Suprised nothing has been posted here yet. The CP reopened to all trains at about 9pm last night (Saturday night). I made a trip up there today, originally after detour traffic though with the line being open again, we just enjoyed the amount of CP trains instead. Caught a little bit of BNSF stuff in the morning, and then caught a parade of CP trains in the afternoon. Wasn't a bad day at all, and crossed a lot of photo spots we'd been meaning to do off the list.
The Minesota City site is something you have to experience to believe. The pictures give you the idea, but it's different to be standing there next to it. The DME bridge there is completely gone with only the rails and the ties suspended in the air, and about half of the CP bridge is missing, with the rest obviously needing to be removed. They appear to have simply driven piles and installed a temporary bridge on the old second main. That way they could use the abutments from the existing bridge.
The washouts near the bridge at Weaver appear to have been taken care of quickly too. Lots of fresh ballast on the approaches, especially on the south approach. The track obviously needed tamping as more and more trains ran over it, as there were a few kinks in the track here and there. But that is to be expected in a speedy repair such as this.
Noah
Your friendly neighborhood CNW fan.
The ICE train that has been detouring occasionally on the Adams line is normally the train the runs up the CP to St. Paul (symboled MSPKC/MKCSP). It means Max that if you wanted to see ICE train, you'd have a chance at it if you were to go across the River at Alma (or actually at Nelson, just a few miles North) to Kellogg, MN and the CP line. The ICE runs a train each way every day, so that means you've got two chances to the see the ICE, and you'll have CP trains in the mean time. Problem is that it seems like both trains are normally through early in the morning from reports I've seen (like 5 or 6 am into La Crescent), it seems like on Saturdays I tend to see it a lot into La Crescent (which is across the River from La Crosse) about 1:00pm. So that would be like 11am or noon near Kellogg I would, depending on how many trains he meets on the way. Not guaranteed, but you'd have a chance at it.
Personally I'd like to catch a ICE detour on the Adams line, as that's a little more rare, but I'll take ICE anywhere. They're a neat railroad with a neat paint scheme.
hah yeah. better than the adams line indeed. hopefully daytime traffic will return someday. anything is possible.
noah, i'm right there with you on that stance. nothing beats fresh paint. i saw this pic on rrpicturearchives.net once of a freshly painted batch of BNSF crash 9 warbonnets. they were...beautiful for lack of better word. even armour yellow and harbor mist grey have a lovely shine to them when they're fresh. i noticed that on UP 5480 once when it was in Altoona.
perhaps if another ICE detour comes here, i'll see a more recently painted blue and yellow SD40-2. fresh paint or not, blue looks good on ANYTHING!
and i'll tell ya, solz, the adams line is pretty much nothing BUT SD40-2s. albeit ex-CNW ones. they are the most common here, but pure UP SD40-2s show up too from time to time. just the other day i saw UP 3236. the second most common power up here is C40/41-8s. usually ex-CNW again. territory. yeah.... but er. i have seen a pure UP dash 8 ONCE leading the Eastbound. and there was an SD60 behind it!!!
but here's a list of most frequent power around here:
1. SD40-2s (mostly ex-CNW ones. about 75% of them anyway. then 15% are snoots and the last 10% is pure UPs. mind you my math sucks so these numbers aren't exact)
2. C40/41-8s (also mostly ex-CNW)
3. C41-8Ws
4. SD70Ms
5. almost anything else
solzrules wrote: CP's old Milwaukee line is nice because you have a better chance of seeing trains, but that line is kind of an albino when it comes to motive power. CP is a mighty big fan of GE's. That's just about all I see there now. I'm not sure why, but they do still run one MP15AC Milwaukee Road bandit every once in a great while. Keeps things interesting, at least.
CP's old Milwaukee line is nice because you have a better chance of seeing trains, but that line is kind of an albino when it comes to motive power. CP is a mighty big fan of GE's. That's just about all I see there now. I'm not sure why, but they do still run one MP15AC Milwaukee Road bandit every once in a great while. Keeps things interesting, at least.
GE's are squarely in the front on the CP. It seems like ever since the delivery of the ES44s, either they or a AC4400 is always leading anymore, and any SOO units follow behind. But every once and a while you'll still catch a SOO leader, or even better yet, a full SOO consist. And once in a great while you'll find a old MILW bandit leading.
I never used to like the big GEs, and I still don't like catching the AC4400s, but for whatever reason the ES44s have grown on me. Something about them when there are two of them in fairly fresh bright red paint rolling through nice summer green scenery (which was hard to get in Wisconsin this year until the last few weeks) that just looks neat. They are one of the few GEs I like (not that I don't shoot pictures of other GEs or anything, I just don't get excited about seeing them).
But I digress.
MILW86A wrote: From various lists....ICE expected to be open south of La Crescent, MN by the weekend, and CP north of Winona by Monday. MILW86A
From various lists....ICE expected to be open south of La Crescent, MN by the weekend, and CP north of Winona by Monday.
MILW86A
Wow......I didn't think it would be that soon for either segment.
solzrules wrote:I'm not sure what town it was, but I wound up driving right through the middle of a cranberry festival in NW WI. I don't think I was supposed to be there, because the truck was surrounded on all sides by people.
I'm not sure what town it was, but I wound up driving right through the middle of a cranberry festival in NW WI. I don't think I was supposed to be there, because the truck was surrounded on all sides by people.
I googled it out of curiousity and found one that claims to be the world's largest in Warrens, WI, just north of Tomah.
http://www.cranfest.com/
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
Thanks for the info, guys. I love to catch trains on that line, in part because UP runs all their second tier power over that line. You can catch sets of SD40-2's and even a few old GE's from time to time. Kind of takes you back a few years. I have tried to chase trains, but like Noah said it gets really difficult west of Merton, WI. The line diagonals for quite a few miles and there are no roads to speak of that follow it. I did follow it all the way to the Twin Cities once, and it took close to eight hours to get there. I'm not sure what town it was, but I wound up driving right through the middle of a cranberry festival in NW WI. I don't think I was supposed to be there, because the truck was surrounded on all sides by people. All that and I didn't catch one train.
Chris pretty well sumed it up. He'd probably know the Adams line and UP traffic better than I would since he lives near it.
The UP does seem to stick quite a bit of money into the Adams line though for the amount of traffic. Somebody posted to a list I'm on today about upgrades this year to the Adams line. The UP is apparently planing to "upgrade switches" (which I think means that they'll either be putting in remote dispatcher controls, or Spring switches) at Ajax, Altoona, Wyeville, and Necedah, and that they'll be putting in 30,000 ties and new-old rail (refurbished old welded rail that was in decent shape) between Menominee and Altoona.
The Adams line always seems to be somewhat short of crews too. More than once I've heard a train come into Adams and be told by the dispatcher to tie the train down because there was no outbound crew on duty. A few weeks back when the "big main" across Illinois was shut down due to a derailment and they tried to send I think three extra trains (a manifest, a Ballast train, and a empty ethanol train if I remember correctly) over the line, the information I saw said it brought things practically to a stand still around Adams and Altoona, and they had trains sitting for over 12 hours in some places for lack of crews to move the trains.
From a railfan standpoint, the line is hit or miss with traffic (I hate to go just to railfan it alone, as you never know if you'll be sitting forever and not see anything or if you'll get a lot of traffic), but there are lots of good photo spots to be had. Problem is the line isn't easy to chase on down in my neck of the woods either, as the railroad runs kind of Northwest to Southwest, where as the roads all run due North-South and East West. It's once you get West of Adams that you can actually chase. And it's shots like this one that make me want to railfan the line more often:
(MBUVP west of Oxford, WI)
Anyway, we now return you to your regularly scheduled CP detour talk...
Hope you don't mind me adding some commentary before Noah gets a chance to, solz...
The Adams line usually runs between 6 and 10 trains per day between Butler and Adams. Lately there have been a few extras as well (a sulphur extra to Roseport came through last week with CN power)
There are a few locals/roadswitch jobs that run through - they usually run at junctions or crew change points: the Adams-Butler wayfreight, the Clyman-Jefferson Junction switch, and four or five Altoona locals.
UP is a mystery on this line: some stretches have been upgraded from 30 to 50 mph (with welded rail) while long 10-mph slow orders are stuck ten miles away. Perhaps it's just a matter of when funds are available.The roadrailers prove that UP CAN indeed run decently-paced trains through Wisconsin, but when any extras get added to the system it can get quite hectic. Trains often sit parked for hours as it is, and I've read online that UP is very short on crews west of Adams (and possibly east?). UP usually takes four crews to get a train across the route while competitor CP can take care with two. Trains from Proviso to the Twin Cities (which begins as MPRBU/MBUVP) arrives at Butler shortly after midnight, and doesn't depart until the next afternoon! However the dwell time of trains departing Butler south seems to have improved since a couple of years ago.
Either way, I do really like fanning this line. The scenery is great! To me at least, the thrill of even finding one train is enough to make a chase really swell. (What a great word)
Noah Hofrichter wrote: Glad to hear it too Max. Chris is a smart guy from everything I've seen, and I'm glad he finally got through to you. I'm looking forward to hearing more about railfan adventures of yours and less gipes about the UP too!60 to 70 trains a day seems a little high to me for the BNSF though. Every time I've been there I would say it's more like 30 to 40 trains a day, and maybe 50 on a really busy day. The BNSF tends to fleet trains in each direction, which is to say they'll run two, three, or four trains in the same direction about 20 or 30 minutes apart, and then there might be a break in traffic for a few hours, with only one or no trains. There have been days where trains simply come steady about an hour apart too. My best for a morning (about 7:30 to noon) was about 10 trains, but my average is probably more like 4 or 5 in a morning, with my worst being just three trains. So there's usually something out there. It just depends on the day. No matter what though, we're definitely talking better than the Adams line! Noah
Glad to hear it too Max. Chris is a smart guy from everything I've seen, and I'm glad he finally got through to you. I'm looking forward to hearing more about railfan adventures of yours and less gipes about the UP too!
60 to 70 trains a day seems a little high to me for the BNSF though. Every time I've been there I would say it's more like 30 to 40 trains a day, and maybe 50 on a really busy day. The BNSF tends to fleet trains in each direction, which is to say they'll run two, three, or four trains in the same direction about 20 or 30 minutes apart, and then there might be a break in traffic for a few hours, with only one or no trains. There have been days where trains simply come steady about an hour apart too. My best for a morning (about 7:30 to noon) was about 10 trains, but my average is probably more like 4 or 5 in a morning, with my worst being just three trains. So there's usually something out there. It just depends on the day.
No matter what though, we're definitely talking better than the Adams line!
Noah-
You seem to be fairly knowledgeable about WI RR's. What do you know about the Adams line? UP has been doing some pretty heavy repair work on it in my neck of the woods. I know it isn't nearly as busy as when CNW owned it, but I have also heard reports that UP is running more and more trains on it because it is one corner of their system that isn't packed with intermodal. Is that a fair description?
Just wondering how the detours are going if they are still going on. I heard of 3 BNSF detours thru Neenah yesturday but havent heard of any from anybody today. So what I am wondering is: If I head out to Junction City to Owen line, will there be anything other than the usual CN/UP crap to catch? Is the CP still heading up that way? Is BNSF still sending some of their stuff over the CN Line?
Just wondering and NEEDING to get away after back-to-back 60+ hour work week.
Paul
http://www.youtube.com/user/pavabo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulvbox
Lord Atmo wrote:you, sir, are looking at the new and improved Lord Atmo!
Glad to hear that man!
Anyone got any newer shots of anything out there?
Dan
after a rather harsh but necessary lesson from Gluefinger via AIM, i realized hating and whining would get me nowhere and cost me close friends. i decided instead of whining, i would take action and plan solutions to my problem instead. this may cost me money, but better cash than friends.
i planned from there on, sat down with my parents, and told them my current situation.to be honest, i was surprised that they understood the problem. now i'm negotiating a deal with them to hopefully allow me to go to the BNSF on my own. monthly perhaps. and just enjoy a day of successful railfanning on their line (which, i am told, sees 60-70 trains per day).
i dont want to lose friends and i dont want to live a negative life. and on the BNSF, i can be happy at last.
also when you guys suggested that to me before, i didnt have a job or any money in which to pay for gas. but things have changed and i now have a job i enjoy and money to spare. railroads and railfans alike, it's always about the money
you, sir, are looking at the new and improved Lord Atmo!
Lord Atmo wrote:yeah all i need is my parents' ok and possibly gas money and so can i. believe me. one "yes" and i'll be spending the rest of the day trackside in Alma
Boy is that a switch. Just a couple of months ago when we suggested very similar things you blew them off claiming you couldn't get out of town, and just continued to complain about the UP and how bad things were for you. What changed?
Jared,
i was in neenah on monday.
not much. IC 6058 was switchin the yards north end, GTW 5859 & CN 4705 were on L535 which i dont know any info on.
A407 went through the yard & it had CN 5513, WC 6930 & WC 2500 on it. otherwsie i dont know whats runnin around.
Heard a freight, almost surely CP, in Winona today. Wasn't close enough to see it. The Winona Daily News for August 23 has a story on the delays and the re-routings. Most of it is about the La Crosse area, some about DME. www.winonadailynews.com.
Jgreen
wctransfer wrote:Doubt it. I can go anywhere and see a train, not just New Brighton.Alec
Doubt it. I can go anywhere and see a train, not just New Brighton.
Alec
yeah all i need is my parents' ok and possibly gas money and so can i. believe me. one "yes" and i'll be spending the rest of the day trackside in Alma
Goober wrote: Lord Atmo wrote: Along another topic what type of detectors are located on the CN line to Stevens Point just west of HWY 41 in Neenah, (they are just about under the overpass) The sensors are about 4' off the ground, and are white rectangles and one on each side of the track. Thanks for any help with this.Jared
Lord Atmo wrote:
Along another topic what type of detectors are located on the CN line to Stevens Point just west of HWY 41 in Neenah, (they are just about under the overpass) The sensors are about 4' off the ground, and are white rectangles and one on each side of the track.
Thanks for any help with this.
Jared
Those are the AEI readers. They scan the silver (sometimes) rectangles on the rolling stock and engines.
Fellow Neenah Sub "watcher"
Lord Atmo wrote: and we had crew shortages when the MPRDM/MDMPR rerouted through here 2 weeks ago
and we had crew shortages when the MPRDM/MDMPR rerouted through here 2 weeks ago
I have not been able to spend much time in Neenah, and I was wondering if anyone has seen anything foreign in our CN area? Also, talking of "crew shortages", does that mean that when BNSF or others are detoured on another line, that their own crews don't do the run? I would appreciate clarification on that point? Along another topic what type of detectors are located on the CN line to Stevens Point just west of HWY 41 in Neenah, (they are just about under the overpass) The sensors are about 4' off the ground, and are white rectangles and one on each side of the track.
Strangely enough, piles of Gopherwood have started showing up on my front lawn, and there are some plans for this really large boat in cubits along with it (How am I supposed to read cubits?). Can't quite figure it out....
CP 2816.Hope that 2816 is still going to make that trip to
chicago on the 29th.Will this go thru Columbus wi,if so any body got the shcedule times.Thank You
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