And you'll soon see why. Here is one of my favorite trains in the whole wide world, a BNSF coal drag of UFIX bathtub gons. It is true that it's being pulled by a couple of "Power Bars" but I'll take it. This one is lugging 132 cars up Decatur Hill about 40 miles north of Fort Worth, TX. Doesn't even look like those AC's are even giving it a second thought, despite the fact that this is the second steepest grade this train will encounter between the Powder River Basin and it's terminus southwest of Houston. There they go, smoothly powering up the grade about 3 miles from the top. Ah HAH! We knew there was a DPU, but our sneaky little coal drag has picked up a "cheater" in the form of BNSF 6496, an SD45-2 helper stationed at Alvord at the bottom of the hill. Leave it to a couple of "Chevy's" to do all the real work!
A couple of things... 1. If you want pictures of the UFIX cars (Berwicks or ACF Coalveyors) I would recommend you get them soon. These cars are getting up there in age, and new trainsets of shiny new NRG gons are starting to grow exponentially it seems and will likely replace the old steel bathtubs soon. 2. I cannot for the life of me get my pictures to upload to Railimages and look worth a crap. They look beautiful on my PC, and then resizing them takes a little of the sharpness but only noticeable at super zoom, but uploading them (and further resizing) just kills them. If anybody has any ideas I'm all ears. Part of it is I don't have my standard "gear" and I usually use PaintShopPro or Photoshop to do my resizing. I'm now using IrFanView and it's, well, free. I've tried different sizes of prelim resizing but nothing seems to help.
I believe Utility Fuels Inc. (UFIX), a company created by Houston Lighting & Power to acquire and deliver power plant fuels, was the first "non railroad" company to own a large fleet of coal gondolas. In the late 1970s, they ordered over 1000 rail cars to deliver coal to the new coal powered generating plant south of Richmond, Texas. These cars are still in service after a very hard life. I guess it is about time they are replaced. Here is one of the roatary dumpers where they are emptied.
Nice photos Doug, I love the comment about the Chevy's! I'd have to say that I'd like to have a couple of models of both the ES44DC and the SD70ACe, even in "Power Bar". Let's hope Kato does these soon.
Russell, Great shot of the dumper. I've always wanted to tour that facility but never have had the opportunity. I've seen the other end (Jacobs Ranch, et al) which was cool. Chris, I have to admit the BNSF Power Bar is growing on me, and I love the SD70ACe's. I'm still not ready for a wholesale era switch, but I will probably buy a pair of Kato does them. IM is taking care of the helper in the SD45-2, but I must confess I'm not crazy about the IM locos (yet) so it will be a wait and see.
Well, if you are ever in the St. Louis, MO/Central Illinois area, I probably could arrange a field trip to a working dumper.
Chris, I actually go through your area quite often, although it's typically on a marathon 15-hour drive from Dallas to Aurora, IL. But I certainly would be interested, no doubt! I have seen one dumper in action...Midwest Energy (?) in Duluth, WI during the FOBNR convention there a couple years back. They are impressive facilities...I was amazed at the comments about a big pile of coal's ability to "catch itself on fire" which is apparently an almost constant danger at these facilities... as I'm sure you are well aware.
Hey, I happen to like the SD70MAC's! (I'm a GM/Chevy fan in case you haven't figured that out...and yes I know the ACe's aren't GM anymore, but still) I love that Crawford shot. That is a great place for railfanning especially if you like coal trains. An offbeat comment though...that "black sheep" Aero-flow car amonst the UFIX bathtubs sitting almost directly above the crossbucks makes it look like you have a big metal sign in the middle of your photo, at first glance! Anyway, I always enjoy your photos and the bonus is that if you post them in a timely fashion I can hop in the truck and go see the same train a day or two later here in Texas! I have well over a thousand photos of the UFIX cars and I probably need to get off my butt and get my website back online and start populating my UFIX page again. My goal is to really focus on photographing the cars before my move to Illinois later this year. I was actually going to follow this one until he stopped so I could get some good detail pics, but alas...he never stopped in the 35 miles I was pacing him. Well, except for about 30 seconds at a time to couple and uncouple the helper.
SD45-2s are grand! See them every once in a while up north in Temple. To only have seen Temple back in the Santa Fe glory days when it was the ATSF rail hub in Texas, but now with BN lines, most BNSF trains go other ways. But I still think "Cadillacs" are better than "Chevy"s! I've even had a cab ride in the Nevada Northern's ex-SP SD9E. It still had Southern Pacific leather seats with the sunset logo! mg:
this is the territory i run on. our largest coal train is 128 cars and we get down to about 7-8 mph with the alvord pusher on the rear. coal trains used to lay-down on the hill all the time but with the newer motors we can make it with out the helper. with just 3 motors we get down to 3-4 mph. it doesnt look like a grade from the motor but it sure is a hard pull.
