BNSF Photos for Saturday November 25.

[Anonymous]

I spent the whole day at Oreapolis on the BNSF Creston line and I had a Great time.
Here a Photo shows an Eastbound BNSF Coal Train. In this Photo. This one appears way on the Dark side.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y177/BNSFrailfan/Picture014-1.jpg

This second Photo I shot. I took everyones advice and set the Camera to the ground. That is,Focus,Light meter and so on. Wow. What a big difference. And the sky was very cloudy too.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y177/BNSFrailfan/Picture015-1.jpg

The next Train was a Westbound hopper.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y177/BNSFrailfan/Picture016-1.jpg

The rear DPU Unit.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y177/BNSFrailfan/Picture017.jpg

And this shot was another type of those ground pre-focus shots before the Train.
This Grain Train Came from Council Bluffs off the C.B. Branch.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y177/BNSFrailfan/Picture018.jpg
Allan.

[videomaker]

Thanks for sharing..Danny

[Willy2]

Nice photos, Allan. It looks like you watch trains at Oreapolis in almost exactly the same spot that I do.

[blhanel]

Hey Allan, what time did you catch that second one and which way was he headed?

[Anonymous]

Hey Allan, what time did you catch that second one and which way was he headed?

If im correct the Manifest was heading to Lincoln.

[Bunn19]

Nice pictures, what camera are you using?

[blhanel]

Hey Allan, what time did you catch that second one and which way was he headed?

If im correct the Manifest was heading to Lincoln.

Westbound, then?  Reason I asked is that Saturday afternoon, while traveling down the Mississippi on the Wisconsin side, I caught a northbound mixed manifest that looked almost identical to that one- had a couple of flats with yellow construction equipment on it near the front.  Must have been a different one, though.

[eolafan]

Your second shot looks like a manifest freight that left Eola yard in Aurora, IL on Saturday at about 1:00 p.m.  Those look like Catepillar pieces of equipment and they routinely leave Eola on a MSP freight (the Catepillar plant is here in Aurora).  Did you happen to see this freight late Saturday afternoon so it may have had time to get from Eola to your neck of the woods?

[blhanel]

Your second shot looks like a manifest freight that left Eola yard in Aurora, IL on Saturday at about 1:00 p.m.  Those look like Catepillar pieces of equipment and they routinely leave Eola on a MSP freight (the Catepillar plant is here in Aurora).  Did you happen to see this freight late Saturday afternoon so it may have had time to get from Eola to your neck of the woods?

I betcha that's the one I saw, Jim.  It was northbound near Fountain City around 3:30 PM, two foreward-facing widecabs up front.  Unfortunately I was southbound on Highway 35 at the time, so I didn't get a chance at a picture.

[william6]

Your second shot looks like a manifest freight that left Eola yard in Aurora, IL on Saturday at about 1:00 p.m.  Those look like Catepillar pieces of equipment and they routinely leave Eola on a MSP freight (the Catepillar plant is here in Aurora).  Did you happen to see this freight late Saturday afternoon so it may have had time to get from Eola to your neck of the woods?

I don't think any train could leave Eola yard at 1PM and cross most of Illinois and all of Iowa and be in eastern Nebraska the same day, at least in daylight hours. Correct me if I am wrong, please.

William

[Anonymous]

Your second shot looks like a manifest freight that left Eola yard in Aurora, IL on Saturday at about 1:00 p.m.  Those look like Catepillar pieces of equipment and they routinely leave Eola on a MSP freight (the Catepillar plant is here in Aurora).  Did you happen to see this freight late Saturday afternoon so it may have had time to get from Eola to your neck of the woods?

I don't think any train could leave Eola yard at 1PM and cross most of Illinois and all of Iowa and be in eastern Nebraska the same day, at least in daylight hours. Correct me if I am wrong, please.

William

I was gona say the same thing. LOL. He must have been doing over 100MPH across Iowa.

[blhanel]

I don't think any train could leave Eola yard at 1PM and cross most of Illinois and all of Iowa and be in eastern Nebraska the same day, at least in daylight hours. Correct me if I am wrong, please.

William

I thought his question was directed at me concerning the train I saw.

[route_rock]

  That manifest looks like the GAL LIN but not sure. Most of the cat stuff winds up being switched in at galesburg so no real trains from chicago run straight through to lincoln, unless its the Q CHIDEN or of course the Z.

  Very nice shots btw. Is the double track project going well out that way? We havent heard much off the Neb Div in a while.

[Anonymous]

  That manifest looks like the GAL LIN but not sure. Most of the cat stuff winds up being switched in at galesburg so no real trains from chicago run straight through to lincoln, unless its the Q CHIDEN or of course the Z.

  Very nice shots btw. Is the double track project going well out that way? We havent heard much off the Neb Div in a while.

No not realy. West Oreapolis to East Cullom is still Single Track. The new Second Main should start going in sometime early in 2007. Main two will run from East Ashland to the West siding switch Southbend. One Railfan I was told said that the BNSF wants to Double Track all the way to the Missiouri bridge at Plattsmouth.

[Bob-Fryml]

I spent the whole day at Oreapolis on the BNSF Creston line and I had a Great time.

Allan.

Allan:- 

Thanks for sharing your pictures with us, I enjoyed looking at them. 

In the future, though, I have this teensy bit of constructive criticism that I would like you, and a whole lot of other contributors to the Trains Magazine website, to take to heart.

When you mention a station or a geographic place, please include the name of the state at which its located.  "Oreapolis" by itself isn't very helpful, but "Oreapolis, Nebr. on the BNSF/Amtrak Creston, Iowa line" would be a lot more meaningful.

On a secondary note, after doing some research I discovered that Oreapolis is the junction between

• the BNSF Lincoln - Ashland, Nebr. - Oreapolis freight main, a line which crosses the Missouri River nearby and subsequently splits at Pacific Jct., Iowa with additional routes to Chicago and Kansas City, and
• the Ashland - Omaha - Gibson Yard - Oreapolis secondary.  

The Union Pacific's Falls City line (nee MoPac) connecting Omaha and Kansas City crosses the BNSF here as well.  

The URL appearing below pretty well illustrates this idea.

http://www.bnsf.com/tools/reference/division_maps/div_ne.pdf

[Anonymous]

Sorry.

[route_rock]

  Well I hope they get a move on lol means more trains off the Ottumwa Sub for us. I can see the Creston and Chicago Pools getting a lot bigger if we can get more coal trains moved across that bottleneck. Also might make the Chief DS calm down when he sees his Z trains making better time.

[Anonymous]

  Well I hope they get a move on lol means more trains off the Ottumwa Sub for us. I can see the Creston and Chicago Pools getting a lot bigger if we can get more coal trains moved across that bottleneck. Also might make the Chief DS calm down when he sees his Z trains making better time.

LOL. Are you kidding. The way run their Trains it's a wounder they even move Trains at all on that line. The Creston line is worse than the UP.