Midweek Photos 3/23/2016

Strasburg #90's return to steam:

Hoppin' on the old time machine to July 1979 at Field, British Columbia:

Rusty

Who else has their American Freedom Train ticket?
This ticket, a few bad snapshots, and a newspaper article are all I have to remind me of that day almost 40 years ago.

Pushing the last car over the hump. 

Rusty, are there any mountains of more grandeur than those in British Columbia?  Nice shots, and thanks to all who posted today, all well done. 

Here we have the working roundtable in Newton Kansas. Next I took a shot of the 10000 gallon "lube oil" tank close to the main line and roundtable in Newton.  Is there a need for this much lube oil?  Next a shot of the I love this bar, bar in OK city. Next in the Depot,  (Amtrak) in Ardmore Oklahoma.  The main branches and curves over to the Depot.  Then a close up of one of many "liquid sulfur" tank cars, how do they make liquid sulfur anyway?  Finally a couple of old girls with a fresh coat of paint on guard duty. 

PennsyPride94 posted:

Strasburg #90's return to steam:

That's a handsome little engine.

Borden Tunnel posted:

Who else has their American Freedom Train ticket?
This ticket, a few bad snapshots, and a newspaper article are all I have to remind me of that day almost 40 years ago.

What a cool shot! Thanks for sharing it here. Hopefully the WMSR can get some steam back in that same spot later this year.

wb47 posted:

. . . I took a shot of the 10000 gallon "lube oil" tank close to the main line and roundtable in Newton.  Is there a need for this much lube oil?   Yes.  Newton services quite a few engines.  When the dip stick of a locomotive is at the add mark, it is not asking for a quart of oil -- it wants one barrel (55 gallons) of oil to be added to the engine.  There's enough lube oil in that car to make 181 barrels - not an extraordinary amount of lube oil at an engine servicing facility.  Keeping a quantity on hand allows the railroad to purchase more at a good price and gives time to transport it.  The rent on that tank car is insignificant, as it is either there to transfer oil to a stationary tank, or it is serving as the stationary tank to avoid all of the much more expensive environmental headaches of stationary oil tanks.  It's good business practice.

Then a close up of one of many "liquid sulfur" tank cars, how do they make liquid sulfur anyway?  It is mined from underground in the molten state, loaded into insulated tank cars equipped with internal heating coils (in case it is delayed in transit) and unloaded where it is cooled and shaped into blocks for storage and use.

Another from my files....I need to get out more!

Morning at the CSX Keyser Yard. The locomotive is on the westbound main, and that's

the track inspector on the eastbound.  Ed

Thanks for the great info Tom.  I guess there must be sulfur mines close to Ardmore.  Funny what you can find if you get off the interstate once in a while. 

A Canadian Pacific AC4000 #9547 in Pittsburgh today on the NS Fort Wayne Line - Island Avenue yard meets a "fivesome" of AVR - Allegheny Valley RR units.

Tim , I know you asked for some Golden oldies, so here's a few I shot this afternoon on the way to Cape May  N.J.

I missed last week and almost this week too.  Not that I forgot, it's just that I've been busy!  The weather continues to see-saw between warm sunny days and cold snowy ones.  The world is mostly brown and gray.  Train traffic seems to continue to pick up as the elevators try to empty of 2015 grain.  Meanwhile, tractors with attached plows wait at the edges of the fields.  I have a real foamer buffet here, a little bit of everything.  Four different railroads!  Here's a little story about each:

1.  Dakota & Iowa Railroad (DAIR) has been doing some bridge work, so they start their train in late afternoon.  That works for me!  Here, they pass through the nearly abandoned town of Westfield, IA on their way to Sioux City IA.  This train runs between Dells Rapids SD and Sioux City IA, about 100 miles.  It's my favorite railroad.

2.  D&I crossing the Falls Trestle at Sioux Falls SD.  The river is running fast from snow melt.  I'm considering trying this shot at night and lighting everything up. 

3. BNSF grain train approaching Marion SD.  There's a massive ethanol & grain complex here, on  the BNSF Mitchell Sub.  The tracks turn into the Canton Sub and run near my house about 40-50 miles east.  Despite this line being close to my house I've not paid any attention to it in the past ten years.  Train volume is fairly low and erratic--maybe 2-4 trains a day, and all are servicing the elevators and ethanol plants.  There's no real through traffic--it's either tankers or grain hoppers.  I took another run down it a couple of weeks ago and saw a lot of potentially nice shots out there, so I'm trying to catch a train or two now.  It's not easy.

4. The ethanol plant at Chancellor, SD.  Like the Marion plant, it too has a circle track now.

5.  A couple of weeks ago my conductor buddy told me there would be two trains on the RCPE west of Pierre, SD.  It's a four hour one way drive, but hey, two trains?  They were to begin about 4 PM.  OK, that's not too late in the day.  I drove out, and the time was pushed back to 6 PM due to an engine problem on the w/b.  Then we found out that an engine on the e/b train had died.  That meant they had to haul only half their train up Wall Hill near Wall SD, and double back to get the rest of it, and put it all together again.  That pushed things back to 8 PM.  I was calculating what time I'd be getting home!    They called my buddy for the w/b train and it turned out the engineer couldn't make it until 9:30pm.   The shots I wanted were still another two hours beyond that, and it was then over four hours to get back home, and that's assuming everything started to go smoothly. .    My buddy said an e/b was being called in Huron SD, about two hours to the east and on my way home.  So, I bagged it in Pierre and went after the Huron train.  I was waiting for it at Iroquois SD when it showed up.  It had an ugly burnt up Jumping Jackass on point!   And, a freezing rain had caught up with me and shut down the flash I had placed to light the third engine.  Rarely do things turn out as planned on this RR.  Good thing gas is cheap. 

6.  Minnesota Southern hauling ethanol tankers from Luverne to Worthington MN.  It turns out that the first two tankers behind the engine have no red diamond cards, and are empty.  This is a typical scene for their ~25 mile run.  The white truck is the traveling conductor.

7. Minnesota Southern approaching Worthington MN.  The stop sign is for snowmobiles.  The little section road here is part of a snowmobile trail.  The melting snow turned it into mud so I walked in.

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Looking out my window, I see heavy clouds.  Snow is on the way.  There are trains to catch!

Kent in SD

T

Wow! A number of fine photos. You never seem to amaze us with your shots. Thank you.

Dan Weinhold