30 local which is 06:30 GMT.

Once again I missed it and once again at night.

I suppose it has to sneak around at night to be ready for the bosses early in the morning.

Not sighted since so I have no idea where it was going, it was headed west towards Chicago.

I would just like to see it in daylight once!!


It is in, of all places, Streator*. It may be heading further west to Hennepin to look at what it would take to rebuild a connection to the Iowa Interstate at Depue, or it might just be looking at what they've invested this year in the line east of Streator this year. It connects with BNSF there and makes for a nice bypass around the worst of the Chicago congestion, especially if the trains then veer off onto the Chicago Fort Wayne & Eastern (which they are also dumping a bunch of money into, even though it's not theirs and technically CF&E leases the line from NS's rival CSX).

Also, there is a 17 car UP biz train reported to be at Global 4 south of Joliet this morning, having come in from Omaha last night. That will probably be hard to shoot without trespassing, unless I catch it coming out, and there is no word on when that will happen.

Except for one detail, I would go to G4 to see what I can see and then go looking for the NS train and chase it all the way to Hennepin if need be. However, I am supposed to meet an old internet friend for dinner tonight near Midway, so I can't get that far away.

Follow-up on yesterday's 6: it shows as being here at 1141 last night. I was asleep by then.

* If you were wondering (and if I haven't explained this before), yes, I am distantly related to the namesake of that city. I'd have to dig out my book to tell you the exact details, but I believe the connection is if you go back 8 generations in my line and then forward 4 in a different line, you find Dr. Worthy Stearns Streator. His grandfather had changed the spelling to distance himself from his father and brother, who were Universalist preachers. Dr. Streator was rather wealthy and a major investor in the first railroad into the area (and the coal fields it was built to serve).
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Message 1708537 - Posted: 4 Aug 2015, 15:51:07 UTC

I've had a PM asking me to close this thread and start a new one.

Mods, if you please...
David
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