Midweek Photos 3/2/2016

Night Moves - shuffling the deck at the Fostoria, Ohio Autorack yard.

The fight to haul weight up a steep grade is matched by the struggle

to keep it in check down hill.

Here are three photos last week of CSX U813 near the bottom of 17 mile

grade at Piedmont  WVa. (U813 is eastbound coal)

The dynamics are still working hard here, and this train has a shuttle engine,

SD40-3 4000. The 4000 will be dropped off at Keyser, WVa, about five miles

east of here.   It will be picked up by a empty hopper

train, or if need for an extra heavy westbound manifest, to go west back

to Grafton.

 The last hopper had graffiti that seemed to make a proper statement of

said struggle!

Ed

Winter in Jasper, Canada:

Servicing The Canadian in the Rocky Mountains at Jasper:

The Canadian in Northern Ontario, Canada

shots from the Canadian in Northern Ontario:

One day last week the temperature shot up to 55 degrees; spring seemed to have arrived.  I wasn't fooled though.  I kept the snow shovel on my front porch and the winter tires on my RAV4.  That turned out to be a good thing.  A few days later another snow storm rolled in and gave me some excitement!    I spent last week chasing pumpkins along the BNSF Appleton Sub (old MILW main line) and the BNSF Marshall Sub (old GN.)  Traffic seems to have picked up noticeably in the past couple of weeks.  Mostly it seems to be grain trains.  This time of year farmers are in a hurry to take grain from their on-farm storage and sell it at local  elevators to raise cash to buy seeds and fertilizer.  Once the thaw begins many of the county roads are limited to 9 tons until the ground underneath thaws and dries out.   Some shots: 

1. An w/b grain train (empty) near Ortley SD on the Appleton Sub.  I heard it get a warrant about 25 miles east, near the SD/MN border, and I raced to an old WPA bridge to get a shot of it going through a long, deep cut.

2. After getting the above shot, I tried getting ahead of the w/b to get a second shot.  This was proving difficult as the track is signaled and  speed is 50 mph.  Highway speed is only 70 mph.  Just east of Webster I thought I saw a second train sitting in a siding, so I went part way down a section road for a closer look.  The snow had been melting all day and the road was quite soft.  I nearly got stuck!  If that were to happen, I'd be spending the night there for sure!    I checked with my binoculars and saw there was indeed an e/b grain train (loaded) sitting in a siding waiting for the meet.  So, I went back to my bridge over the big cut and got a second shot.

3. On Monday night the temperature crashed again, and a pretty decent snow storm blew in.  I hated to see it go to waste so I put on my winter gear and headed out along the Marshall Sub.  I heard a n/b get a warrant at the IA/MN border, so I set up for a shot right at the MN/SD line.  It turned out to be an empty tanker train (ethanol) headed for South Dakota.   The roads were drifting over, visibility was very poor, and my car was slamming into one drift after another.  I crossed over I-90 and didn't see a single car.  This was beginning to look like not such a good idea.

4. Tanker train on the Corson Sub, heading west to Sioux Falls, SD.

5. The train was supposed to go on to Marion SD and tie down, but the dog catch drivers were all refusing to go out of the city limit.  So, dispatcher told them to tie the train down on a big long hill in Sioux Falls on the Canton Sub.  I managed to catch it one more time as it was heading up the hill.  My wife had called me several times wanting me to come home as she kept hearing the highways were being closed.  She seemed a little less worried about me waiting for the train for the last shot.  It was only a mile from my house.   Nice to have tracks that close. 

Kent in SD