Saturday
I got out of the house a little later than I wanted to and did not get to catch the morning fleet on the Falls City sub into Omaha. I did hear two of the north bounds between 0800 and 0900, though.
A drive through Council Bluffs before I headed out to Blair was somewhat productive.
IAIS
BICB power was 508-506
CN
9460 was building its train for Omaha.
2615 was the road power laying over for the evening train.
KCS
4595-4606 had brought in an empty grain train for the Bartlett elevator on the north end of Council Bluffs.
A couple of UP coal trains snuck around me as I was getting gas and breakfast.
Before heading over to Blair, I sat in Mo Valley waiting for a westbound to follow over but after about 45 mins nothing had came in to follow. So out of boredom, I took the long way to Blair via the back roads to California Jct where a headlight off to the east showed a westbound waiting to head out on the single track to Kennard. The signals at Cal Jct were all red westbound indicating a train off the Sioux City Sub was a good possibility.
Blair Hill
First up was a westbound loaded grain train with UP 7697-6563-8434 as the power.
An empty coaler with UP 6531 on the head end and UP 6579 as the DPU.
The AGBMI with UP 4995-4108 was third.
A westbound stacker with UP 7823-4704-7740 was up next.
The final train was a short MOW train with two SD70M's and three flats with concrete ties.
After this train passed I headed back to Omaha as my pager was going off.
Sunday
Sunday started out nice and warm with a hazy sun. It hasn't been like that in sometime and really set in spring fever.
A quick run thru Council Bluffs to see what had changed overnight before a run down to Pacific Jct., IA and over to Plattsmouth/Oreopolis, NE.
IAIS
BICB power was 500-503
UP
MPRCB with 8145-8024-9533 made its morning run down the 12th st line into the pool yard.
MNPCB with UP 5674-UP 8532-UPY 597-UPY 656-UP 7199 was yarding its train.
HLCX 3839 - UP 505 where waiting for MOW permission to proceed into there zone as they replaced ties on the line from the Mary switch to the yard.
BNSF
At the Hwy 370 overpass a ES44AC and a SD70MAC where bringing in a KCS grain train for loading at the south Council Bluffs Bartlett elevator.
The drive down to Pacific Jct pretty much devoid of trains. The IAIS 601-650 set where sitting under the I-29 overpass waiting for permission to enter the BNSF for a run over to the Mid America power plant and Bungee Ethenol facility. Only one coaler was being unloaded that I could see from the interstate.
At Pacific Jct, I was expecting to see a couple of trains waiting to make the run over to Plattsmouth but there where none. A wb empty coaler did pull up soon after I arrived and waited for a Council Bluffs local to come in from the west.
BNSF 4753 - 791 took the west leg of the wye for the slow run north about 20 minutes after I arrived. BNSF 6006-9363-6052 continued west after the local cleared the junction. The scanner was quite and there did not appear to be anymore trains so I followed the DPU over to Plattsmouth.
After about 25 minutes a wb empty coaler was heard blowing for the crossings over in Iowa and I setup to be able to watch it come across the river bridge and through town. BNSF 8807-9310-6256-9943-5642 were the power for this empty hopper train. Not hearing any scanner chatter, I ran over to Oreopolis to sit and wait.
BNSF 8123 showed up after about 10 minutes with a westbound train of empty windmill blade flatcars. It came to a stop and waited for a couple of eb coalers. BNSF 6409-5968-5775 was the first followed by BNSF 9267-5848 a short time later. After this the westboud started back west.
I then called it a day and headed back home.
