Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
As noted in the Diner, one of our regular ADIX crewmembers is volunteering at Owosso this week. As of 10:15 tonight, she was sitting in the cupola of an AA caboose, waiting for 4449 to arrive there.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Just finished uploading shots from yesterday's excursion over to Union- here's a sample:
Was good to see the three amigos back together again...
Dan (CNW6000) was kind enough to operate my camera while I posed...
Lots of diesels running around, everything from the smallest-
to the latest acquisition-
You can see the rest of my shots at
http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net/archivethumbs.aspx?id=46953&Page=1
Enjoy!
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
Kathi was there? DA**!!
You'll have to look through my shots over on rrpicturearchives- I might have gotten a shot of one of those two and not known it! I think I managed to catch nearly everything that was running, though, except for a WC loco which I never got a good look at (they had it hiding at one end of their railroad and pulling a vintage freight past during the parade, while Joanie and I were eating in the diner).
Brian was kind enough to reciprocate.
The real reason I went to IRM: CNW 8701.
Many more shots from IRM than I have time (now) to process, that will be a process to process them...
At Rochelle...all I can say is wow. I would like to spend a whole day there sometime. Very friendly folks and a cool setup.The first train (3:43 PM): BNSF 7322, 5377, 4118, 5032. A fast moving Z Train.
The second train (3:57 PM): UP 6827, 6723 (ex CNW 8821), UP 6277 (ex SP 223) was a loaded coal train.
Then an OOPS at 4:08 PM. A UP stacker thought he was going to make the light. He stopped pretty close!
The third train (4:09 PM) was why he stopped. Only 2 BNSF trains seen, both Z Trains. BNSF 748, 4425, 4470, 7629.
The fourth train (4:13 PM) was cleared through the diamonds. Had DPU on rear of the stacks. UP 7893, 8420, 5553.
The fifth train (4:17 PM) was an 8 headed monster of a manifest train. UP 4842, 4938, 4801, 4505, 4430, 6282 (ex SP), 7147, 2017.
The sixth train (4:36 PM) was a manifest. UP 6725 (ex CNW 8823), 7184, 4743, 9401.
The last train we saw (5:14 PM) was also a manifest. UP 4389, 4326.
We had to leave after that train cleared the diamond. We swung down the road and peeked at Global III. That's one big dang place!
Dan
CShaveRROh, I did, I did! Did you happen to see their newest brakeman working there? Someone by the name of Kube? Two locomotives that I haven't heard anything about, that should have been around somewhere: CNW 1518 (the very first GP7 built), and GTW RS-1 1951 (the only locomotive in that collection that I ever operated in revenue service, eons ago).
Looks like a pretty good trip Brian and Dan! I was to IRM's Diesel Days a few years ago, and it was a good time. I really should go back one of these years.
I've got my photos processed finally of the 4449 trip. We got up early and headed to the La Crosse, WI area for a day of railfanning. The day before we were informed the train would be making a servicing stop in La Crosse, so the plan was to do one shot north of town and another south of town, because we would be able to leap frog him during his stop. After catching a couple of freights around La Crosse we decided to head to Trempealeau, WI and await the 4449's arrival.
As we were sitting there we could just see (though not really shoot), the CP line across the river, and they ran 4 trains in a matter of about 45 minutes. If it hadn't been for the 4449 I'm sure we would have been over there getting pictures of them, but we had more a more important catch to make. Eventually a westbound went north on the BNSF, and he appeared first:
Shortly there after, a whistle to the north announced the main event was about to arrive. The 4449 popped into view with her 13 car train:
A really fast change of settings and I fired off a 1/50th pan shot as the engine ran past. Not perfect, but it came out okay. It does give a slight sense of the speed of the thing.:
We headed down River to one of our favorite shots at MP 282, near Genoa, WI to wait, and soon the old girl came flying past looking as good as always:
I would have liked a little sun, but then again if we did have sun the two shots we took would have been poorly lit. So maybe the clouds were a blessing in disguise. Who knows?
With that we let the steamer go, as we know there was very little hope of chasing. Scanner traffic alluded to a BNSF westbound that was nearing the area, so we decided to wait for him at the other end of the same curve. The shot is only doable in the early summer morning to be properly lit with a westbound train, as otherwise it's backlit. It turned out to be the HGALNTW (Manifest Galesburg, IL to Northtown [BNSF yard in Minneapolis]). Even from a distance I could tell he had quite a consist:
He turned out to have a surprise at the end; former WC 3025, now lettered for RIMX and apparently heading to new home. Of course they would paint out one of the engines with the better heralds and lettering...
We headed back into La Crosse to eat. After grabbing lunch we got in the car to go to Railfair (the model train show in La Crosse that happened to be the same weekend), and were surprised to hear on the scanner the DME 6097 with train 170 talking to the dispatcher. 170 is an ICE train (okay, now CP) that runs from St. Paul to Kansas City. This train used to be a regular about this time into River Junction, but in recent months it had become an early early morning train. We had to go take a few shots, even with the clouds:
With that we headed back to railfair for the rest of the afternoon. It was a nice day of chasing though, and it was great to see the 4449. I never really would have guessed that it would come to the midwest; I always figured I'd have to go to it.
Noah
CShaveRRA belated happy birthday to Nora! She probably had to work, in which case she saw plenty of trains. Or maybe she stayed home, in which case she saw plenty of trains!
Well, thank you! I was neither at home nor at work, but I still saw a few trains. My older son Jay and I spent my birthday and the following day in Washington DC. From our 8th floor hotel room near the National Mall, we had a nice view of the tracks behind the hotel and saw a fair number of CSX and Amtrak trains passing. We spent hours upon hours at the National Air and Space Museum, and at a book signing on Sunday, Jay got to meet his hero, Mike Collins, command module pilot of Apollo 11. It was a great weekend!
The reason I had a few days to spare is that I was just bumped off my job...I had 5 days to make a bump and chose to take most of that time off before bumping. For the next few weeks, I will be working at the tower on the extra board, and then the tower is due to be shut down in August. Chances are I will end up driving a jitney again. I am just sick over the tower closing...I figured it would happen someday, but I didn't expect it to be right now. At least I won't be out on the street.
Hope all is well with everyone here.
Noah Hofrichter Looks like a pretty good trip Brian and Dan! I was to IRM's Diesel Days a few years ago, and it was a good time. I really should go back one of these years. I've got my photos processed finally of the 4449 trip. We got up early and headed to the La Crosse, WI area for a day of railfanning. The day before we were informed the train would be making a servicing stop in La Crosse, so the plan was to do one shot north of town and another south of town, because we would be able to leap frog him during his stop. After catching a couple of freights around La Crosse we decided to head to Trempealeau, WI and await the 4449's arrival. As we were sitting there we could just see (though not really shoot), the CP line across the river, and they ran 4 trains in a matter of about 45 minutes. If it hadn't been for the 4449 I'm sure we would have been over there getting pictures of them, but we had more a more important catch to make. Eventually a westbound went north on the BNSF, and he appeared first: Shortly there after, a whistle to the north announced the main event was about to arrive. The 4449 popped into view with her 13 car train: A really fast change of settings and I fired off a 1/50th pan shot as the engine ran past. Not perfect, but it came out okay. It does give a slight sense of the speed of the thing.: We headed down River to one of our favorite shots at MP 282, near Genoa, WI to wait, and soon the old girl came flying past looking as good as always: I would have liked a little sun, but then again if we did have sun the two shots we took would have been poorly lit. So maybe the clouds were a blessing in disguise. Who knows? With that we let the steamer go, as we know there was very little hope of chasing. Scanner traffic alluded to a BNSF westbound that was nearing the area, so we decided to wait for him at the other end of the same curve. The shot is only doable in the early summer morning to be properly lit with a westbound train, as otherwise it's backlit. It turned out to be the HGALNTW (Manifest Galesburg, IL to Northtown [BNSF yard in Minneapolis]). Even from a distance I could tell he had quite a consist: He turned out to have a surprise at the end; former WC 3025, now lettered for RIMX and apparently heading to new home. Of course they would paint out one of the engines with the better heralds and lettering... We headed back into La Crosse to eat. After grabbing lunch we got in the car to go to Railfair (the model train show in La Crosse that happened to be the same weekend), and were surprised to hear on the scanner the DME 6097 with train 170 talking to the dispatcher. 170 is an ICE train (okay, now CP) that runs from St. Paul to Kansas City. This train used to be a regular about this time into River Junction, but in recent months it had become an early early morning train. We had to go take a few shots, even with the clouds: With that we headed back to railfair for the rest of the afternoon. It was a nice day of chasing though, and it was great to see the 4449. I never really would have guessed that it would come to the midwest; I always figured I'd have to go to it. Noah
Noah,
Some very nice shots there; particularly of my pet #170 train heading down "My Mainline" and towards my home territory of northeast Iowa!
CNW 6000 The last train we saw (5:14 PM) was also a manifest. UP 4389, 4326.
That train, which I observed over Dan's shoulder, had a bunch of low open gondolas with black tarps covering their cargo- what's in 'em, Carl?
Brian and I being about the same height, I know we rarely lack a decent view of most goings on...
Nora! Long time no see! Happy Birthday, and don't be such a stranger!
If I may, a request:
If you wish to comment on a group of pictures such as was posted above, please take a moment to edit out the actual images (which will be bracketed by IMG tags). After two or three people have quoted the entire post, including the images, it makes for a lot of scrolling to get to the bottom of the page. Inasmuch as many such quotes include only an "attaboy" by the quoter, it's not really necessary to include all of the pictures.
IMHO, if you want to comment specifically on one certain shot, it's acceptable to include it as a quote in your post. But don't just quote the whole post with all of the pictures.
Thanks.
Off
NB: This isn't directed specifically at LARG - many others have done the same thing.
CShaveRR In the gons: most likely "dirty dirt", with a low level of radiation, going to some dump site out west. These cars would have yellow "radioactive" placards on them. If not, it was probably other contaminated soil.
CShaveRRNow, Dan: that UP train wasn't worried in the slightest about the signal--if the BNSF train was allowed to cross ahead of it, the UP train never had anything other than a stop signal there.
CNW 6000Then we heard the BNSF train blowing for a crossing behind us & set up for them.
tree68 CNW 6000Then we heard the BNSF train blowing for a crossing behind us & set up for them. The sound of the arriving train, however, was covered by the roar of massed camera shutters....
The sound of the arriving train, however, was covered by the roar of massed camera shutters....
For some reason, I can't get images to show up in my post.... Dagnabit....
Anyway,here are my Daylight shots, from Saturday. I would have tried to pick a better spot, but, I didn't have time Saturday to drive all over creation to find one.
http://www.eyefetch.com/image.aspx?ID=1172659
http://www.eyefetch.com/image.aspx?ID=1172662
The second shot I desaturated to BW because when I pulled back from my zoom, I didn't have time to fix the aperture setting, and therefore, blew the sky way out. I liked the composition, so I tried to save it as best as I could. I may have another go at it and repost it.....
Tim - Nice shots. That first shot looks like it could have come from a third world country - all of the people hanging out of the side of the train and all...
As for getting the pictures to post, if you're using the IMG tags properly it could be that your host site doesn't allow linking as such.
I thought that too, when I looked at my first shot...LOL.. Thanks for the compliments. The IMG tags always used to work, can't figure out what the problem is.... I'll try again another time... maybe its my browser...
Leaving for Chicago right now. The Chicagoans better be on guard... our arrival will be like the Storming of the Bastille!
Willy
It's been awhile since I popped in here. Wow! Lots of photos! Well done all around everyone! I sure wish I could have seen 4449.
Meanwhile, in my 844 thread, I mentioned a whirlwind adventure that happened to include some train action. I've finally got those shots ready to post, so buckle up! Here goes!
A fellow Pentaxian friend of mine rented a car for travel with his wife to and from Albuquerqe. He had an extra day on it, and no mileage charges, so we decided to head out on an adventure. We didn't have any specific plans when we started, other than we were going to go south and get a REALLY early start (I met him in the Tech Center at 4:00 AM).
We stopped in Walsenburg and shot the Purina Mill and the old power plant there. I won't post that stuff here, but I'll link to my gallery at the end of the post that has all the shots from the outing. While in Walsenburg, I consulted my phone and found out that we could make it to Alamosa before the San Luis and Rio Grande train left. Off we headed over La Veta Pass!
We got to town with about 15 minutes to spare. Former LS&I #18 was on the point. I was excited, because this was the first chance I got to see her since the SLRG acquired her and her sister from the Grand Canyon Railroad.
Here she is as the passengers start boarding:
And here's a nice little head on shot (though I wish the truck hadn't been there and that I had missed the other photog):
I really like this detail shot of #18:
Here she is leaving town for La Veta Pass. What is up with that bi-level dome though?!?!?! Blech!
After the train left, I got a couple of shots of the other LS&I loco -- #20, IIRC. She's a bit incomplete, LOL:
Meanwhile, I checked my phone again, and discovered that we could make it down to Antonito in time to catch one of the C&TS trains departing. Of course that's what we did!
Here's a look at the fireman checking out his train:
And here's #484 leaving town:
After that, we headed down to Cumbres Pass. We stopped by an old church along the way. When we made it over Cumbres Pass, we noticed a train headed up the mountain as we rounded Windy Point.
We turned around and high tailed it for the summit of the Pass. We caught #487 working up that tough 4% grade. I forgot how loud a narrow gauge Mike can be!:
The crew stopped to water #487:
We then headed down the road to get a couple of shots of the train as it passed Tanglefoot Curve:
I had hoped to swap the tele for a wide angle and catch the train passing some of the wildflowers on the hillside I was on. Alas, I was a little slow swapping lenses. The train passed me. I had a go at running past it. I actually was making up ground! Unfortunately, this was at 10,000 feet, though, and I simply didn't have the stamina to maintain a sprint for long enough to get the shot. Doh!
After that, we headed to Chama to eat some lunch. We thought about poking around the Chama yard (there was another steam loco steaming in the yard, which was my fifth steam locomotive of the weekend!). We ended up deciding to head down to shoot the Rio Grande river down by Taos, though. After Taos (which, unbelievably seemed to have even more hippies than Boulder!), we started working our way north again. This shot isn't rail related, but I like it, and is taken on North La Veta Pass, which is close to where the tracks transverse La Veta Pass, so I thought I'd share it:
Let's just say I'm a sucker for storm light. That's Rough Mountain and Mt. Mestas. Beyond that, we headed back to Walsenburg, and jumped on I-25 to head home. I ended up back at home a little before 8:00 PM racking up almost 700 miles and lots of photos. A busy day, but a fun one!
The rest of the images can be seen here if you're interested.
Alright, I've babbled enough. I better go set about getting some work done!
-ChrisWest Chicago, ILChristopher May Fine Art Photography"In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration." ~Ansel Adams
5 steamers in one day...to beat that you'd have to go to MI! Nice shots and wow...narrow gauge tracks look so...tiny. That last pic you posted was very 'deep'. That field looked like it could have been 10 miles across. Thanks again for sharing.
Once again, Chris raises the bar....
A prime example of preventing a later episode of "coulda, woulda, shoulda..."
Alas, Owosso is looking wet for the weekend, so we may not get such sunny shots. Still, it'll be live steam, and lots of it.
A tech paying us a visit this week here at work (and the reason I'm not in MI right now) turns out to live just a few miles from Owosso.... He's flying home tomorrow - I'll be racing him with the new truck...
Thanks, Dan and Larry.
BTW, Larry, where are you at in NY? Next month I'll be out by Niagara Falls and have a side trip planned to the Arcade and Attica.
CShaveRRDriving, Chris? Any local stops?
I will be driving. I'll be stopping in your neck of the woods for one night on the return trip, Carl, to see my Mom and Sisters. I don't really have any definite plans yet. Thus far, the plan looks something like this:
Day 1: Leave Denver and drive to Eastern IA. Somewhere roughly half way.
Day 2: Drive the rest of the way to WNY.
Days 3 through 7: Spend time around WNY. I have plans to see the Falls, go to the Erie County Fair, ride the AARR, etc.
Day 8: Drive back to Chicago. Spend the night at Mom's.
Day 9: Spend the morning in Chicago, and leave in the early afternoon and head for western IA or eastern NE.
Day 10: Return to Denver.
Beyond that, this will be the first time I've roadtripped in several years, so I'm sure I'll find some interesting bits and pieces along the way.
I'm about 70 miles due north of Syracuse.
The Adirondack runs out of Utica (Thursdays and Saturdays) and Thendara (Wed-Sun) which is about 40 miles north of Utica.
PM me with some dates - maybe I can arrange to be out that way.
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