Forums

[EJE818]

I caught two EJ&E powered trains today, one of them a all rail taconite train off the BNSF, and the other a light power move. Speaking of EJ&E, it is that time of year that they lease power, and they are leasing some pretty good power, three HLCX SD40M-2s in the maroon and blue paint. One of them is in a SD45 body, which is pretty neat, but one of them is even more appealing then that! One of them is a former Erie Lackwanna SDP45 that still has its SDP45 body!

[Cheese]

Hello All,

I am new to this topic, but, I'd like to become a regular here. I haven't done anyrailfanning yet, but I plan to very soon.

A very recent Google Earth search of surrounding areas has revealed several promising places. The closest, and possibly the best, is Dillon, SC. With the passage of 4 daily Amtrak trains and several freights, and being 45 miles away, rougly a 45-50 minute drive, sounds promising. I might go up on Saturday. Dillon is also home to a Junction, with a smaller line crossing the main with a connecting track.

I have found Google Earth to be useful in revealing places good for railfanning. In the past, my record keeping stratagies have been very bad, usually I have lost the papers by the time I return home, so I went a bought a $9 journal to write things down in where I can get to them quickly and neatly.

I'll let y'all know how Dillon was if I go. Right now its off to Amtrak.com to check the Dillon Schedule.

Cheese

 

[WCfan]

Welcome to TRP, and Railfanning. Good luck with the spots. Railfanning is alot of fun. Espically when you get somthing you really wanted.

I haven't been regularly posting here as it is winter and I don't do much RFing in Winter. I really started because of the fourms. One person helped me with starting to serouusly Railfan. I also had a goal, to get all the WC I can. I'm not regreting all the trips I did. I've gotten all the operating WC SD40-2s, nearly half of all the WC GP40s, 2500 twice, the map unit and the flag unit, and a good chunk of SW1500s. Compared to when I took ym first picture of a WC way back in late 06 of WC GP40 3002, and 3005. Compared to now, having over a hundred pictures of WC locomotives.

[coborn35]

WIMP!!! GO GET 4 MORE COATS AND SOME GLOVES AND KEEP SHOOTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

great pics i like the snow shots, cool efects when it snows

Its not even cold when it snows....try living by the largest lake in the world.....

[nssr9169]

WIMP!!! GO GET 4 MORE COATS AND SOME GLOVES AND KEEP SHOOTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

great pics i like the snow shots, cool efects when it snows

Its not even cold when it snows....try living by the largest lake in the world.....

 

Its been a warm winter tho no neg 50 yet.......

[Packer]

Nothing lower than 28 this year..... I want it to snow. It snowed in Daytona!!!!

[EJE818]

Well the Mark Twain Zephyr was supposed to be pulled out today by the EJ&E, but they were running late so they postponed that until Tuesday. I did get to see four EJ&E trains today though!

[WCfan]

Hey guys. I'm going to Stevens Point tommrow. The first tiem to Stevens Point this year. It will be the one year annvasary of taking my first picture of 2500. Sadly she won't be there.

Anyway There is a train show I'm going to. I'll see if I can find any WC rolling stock I like. possably locomotiuves. But I learned the hard way not to buy locomotives that aren't brand new in the box.

Also, Hopefuly I can catch the Stevens Point to Wausau local, A407, at the lake du bay bridge showen below. Do you have any tips for taking some winter pictures, and Bridge pictures? I was thinking of taking it when the lead loco just crosses the bridge and the trailing unit is behind it that is still on the bridge.

[trainboyH16-44]

First off, welcome Cheese! I don't use google earth, I find the only real way to find good spots are to actually walk or bike the line, something I don't do enough of...I've only biked Miles 2-11, 100-107, and 119-121 of my sub.

Next, while we're talking about snow, we actually got a few inches overnight! And yes, I shoveled the snow barefoot and in a t shirt. It's hard to get much more hardcore than me without breaking the law

 

[coborn35]

Supposed to get to -60 here tommorow.

[EJE818]

I heard about how cold it is supposed to get up in the Duluth area. It is supposed to get cold here also, but not quite that cold!

Here are some EJ&E photos from the last two days. The first one is of SD38-2s 667, 658 and 672 leading a all rail taconite train. This first photo was taken near Turner Junction.

The train was pulling into the siding preparing to stop at West Bridge Junction, there was a derailment at Woodruff Road just east of here, just a truck or two jumped the tracks. It slowed down the trio of SD38-2s just enough to be able to catch them coming into Crest Hill.

Just east of West Bridge Junction, EJ&E SD38-2s 666 and 659 head light eastbound towards Joliet Yard, but the derailment also held these up.

Today was a much brighter day, and train JSW1, the Joliet-East Morris local heads down the Illinois River Line just south of Minooka with none other then SD38-2 659 making another appearance. 663 is the trailer.

[B.Erdmann]

Im goin to that same show as well not sure if ill spend any money since i want a new camera. maybe if i find something cheap ill get it. dont forget to dress warm tomorrow either. suppose to be -10 or somthing.

[Cheese]

Hello, 

The Good Lord above must have been looking out for me yesterday, for I got off work early and decided to do some railfanning, and it was a good choice. A call to the Carolina Southern revealed that a freight was coming into Chadbourn, NC from Mullins and might possibly continure onto Conway, where the locos would be detached to collect load cars of lumber for 84 lumber here in Myrtle Beach.

So, I and a friend drove up to Chadbourn, and got a picture of a single locomotive moving around the station area, followed by the freight with an impressive engine lash-up. A chop-nosed GP18 still in Mid-Atlantic paint, followed by an F7 B unit in CN colors, and an ex-CN F7 in Carolina Southern red and white.

The B-unit in CN colors is sort of a "Heritage Unit", a term borrowed from UP's Heritage Loco Fleet. When the F7 A and B were bought (along with another A, sadly out of service since 2000, but possibly to return soon, along with a freshly shopped nose GP-18 still in Waccamaw Coast Line ACL inspired purple) by the Waccamaw Coast Line (Myrtle Beach to Conway) they were painted in CN colors with "WCL" in small letters on the cab. The WCL was bought by th Carolina Southern when it took over the Mid-Atlantic (Mullins, Chadbourn, and Conway with a branch to Whiteville) it re-painted the A units and left the B unit in CN colors.

Well, the train did not continue to Conway, and instead tied up in the Chadbourn Yards. After watching the switching of the cars, we drove to Mullins, SC, the far end of the CS system, where it interchanges with the CSX. We crossed the CSX and pulled into the Sav-way station beside the tracks. We went into the store to use the facilities and get some snacks, and when we came out we were greated by the far off sound of an air horn. Two CSX ES44's running light passed us and continued up the tracks about 100 feet or so to a siding, where they stopped. We drove out of the gas station to photograph them, which we did. We also saw a Hi-rail truck on the road, which I took a picture of out of my wind-sheild. When I put the camera down my friend said she saw the man driving it looking at me as though I was crazy.

The we went to Dillon to see the 4:25 PM arrival of Southbound train #89 "The Palmetto". In true Amtrak fashion, it had not yet arrived at 5:20 PM. At that point we headed home, but it was not a dissapointing day.

The day was overcast, and alot of the pictures came out poorly lighted. But now that I know how to work my camera I expect my pictures will get better, so expect some in the near future.

Cheese

[WCfan]

Pretty cool Cheese. Can't wait to see soem photos.

Anyway I went to Stevens Point today. I got to get to the yard, go to the Point Model RR show, met up with Brent and got some really rare Equpiment.

At Point first up was IC 6000.

That was basicly all the power there. Besides WC 1571 and a CN slug set switching in the yard. So we decided to go to the show when I noticed a Flash of yellow and a WC sheild off to my left. I told my dad to head over the the Depot. Sure enough there was a Jordan Spreader sitting there. I'm suprised on how off center i had this shot.)

Well while going over to get there I noticed that there was a SOO gon on the Car Shope tracks. So we headed back there. sure enough there was a SOO gon AND a AC Bulk head gon. It's pretty bad lighting but you get the picture.

Here's the AC gon.

Well we head to the train show. I call up Brent to see where he was, and he was right behind me. At the show I got a SOO 7-Post Boxcar from the SLHTS, and a SOO 50' Plug door in the 1980s repaint scheme. I also picked up a WC exterior Post boxcar that was a Train Fest Limited run car. I also bought a nice picture of the A407 with 7526 leading and 2500. It was nice to Talk to brent and some of his friends about WC and such.

After the Show I headed back to the yard. Nothing really didn't change. But I went back to get a SOO boxcar. It had the Parrellgram scheme which is RARE. I had a WAY better photo from the other side. But it came up as a "Unreconized File Format" which kinda got me ticked. But I still got a photo of it.

WC 3024 and IC 3107 Show up. It was getting later in the day and the sun was coming up. So the lighting is HORRIABLE. But still, I got a picture of a WC I don't have.

Here's another picture of 3025.

Here's IC 3107.

Well I went back to get another picture of the Jordan Spreader when I hear a Horn. It sounded like a SW1500 coming from Storo Enso, but it wasn't. It was a train coming from Canada. Anyway my new Camera ran out of battery but lucky I had my old one along. So most of these pictures are on my old camera.

Here's a grade crossing shot.

Well we head back to the OTHER end of the yard because Brent called me and said that A407 was coming. So we go to the other end of the yard and sure enough A407 is coming. She is seen here switching crews with the other train pictured.

Well after that I decide to head home. BUT, I heard that BNSF took over msot coal operations in WI over CN. So we went to the Weston Power plant. Sure enough 3 BNSF unit are sitting there.

Here's another shot.

Here;s ym last shot of the day.

[Noah Hofrichter]

It's been a long and cold day with lots of suprises, but it was a fun one for me. It started out with a friend and I planning to go out to do a little railfanning around the Dells and Portage. We got to the Dells just in time to see CP 199 go by us, and then two foremen got warrants out on the main for a while. (Because of the cold temperatures, everywhere we went there were forman highballing the line. We ended up hearing three broken rails on three different railroads by the time the day was done.)

Since it looked like the end to the traffic for a while, we weren't sure what to do. Finally my friend suggested we should head for Wisconsin Rapids and Stevens Point for the day, and we decided to go for it. We ended up chasing trains around Junction City, Wisconsin Rapids, and Stevens Point (including some of the same trains WC fan saw), as well as catching a meet on the Adams line on the way home. It was a really good day I think. I just got home about a half hour ago, so it'll probably be tomorrow before I get pictures edited, but if they look as good on the computer as they did on the camera, they should be good!

Neat shots WCfan. It's interesting how many of the same trains we ran into in different places. On the way up I remembered you guys had talked about a train show, but since I wan't expecting to be going that way I hadn't looked up any of the details. It didn't really matter anyway, as we had enough trains to keep us busy!

Noah