Okay, so it took awhile I know, but I finally got around to editing and uploading my photos from the steam doubleheader with the CP 2816 and the MILW 261. The weather couldn't have been better, the steam locomotives were just awesome, and best of all, there was no diesel to be found anywhere in the trainset! Hopefully I don't send anybody's dial up into a fit with the following photos, and apologize in advance if I do.
Before I get to the steam though, let me start off with the morning. A friend and I have been trying to do a shot at Fountain City, WI on the BNSF for a few months now, but every time we go up there is seem like we end up getting skunked while the light is right. Most of the time it's because we end up spending too much time at the BNSF yard in North LaCrosse, and so by the time we get up to Fountain City all the east bounds are already past. This time though we were determined to get the shot, and so we passed up the yard and headed straight north for Fountain City. We just missed one eastbound by about two minutes, but we managed to finally nail two trains through the S curve in good light.
First up was a BNSF intermodal train with a nice clean looking Swoosh on the point:
And second was a BNSF tank train with a CSX run through engine (which isn't totally uncommon anymore). I'm pretty sure this was the unit Ethanol train that they've been running for a few months now, as that's about the only tank train on the river:
There was much rejoicing and happiness. The day was starting out well.
That appeared to be the end of BNSF traffic for a while, so we hopped over to the Minnesota side of the river to make the mandatory stop at the hobby shop in Winona before heading North to intercept the steam train. He ended up running about an hour later than we thought, and so the light had time to swing around. Our first shot was at Weaver, MN:
Once again, there was much rejoicing!
The plan had been to nail him one more time south of Winona, MN, but thanks to a few people who felt the need to block both lanes of the highway and pace the train all the way down, there was no way to get ahead of him. Now there was much unhappiness, but we figured we'd get him on the way back after he'd turned at La Crosse. We headed to the local railfan hangout in Dakota, MN (where there's a viewing platform overlooking the tracks), and spent some time talking with other railfans and getting the lay of the land on the traffic situation. After a while we started seeing a traffic cluster forming with freight trains, so it was back out we went in search of a place to nail some shots. First up was a meet between a loaded coal train and CP train 199:
199 gets on the move:
A little time passed, and finally a Iowa, Chicago and Eastern train that we'd heard working down the line a ways made it past our cameras. The train was led by two locomotives from it's sister railroad, the DME, with the lead locomotive still wearing CP paint. Funny part is that now that the CP has bought the DME, they'll be getting a lot of their old SD40-2s back again...
And a few minutes later the main event arrived. The Steam train (and the ICE train) were forced to navigate through the siding because a freight train had stopped on the main line for the meet (like I said, it was a real cluster, so the dispatcher was having run trying the weave the passenger train through the mess). This meant he was only doing 25MPH, and it also caused a foamer line to form all along Homer siding, all mile and a half of it. It was quite the sight:
The stars of the show:
Again much rejoicing took place, and we also managed to get ahead of the railfan cluster (because they were all pulled over taking pictures at about the same place we were). We decided to head North around Winona for a couple more shots. The ICE train hadn't even made it through yet, so we had the chance to shoot him again as well as he was taking the Minnesota City siding to let the steamer by:
We did another run by of the steamer at Minnesota City. This spot is just North of the bridge that had washed out on the CP main a few weeks before:
More rejoicing occurred.
The last shot of the steamer would have been the best shot of the day, if I hadn't screwed it up. At one point we were running right along side the doubleheader, and so I bumped the shutter speed way down to 1/60 on my camera in case I had a chance at pacing shots. I didn't, but in my haste at the next run by, I never bumped the shutter speed back up....
I guess you could claim the second one is an attempt to show the speed of the train, and at least it's better than no picture at all, but I sure wish I'd a remembered to up the shutter speed again. Ah well, you win some, you lose some...
The last shot of the day (by which time I'd realized my mistake and changed the shutter speed), was of the ICE train, now out of the siding and headed North behind the steamer.
All in all it really was a great day, though with hindsight I wish we'd done a couple of things differently (there was a better shot I wasn't aware of that we were only a few miles from at one point). But it still was a great experience, something I certainly won't forget anytime soon. I can only hope they do it again in a couple of years as well, and that the weather is as nice as it was that day...
Enjoy the photos!
Noah
well after 2 weeks if missing the new london train today i said i wasnt gonna miss it. well i didnt & no the IC 3120 didnt come back but kinda somthing better no not a WC or GTW. unfortunatly a CN but i was more satisfied of what engine it was. & a first ive ever seen on this line. CN 7044 GP9 came & i notice that the engineers side is on the opposite side then most engines.
i sure hope we can get a WC or a IC or a GTW somtime.
Ok, just finished uploading the best of the night shots, so here they are. Sorry about the quality, the site compressed them pretty badly. The first 3 are various angles of SD38-2 669. The last shot is a blur of EJ*&E 659 passing 669.
That was quite a night around 669.
Whoa. I missed allot today! First off, EJE, I do feel really sad that EJE is going. But like with WC, EJE will live on as long as there are people to remember it by. Very nice photos too. Once EJE gets taken over I'll head down to Point allot. See if I can catch any there.
Brent: Nice catch on the GP9. I caught one like that in Point once. I wonder why CN doesn't scrap those instead of the IC's?
And last but not least Noah: Very cool shots. I've never seen double header steam, and probably never will. Must have been pretty cool to see that.
For me? Well I was down in Winona again. Sadly I have NO pictures of trains down there. The first I saw was a CP with 2 AC4400s. Yawn. The next train surprised me because at first I didn't know what RR it was. But later I found out it was 2 DME locos. Well after that I didn't see any Trains for a while. We did go past the station. I saw a really nice SOO caboose. Almost no graffiti, with very little rust. The 2 SOO GP38-2s where there again. Now the last train of the day really disappointed me. We missed the crossing by like 30 seconds. On the train had a SOO SD60 in the hockey stick scheme AND a SOO SD60M!!!!! I couldn't believe I missed it. It was quite the consist, compared to the dull CP AC's. (No offence to the people who like em')
My Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/JR7582 My Flickr Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcfan/
If you ever go to Point you'll have allot of fun. If you noticed in Brent, and my pictures, you can see how close you can get to the engine tracks on public property, and a couple of the yard tracks, But beware, don't go on there property, and don't park in the yard office parking lot.
You should actually count your blessings that the CN got them. Look at it this way, if UP would have bought them, the SD38-2s would be retired almost right away. Oh, they would also be patched IF they were kept long enough, which probably wouldnt happen anyway. The CN will most likely hang on to the SD38-2s for quite a while, plus they wont be patched. I dont see the CN retiring them all right away, maybe a few, but Im almost positive they will stay around. Sad to see ANOTHER regional leaving the scene, im still pretty mad about the DME/ICE deal. Look how long the IC,WC and the GTW power has stayed around. Be happy with what you have now, but you will be able to see them when CN comes, atleast for awhile.
Alec
Very true Alec.
Well I finaly uploaded my dad's pictures of Owen and some of Rochelle. Let me tell you that the photo quality is SO bad. It makes my camera look good! Also some light got in the lense, and there might be some blur. I don't know what went wrong. So sorry if there not the greatest. Atleast it shows what I saw.
First up at Owen 2 UP trains pass each other.
Our second trip to Owen we saw 2 CP trains but only got the first one.
This was a nice suprise at Rochelle. A UP SD40-2 with a Ex CNW SD40-2, a Conrail SD60, and a NS Dash 9.
Another Train had a Patched CNW Dash 9.
grand trunk man wrote:hello, my name is bill rauli, im 18, and own an Grand Trunk caboose, and no its not one of the santa fe ones. i also mite be getting an 1926 20 ton whitcomb soon i hope. i live up in jeddo, mi n. of port huron. was woundering if anyone else owns a caboose or something them selves. been lookin for help on restoring back to her old glory again.
is it land locked?
Yay! I FINALLY got 2500. After all this time running away from me I finaly got her. she was in the yard here at town WITH 3026. this was the first time ever I have ever seen 2 WC's together, besides the SW1500s. IT really dissapoints me now that most of the shots are blurry.
I now think I know why the pictures. The WC "Gods" don't want me to get a good picture of 2500.
Mechanical Department "No no that's fine shove that 20 pound set all around the yard... those shoes aren't hell and a half to change..."
The Missabe Road: Safety First