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[Noah Hofrichter]

I musta missed something somewhere; why did a few of the EJE units get black trucks, anyway?

Still neat shots, Jordan. I don't think I woulda really noticed the low DOF if you hadn't said something. I can understand what you mean about the power, but I'd dig a chase with a barn leading even now! Full cowl units are always neat, IMO. Then again, I don't see them very often, not living near the CN.

I should have a new trip report soon. Might be the fastest I've ever processed a set of photos (first photo taken to fully processed set of pictures in less than 16 hours!).

Noah

[Anonymous]

Looking forward to the trip report, Noah!

WCfan

I have a pretty bad case of CNitus. It's a rare disease caused by overexposure to common CN power under grey skies. The only cure is to be with blue skies, with classic power.

 

Can't help with the blue skies as it's been pretty yucky over here too, but we could talk to CN and CSX, tell them our concerns, and get them to trade power for a few weeks! I wouldn't mind seeing some CN power around here! We've already been getting a lot of run-through BNSF and NS power up on Pan Am Railways - why not CN on CSX? We've even got some GP40-2s based out of Framingham that we can send you. Maybe Amtrak would want to get in on the deal - they haul our commuter trains and you get GP40MCs and F40PH-2Cs on your Amtrak trains! YUM!

[Noah Hofrichter]

 Well, CSX already has been sending units this way to the CP. Apparently they owe a lot of horsepower hours to the Candians. Read on for an example...

My apologies in advance that this is a touch long. But there is a moral to the story, one that is common to those in our hobby: the good stuff always runs the wrong way for the sun...

So I had decided a few weeks ago that I should just stay down in Platteville this last weekend and try to relax. Of course, "staying in Platteville" is a relative term since my definition of that includes going roaming and foaming on the weekend if the weather is nice. Last Sunday I woke up about 7am and found the sun peering in through my window. A quick check of the radar showed a rather large band of clouds to the north however that were moving quickly this way, but otherwise it was clear skies all around. I went back and forth for a while, but eventually I decided that since the band looked small, perhaps they'd move through and I'd find more mostly sunny weather behind it. And all I was going to do if i stayed home was sit in front of the computer all day, and I really didn't feel like doing that. So I decided that one has to take risks once and a while and set out for Dubuque (not too far away, so even if it's a wash I wouldn't loose much in gas money).

The trip down came under mostly sunny skies, but there was that leering cloud line off to the north that was almost following me. The scanner was quiet as a church mouse on the way over to the River, and when I parked by the BNSF tracks in East Dubuque, IL and waited for a while it didn't get much noisier. In fact, it was pretty much dead. I was starting to doubt my decision as the cloud line drew ever closer. Finally a westbound train (directionally north) cleared up a warrent to a point about 20 miles south of me, and he had an NS unit as an identifier. Great, but of course it was a northbound and coming straight out of the sun. He appeared before too long, but the shot is so mediocre I won't waste your bandwidth with it.

Shortly after him the clouds socked in East Dubuque like I thought they would. As I flipped back and forth between the railroad channels and the NOAA (Looking for reports to see where it was mostly sunny and if I could determine from them where the rear of the cloud bank was), I was surprised to hear the detector south of town go off and see a headlight coming at me. I jumped out for a shot and continued the theme of the day with the lead unit:



I don't think I've seen a Ferromex GE before until now. Sharp looking unit, but I sure wish I'd been in a better position to capture him! The good power always runs away from the sun...

I went back to my parking spot, and I was trying to figure out why the last train had been running wrong main and through the cross over at Cabin. I thought I had heard something on the scanner about a CN train at Galena, and I also knew for certain there were two eastbound coming down river that were somewhere up by Cassville (about 20 miles north). I spent a short time sitting before another headlight appeared to the south. As he came closer, it turned out to be M338, the CN manifest from Chicago to somewhere in Iowa. The CN runs over the BNSF from Galena to here at East Dubuque, where they go through a cool curved tunnel and over the Mississippi river to Dubuque (which I shot back in December). I quickly hopped in the car and headed over the bridge to see if I could get in position for a shot of him crossing the Mississippi. I managed to get parked and up the flood wall just in time to see the last engine coming off the west end of the bridge. Oh well, maybe next time. The good part, however is that he moves so slow I was able to beat him over to Dubuque Junction for what I think is a neat shot with the station sign that still has a Chicago Central logo on it:



Someday when CN Dash 9s are a rare catch, I'll really be happy to have that shot...

As you can see, by this time the sun was starting to bleed through just a little bit, and a definite cloud line was developing to the north, headed this way. At the same time, the BNSF was starting to plug up with seemingly everything descending on the area at once. While shooting M338 I missed the first eastbound, but I arrived in time to catch the second who was running on restricting indications from the eastbound ahead of him. I had heard the DS ask him if he had a DPU or not, so I assumed it must be a taconite all train from northern Minnesota, and I was right. He had what I consider a decent leader too, and a DPU. I think this was a Keetac train for those of you who have any idea of what I'm talking about:

At this point I made a calculated error. The DS had told both eastbounds that he was going to hold them at Portage to "run two around you." Thinking this meant two westbounds, I decided to hike up on the pedestrian part of the road bridge over East Cabin to see if there was a decent shot from up there (and it turns out there is for a westbound). However, just as I walked up the bridge, another BNSF all rail tac train with three motors and the coal-type hoppers blasted by (in good light too), but I was in no good position to shoot him. Oh, well, you can't win them all.

Realizing my mistake, I was ready for the second of the two going "around" them, not meeting them as I had assumed. Back to the good old East Cabin shot for a run of the mill stack train:

I knew of no more traffic, but I was getting tired of the shot here, so I decided to explore south of town. I noticed a restricting indication for an eastbound however, and wondered if there could possibly be another eastbound on the way. I saw a little bridge I wanted to investigate, and just as I found my way back there, I noticed a headlight up by Murphy coming south. Yep, there was! And thankfully I was set up on the right main (Main 1 and main two seperate by about 1/4 mile here for 1-3 miles) to shoot a manifest with one of the uglier noses I've ever seen on the BNSF:

Thinking I had to be running the well dry before too long, I started thinking about how quiet the ICE had been all day. As though I had wished it, a moment later the ICE Iowa Operations DS came on to ask a southbound where he was clear of. He was at MP 55, or about 10 miles north of Dubuque. Finally! Deciding to abandon the BN, I headed over the river and got to the ICE yard just as he did. It turned out to be a 2-170 with a consist that left me with mixed feelings, and you'll see why in a moment. For the record, while I was over the river another BNSF eastbound showed up and was told he'd have to wait for the log jam ahead of him to clear. So there was one more...

The 2170 was quick about his pick up and set out. While he working I also heard the ICE dispatcher came on to give another southbound behind the DME 6072 a warrent from MP 66 to NSS Dubuque: cool! The 2170 called the CN DS to get through town shortly there after. My shot by the CN yard office shows why I have mixed feelings:



That's two CP SD40-2s (yuck) leading a pair of CITX leasers (cool paint scheme!). If the CITX engines, or any blue and yellow engine, had been leading I might have chased this thing south right away. But as it was I decided to let him go and hope the second train had a good set of power. I made a mental note, however, that the train got a "clear main track" warrant down at Green Island, a siding about 30 miles south. Experience told me this smelled of a meet in the works.

The next train wasn't that far behind, so I went to the ICE yard to set up for the overhead shot. It turned out to be a 360, and he got all the warrants he needed to go through straight through town with his 75 loads (I believe it's a KCS feeder grain train). I was trying to figure out whether the 6072 would be a blue and yellow engine or a ratty ex CP engine when he appeared around the corner and answered my question:



Drat. Oh well. Now I had a dilemma: whether to follow to Bellevue, IA (the next location one can rejoin the tracks about twenty miles down river) or not. I went back and forth, but figuring the BNSF had to be getting quiet after the number of trains they'd just run, and that I've always wanted to do a really cool Bellevue shot, no matter the conditions, I decided to go for it. I was hoping to maybe catch up to the 2170, but with 40mph track in stretches I arrived Bellevue just behind him. Unfortunately, down here the clouds were still out in force with a cloud line about 10-15 miles south of town. Oh well, I'm here, I might as well shoot 360 here anyway. I headed up on the bluff to wait. When the 360 arrived he ended up doing the same, as he had to wait for the meet to go off down at Green Island before he could get the 2170 to release any more track. But after about a twenty minute delay and making plans for the 360 to meet the northbound (whose symbol I never heard, but I believe to be 273), he finally came through town. Even cloudy and with a pair of DME reds, it is a nice shot, and probably the shot of the day:

I decided to head a couple miles south of town to see if I could find a shot for the northbound that would be coming. It turned out that with the slow order through town, I was able to catch up to the rear of the train just as he was accelerating to the 40mph speed limit. Despite what right now I consider terrible power, I figured in 20 years I might be happy with one more shot, so I decided to gun it and see what I could do. Not really knowing the territory I just happened to luck out and got ahead of him just enough to do a stop and run grab shot at this little bridge about 5 miles south of town (and the sun even came out!):

Not wanting to drive the 5 miles further to Green Island for a cloudy shot, I decided to wait out the meet at a spot I picked out near the MP 15.8 detector. There was a lot of radio chatter that, long story short, told me there'd be a second westbound using a CSX unit as an identifier. Okay, so it's a GE, but at least it's a blue and yellow one! Soon the first north train got a warrant using the ICE 6437. Finally, good odds I'd have blue and yellow leading!

Sure enough, after another short wait he appeared in the S curve with probably the consist of the day. Once again when I first got here the sun was lightly bleeding through the clouds, but by the time the train arrived it disappeared. The sun never shines on the good power...

They were radio blocking with the CSX train close behind, so it was easy to keep tabs on where each train was. I headed into Bellevue for a street running shot. Admittedly here the lack of sun might have been okay, as it would have been horribly nose dark at this time of day:



He was moving slow enough and the second train was far enough behind that I decided to try the overpass shot north of town. Again, the lighting wouldn't have been very good if the sun was out:



I let him go and decided to do a repeat performance for the ethanol train. Once again it wasn't long before the 627 (I think) arrived, since they were running about 4 miles apart. At least shooting CSX units is something different, and it's blue and yellow, even if it isn't SD40s:





As you can see in the second shot, there was at least one other foamer out and about this day.

With that I decided to call it a day, as the first train had beat me to Dubuque and wouldn't be well lit for the rest of his journey anyway. I consider it to have been a pretty good one, even with the clouds in spots. I really need to repeat this sometime with more sun (and better motive power consists!). But, I'm not complaining: I was just happy to catch a fair amount of trains. And at least I managed to not let February slip away without shooting something in 1:1 scale.

Enjoy, and once again my apologies on the length! Hopefully the photos don't look too bad: I'm processing on the crappy laptop monitor again.

Noah

[WCfan]

Tyler, I wouldn't mind a little CSX or NS power. We get BNSF power on coal trains, which do make for nice chases. I especially like the non-nose light SD70ACes on the BNSF.

Noah, the EJ&E units have been getting black trucks when they have been going in for some moderate repair. Only two units have black trucks now. EJ&E 662 was having some engine troubles, so they send it down to Homewood. The SD60F cowls have grew on me a little, but not so much the GE cowls. I should still shoot them, I'm almost positive that I'll be happy to have those shots.

Also, great report Noah! That is something I need to do again. I know what you mean when you say the good power always comes out of the sun. About the leasers, a lot have been heading down the ICE, and a few have showed up on the DME. The SOO SD60s have also been running around on the ICE. Ian caught an SD60M, SD60, lash-up that looked straight out of the D&I in the 90s. I enjoyed your Bluff Shot at Bellevue. I haven't gotten a train from up there, but I can at least say that I was up there. The shot is getting a little past it's prime. The brush up there was starting to get more over grown, and the trees down at the track side are starting to get big. Even with the ratty red bombers, it is still a nice shot. You know I have noticed that since the CP take over, most if not all the ex CP SD40-3s have gotten the "DME" lettering on the side. I wonder if CP did that to help tell the units apart. I also enjoyed the S curve shot, along with the rest of the Bellevue shots. It's funny on how similar our compositions can be, as evident in the last DME trip I took. But it's also funny on how our interpretations of a shot can be different too. An example would be the Bellevue Bridge shot.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcfan/3651831345/

I think on Good Friday I'm going go explore the Tunnel City area and see if I can find that shot, along with any other interesting shots on the CP in that area.

 

[ns3010]

Wow Noah, nice shots! I really like that one with the train stretched across the entire town (with the CP SD40s leading)!

I always wish we could have other stuff here... But no matter what, the Geeps are staying! I would't mind if I never saw anything other than those ever again!
But you guys can borrow a few PL42s. And you can use the MP20B-3s in yard service. And if you guys had overhead, we could give you a few ALPs, but that'd be kinda hard without juice out west...

[EJE818]

662 had whatever the engine problem it had repaired, it had its heat converted to electric heat, and it got new trucks. Also, I've seen shots of DM&IR 211, WC 3026 and WC 3027 getting worked on in the shops at Woodcrest. I know for sure CN is bringing 211 back into service. I'm kinda curious if they are also going to be bringing those two WCs back into service. Hopefully they do, as well as bring some other ones back. EJ&E 663 is down for work again at Homewood too.

 The other J that had its trucks replaced, 672 had some traction motor problems, so CN just replaced both trucks on it. Thankfully they didn't strip 662 or 672 of their strobes or leslie horns like they did with 667.

Nice shots Noah!

[Noah Hofrichter]

Thanks guys! Glad you enjoyed the pictures.

I guess at least it's a good thing that when they did the truck swap on the Js they didn't bother doing any repainting of the whole engine. But silver definitely looks better though...

Anybody who's on orerail saw that the DMIR 211 will be back,  but it sounds like in CN paint. Better than nothing I guess, but it still leaves the maroon count at two...

 Jordan, I agree with you that the shot is a little brushy. One can't even shoot the train on the bridge down and to the right anymore because it's blocked by trees, and before too long those trees right behind the engine are going to get big enough it'll make it a tough angle to shoot. That's part of why I've made it my goal to shoot there in winter, early spring, and fall when some of the leaves are off the trees.

Even without the trains though, its a beautiful spot. There was plenty of wildlife around, as with the dam and open water here it's a sort of gathering point for hawks and eagles. I enjoyed just sitting and looking around while I was waiting for the train to arrive.

Ya know, back when you first posted that shot from Bellevue I couldn't place where it was. But now that you link to it again I can certainly recognize it. I found it to be a tough angle to shoot with that pole line in the way. If they'd remove it there would be some even nicer angles, though the poles add character at the same time.

I've seen photos of the SOO SD60s on the ICE too (as well as shots of a few ES44s) but I've yet to catch any myself. That's a red leader that I would be happy to see...

Noah

[ns3010]

So, who's seen the photos of the new Silverliner Vs (not mine)?

They look really cool!

[BNSF & DMIR 4Ever]

You want to talk about CNitus, try BNSFever. Higher than normal H2 SD70MAC counts with a rapid decrease of ACEs and Executives, with bouts of GEVO Attacks on nothing but coal, and a tri-weekly local.   

 

Quite a far cry from the four class ones and the Missabe I lived by a mere two months ago.

 

BTW, Robby, I meant to ask this before. Does Rail Videos have the same sort of standards as their photo counterpart?

[Railfan Alex]

Railvideos is picky, but not as picky as Railpictures, because there is so much more to take into account in video than there is in a photo. They tend to let things like wind noise or slight shakiness go by. I think it all depends on the mood of the moderator!

Nice trip report Noah! Glad you caught those CP SD40's. You guys might not like them, but those are the only SD40's I'll see go by my house, so they are always a welcome sight.

Some of you might have seen this, but here is a bunch of clips of Amtrak in Quebec thrown together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3pd7IYWvZc

Within a few days I'll edit and post my chase of the MM&A from Farnham to Cookshire. Was a good chase, it's hard to beat 4 C30-7's chugging through the hills of the Eastern Townships!

[WCfan]

Robby, rumor has it that WC 3026 (Map) and WC 3027 (Flag) unit are coming back to service. I would defiantly not mind seeing those again! It has been over two years since I've seen the map unit, and about two years since I saw the flag unit. WC 3023, the only repainted WC geep, is back in service, although it's working down in Mississippi. Like Noah said, we all kind of had a guess that 211 would be back. CN never officially retired that unit, they brought it down to Woodcrest to get an analysis done.

Noah, I'd love to get back down that way. I'd even like to hit the Savanna and Sabula area again. I have to agree, I love looking over Bellevue on that Bluff; it's such a nice little town. Speaking of Mississippi River towns, I enjoyed Lansing and Marquette IA, along with a few of the towns south of there. The area is really nice along the river, it's too bad I didn't get any trains. The poles do add some character to that spot. If you think about it, they have been there since the MILW days.

Joe, I have never seen that long of a low boy flat bed before...woah...

Alex, neat video! I wish you the best of luck on the MM&A. That sure seems like a neat Railroad.

[Anonymous]

M..M...and...A!

M..M...and...A!

M..M...and...A!

One of my favorite New England railroads, along with P&W, NECR, PAR, VTR, GU, MBTA, CSX, and...oh wait...that's most of them!

I'll have some video in a few days - shot it today but I need to process and edit.

 

 

[Noah Hofrichter]

 Those new Silverliners do look pretty cool! I like the way the stripe rises and falls across the car.

Thanks Alex! I always have to tell myself that, even though around here those SD40s are considered "red bombers," they are still really a good catch. It's just compared to the blue and yellow ICE/DME stuff they seem like the ugly step sister. When I was looking the photos over later I noticed they are kinda interesting with the cab mounted bells and that funny second air hose and pipe system on the long hood (anybody know what that's for? Kinda looks like straight air...)

I'm looking forward to the MMA stuff too! Those are the good kind of GEs in my book.

I'd certainly like to see the WC Sesqui equipment come back to life. I caught the map unit once, but never the flag unit. One does have to wonder if they'd get repainted before going back on the road though, as they were getting kind of rough looking from what I recall. But I somehow doubt CN would bother to spend the money...

 Noah

[ns3010]

Sorry, Jordan, I somehow missed your photos! Nice!
And yeah, the trailer is rediculously long. But the SLVs are 85 footers, so they need big trailers...

Noah, yeah, I like that too. It seems they're shifting away from the window band, like Transit did on the Comet Vs (maybe it has something to do with it being the fifth generation of the car?).

Dunno what's up with the three door thing. It's kinda like how the Multilevels have the quarter-point doors that are high level only. But the low/high (I'm assuming they're long doors?) and the high only are right next to each other, and the third is off on its own and is also low/high. IDK.

It looks like the 700 series cars are single cars (they have cabs on both ends), but the 800s are married pairs, since each car only has one cab (A end)

[wctransfer]

Oh come on you DME/ICE guys! Those are SD40's! SD40's! The cooler sibling to the SD40-2, and even if it is a CP SD40-2 be happy! I never mind anything down on the DME/ICE, as long as it is spartan cab power Im good with it. As long as you just take the shots I cant be too mad though, because in the not-so-near future you'll be happy.

What have I been up to? Ignoring the BNSF as usual, the most boring Class 1 in the country (quite the contrast from 2 years ago!),and concentrating on nothing but CP SD40-2 leaders, CITX leasers, and SOO SD60 leaders. The CP has brought many SD40-2's out of storage (I shot that 6029 on its maiden voyage out of storage a few weeks ago, Noah) and to my delight the CITX lease engines. Today I was given my wish (ever since they leased them as original GCFX's back in 2008) on CP 490. I drove out ot Hamel for this, and enjoyed every second of it.

http://wctransfer.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1966339

Thats right, a former SOO SD40 (6402) on its home rails with two SD60's behind it! A straight forty frame leading would have been all I needed to hear, but being ex SOO Line was the main factor.

Alec