Midweek Photos 3/13/2019

Peppersass got a nice makeover for its tour. Last I saw it at MWCR 20+ years ago it was a bit weather worn.

                       Marci rail fanning in Defiance, Ohio  last weekend...

Just two assorted photos this week. 

Amtrak 188 leads Northeast Regional 66 into Williamsburg on March 1st, 2019. The engineer turned on the marker lights as a gesture to a railfan friend of theirs, who was also railfanning at the station that day.   

NS SD40-2 3343 leads SD60I 6726 on a short hopper and mixed freight consist just west of Pittsburgh on March 5th, 2019. The SD60Is are increasingly rare, with 32 of NS's 46 units stored, and 21 of those stored expected to be sold (NSDash9.com). 

Weekend trip to Eugene Oregon last April, the Cascade comes in, and finally a must see memorial just up the hill from the University.

Even though there were blizzard warnings posted for my state last weekend, I decided to head back north to the BNSF Appleton sub (Old MILW transcon) and see what I could scare up.  I knew it would be nasty.  I-29 was borderline passable with all lanes snow packed and cars spun off all over the place.  I figured my Subaru Forester always got me there and back and didn't worry too much.  I made it to US 12 & the tracks, dodging a few spinning cars and an overturned truck or two.  The snow was heavy and the wind was blowing at Dakota Speed.  From I-29 I turned west towards Aberdeen, hoping to catch something moving.  The problem was the road was so heavily drifted and snow packed I would not be able to chase anything.  Visibility was poor but traffic was almost nonexistent.  I did come across one e/b grain train near Andover.  Fortunately it had speed restrictions and I was able to beat it to the old hump bridge at Butler, SD.  The snow that's been plowed off  all winter long along the highway was do deep I couldn't park on the shoulder, so I simply parked my SUV on top of the bridge.  I highly doubted anyone would be going down that county road anyway.  I strapped on my showshoes and walked across the deep snow to a spot that would keep my back to the 35 mph wind.  I waited for half an hour for the train to show up.  It was 12 degrees.  It finally came, slowly, and I popped a shot.  I went back to my SUV as fast as I could going uphill wearing snowshoes, and headed east to catch it again.  They had pulled all the snowplows off the highways and the roads were getting worse.  This slowed me down considerably and I got stuck twice, but I finally got ahead of it and set up on a section road east of Summit, SD.  I parked my car in the middle of the road so it would block the wind while I took a shot.  Train came, I got out of the car and hunched beside it, took the shot.  It had a very mixed bag of power, evidence of just how much trouble BNSF has had keeping engines running this winter.  I headed back to Summit & I-29 for my trip home.  The interstate was now closed.  I weighed my options, and decided to head back west to Webster, take SD 25 south to US 212, US 212 east to Watertown, and then I-29 south to home.  The drifts were growing deeper and longer as darkness fell.  I knew there were no places to stay for the ~50 miles between Webster & Watertown, and there was talk ALL of I-29 was going to be closed.  I tied down in Webster and called my wife.  All in all I got very little that day considering the effort I put into it.

The next morning was blindingly bright, clear, and cold (around 8 degrees.)  US 12 was being plowed again, but not much else.  I drove to the tracks to have a look--I hadn't heard a train go through all night.  The tracks were heavily drifted in.  Hmmm.  If they do run anything, it could be spectacular!  I headed west towards Aberdeen, a division point on the line with office, yard, and round house.  I reached Groton and heard a strange horn down the tracks so I found a plowed road that crossed so I could take a look.  It was then that my luck took a tremendous leap for the better--SNOW PLOW!   I had hit the jackpot!  It was moving about 25 mph and kicking up huge amounts of snow as it came.  The plow would stop to clean out switches and all the major sidings, and that gave me plenty of time to find spots ahead to catch it all day long.  I chased it until it tied down for the night in Appleton, MN.  This was about 110 miles.  I got a few nice shots, a couple might be my best for the year.  With the wind slacking off and the roads plowed, I didn't have any trouble getting home.  Although it was a four hour drive and I was tired, I was happy.

Kent in SD

1. E/B grain train at Butler, SD

2. At Summit, SD

3.--5.  BNSF Snowdozer e/b on Appleton sub

Kent in SD

That second picture shows the many faces of BNSF.  And that's one heck of a snow train.