Happy Thanksgiving all. BNSF has trackage rights over donner pass. They don't need trackage rights over the pass, they're perfectly capable of running everything over their normal routes. Especially with current traffic levels...but they don't want to loose those traffic rights either. And so you get 13,400 HP to move 10ish cars over the Sierras.
Great classic Geep. The lighting is just right - almost lined up overhead and one can see details in interesting places like the radiators. And a few hood doors open under them!
From 1976 at Des Plaines, IL, two year old SD-40-2 Soo 777 crosses joint CNW/MILW track at Deval Interlocking.
OK, got another one from my print photo archives. This was around 1996ish. I remember the trip well, but things kind of run together timewise these days. A few weeks ago, I posted a photo of Lake State Railway C425m #1280 at Grayling, MI. in the 2000's. Same engine here but back when it was working for predecessor Detroit and Mackinac. Back then, D&M would use three alcos on the Bay City to Grayling freight, always having one stationed at Grayling and periodically swapping it for one of the units on the freight so they all got home to Bay City for servicing. The unit that was left in Graying would switch the wood products plants on four mile road (at the time Weyerhauser and Georgia-Pacific) and power the Grayling/Gaylord turn. On this particular day during Christmas break, a fairly large amount of snow had been dumped on the area and my railfan buddy Tim and I thought that D&M would provide us with some good photo ops breaking through it. Unfortunately, it was midday before we made it up there but at least managed this shot of 1280 returning to Grayling with a short consist. I paid for this shot with a terrible cold as it was made while leaning out the shotgun window of the truck at 60 MPH. Still regarded it as worth it.
I went and looked at that location with Google Earth and Street View. There's a highway running right underneath that diamond! It's neat using street view and going under that. But the road... it's about as bad as here! (Quebec is dubiously renowned for having the worst roads). That SD40-2 looks immaculately clean. Sparkling bright!
Late Autumn afternoon sun shines on the nose of the first of two NS AC44C6M's leading NS 15T, Allentown-Irondale, AL, freight today. Both are products of the Wabtec-GE Fort Worth shop, rebuilt from Dash9-44CW's. DSC05971 by Sepp K posted Nov 28, 2020 at 7:58 PM A SD-70ACe trails. DSC05975 by Sepp K posted Nov 28, 2020 at 7:58 PM Some battered boxcars bring up the markers DSC05978 by Sepp K posted Nov 28, 2020 at 7:58 PM
You are absolutely correct. Somewhere in the past, I remember some sort of Ripley's Believe It Or Not-type story on what you describe at Des Plaines. In the far distance you can see barely see Fs leading a MILW freight, stopped to allow the SOO to cross. I'd forgotten that the joint CNW/MILW line through Deval was protected by semaphore signals at the time. I wish I'd had the foresight to capture more of these on film.
"Stinky Slinky" We called them Stinky Slinky due to their odor: rotten eggs. These unit trains would load sulfur in Bonneville, WY and take it to Galveston, TX, if memory serves. I bagged this one led by then-ubiquitous Deuces northbound to Bonneville from northern Cheyenne, WY. I'm not sure if sulfur requires buffer cars today, but it certainly didn't in 2005.
That looks a lot like an ex-CN GP9 rebuild. It even has a 7000-series road number. Since the dynamics were disconnected by CN in almost all cases way back in the 50s (except the ones operating in western Canada), they took them out and replaced them with air filters when they were rebuilt. The rebuilds were in a few different classes: road freight, yard (light and heavy), hump, etc. Those tough old beasts lasted way beyond expected life expectancy, and kept right on going after the rebuilds. Originally, the CN system (CN, GT, GTW, CV, DW&P) bought 434 GP9s.
I do believe my shot from the previous week on the Altenheim is essentially down the line from this train. Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk
Yes, in many of them they left the control stands in the as-built position, running long hood forward.