Blair Sub Construction September Update

On Friday 21 Sept 2012 I explored the Blair Sub construction progress to see what was actually going on. Earlier in the month one of the local super foamers reported that all work was going to stop on this project, a rumor I could not find any confirmation of when I inquired on the internet. As I did the previous month I started out on the west end of the sub and headed east. The west end is were the most activity is currently occurring.

Arlington, NE
Contractors were actively driving piles for the new bridge over the creek on the east side of Arlington, west of CR P11. The sub grade work is completed through Arlington to the S 6th St crossing. No work has been started west from this crossing toward East Fremont.

Pile drivers and cranes at the new bridge installation in Arlington, NE.

Heading east from the CR P11 crossing the grade work is completed all the way to the west end of the old Kennard Siding.

CR P15 Arlington Hill
The short section of new ROW that was unfinished last month is now completed. A new drainage culvert was installed on the north side of the ROW under the road to allow run off from the hill to drain away from the new ROW.

Looking west the new ROW will cross the existing ROW and  be on the south side .

On the east side of the crossing the new ROW has been completed up to the crossing control box for the current main. The new crossing control box is located to the north (left in the pic) of the existing control box. The bases for the new crossing gates have been installed and the electrical work has also been completed from the control box to the gates.

Looking east at CR P15 the new alignment stops at the existing crossing control box.

CR P15 to Allen Creek
With the ROW construction nearly completed there is very little activity to be found from Arlington, NE to Missouri Valley, IA. This same lull in activities occurred with the first section of the double track over Blair Hill.

Contractors were noted adding rolls of soil stabilizers along the cuts on the east side of Arlington Hill. At the CR 121 crossing a set of new metal culverts have been positioned along with rip rap for installation in the area.

At the west end of the old Kennard siding, the contractor has completed the concrete wall on the south side of the Hwy 30 over crossing shoring this up for the new second main. The stagging area just south of the West Kennard switch has had a number of pre-stressed concrete bridge decks and metal pilings for a new bridge. These components maybe used in the replacement of the pile bridge on the main at this location.

Between Kennard and the Missouri River bridge no activity was noted.

When in Blair, NE be sure and stop by Fernadoe's and give the super foamer dish washer a shout out. It will put a smile on his face. 

On the Iowa side of the Blair Sub it appears that most work has stopped from the Missouri River bridge incline to the new junction on the east side of California Jct., IA. The ROW is completed but there has been no work on the installation of new crossing gate bases or electrical to connect those crossing bases to the control boxes.

The one bit of activity that was observed on the Iowa side was a track game working on connecting the third main to the existing main east of the Italy Ave crossing. The new main has also been connected to the existing main with the cross over that was just east of Italy Ave. Between Allen Creek and Italy Ave there is now a set of cross overs allowing movement between the two mains.

Until the next report.

Some accidental railfaning

With a very busy work schedule it seems that all of my railfaning adventures for the last year or so have been accidental. Friday and Saturday were two of those accidental occasions. The plan Friday was to get the Jeep worked on so I took a day of PTO to get it into the shop. To my surprise the work was done in an hour and a half. Not as long as I had anticipated but long enough to check out this Jeep on the dealer lot. Might make a good rig if it wasn't orange and $40k.

JK8 on the dealer lot

Nine AM and the rest of the day off, so what to do? I really had no plans so I headed toward Fremont, NE but first stopped at Elkhorn, NE to investigate where the old UP depot had been moved too. After being moved it had been made into a house and after looking over the only possible house it might be, I decided to not take any photos as it had been modified beyond recognition.

The first train of the day was found in Elkhorn. A loaded WEPX coaler that was stopped just to the west of the Hwy 31 over crossing. Strange place to be stopped but later in the day I would see why. Power was UP 5888-7318-DPU 5608.

East of Valley, NE an eastbound CWEX coal load was stopped on the main. UP 5615-6294-DPU 7291was its power. In Valley, NE the UP has a long string of fallen flag covered hoppers parked on the north siding. Western Pacific, Mopac, CNW, SP, SSW and old paint UP hoppers can be found in this string. There is even a SP ACF that is free of graffiti, which anymore is a rare find. This years poor harvest will cause these to become a common sight as grain loads will be way down from previous years. Unfortunately I missed the Lincoln turn as there was no power to be found in town.

Mercer, NE had the inbound MCOCB holding at the signal with UP 4890-4842 as the power. Though these two units are less than 50 numbers apart, they are in different schemes. 4890 lacks the flag and instead has Union Pacific on the side. Given the deplorable condition of the flags on most units five years or older, I like the non-flagged SD70M's with the flared radiators.

Fremont, NE was fairly quite. An eastbound wind turbine train was spotted headed up the Blair sub. No blades were noted just the turbines.I figured I'd be able to catch this train later so wasn't concerned about missing it. Unfortunately I never did catch it later.

Local activity was pretty quite. The BNSF road switcher was nowhere to be found and the UP switcher was parked near the office. When crossing the UP main at N. Pierce St an eastbound UP was seen in the distance approaching town. This train would need a new crew and there would be plenty of opportunity to see if it will take the Blair or Omaha subs, so it was off to check out Poppa siding on the BNSF. The BNSF holds trains at Poppa while waiting for time to cross the UP diamonds. As usual Poppa was not a disappointment.

Lined up at Poppa.

On the siding was a northbound empty grainer while on the main was a southbound ballast train full of ballast from the Dakota Iowa out of Dell Rapids, SD. BNSF 5256-7046 would take this grainer up to Sioux City while BNSF 9247 was the rear dpu on the ballast train. I wasn't able to get in position to see the head end power on the ballast train. On the Frontier Grain Coop lead the BNSF had parked the Fremont switcher. BNSF 2702 along with a tank car had the lead all to themselves.

Heading out of Fremont on Morningside rd, I "found" that eastbound UP train. It turned out to be a empty grain train with UP 8520-8205-DPU 5504 as power. As I neared the head end three toots signaled the train was restarting its journey east. A quick u-turn and a run over to the s-curve west of CR 15 to get a shot before this section is replaced by the new alignment on the west side of Arlington Hill.

Twisting though the s-curve.

Checking out the work being done on the Blair Sub I noticed that the signals were light up for a westbound. I setup for a shot but after about 20 minutes of waiting I decided to move east to see if I'd catch it over by Kennard. Sitting too long in one location tends to attract the wrong attention anymore even out in the country. As I dropped down the hill toward the Hwy 30 over crossing on the south side of the old Kennard siding, I spotted the westbound I had been waiting for. Unable to get into position to get a shot, I grabbed a backlight going away of the MCHNP with UP 5881-4105-DPU 8232.

West out of Kennard.

This was the last train I saw on the Blair sub and the last one until I got to Council Bluffs, IA. Even the scanner chatter was light until Missouri Valley, IA. DS20 was heard asking where the MSXCB was to position it off the Sioux City sub for a short jog across the Blair sub and then down the Omaha sub. The SX was head sating it was just north of Modale, IA. DS20 then gave instructions to a westbound to slow down a little to allow the SX time to make the transition from the Sioux City sub to the Blair sub and then the new double track west of Mo Valley. Though this set of moves sounded interesting I decided to head on to Council Bluffs and then home.

Coming into Council Bluffs I spotted a train holding at Beanos. UP 3940-3877-8144 were leading an eastbound freight, while the coaler that was stopped in Elkhorn 3 hours earlier passed on the right.  Getting further into town I noticed that the old CNW yard was fairly empty with the day switch crew working the lead on the south end near the Heritage shop buildings. Crossing the main at Ave B, I noticed a UP MOW crew working on the cross overs south of N. 11th Ave. This explained why the trains were backed up west of Omaha and why there was no action on the Omaha sub north of CB.

Over on the IC/CN had the typical stored cars and no power to be seen. Fridays are a day that the local does not come into Council Bluffs and the local switch crew had the North Omaha transfer over on the NE side.

On the old Burlington lead into the UP pool yard, the UP had the power parked from a bean train that had been run down the BNSF Council Bluffs sub to the Bungee bean plant. UP 6954-3498-DPU-6376 had been the power for this train and where waiting for it to be unloaded before heading back down to pick up the empties. UP 3498 was the first SD90MAC that I have seen post renumbering.

One of the rare AC6000CW's to have worn a set of wings on the nose.

Before a quick run over to the BNSF yard another eastbound coaler with UP 6881-5715-DPU-6061 passed by on the main. Parked in the BNSF yard where two KCS belles that had brought in an empty grain train to be loaded at the south house Bartlett elevator. KCS 4110-4129 brought in 72 empties for load out.

Belle power laying over.

Since I had some busy work to accomplish it was time to head back home but only after stopping to get shots of the two NS units parked on the elevator tracks in the UP yard. UP 5826-NS 8898-NS 9545 were positioned to be the power for the MCBDM later in the afternoon.

Saturdays accidental railfaning occurred while heading home after the Nebraska game. West of Adams St in Lincoln an inbound grain train was being tied down on the main. Power was HLCX 6241-BNSF 4546, the HLCX was an unusual sight as it is rare to see lease power on the BNSF. The Havelock switcher was spotted was tied down near the yard office with the BNSF 3171-2778 as  power. Further east an empty coaler was tied down east of N 98th st. Power was BNSF 9249-5834-DPU 9946.

The drive along Hwy 6 didn't reveal any more trains until Ashland, NE. Looking down into the yard from Hwy 6, two loaded  ballast trains where spotted. On that note my accidental railfaning ended.

An 844 Sunday

The decision to go out and catch the 844 on Sunday was just one of those spur of the moment wild hair type of decisions. After a lazy Sunday morning I was checking out the various railfan sources and stumbled on the realization that the 844 was heading back to Council Bluffs that afternoon. She was scheduled to have a servicing stop at Dunlap, IA at 1515, so the girlfriend and I made the decision to try and head out there to meet up and follow her back to CB.

Getting out the door around 1415, I thought it would be cutting it close to run the 50+ miles from my house in Bellevue to Dunlap but my concern wasn't needed. A check of the UP Steam twitter feed and the UP GPS tracking map showed that she was pretty far behind schedule and was still east of Carroll, IA when I arrived in Missouri Valley, IA. So with that knowledge (smart phones are nice for this type of tracking) I set out to find some spots to get a shot or two.

The back roads west of Woodbine, IA were scouted but I soon rejected the area as the main gravel road was pretty loose and wouldn't have been good to use as a chase road. The road condition and the spotting of BNSFrailfan - aka Allen Love, Jr. trespassing on the CN bridge over the UP convinced me to head further east with the Arion Ia area as a potential spot to setup. I wasn't in the mood for a UP popo encounter.

Checking the UP GPS tracking map showed that 844 was stopped near Carroll IA so I continued to head east until Denison, IA. I was thinking of going even further east but decided to stop and setup near the old CNW depot. After about 20-30 minutes of waiting, 844's whistle could be heard approaching from the east but ominously so could a air horn coming from the west. When I setup I was concerned about getting stuck on the wrong side if an eastbound came through and this thought kept getting louder as the steam whistle and the air horn keep getting closer to me. Well luck was on my side as 844 came into view before the eastbound did.

I packed up and headed west out of Denison to eventually catch up with the 844 as she made the servicing stop in Dunlap. By Arion I had caught the pace crowd who had Hwy 30 all gummed up while they paced the steamer. I absolutely hate these people especially on 2 lane roads that have impatient local drivers and foamers all mixed together. Its only a sneeze away from a big chain reaction wreck.

I was able to pass the line east of Dow City and get ahead of the chasers to setup at the Boyer River crossing west of Dunlap. I was the second person there and setup on the north side of the tracks to hopefully prevent getting blocked by another eastbound. In the 20 or so minutes I was waiting a couple of others showed up including a woman who was determined to stand on or near the tracks with her back pointed toward eastbound traffic. I was convinced she would be the next Darwin award winner as no matter what, she was going to get that shot where she wanted to stand.

844 got the highball at 1730 and the track and time was released allowing eastbounds to proceed which meant there was a good possibility of a meet at the bridge. Unfortunately this did occur and blocked a couple of people who had setup on the south side of the tracks.

After the stack train passed, I packed up and headed west to see if I could get one more setup for the day. The bridge construction on Hwy 30 east of Woodbine put an end to that though as all westbound traffic has to hold for a green signal to cross the single lane bridge. We were able to follow her into Missouri Valley and  was stopped at the Loveland IA crossing by the train before heading for home.

All in all a nice way to spend an Sunday afternoon.

August Happenings

August was a month to forget with the loss of a close friend and a work schedule that was less than conductive to a good life/work balance. Even with these challenges I was able to get out in the local area and capture some action.

With the month almost half over I was able to get in the first outing of the month. The late afternoon is a good time to catch the MCBDM out of Council Bluffs and its sometimes interesting power. The 14th brought some old friends in the form of two old Sierra dupes. These units followed me from California to be placed in the pool out of North Platte. Showing the scars of operating in the tunnels of Donner Pass, the flags have long ago faded into the soot and oil covering they wore for the entire time they worked the pass.

UP 5577 & 5564 head north out of Beno's along a field that was 10+ feet under water this time last year.

The MNPCCB or as the  yard master likes to call it the double B is a late afternoon arrival into the Council Bluffs terminal area.The double B is actually two complete trains that runs into CB as one long monster (typically 180+ cars) from North Platte. From this train the MCBVP and MCBSS trains are created when the double B is split up in the old CNW north yard.

UP 3958 & 6580 pause on the Big Lake under crossing in  CB as the MNPCBB is broken up into its two trains.

Last years flooding and the wash out of the CN/IC line into Council Bluffs changed the schedule and make up of the three times a week CB local when the line was restored last winter. Traffic appears to have recovered but the trains are now handled by single hp units were they used to be two units.

The North Omaha CN/IC switch job and interchange with the BNSF and UP still generates a fair amount of traffic The job was pushing over 30 cars down the UP main to the CN/IC connector switch on the 14th.

IC 1025 is pushing hard on a large interchange cut.

The UP Ak-Sar-Ben special is a August fixture and this year the Union Pacific used the E-units to power this train. On the 16th the units were run light over to Heritage Park to be positioned on the next days special.

Slowly heading down the switch off the main into Heritage Park.

I hadn't know about this movement, so I was surprised to see them round the curve heading to B0.0 for the run across town to the old CNW yard.

On the 21st I discovered that the IC SD70 had been replaced by the CN 2108. This old CNW C40 is in eye shot of the old GE shop at the CB CNW roundhouse where she and her sisters were maintained.

Old is new on the CN.

Having just pushed her interchange cars into the old IC yard the crew is adding them to the evening outbound train.

Typically the QNPSK is a late morning, early afternoon train but today she must have encountered delays west of Council Bluffs.

UP 5120 leads two CSX units at Beno's

UP 5120 provides needed ATS/CSS controls for the two CSX units as they leave the congested CB/Omaha terminal area.

With Berkshire Hathaway owning both Mid America and the BNSF the sight of an empty UP coaler from the CBEC complex may be rare in a couple of years. The contracts are currently being negotiated for haulage of the coal to the various Mid American plants and it will be interesting to see if its keep in the family of continues to be hauled by the competition.

UP 7251 leads the empty Mid America coaler past the CRI&P depot in Council Bluffs, IA.

The BNSF interchange train between the BNSF Gibson Omaha yard and the UP CB yard often occurs late in the afternoon and typically uses what ever is available in the yard to drag it over to the UP.

The interchange run on the 28th used the Bayard turn power in the form of two warbonnet B40-8W's and a GP 39-2. BNSF 517 is one of the best looking warbonnets I've seen in a very long time. An interesting note is the side says BNSF while the cigar ban on the nose says Santa Fe.

Backing through the yard the BNSF interchange train is heading up track 9 the yard to pick up its cars from the UP.

This train ended my month of observations