General Discussion (Trains.com)

I was in Boston today at a training session for the Museum of Science's Volunteer Program, and I spent some time afterwards at the park across the street railfanning.

Alex: This is the location I mentioned to you on Skype last week or so.

North Station is right across the river, and the twin ex-B&M lift bridges were kept busy with boat traffic on a great weekend.



The Museum of Science is also very close to the Lechmere Viaduct on the Green Line.



Duck Boat! These amphibious vehicles are a staple of Boston traffic. (With my Museum of Science badge, I get free rides, so maybe I'll get you some photos taken from the Duck Boat sometime this summer!  )



A shot from underneath the bridge. The crossties above span an open gap, and it gets pretty loud when a train passes overhead! You can see that in the video link at the bottom of this post.



And of course, the photos don't show the lift bridges in action, or the bottom of the Green Line at speed, so check out the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxp3talskkU

Enjoy!

I'm back from the Dells, and despite yesterday and today being as slow as heck on the CP, the first three days made up for it! I caught 486/487 with IC&E power three times throughout the trip, as well as one of the few large pac-man SD40-2s left on the CP leading a 283 train, as welll as the normal Amtrak, CP and BNSF coal trains.

UP 3028 looks to be an excellent addition to the IRM roster, even though it's time as UP 3028 will probably be short lived. IRM hopes to have it running during diesel days in unpatched CNW paint from what I have read. It was retired last December in operatable condition from what I have heard so it won't take much to get it running by Diesel Days. It is currently at Proviso waiting to be sent to IRM and they are hoping to get it sometime this week.

One other significant thing is that the 3028 is believed to be the first SD40-2 to be preserved.

Tomorrow i start my new job, im working at a publishing place in Iola. luckely its only 16 hrs a week so ill have some off time. i need to get out & watch trains, havent really done so for a few weeks.

I feel deprived of not seeing a train in almost two weeks.
I'm going down the shore tomorrow. I might go railfanning in Bay Head and/or Point Pleasant either Wednesday or next Tuesday (or both!). They look like the two days with the least favorable beach weather, so why not. Only thing is there's a 40% chance of rain down there for Wednesday, so that may be out of the picture.

I want to get all that I can in, because once I (hopefully) get a job, between the beach and work, finding time for railfanning might be a little tough.

For once in a long time, I caught a MAC-less train on my home subdivision, the Brainerd Subdivision.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqLtazUvodE&feature=channel_page

UP 3028 has arrived at the Illinois Railway Museum. It can be viewed from the museum website's mainline webcam.

I will have photos from the Dells trip up later tonight or tommorow, videos are still being put on Youtube, most have already been uploaded but more are coming!

Evening,

Well, we went to Lafayette today to see where the parking spots were to park the car while we are on vacation. well, come to find out, the construction to the station parking lot is still bumbling on amlessly. The "new" parking lot is a quarter mile away! WoW! Outrageous! Well, needless to say we won't be getting on at Lafayette IN. Mom says she will cancel the tickets to Chicago from Lafayette and will order more from A town called Crofordsville IN. A few miles south.

Well, at the station we saw a CSX work train tieng up things on the main line. 4 really beat up MOW gons., and 2 tall yellow gons. with new ties in them. One of these yellow cars had a big John Deere "pncher" up on top unloading fresh ties along the tracks. Pretty cool operation! What got me is that the train was being pulled by a big hi-rail truck. Lot's uh' weight there.

BTW, Great shots everyone!

Justin

Neat photos Tyler. I always like lift bridges, though I don't get to see too many around here.

Good to hear you had a good trip Robby! The CP is feast or famine lately, but I'm glad to see you got at least some of the "feast."

I've got a few more "new" photos to share myself. I'm finally starting to get through the backlog of photos I have from the last few months. Included in that are some photos from back in April of a short lived operating scheme on the Wisconsin and Southern Reedsburg sub that actually allowed one to see two trains in daylight. Unfortunately they quit the practice pretty quickly and went back to nocturnal operations...

Photos:

L486 headed through North Freedom, WI, 182 miles from Chicago:

WSOR 4050 arrives Rock Springs and passes the power for it's counterpart train, L863. L463 (today led by the 4050) would bring cars up from Madison to Rock Springs in the early afternoon, just in time for L863 to go on duty using the WSOR 3801 at Rock Springs. The L863 would then switch the industries between Reedsburg and Baraboo.

After dropping off the grain empties in the background, the 4050 heads to make a pick up and depart for Madison:

The L863 crew is starting their days work with the 3801 as the crew of the 4050 prepares to depart in the background:

And finally I chased the L486 back to the Wisconsin River bridge at Merrimac in the late evening sun. I'm glad I did, because I wouldn't have the chance to do so again before the job was abolished.

Enjoy!

Noah

Great pictures Noah!

Neat shots Tyler!

I should probably post my Iowa/Illinois trip soon. I didn't get the MSPKC, but as we where heading south we ran into a NB train. We chased that for a little bit, but the darn thing was going north, so it was terriably lit. I caught one more train on the way, and some stuff in Savanna. We stayed in a hotel in Clinton instead of Savanna, and I caught some stuff there. The next day I caught a train I didn't expect to get, and an awesome leader too. At Rochelle there was some nice stuff too on the BNSF, and that was about it. In August I'm going to take a northern Illinois trip.  

Great shots guys!

Probably heading up to Bay Head and/or Point Pleasant tomorrow.

Nice photos guys.

Well should I share a few videos? Some you might have already seen, but here we go:

First attempt at a pace shot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a51fMyUC55Q

Couple of 40-2's on the Expressway at Mud Lake, Ontario:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9YJx8vzGF8&feature=channel_page

And finally a mixed freight outside of Perth, Ontario:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWJApURQtYo&feature=channel

Shot back in April of this year. Enjoy!

Alex, nice job! I really like the pace.

Well, the weather today is crappy, so it looks like I'll be going up to BH and PPB later... No beach today!

As usual, excellent photography, Noah! I especially like that one of the long hood-first SD40-2 on the bridge - the sun reflecting off the sides of the loco and boxcars really make the shot!

Alex: That pacing shot is pretty awesome! The scream of the F40PH units in full throttle (with no wind like many other pacing shots) is awe-inspiring combined with the scenery flashing past.

Thanks guys!

It all happened by accident, we were just leaving St. Luc Yard when the train pulled out of the Via Rail station. So I pulled the camera out, and started filming. He picks up speed pretty quick, at the beginning, he's only doing about 35 MPH and by the end of the clip, he was doing 90 MPH, and so were we!

Next time, tripod and chase a slower freight instead. The only thing I am worried about is that the camera might absorb all the bumps in the road and be really shaky if I use a tripod. I also have to see if I can do this in the summer. I think there might be too many leaves and bushes in the way by now.

 GUYS,

JUST GOT A CALL FROM AMTRAK. CAN'T COME HOME THE WAY WE CAME ON UP.  SO... WE ARE BEING RE ROUTED THROUGH SALT LAKE CITY AND GOING THROUGH WYOMING! I CAN'T WAIT!