October 2018

I have not been out doing much active train watching for quite some time now. My focus has shifted and primarily I have been photographing freight cars or structures. I find most of the modern railroading to be very boring and after about the 3rd train with a dirty UP consist or an all GE BNSF consist, I've had enough and typically head for home.

I do still photograph locomotives and trains and have a few from October to share.

BNSF 549 is assembling its train on the south end of the BNSF Omaha, NE Gibson yard. 20 years ago she would have been running across the ATSF with hot intermodal traffic, but now she has been demoted to local and switching service.

Roster shots seem to be the most I do with locomotives anymore. So, I couldn't help myself when I spotted this nicely lined up unit in the UP's ex CNW yard in Sioux City, IA. This unit started out as a MoPac unit and now works for Helm Leasing.

Its getting late in the year for MOW work, so it was unusual to see this Hertzog ballast train rolling thru Council Bluffs, IA. In less than a month pretty much all MOW projects will come to an end until next spring.

One of the more unusual movements that I witnessed this past month, was this transfer run from the CN to the UP. Typically this train is a single unit but today two SD60's are performing the duties. Both are pushing the cars that will be interchanged with the UP into the Council Bluffs, IA UP yard.

A return to posting

After a number of years of using Google+ and Facebook, its time to return to the roots of "social media". With Google+ being abandoned and the rampant censorship of Facebook, it was time for this change. Hopefully Google will not infringe on the 1st Amendment rights of those who use this platform. Yes, I know that there have been a number of removed Blogs and individuals being banned, so time will tell.

The Dakota and Iowa, the early years,

My first encounter with what would become the D&I (Dakota and Iowa) was oddly enough a view of their bright orange hoppers while sitting in an orthodontic exam chair. This was more than likely March or April of 1980, but like the building I was in, my the memory of the exact date is gone. I do remember a Milwaukee Road switcher moving the cars around the track beside the old Milwaukee Road freight house, though. This was probably near the end of the Milwaukee Roads cleanup of its Sioux City operations and may have been one of the last Milwaukee Road movements in the area.

Being 15 at the time, I relied on a bicycle and a 126 Instamatic camera to railfan with. Money for film and an obsession with the BN and anything ex Burlington directed my priorities elsewhere. I don't remember seeing anything more that year or have any photos of the LGE operation until the spring of 1981 when two ex-UP GP9's appeared in town with LG Everest logos on the cab sides. These two units moved those orange LGEX hoppers into the old Milwaukee east yard from South Dakota and could occasionally be seen on the ICG or CNW yard leads when they delivered cars. The BN seemed to gather up any cars from LGE when they would interchange with the CNW and ICG.

Spring of 1982 brought about a new image as the two GP9's were both repainted in a nice yellow and gray scheme similar to the old UP one they wore previously. My first encounter with the newly painted units was with LGEX 1 leading empty hoppers north out of Sioux City, Iowa during April of 1982.

LGEX 1 is slowly passing the old Milwaukee Road shop complex in Riverside, IA and will shortly cross the Big Sioux River to South Dakota.

The BN had done a massive tie replacement on the old Milw mainline out of Sioux City during the summer of 1981, but ballast and heavier rail were still in the works. The light rail is evident in the photo of LGEX 1 passing the old Milw shop complex in Riverside, IA. Within a month she would receive D&I logos along with the #2 and new acquired #3.

The spring 1983 brought a new look for the D&I. The GP20 #3 (ex BN 2019) they acquired during the 81-82 winter and the two GP 9's received chopped noses, though the GP20 was still setup to run long hood forward. The three units were often used together on the road trains and could be found on a regular basics in the old Milw east yard.

D&I #1,3,2 and an ex Milwaukee caboose, lay over in the old Milwaukee Road east yard in Sioux City, IA.

1984 revealed that additional units were added over the winter. Five ex-Milwaukee Road GP9's helped the D&I with switching duties along with the increase in train size and frequency. These units continued in their Milwaukee Road orange and black paint and road numbers with the D&I herald on the cab until the winter of 85-86. During that time they received D&I numbers 4 (ex 293), 5 (ex 328), 6 (ex 321), 7 (ex 323) & 8 (ex 303).

During 1985 thru 1987 the D&I continued on with these 8 units with up to 5 units being used on the road trains into Sioux City. December 1986 I left for the Air Force and left the railroad that I called my own. My time away brought many changes to the D&I. Increases in traffic and operations out of state brought 6 axle power to the railroad in the form of SD45's and SD39's. The years between 2012 and 2016 saw the retirement of the old Milw GP9's and the downgrading of the remaining GP9's to switcher status. Newer GP50's and GP39-2's have taken their place along with six SD40-2.

D&I 4 leads a rock train thru the old maze of tracks into the ICG yard for unloading at the cement plants served by the ICG in Sioux City.  

Five D&I units have a loaded rock train in tow thru Jefferson, SD.

Waiting for a BN core line train D&I 3 holds clear on the south leg of the wye at Elk Point, SD.

Snaking back down the CNW main from the old Milw main. D&I is taking the connecting track to the ICG main just west of the Cargill plant in Sioux City, IA.

Plenty of units for an empty rock train, but slow track means this train will take awhile to get to Hawarden. Crossing the Big Sioux river into South Dakota.

Sitting in a cold late fall rain, this is the last time I would see these units in Milwaukee Road paint. D&I 303 and 321 laying over in Sioux City.

During the winter of 85-86, the D&I completed the chop nose conversions on the ex-Milw units and changed to a black and yellow scheme. Rumor at the time was the UP took offense to the gray and yellow and forced the change. 

Parked under the car shaker in Sioux City, D&I 6,7,4 & 5 dead on a cold December day in 1986.

October 2 Railfanning

Sunday provided me an opportunity to enjoy some beautiful cloud free fall skies. With light winds and the nearly perfect sky, I was able to record some video which is something that can be pretty difficult to do with the wind in Nebraska.

The first catch of the day in the area I planned on fanning was an empty MidAmerica coaler just west of Lincoln, NE.

BNSF 6021 & 6096

I followed this train up to the bridge west of Pleasant Dale, NE to try to catch it coming through the widened cut the BNSF created for the second main train. Unfortunately, it had an advantage with the shorter route and beat me there.

After a short wait, the signal at CP 14.6 displayed a red over yellow and then a red over flashing yellow followed by a green. Drifting down grade an empty Bunge bean train rounded the curve to the west of the bridge and took the diverging clear for main two.

BNSF 3826 & 7420

Once this train cleared, the signal at CP14.6 went red over yellow and stayed that way for about 10 minutes. Since I haven't heard any horns across the valley, I headed west to Milford. Once at Milford I setup to get a shot of the anticipated eastbound on the slight grade out of the Blue River valley. Within about 5 minutes horns could be heard coming from the north side of Miford along with a distinctive EMD 2 stroke sound. Soon BNSF 9246 lead an Alabama bound coal load up the grade.

BNSF 9246 & 6124

BNSF 5857

While in Milford a quick stop at the local Casey's for a slice of pizza was in order. While eating another eastbound was heard blowing for the crossing north of Milford. Shortly a TU Utilities coal train approached and I was able to capture it rounding the curve.

After this train passed, I headed back to the bridge for some more photos and videos. Since it was after noon the farmers had returned from church and were out in the fields cutting their crops and stirring up dust as the winds had started to pick up. With that in mind, I decided to stay for the westbound that was holding at CP 14.6 but the BNSF had a bunch of eastbounds to get in before it would finally get a green.

First up was another loaded MidAmerica coaler. BNSF 6350 lead another ES and another was the DPU making an all GE consist.

BNSF 6350

Following the MAXX coaler was a Kansas Power and Light coal load with the BNSF 6209-5639 and DPU 8546. Once it crawled into the clear at CP 14.6 the westbound was given a green to head out. As the train came into view the green sheen of  the Boeing B737-8xx's could be seen. This tipped me off that the HKCKLAU-01 was about to pass my spot. 

BNSF 7686

After this train passed, I packed up my stuff and headed for the car. I decided to check out the signal one last time just in case and sure enough one more train was in store for me followed by another.

First up was the first train I recorded earlier in the morning. BNSF 9109-5775 and DPU 6057 with a GGPX coal empty was first seen on the east side of Waverly, NE holding for an opening in Hobson yard. Four hours later it had pasted trough the yard and was about 40 miles further west.

BNSF 9109

Once the BNSF 9109 passed it was followed by the last train of the day for me. BNSF 6404-NS 1086 with DPU 5821 rolled an empty JHMX coal west. After watching this roll by I headed for home. Not a bad day for about 4.5 hours of quiet. 

On a quest to find the NS 4002 and 4004

Our original plan was to get photos of these units around the local area, but the weather and updates on their status had us traveling south to get them in some sunlight.

We headed south out of the Omaha area, getting off the interstate at Mound City, MO to follow the BNSF tracks via the back roads. While making a quick stop in Mound City, we heard a northbound over on the Napier Sub and were hoping it wasn't the NS units running ahead of time. My son checked Facebook and found that the crew was called for 1100. Since it was 0900 we decided to head south until we found them.

At Napier Jct, an empty grain train was being held before continuing north up the Napier sub. The power looked like every other GE so we skipped going up to the headend for any pictures and headed south on Hwy 111 to Forest City. From there is was onto County Rd T to Forbes, MO.

North of Forbes, MO we noticed that the signals were lined for a southbound, so we pulled into Forbes and waited about 10 minutes before a southbound RWSX loaded coaler showed up. BNSF 8990-6394 with DPU's 9649-9085 cleared the only crossing in town within a couple of minutes.

As we paced the 8990 south we soon encountered a traffic jam around Rushville, MO. A truck towing a trailer with a Suburban on it, blew a front tire going into the ditch and hitting the rails. To my untrained eye it didn't appear to cause too much damage to the track, but the DS had to have a track inspector out to verify all was good.

The curious part of this traffic jam was at that a southbound TXUX loaded coaler was in the siding while a northbound mixed freight was holding the main. BNSF 5387-4535 was the power on the freight while BNSF 9270-6014 and DPU 6255 had the TXUX loads in hand.

A bit further down the road we noticed a headlight coming around a curve, which belonged to a northbound KCP&L empty with BNSF 9144 and DPU 9258 as power. Once they came to a stop BNSF 9270 got a green signal to continue south.

We encountered our next train at Amour siding where a northbound freight was being held. Power was BNSF 6235-6207-54181-9658. There was also a KCPL loaded coaler on the ballon track running through the dumper at the Iatan Power Plant. From here we headed back up into the hills away from the tracks until we crossed under Hwy 92 about 2 miles north of the north end of Leavenwoth siding. Sitting at the north end waiting for the BNSF 9270 south was a TXUX empty coaler with BNSF 9280-6082 on the headend. I could not get the number of the DPU on this train.

About half way down the siding (which is 17550' long) we set up for a shot of the 9270 passing the northbound in the siding.

Our next encounter was near MP 11.8 where we encountered the BNSF 9257-9838 on a loaded RWSX coaler holding at the end of double track. Having not encountered the NS duo and needing gas we headed on down to N. Kansas City to take a peek at Murray yard. The connector from Hwy 9 to Hwy 169 was closed so we ended up taking the roads down along the east side of the yard. We saw lots of faded/dirty/stored C44-9Ws, SD70MACs, a few AC44C4s in various BNSF paint schemes stuffed into tracks along the east side of the yard. After figuring out how to get over to Hwy 169 we were able to drive north along the west side of the yard and finally spotted the duo at the north end of Murray yard.

Not able to get any photos of the units, we decided on lunch and a run over to the NS yard as the IT heritage unit and the Veterans unit were reported to be in town. A drive down along the NS yard didn't reveal either unit, but we did manage to catch a parked auto rack train.

We took another run around the Murray yard to see if a crew may have been brought out to get on the train and found it in the same spot and state. Heading back up to Parkville, MO to position ourselves to get some photos when it does leave, my son looked up the latest information for the train at the various social media sites and read that the crew was called for 1600. Since it was 1430 and we had a 2.5 hour drive home combined with a line of storms coming in we reluctantly headed north.

Retracing our route, we encountered our first train just north of Parkville. Seems the crew on the BNSF 9257, which we had seen earlier died on the single track and had the main plugged. Seeing this we assumed that there wouldn't be any northbound movements on our way back. This was soon proven wrong as we encountered a northbound empty DDG train at Sadler. Moving at track speed we had a bit of a run to catch up to the head end which had BNSF 4556-6605 as the power. While trying to get ahead of it, I noticed a different train in the siding at Sadler from when we had headed south earlier in the morning.

The northbound grain train slowed to take the siding at Halls and my son wanted to get a shot of the train passing under the old Q cantilever signal at the south end of the siding. Once he was able to get his shots (mine were not the best) me headed north again and encountered a monster of a consist on a train holding at the end of double track. This mixed freight was lead by BNSF 6100-5742-5876-5166-652-6304-1106-8160-6902-7764, 10 units. Of course they were not all online and the last 5 looked as though the last 5 had recently been removed from storage.

Once the crew was relived and a new crew got on board this train would continue its journey to KC. We continued our journey north and soon encountered a loaded KCP&L coaler powered by BNSF 6263 and BNSF 8572 as the DPU quickly rolling up on the stopped freight stopped in front of it.

While we got our shots the crew fan ran around us and pulled up to a stopped mixed freight in the siding with BNSF 3800-4058-3012 as power.

With us still over a 100 miles from home and heavy rain just to the north we made a beeline for home and ended our day of railfanning.

Some finds in a yellow box

Moving has its disadvantages and advantages, especially went it comes to rediscovering lost or forgotten items. While going through a tote with a bunch of photo envelopes I came across a long, thin, yellow plastic slide box. This box contained a roll of 126 slides that were developed in 1986 but had been exposed during the late fall of 1981.

Now before the purist turn their noses up and scream ack, 126 Instamatic wtf, it should be told that as a 15 year old this was the best I had in a camera at the time. I wouldn't get my first 35mm until Christmas 1981 in the form of a Pentax K1000.

So why make a blog post on this find, it's not for the technical purity of the images, but rather for the bit of history that was captured. The late fall of 1981 was a dramatic change for the BN in my hometown. Since 1908 there has been a CB&Q/BN terminal in South Sioux City (Ferry), NE and a separate GN/BN terminal in Sioux City, IA separated by a weight restricted 1888 link pin truss bridge over the Missouri River. Starting in 1980 the BN started the process of replacing this bridge to allow for heavier trains on the Sioux City line. The opening of this bridge in Dec 1981 lead to the closing of the So Sioux City terminal and consolidation of operations into the old GN yard in Sioux City, IA.

Three clean SD40-2's lead the first revenue train across the new Missouri River bridge between So. Sioux City, NE and Sioux City, IA.

Laying over in the old Q Ferry, NE engine terminal, a set of bridge power waits for a northbound train to take across the weight restricted Missouri River bridge to Sioux City, IA.

Road power waits for their train to be dragged over from Sioux City, IA before taking over from the bridge power for the trip south.

At the old GN service track in Sioux City an unusual lashup of U33C and SD9 await service before taking a train north to Wilmar, MN. 

Some other images on this 20 shot roll include a couple of CNW and ICG shots included below for a look back. 

EMNPA power sits in the cold as their train is switched in the Sioux CIty, IA yard.

Having brought in their train earlier in the day these two GP10's rest outside the old IC engine house in Sioux City, IA. This engine house still exist as a machine shop for Cargill but the IC and GP10's are gone.

A couple of cold hours at Ashland, NE

Waking up to a dusting of snow Friday morning and some brilliant post storm sun light gave me an urge to get out and do some train watching. Unfortunately the clouds rolled back in by the time I got motivated and out the door.

First train I encountered was the ZCHCDEN as it rolled down from Gretna, NE toward Ashland on the Omaha Sub. I caught up with it before it got to Ashland but I wanted to get a shot of it further west and settled on a shot of it rolling east of Greenwood, NE. Unfortunutely, since its now stick season and the sky was gloomy a b&w conversion was needed to salvage the shot.

BNSF 7249 leads the ZCHCDEN between Greenwood and Ashland, NE.

BNSF 7249 heads west toward Greenwood, NE.

As I passed thru Ashland toward Greenwood, two coalers were stopped to give the Z train a clear block thru the area. A westbound empty coaler was holding at east wye in Ashland but was given a green on the heels of the Z train. It passed me as I headed back to Ashland and I wasn't able to get a shot of it.

BNSF 5968 heads east on the Creston Sub instead of the anticipated north on the Sioux City Sub.

An eastbound loaded coaler was holding at west Ashland and I thought it was going to head up the Sioux City sub and was caught off guard when it heading toward me instead of taking the hard left for Sioux City.

Soon after the eastbound passed a train was heard blowing for crossings and the chirp of a EOT was heard on the scanner. After a couple of minutes CREX 1312 rolled a westbound empty up to the signal on the Omaha sub. After about 15 mins she got a green and headed west again.

CREX 1312 leads a westbound empty coaler off the Omaha Sub.

Once the CREX lead train passed another empty coaler followed about 20 minutes later.

BNSF 9655 leads an empty coaler at east Asland.

After the BNSF 9655 passed a lull in the action developed. The Sioux City Sub DS was talking to a southbound and soon it was heard blowing for the crossings north of Ashland. One nice thing from the lull is it gave the sun a chance to make an appearance.

BNSF 9262 leads a ballast train off the Sioux City Sub.

Into nearly perfect sunlight BNSF 9262 lead a short ballast train across the Salt Creek bridge and then curved west toward west Ashland and the Creston Sub. Its passing gave me a chance to head for Casey's and some pizza.

BNSF 7335 leads a DEEX empty at west Ashland.

Crossing the bridge over the tracks reveled another westbound empty coaler so I headed over the west Ashland and waited for it to roll west. After a bit the BNSF 7335 and two C44-9W's slowly moved up to the signals. This is the first time since I've moved back to Nebraska where I've seen a coal train without AC units. Too bad it was still  roaches on the front.

BNSF 6243 leads a empty coaler at east wye Ashland.

After grabbing some shots of the units, I headed back over to east Ashland and caught a couple of more empty coalers before hearing the Sioux City Sub DS calling out the BNSF 2778 south. BNSF 2778 was leading the Fremont switch down to the yard in Ashland and soon was head blowing for the crossings north of Ashland. As soon as I was able to see the headlight thru the trees I headed out to get a shot of it curving off the Sioux City sub before calling it a day and heading for home.

BNSF 2778 leads the Fremont switch off the Sioux City Sub.