Teen Railfan Place - Winter 2010

[EJE818]

BNSF has actually been pretty good down here, with plenty of older power and foreign power. Down here the UP has been as boring as geck, with SD70Ms leading everything it seems! That's why you hardly ever see any pics from the UP from me anymore.

Today I went ovet to Homewood and saw four different J's operating, the 656, 659, 661 and 670. Yep, the 659 is back in Illinois stalking me again, not that I'll complain! I'll have pics tommorow.

I also finally caught the Chicago Rail Link in action.

[wctransfer]

Now hold on! The older power on the BNSF is on locals, and those renumbered SD40-2's are what I like to call "residents", and can be seen over and over again because they are stationed at Cicero and what not. We have that up here as well, renumbered SD40-2's, the 6821 (swoosh),8012(Green),7884(Green),8018(Green), and plenty of geeps. But on all of the main trains its Dash 9's and GEVO's.

Whereas the UP has much more variety, albeit still lacking in the interesting department. AC44,AC44W-CTE,AC45CTE,SD70M(Three phases),SD70ACe(Yuck...), the occasional Dash 9 and SD9043MAC sightings as well. BNSF, though, seems to make sure every train is well equipped with orange GE's. And of course your seeing the foriegn power! Because the trains head to Galesburg with the good stuff and then they cut it off there and send it back. I mean, don't get me wrong, we get foriegn power up here, but so much of the time its ruined by some leader such as "BNSF 4521", or "BNSF 5456", or "BNSF 7742"....you get my point.

Alec

[Anonymous]

First off, I really enjoyed all the trip reports. Great stuff especially when I've been non-MBTA train deprived recently!

--------------------------------

New stuff from me! (although it is just the MBTA!)

First of all, my video from railfannning the Red Line at Kendall / MIT station, then walking over the Longfellow Bridge and finding a bunch of geese quacking (?) at me at the baseball fields by Storrow Drive.

Geese and the Red Line

Next a short video from my commute home. My train arrived on the wrong track at my station, Westborough, so I had my camera out as soon as we took the crossovers just east of the station. I filmed the train departing on the wrong track, then turned my camera towards the CSX maintenance truck where a crew was working on a new rail joint.

While I knew what was going on, another commuter walked past and remarked to me that she was worried they were about to rip up the track and eliminate all outbound service to Westborough. Obviously that was one of the STUPIDEST remarks I've ever heard, and I only wish I had it on tape to put in this video! And that was the basis for this video. The titles are an odd mish-mash between her logic (pretty "special") and mine (correct, AS USUAL! )

Amazing Commuter Logic

[ns3010]

Nice!

Yum, yams...

 

So yesterday, Transit put out the proposed service cuts and fare increases. I'll just say it's not good-- at all. Cutting 36 trains, while only a few of them will actually be replaced/combined. Fare increases of 25%. That means it'll cost me $11 to go from here to Hoboken, instead of the $8.75 I paid back in the summer...

This is very bad, not only for railfans, but for anyone who uses Transit (light rail and buses included) every day...

http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/170419.aspx

[Anonymous]

Does NJT have student fare discounts? I have an MBTA student CharlieCard and I can ride all the way from Boston to Westborough (Milepost 33) for $3.60...

[ns3010]

The only "student discount" to speak of is for college students with monthlies. Other than that, nothing.

$3.60 is pretty good. Under the proposed fare increase, Hoboken to Newark Broad, which have no stations between them, will be $3.25 one way!

The worst part is the elimination of the Off Peak Round Trip (ORT). With the fare increases, ORT will no longer exist, and it will be the same price no matter if you travel during peak times or off-peak. Absolutely rediculous.

[EJE818]

Yeah I can see up there the lack of good power, down here we've gotten some pretty good stuff. Some examples.

Conrail leading BRCGAL, good stuff here! http://www.flickr.com/photos/24084206@N08/4409253765/

CSX leading a grain train. http://www.flickr.com/photos/24084206@N08/4413043306/

SD40-2 leading the 102 job, too bad the BN logo is gone. http://www.flickr.com/photos/24084206@N08/4386404206/

Pair of warbonnets, the patch on the second one is gone! http://www.flickr.com/photos/24084206@N08/4371838590/

It's been a good two weeks, now just gotta hope it continues! The bad thing about BNSF is they're replacing the CB&Q signal bridges that work perfectly fine with ugly generic new signals. The ones in Naperville are doomed, the ones in Lisle might not be far behind.

[ns3010]

Wow, this is hilarious! Transit states that the Asbury Park Press was completely off in their reports.

"It is unclear how/where/why APP..."

One little fact also said that there are 999 part time employees. Why not just make it an even 1000? Would probably make things a little easier...

http://www.njtransit.com/sa/sa_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=CustomerNoticeTo&NoticeId=2203

[EJE818]

Well today was kinda a sad day on the J, CN removed the classic stone whistle posts and milemarkers on the Western Sub between M.P 1 and 6, which is right by me. These whistle posts were standing since pretty much the beginning of the J in the late 1800s. CN replaced these classics with generic new signs.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1626376 That's one of them to the right, that was indeed one of the ones removed today. They also removed the stone milemarkers, which were unique as they showed the mileage to Joliet Yard on one side, and to Waukegan on the other side. Again, generic signs replaced those as well.

[Anonymous]

Watched the morning rush hour trains at North Station yesterday. All the clips in this video except for the last were shot in 20 minutes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jQ24h1S2k

[Noah Hofrichter]

 Joe, 1000 may be more of a round number, but that one extra part time person probably represents $30,000 dollars on the books in pay and perhaps more in benefits (if they're even offered to a part time worker). It's probably not much compared to the whole NJT budget, but it's still a decent chunk of change.

Neat videos around here lately, Ty! It's always nice when one can do a lot of railfanning in a short amount of time. Of course, that's usually averaged out by sitting trackside for hours without seeing anything that moves on steel wheels...

Noah

[ns3010]

Nice Tyler! That's pretty good for only 20 mins

Noah, I dunno about how much one extra part-time job would be, although I know they do not get benefits (that was explicitly stated in that thingy from above).

[WCfan]

Yesterday (3/13/10) I went out on the CP Tomah and River Sub divisions. I had to drop off my sisters car at Winona, so I decided to do a little rail fanning, and check out the shot at Tunnel City. When I got there, I found a very convenient place to park. I thought that it would be quite a hick up to the spot, I didn't expect to see a worn path up to the top! When I reached the photo location, I heard a distant north bound horn. I snapped this shot for the angle I wanted to get on a better day.

I explored the area a little more and found a few more angles to shoot from. About this time I could hear the north bound CP train heading through Tunnel City. I set up for a going away shot of a one unit wonder AC44. It's a pretty neat area up there.

I started to kill some time by hiking around the area some more. I knew that the old CNW tunnel was only a couple hundred feet or so away. Sure enough I found the portal, and I was surprised to see that it was still open! The hike down looked pretty steep, so I decided not to go down there. It was kind of eerie to see that abandoned. I don't know why, but it just gave me that feeling.

I decided to give up waiting for a south bound CP train, and head to Lacrosse. On my way to Lacrosse I heard the dispatcher give warrants out to the BNSF like crazy! Upon arriving, a south bound BNSF departed, and a north bound ore train arrived. A train was switching in the yard, and a north bound was waiting at the north end of the yard for a few BNSF south bounds to clear. In the yard I found a real nice surprise, a pair of BNSF SD40-2s. Although they were on a work train, it was really nice to see this pair.

I didn’t take any pictures of the other BNSF trains. I’m already kicking myself in the butt for doing that, even though I didn’t have any good angles. Later I headed over to the CP side of the river. On my way I heard IC&E 6410 get a new TGBO from Bluff to North Marquette YL. I had no idea where bluff was, so I didn’t even try to find that train. On my way north a SB one unit wonder blew past, I could not get a picture of that. Sitting at Homer was a NB manifest, another one unit wonder. I was able to get a picture of that, but it’s not very good. While heading north on the CP I could still hear the BNSF dispatcher handing out warrants. I also saw a SB Auto Rack on the other side of the river.

At Winona, I dropped my sisters car off, and pick up the vehicle I was suppose to take home. I started to make my way up to Goodview and Minnesota City, when a CP NB blew past me. I did see the signal indication though, which was yellow over yellow. I remembered in a clear block movie of the SOO, that a yellow over yellow indication meant that they were going to put that train into the siding. I waiting at Minnesota City for a while. but nothing came, so I left. Around Goodview I saw the head lights in the distance. I bailed out, and captured SOO 4411 leading a short NB manifest. It always happens to me, I always manage to screw up a picture of a SOO leader.

He also had the same yellow over yellow indication, which really stumped me. I decided to give up and check out the UP yard. A nice GATX leaser was sitting in the yard.

I headed back into Winona, and what do you know, a SB manifest was blew through town. I went out to get some lunch before I went home and coming back through Winona, a NB manifest was blasting its’ way through town. Just my luck. back in 08 and 09 I would sit all day in Winona, and one train would come by every two hours, if that. Now, they were blasting by ever half hour to an hour. Just my luck. Next time I go to Tunnel City, I hope it’ll be sunny, and hopefully I’ll be able to get some trains.

 

[Lord Atmo]

 Finally resurfacing for a chance to get some shots, I was able to sneak away to the Twin Cities for some fanning action. If anyone knows where "Bandana Square" is (There's a steamer on display in front of it and a BN boxcar out back with a coaling tower), I was hanging out on a parking ramp nearby overlooking the CP. I heard rumors that SOO SD60s were back in service and I had to see them!

Sadly....None showed up. All I got was this nifty catch:

That would be my first AC6000CW. Leading too. Judging by the rolling stock all being hoppers of CSX heritage, I'm gonna guess this was a CSX Potash train using CP trackage rights.

After 30 minutes of nothing, I went to check out the BNSF. Found a neat footbridge that goes right over the mainline. And of course only saw ONE train...

[BNSF & DMIR 4Ever]

Well, after almost a month, I found a good time to do a bit of fanning. Nothing real spectacular, just a couple of coal trains, one empty, one loaded.

 

Empty with classic BN cars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzzj2oeXyQE

 

Loads with a Dash 9 leading

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKfvQuYhrzU