Apparently, we have not discussed here how Metra 425 came to be painted in Rock Island colors to honor Don Orseno on his retirement as Metra's CEO. Here are the details.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Well it was Groundhog day today and Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow so six more weeks of winter.

And about 50 or so miles south east, Amtrak 42 the Pennsylvanian made a wintry scene at Cresson PA



And about 15 minutes later a more scenic one on the Horseshoe Curve.

I have had an interesting day, but will not bore you with the details, just say that courtesy of Ralicam UK I will post this, screenshot from this afternoon




81 year old LMS Jubilee Class 45699 Galatea

Yes there is now a rail cam at Ribblehead

Oh yes and some place called Kirkby Stephen ;-)

I have had an interesting day, but will not bore you with the details, just say that courtesy of Ralicam UK I will post this, screenshot from this afternoon

Oh that looks cold!
At least it'd be warm in the engine.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Two or three weeks ago, one of the Wisconsin Talgo trains was taken out of storage at Amtrak's shops in Beech Grove, IN, and sent to Chicago. There, an IDTX Charger was added behind the pair of P42s. HEP active, the train ran as an extra on the Southwest Chief route, then diverted to the AAR test facility in Pueblo, CO. Speculation was that it would proceed from there to Washington state to replace the Talgo set recently wrecked there.

I happened to be driving a crew past the Cicero Metra station at 1:44 a.m. last Thursday when we heard a train coming. I looked and saw a P42 and thought "whichever train that it, it's really late." A second P42 appeared and then, to my surprise, a Charger. "Oh, the Carl Sandburg must have had a failure and they sent a pair of P42s to rescue it" flashed quickly through my mind. Then I saw the red and white of the Talgo and suddenly a Facebook post I'd seen earlier made sense. It was coming back from Pueblo. My crew (who were really cool guys) commented on the new engine design on the rear end and I informed them it was a cab car, then explained very briefly about the train. They didn't say anything else, but they continued to be cool. I also gained a very useful bit of information about the railroad and went to two locations I hadn't been before, so it was a very cool trip.

Speculation now is that the train will go back to Beech Grove to have the interior modified to Washington's specs and then go into service there.

In other Amtrak news, they have retired the last four Pacific Parlor cars (high level lounge cars from Santa Fe's 1956 version of the El Capitan). Two were supposed to come into Chicago today (I haven't heard confirmation), the other two tomorrow.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

I rarely post Amtrak pictures here as few seem to enjoy them, but yes as all the cameras now have 24 hr "DVR" feature I watched the charger Talgo combo pass through La Plata Mo, then into Chicago (where it was mostly blocked by another Amtrak turning on the wye)

Here at La Plata with a few railfans on the platform, Charger and front of Talgo



And here the distinctive "cab"




As to the PPC yesterdays 4 into Chicago had 2 on the rear as will today's, Having cameras at Flagstaff AZ means we can see today's 4 yesterday :-)

Yesterdays 4 with the two Pacific Parlour cars, "Napa Valley" and "Columbia Valley"

Here is one for David.

Spotted today on Amtrak 29 in West Newton PA



AEM7 945 which I believe is on its way to the Illinois Railway Museum.

The AEM7's were the electric locomotives that served on the North East Corridor (Boston-New York- Washington) from 1980 to 2016

Not a great picture but the light was not the best, I will try and get it when it passes Chesterton later.

Here is 945 at Chesterton



Headed for the IRM.

One from each camera

Before the thread slips offpage one, an excuse to post a couple of pictures.

For a long while I have been waiting to see the Norfolk and Southern "Executive train" as it is normally hauled by 2 ubiquitous "F" units, the loco shape I most remember from American films of the 50's and 60's

Yesterday it finally came near a camera, not actually "past" but near.

At Shenandoah Junction WV the NS main crosses over the CSX main and I got a quick glimpse.



With F-9A 4270 leading, just before the bridge.



Then the 2 "B" units and 4271 bringing up the rear.

Hopefully one day it will go past a camera with a better view.

As you may remember Amntrak paints some of its P42 and P40 units in older "heritage" schemes

One of my favourites is the "Phase 2" scheme and one of the locos I have often seen on the cameras is #66, Well back in January 2016 a semi got in the way of 66 and it now sits at Amtrak's Beech Grove workshop

AMTK 66 at Beech Grove

Unfortunately reports are that that frame is cracked and the loco is beyond economic repair. This week I heard that a new loco had been painted into Phase 2 as a replacement.

Yesterday afternoon it led the California Zephyr out of Chicago.



Amtrak P42 #130 in its new paint.

Almost forgot, it seems that Amtrak has made a decision not to run any "special charters" or pull any of the privately owned historic coaches. That will leave a lot of PV owners stranded.

Here is a report

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/03/28-amtrak-to-stop-operating-special-trains-charter-moves

So I discovered that the NS OCS train was heading for the Masters at Augusta GA, and would pass through Thomasville NC.

So finally a chance to see the whole train pass a camera.

Of course at 8:30 am local the sun is pointing almost straight at the camera.



Not much I could do to make it clearer.

Thomasville has 2 cameras and this gives a better view of F-9A 4271.



The train is composed of 19 heritage cars of various era's one of which is "Delaware" a full length dome car.

Which started life with ATSF in 1954, spent sometime on the Autotain, then was owned by Conrail, and finally passed to NS when Conrail was up between NS and CSX

It's nice to a see a train kept in excellent condition.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Just passed South Croydon



Peppercorn class A1 60163

Better know as Tornado, which is about to start it's 10th birthday tour.

(It says on the front the "Belmond British Pullman" however in the tour schedule it is listed as "The Paddington afternoon tea train". Which is strange as it is going to Victoria!!)

Nice pics Bernie.

In a city that does not have Amtrak service, going down the main drag around 6:30PM, a white SUV with a light bar on top, sides saying Amtrak Police. What brings them miles from their rails? Do the cops get to drive them home?

Better know as Tornado, which is about to start it's 10th birthday tour.

10th birthday? It'd have to be a bit older than that.
Or 10th birthday since restoration?

Edit-
Ah, checked out Wikipedia.
"It is the only example of an LNER Peppercorn Class A1 locomotive in existence, the entirety of the original production batch having been scrapped without preservation. 60163 Tornado is a main line coal-fired steam locomotive built in Darlington, England. Completed in 2008, Tornado was the first such locomotive built in the United Kingdom since Evening Star, the last steam locomotive built by British Railways in 1960."

There are some side on shots of it there- that's one beautiful locomotive.

Here's a good shot to give you an idea of it's size.

Full size image

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Grant
Darwin NT

On my visit to Cumbria, one place a train fan has to go is Carlisle, which I did yesterday.

This is a main stopping place for many passenger trains and a gateway to Scotland from the east of the country for freight.

The first interesting train was an old class 60, first operated by BR in the early 90's then by EWS and DB finally this one operated by COLAS

The last mainline diesel freight engine built in the UK.



And hauling logs, lots of logs.



It had paused at the platform to change drivers and as it pulled away and the newly cut logs passed , there was this nice "earthy woody" smell, not quite what you might expect in a mainline station.

I had a walk round and found 57311 parked on the far side of the station.



It had the nameplate "Thunderbird" which reminded me that when Virgin trains first started running passenger services, the traction at the time was unreliable and they had several of these units stabled at various points to provide "rescue" and they were all named after characters in "Thunderbirds" this was originally "Parker"

Then Something quite unusual for a UK train-fan, a double header.



Not only that but one of the newer 68 class and an older 66, that was a first for me.

Time to get ready to catch a train to Settle perhaps more later.

For those not familiar with the geography of Carlisle, it sits practically at sea level, at the junction of six railway routes. The three running east or west are relatively minor and easy to negotiate, but the three running north or south were built for heavy long distance passenger and freight traffic, and each has a major summit around 1,000 feet between Carlisle and the next major station. The gradients were notorious during the age of steam power, especially in the early days - despite its geographical isolation, Carlisle station opened less than 20 years after the first passenger railway line in the world (see Carlisle railway history). You don't notice the hills with modern electric traction, but with steam double-headers were common and banking engines were on permanent duty at Beattock and Shap. I suspect the logs were heading east-west, but the ballast was headed north-south.

Beattock can still be a bit of a challenge for electric hauled freight, particularly around dawn on misty days, hence the Thunderbird at the North end of the station.
The freight flows are quite complex, big container trunking trains on the main North-South, oil tanks going heading in all directions, timber does some very strange move, then there are stone trains, coal trains from the various mines, ports and quarries. As Richard says, a very complex and busy set of junctions.

(How are they getting on clearing out the undercroft? - That could become a very interesting place to look at in the near future)

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

A tweet from the Railcam UK site

@railcamlive
It is being reported that 60163 Tornado has failed and is currently awaiting assistance near Sandy. The tour will be dragged to Peterborough where 60163 will be removed and head to the NVR.

Not an auspicious start to the "Ten year tour"

That won't be popular - Sandy is one of the narrow (twin track) sections of the East Coast Main Line. Delays and cancellations to other services are already showing up.

Seems the train is now moving but listed as nearly 3 hours late.

No idea of the motive power.