I hope y'all had as good of a morning train watching as I did...

[blhanel]

It was a banner day for me this morning. Started by going down to Coralville and getting some good shots of the Hawkeye Express, the shuttle train used to alleviate some of the parking problems created by Iowa football games. I'd promised to do this for some inquiring members- yes, it's really the Rio Grande Ski Train trainset.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archivethumbs.aspx?id=7231

From there, I headed west following the IAIS and found one of their freights sitting on a siding in Homestead, IA- no crew, split in two for a grade crossing, not even idling. Such good looking engines, though...

http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=198228
http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=198227

Then I headed up to UP's Beverly Yard to see what was cooking on the transcon and turned on the scanner. Turns out that things were all fouled up, thanks to some mechanical problems on the engines of a westbound COFC train. The dispatcher had routed them over to Track #1 and parked them just east of the yard, and the engines were brought up to the west end to use a wye to turn them around- apparently something was awry in the lead engine (the SD70M).

http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=198294
http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=198293
http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=198296
http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=198295

After coupling back up with their train on the east end, they discovered that SD70ACe's in-cab signaling wasn't working, and the yard office confirmed "Yeah, it's been flagged that way since June". So, they uncoupled the first two locos and swapped them, putting the AC45CWCTE on the point. I had to leave before they were able to fini***his, so I don't know if it was ultimately successful, but in the meantime only one main, Track #2, was usable. At one point, there were four eastbounds waiting west of Fairfax. Got lots of good pictures of the action passing them by (the rest of the pictures marked "new" in this album), and a bonus shot of CRANDIC doing some work on their parallel line-

http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net/archivethumbs.aspx?id=6832&Page=2

All in all, a good day. And Iowa beat Illinois, too![:D]

[Murphy Siding]

Nice photos. Don't you just love fall days? What can you tell me about IAIS? I've heard the name and seen the name on maps, but don't know a thing about it. A grain hauler, possibly?

[blhanel]

According to my map, Iowa Interstate runs clear across the state from Council Bluffs thru Des Moines, the Quad Cities, and on into Illinois, terminating in Peoria. The trains I've seen on that line, including today's example, have been fairly mixed, but do seem to have mostly grain and grain products in their consists. Some of the interchange runs that leave the southwest side of Cedar Rapids consist entirely of tank cars from ADM.

Yes, I do love fall with all the colors starting to show.[:)]

I recently modified my profile to add a couple of notes in my sig- can someone tell me why they're not showing up in my posts?

[Murphy Siding]

I'm thinking that is on the old Rock Island?

I can't help you on the sig problem. I'm the guy trying to find a watch with hands that move! Every year I find myself thinking that Ted Kazinski's (uni-bomber) theories about technology aren't all that bad.[;)]

[blhanel]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding

I'm thinking that is on the old Rock Island?

Yep, I believe you're right, IIRC.

QUOTE: I can't help you on the sig problem. I'm the guy trying to find a watch with hands that move! Every year I find myself thinking that Ted Kazinski's (uni-bomber) theories about technology aren't all that bad.[;)]

[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]
I just bought a watch the other day at our local Von Maur store (a regional clothing chain)- they didn't have hardly ANY digital watches; of course, everything was priced upwards of $50, and as high as $700 for some of the Swiss Army watches they had.[:0]

[railroadyoshi]

Glad you had fun. Today we took my cousins in to see Boston, so I got to see lots of MBTA Red Line Subway trains running along I-93 above ground. I also saw the Amtrak maintainance facility as well as S Station and a bunch of Amtrak trains. Also, when we were heading home via I-90, I saw for the first time a freight train on the move on that line. I knew there were container trains that ran that line, among other trains aside from Amtrak and the MBTA commuter rail, but this was the first time I saw them in person[:)]

[CShaveRR]

Yes, the Iowa Interstate is the old Rock Island route from Council Bluffs to Chicagoland. East of Bureau, Illinois, the trackage is owned by CSX, but IAIS runs its trains as far east as Burr Oak Yard, in Blue Island.

Elaborating: CSX owns the old RI trackage between Joliet and Bureau. Between Joliet and Blue Island, I believe, one track is owned by CSX and one by Metra. East (geographically north) of Blue Island Metra owns everything.

[blhanel]

Testing, 1...2...3

Still trying to get my sig to show up...

Obviously that didn't work either.[:(]