Midweek Photos 10/14/2015

Here is Monday, Columbus Day's excursion.  We left for Moscow, PA.  Another stunner as far as weather was concerned.  Not a cloud in the sky. 

RS3 number 1554 led the train this time.  She is preserved in her Central of New Jersey RR "toothpaste" stripes, and statue of liberty herald.

Perhaps Junior's first train ride.  Posing in front of the train.

In Moscow, PA, the freight station becomes the gathering spot for the train watchers to view the engine up close and the coupling of the locomotive with the cars.

And back in Scranton.  Another picture perfect day.  

Love them ALCo's!!!

Some shots I took at work over the past month or so.

Marshall, the DT&M roundhouse mouse catcher posing on our 1897 Baldwin 4-4-0.  Somewhat fitting for the upcoming holiday.

Our 1873 Mason 0-6-4T "Torch Lake" running through the woods

Torch Lake getting into the holiday spirit.

A black cat AND a Jack O'Lantern!  You guys are definitely ready for Halloween, Jake.  Good going!

Zachary sends best wishes to Marshall

In Sunday, October 11, Reading & Northern ex-Gulf, Mobile & Northern No. 425 brought an Autumn Leaf Train Excursion from Port Clinton to Jim Thorpe. After a ride on the turntable, she backed down and waited on another track. When the 3:00 PM Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway train departed, she coupled on her train and marched out of Jim Thorpe on her return to Port Clinton. Her Reading passenger whistle and "dead square" exhausts sounded so good reverberating through the mountains. She will head another of these excursions on Saturday and again on Sunday (Oct.17-18; www.lgsry.com). Lighting could be better but this was the best angle I could get with the mountain in the background.

Interesting collection of equipment and power in the yards at VIA's Montreal Maintenance Centre.  Photos taken October 6, 2105.

Some SEPTA and Norfolk Southern action under the wires in Norristown, Pa.

Brand new GE ET44C4's in the lead of BNSF Intermodal Train in Joliet on Saturday. These are the new Tier 4 Compliant Locomotives. 3853 and 3852 in the lead

Went in Philly on Tuesday, Didn't get to many good pictures in the city, but I think these from the Thorndale platform turned out pretty good.

Well, I don't have much this week.  The story this time is mostly about the train I DIDN'T catch--the one that got away.    RCPE has been sending a nightly cement train down from Huron SD to Sioux City IA on BNSF tracks, and I really wanted to catch that!  Train was leaving either end at midnight and arriving about dawn at the other end.  I think this was a first!   The closest intercept was Mitchell, SD, a bit over an hour away from me.  I had a trainmaster giving me hour by hour info on when to catch it, but it just kept slipping away.  Either it was delayed until 3am or it ended up not running at all.  One night I was actually en route to Letcher SD to set up and catch it, but was informed they had swapped out the RCPE power for regular old BNSF engines.  What's the point of being out at 1am to take a photo of BNSF engines on BNSF tracks?  Bah.  I turned back around and got home about 2am, empty handed.  For the past year I've been calling this the "heartbreak" railroad.    "Sure things" rarely are.

The D&I has been much more reliable with their nightly rock runs through Sioux Falls SD to Sioux City IA.  They are doing track work between Dell Rapids & Sioux Falls SD now.  Last week I caught them at a couple of country crossings in South Dakota near Hudson.  Nothing special, just shots along corn fields which are very common out here.  There is another shot I tried to get of the big iron bridge over the Big Sioux River north of Hawarden IA.  Here. the river is about 100 yards wide, about quarter mile downstream from the highway.  It's a little spooky fooling around on a river in the dark, in a kayak, so I went an hour early to check it out and set up before nightfall.  I ended up getting stuck when I stepped into some bottomless gumbo (aka "quicksand")  and it was a real struggle to get out of it.  By then, it was dark.  I had no desire to find out what else the dark river was hiding from me.   I'll try again and avoid the stupid mud for sure!

1. D&I pulling away from the ethanol plant at Hudson and heading for the Iowa border.  Train had 9500 tons of rock and about 40 loads of ethanol behind hit.  The consist of GP50 & SD39 units were roaring under the strain.  It was something to hear, to be sure!

2. D&I train passing an uncut cornfield on the final curve before the Big Sioux Bridge.  Combines are running at night as the push is on to get the harvest in.  I took the shot and then walked along the tracks over to the edge of the river, on the west end of the RR bridge.  I watched the train slowly roll away east over the bridge.  I was thinking I could catch it again south of Hawarden if I hustled.  I hurried back to the road and packed up my stuff, and drove to the intersection of the main highway.  To the east was Hawarden; to the north my home.  At that moment my phone rang--my wife.  She asked, "Are you coming home now?" I told her I was thinking of getting one more shot, and asked what was up?  She replied, "I'm lonely."   Our youngest kid just left for college a couple of months ago, and my wife was alone at home with just the cat.  I've been out several nights a week for the past month now.  I put my turn signal on, and headed north.  A guy has to keep his priorities straight.    

Kent in SD

"When I get older, losing my hair

Many years from now,

Will you still be sending me a Valentine,

Birthday greeting, bottle of wine?

If I've been out til quarter till three,

Would you lock the door?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z-XgIE-SOc

Took a couple on a recent trip to Portland.  Note the BN switcher still on duty and then some interesting UP units.  Looks to be a "cow and calf" set up if I am saying that correctly.  Then there is the St. Johns bridge.  Also the heritage center which unfortunately was closed on Monday.

Well, anything you post is interesting, Kent.  You are the only guy in South Dakota photographing trains.  We love your photos, but don't want you to be discovered deceased in quicksand, or hear about your arm being amputated after a rattlesnake bite because you were 50 miles from the nearest hospital at 2 a.m., or hear that your wife locked you out of the house and served you with divorce papers.  

We'll be glad to be third in line behind home life and safety out in the field at night.  If you ever get out around Mobridge, it would be interesting to see what is left of the old Milwaukee Road between there and Aberdeen.

1. No rattlesnakes on this side of South Dakota--too cold.  And, it's been getting down into the 30s at night now.  Not quite sure what's making me so uneasy about that Hawarden bridge shot.  I'm fine with kayaking around it all day long, and it's mostly shallow with little current.   I think my uneasiness has to do with the gumbo mud.  It would be really nasty if caught in that at night, in the cold.    I intend to check it out again in daylight this week.  It's a potentially great shot, if I can do it safely.

My wife is pretty indulgent, but I've seen many of my friends and high school classmates end up divorced when their youngest child left home.  They found they were living with strangers they had little in common with.   I've been taking care that doesn't happen to me!  It's a fine balance, I think.  It comes down to the Big Picture and your priorities.

2.  I drew a rifle/deer tag for unit 53A this year, which is right along that Aberdeen/Mobridge/Hettinger line.  I stay in Hettinger ND, in fact.   Will be out there a month from now and will take a few shots after I drop a deer.  Mobridge SD actually is named after the MILW Missouri Bridge.  A MoW crew is still stationed there, I think.  I've had some thoughts about trying to do a flash shot of that railroad bridge, but for now, that shot is just out of my reach.  

Kent in SD