Midweek Photos 7/29/2015

 

Later in the afternoon, the campers had some throttle time with 475.  They are patiently waiting in line here.

 

 

While the 475 cab rides rolled on, so did the 89-led passenger trains.

 

The group took dinner at the Red Caboose Restaurant & motel.  After eating, there were a few hot air balloons in the sky.

 

The last 89 run of the night, with the balloon preparing to land in the field. 

That's my contribution to the week.  Please add your shots, and have a great time on your next chase or ride!

In 2014  the North Shore Railroad Company purchased eight automated ballast cars. When purchased, they were “run of the mill” open-top hoppers. The North Shore had them converted to highly technical, modernized ballast cars by contracting Altoona Railcar to install new, automated, air-controlled Minor ballast gates. This new fleet represents the largest-single capital investment in the company’s 30 year history, and improves the efficiency their ballast program by increasing capacity 25 percent verses our old ballast cars. Further, this upgrade is a major safety enhancement to the ballast unloading process. The old ballast cars were unloaded manually, with a person walking alongside the car, opening and closing the gates using a three foot lever. The gates on the new cars open and close at the push of a button.

 

I took this photo the other day in Northumberland, PA about 2 blocks from the North Shore Offices. They have been replacing a lot of ties along the line to Berwick and now are starting to dump some fresh ballast alone the line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all my contribution for this week as well! I hope everyone enjoys them! 

While waiting 5 1/2 hours for the No. 765 to come by in Perry, Ohio I caught some other ho hum traffic before the prize showed up.

 

BNSF 6638 Eastbound oil train on CSX tracks

 

 

 

CSX 615 Westbound with the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in the background.

 

 

 

 

CSX 4001 and HLCX 6249 Eastbound

 

 

 

NS 2642 Auto Rack crossing Davis Road Eastbound

 

 

 

And the Grand Prize - no introduction needed -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John

Here are some images from this years "Diesel Days" at the Illinois Railway Museum.

 

 

Hello Everyone. Well I went out and took my lawn chair and went and sat along side RT34 in Sandwich.Illinois. The reason I finally got the much needed time to clear my head and just relax.  Well hear are a few shots I took today nothing fancy.

I was board

All of these nice steam photos really have me itching to take a trip to Strassburg or somewhere, but alas that won't be this year.  I'll have to make do with what I have nearby and that's pretty slim pickings.  Really, I haven't been able to chase hardly any trains for the past two weeks at all.  My dad was briefly in a hospital in Kansas City and is now in PT rehab.  I've been driving down to K.C. for the past two weekends and back to look in on him.  That's been my priority for most of this month.  There are hundreds of trains per day in K.C., but I just didn't have any time for them.  Well, almost no time.  I did discover the Napier Sub.

 

The Napier Sub is the BNSF line that goes from K.C., through St. Joseph MO, and up to Napier IA, where it T's into the Cresston Sub to the east and the (Lincoln?) sub to the west.  The lower half is CTC but the northern stretch is dark territory with LOTS of warrants.  Directional running (n/b) predominates on the north end of the line.  Traffic is fairly heavy with a lot of coal traffic, along with some grain and manifests.  I've been seeing at least one train an hour.  The Boeing aircraft trains travel the southern end of the line too, but they head west and cross the river at Brownsville NE while the Napier Sub continues on north.

 

The line is squeezed between the Missouri River to the west and the river bluffs and I-29 to the east.  It follows the flat flood plain which, oddly, sometimes floods.  There are a number of tiny dying towns along the line--the only substantial town is St. Joseph MO (and it doesn't look too healthy now days!)  Road access is poor to fair.  I found some of the gravel roads to be under water and didn't attempt them.  All of this combined with the high track speed have made this a frustrating line for me to photo!

 

I tried to catch a few trains on it two weekends ago, but the trains were too fast for me.  They appear and disappear very quickly!  I had much better luck last weekend, once I started paying attention to the dispatcher and figured out the patterns.  This is an obscure line--I could find few photos of it online despite the fairly high traffic on it.  I've been regularly traveling up and down I-29 just to the east for over 30 years now but never checked out the Napier Sub.  Now that I've figured out it's there and just how interesting it is, I'm making up for lost time!

 

1. S/B coal train nearing Forest City, MO.  This is pretty typical scenery along the line.  

 

2. N/B KCS grain train stopped for a meet east of Bigelow MO.  Not sure why there was a KCS train here, but there are some large elevators along the line.  Mostly they grow corn here, and some beans.  Row crops do very well in the rich bottom land, at least when it's not under water.

 

3. BNSF/KCS meet.

 

4. I set up at an abandoned elevator at the largely abandoned town of Langdon MO, and waited to see which would come first:  the BNSF 8888 or night.  They arrived about the same time.  The mosquitos in this marshy land are horrible once the sun goes down and reminded me why I greatly prefer Dakota winters.

 

The legendary wedgie shooter, "Grumpy*," is from this area and his parents still farm about 10 miles or so away up on the bluffs.  I'm not sure if he has many shots from this line or not as he seems to prefer BNSF lines with better access.

 

 

Kent in SD

*of "Grumpy's World"

Scot, like your pics especially the last one of the rails and ties. In fact you should have that one enlarged (8 1/2 x 11) and framed. Entitle it "Rails and Ties". Nice and sharp. Thanks for showing.
Ray.

A few photos from a walk on the Panhandle Trail (ex-PRR mainline). As for actual trains, I have some old photos of N&W 611 on the American nearly 2 months ago.

 

Kent I have loved your photos for the longest time. The reason I speak up now is because I finally have let it all out of the bag on what I have been through in the past .  And there are a number of guys that have reached out to me  and are offering some needed advise and help.  I know that I will not be leaveing messages as long as you have due to my strokes but you can never say I ant trying.

   As you can see these are some of the Photos I have taken, and they are local Photos. One thing I probably do is try and extend my reach and go further west a few towns each time.   I shoot with a basic Nikon entry level d3200.   & a 300mm zoom lens & an 18-55mm lens,  so no tricks which I would love to learn someday.   Ok  take care  & remember we love your skills & keep  them coming.   

 

   Scot

A few from the Dexter, Missouri area this past week. Dan

 

 UP train OVPSP, empty oil cans out of Louisiana heading, back to Canada rolls to a stop at the crew change at N. Dexter, MO. The power is three CN motors, only one running, on the head end with another pushing on the rear.  July 25, 2015 

 

 

UP 7823 train, an empty frac sand train, rolls past the ex Missouri Pacific depot at Dexter, now a visitor center/museum. July 25 2015

 

 

UP 8710 train ZHOG4, motors through the Missouri Jct area in Dexter, crew change in about two miles.

 

 

NS 1028 UP train QNLPI, (N. Little Rock-Pittsburg), starts it departure from the Dexter, MO crew change. Lots of of power at the head end, only two are needed for power! 

July 28, 2015

Hrmm, seems I posted my photos on last week's thread....Nathan

Better late than never.

 

Tuesday's Whittier Freight in Bear Valley waiting for the green light to enter the tunnel & in Whittier cutaway from their freight & gone to bed.

 

1 more from iPhone - Bear Valley with glacier above MACs.