Midweek Photos 1/11/2017

Nice shots, Tim - that 44 tonner is going to make a great addition to SNHS.  She's also a great size for an "Engineer for an Hour" type program.  

Some choice photos from around the 'net.  I did not take these nor do I own them.

Don't have much, been really busy this time of year I guess.  What I do have does have a couple of interesting stories, perhaps.

1.  BNSF s/b coal train, Watson, MO.  Watson is the northwestern-most town in Missouri.  This track runs from Kansas City to just south of Council Bluffs IA, (Pacific Junction.)  There is a sliver of land between I-29 and the Missouri River that sits on the flood plain.  Every decade or so there is a major flood that widens the river to several miles.  Over the years fewer and fewer people have remained in the towns on the flood plain.  Most of the trains I've seen here in the past were empties headed north, so I set up my flash for trains coming from the south.  I saw three trains--all headed south!  On my way home I stopped at Hamburg IA and spotted a dogcatch.  Crew told me there was a derailment in Nebraska, and loaded trains were being rerouted.  Aha!  It also turned out this crew was on one of the trains I had photo'd.  They laughed and said they didn't know there was a foamer night shift.

2.  From the dark days of railroading.  Shot at a very well done WW2 museum in MN that I took my dad to a few weeks ago.  (My dad is a WW2 vet, 101st Airborne.) Shot with a vintage 1942 Leica IIIc, HP5 film.  Camera was originally owned by a German army lieutenant.

Kent in SD

Hello all, glad to be back after  a rough December.  I still haven't been able to get out much, so

I found these in my files from last year. It is something I'd never seen before, a banner test.

I suppose the purpose of these tests is to see if the train tested is under the proper control.

Anyway, here are a few photos of a banner test at Hyndman last spring. This is an east bound

manifest at the main street crossing in Hyndman.

Ed

I'm editing this to add that all the below photos were made with the Nikon D7000 and the 

Nikon 18/105 lens.  A fine railfan machine.

Ed Mullan posted:

 

Anyway, here are a few photos of a banner test at Hyndman last spring. This is an east bound

manifest at the main street crossing in Hyndman.

 

I once built a medium sized snowman on the tracks of the D&I RR.  Track speed is 25 mph and I had joked with the crew about it beforehand.  Even at 25 mph the result was pretty impressive.

Kent in SD

Two23 posted:

Ed Mullan posted:

 

Anyway, here are a few photos of a banner test at Hyndman last spring. This is an east bound

manifest at the main street crossing in Hyndman.

 

I once built a medium sized snowman on the tracks of the D&I RR.  Track speed is 25 mph and I had joked with the crew about it beforehand.  Even at 25 mph the result was pretty impressive.

 

Kent in SD

A friend of my dad threw a rock at a loaded coal train coming down the mountain during the Chessie era.  It came flying back at them at 60 mph.

Ed Mullan posted:

I found these in my files from last year. It is something I'd never seen before, a banner test.

I suppose the purpose of these tests is to see if the train tested is under the proper control.

manifest at the main street crossing in Hyndman.

Ed

 

Absolutely correct, Ed.  A banner test is a test to ascertain that a crew which is required to be operating at Restricted Speed is able to stop within half the distance of vision, as required by the rule.

And they don't all look like that one.  UP uses a red flag or light clamped to the rail.  BNSF uses a large portable orange diamond-shaped sign of the type used for temporary warnings along highways.