December Blair Sub Construction Update 21012

A week before Christmas I was able to get out and take a look at the construction progress on the Blair Sub. In short not much has taken place but there are a couple of items worth reporting.

Arlington, NE

The new double track bridge was cut in in late November. This involved replacing the current bridge with the construction of a new double track concrete deck bridge.

At the grain elevator in Arlington MOW crews were noted working with panel track sections. I do not know what they were doing or if these panels are going to be used in the area.

Kennard, NE

The biggest development is the relaying of the old Kennard siding as the second main track. This section was completely rebuilt and two new bridges were installed as part of this rebuild. The track had been laid and connected at the old West Kennard switch but had not been ballasted when I visited. Crews where noted moving ballast regulators and tampers into the spur on the west side of Kennard. Once this track is finished the line will be double tracked from CP Allen Creek to a mile east of California Jct, IA and then from CP Duffy on the southwest side of Blair to the west end of the old Kennard siding.

Fremont to Missouri Valley

From east Fremont, NE to Missouri Valley, IA no new work was noted. The new row that was created from west Kennard to the west side of Arlington is ready for ties and rail to be installed. The crossings that will receive flashers have had the new bases installed and signal boxes all wired for the installations.

A UP conductor was noted as indicating that the union announced that no new work would occur on the project until 2014. There was no indication that the current work would be finished in 2013 or if the project  will be dormant until 2014.

Spring weather and time will tell.

A cloudy Saturday

On Saturday, I was able to sneak away for a couple of hours to do some train watching making a circle from Omaha to Fremont to Missouri Valley and back to Omaha. This seems to be one of my  more permanent train watching patterns as I typically encounter a fair number of trains following this route.

During the overnight and Saturday morning we had our first rain in quite awhile.The 1/2 to 3/4 inches of rain made the back roads interesting to drive on later in the day while I was out on the Blair Sub. It also left the sky dark and full of heavy clouds. So making the best of it I converted the days images to black and white.

Heading out of Omaha, I didn't encounter any trains until the Dodge St/Hwy 6 over crossing near 144th where I spotted the tell end of a eastbound bare table. I was hoping that this wouldn't be the way the morning was going to go. By the time I got to Fremont I was really wondering if the day was going to be a bust as I hadn't encountered any trains until then. Just east of  Fremont while on old Hwy 275 I was greeted by the MNCCB heading toward Omaha behind UP 4935-2168-4721.

UP 6532 leads a train of company hoppers eb toward Fremont, NE.

Continuing on into town and crossing over the ex CNW yard on S. Bell st, I spotted a westbound booze train changing crews. I started to head over toward the BNSF/UP diamonds but noticed that the train had already started to head west so I drove over to Ridge rd to get a shot of the train with the town in the background. No sooner had I pulled up and an eastbound coal load of company hoppers starts blowing for the crossing. UP 6532-7255 DPU 6392 rolled out of the fog and misty low cloud to block my planned shot of the booze train. I was hoping that the booze train would slow down or stop but soon UP 5693-6189 rolled past me on the opposite side. Crap I hate it when that happens.

Coal loads and booze

Once the coal loads cleared the crossing I headed on up to Pappa siding on the BNSF to see if any southbound BNSF trains were holding while the UP trains cleared the diamonds. The siding was empty but the Fremont switch engine, BNSF 2828 was parked on the Frontier Grain spur.

With no action on the BNSF I headed back south and noticed a set of eastbound headlights on the UP from the N. Pierce st crossing. I pulled over and parked hoping to catch them as they pulled into town. After a couple of minutes the eastbound hadn't moved any closer to me so I started to head for the BNSF side of town.

Broken chatter on the scanner had a northbound BNSF train releasing the track warrant from Elk siding south to Ashland and BNSF 7356-6824 soon brought a north bound empty booze train across the diamonds.The radio chatter continued on the BNSF side with the dispatcher placing the northbound booze train into the siding at Pappa and moving a southbound from the siding at Elk down toYutan siding to meet another northbound out of Ashland who was to meet the southbound that the booze train sitting at Pappa is waiting for at Elk siding. Got that?

The BNSF was fairly busy but I wanted to check on the Blair sub double tracking and decided to head that way instead of chasing the BNSF. Before heading out of town I spotted the BNSF local power tied down west of the depot with BNSF 2809-2304 being the assigned power. Over at the UP depot the UP Fremont switcher power UP 517-833 were tied down in their usual spot.

Heading east and crossing over the ex CNW yard I noticed a green signal for a westbound to head off the Blair sub to the Columbus sub. While driving east on Morningside rd near the Fremont power plant, I spotted an westbound perishable with UP 8524-4111-7508 leading about 35 empty refers. As it went by me I also spotted a westbound mixed freight on the Omaha Sub. A quick u-turn was in order.

DPU 6757 passed the UP 4332 on the MCBNP.

Driving west on Morningside rd I spotted the eastbound train I had setup for earlier starting through town. UP 6510-6445 DPU 6757 had a NSPX coal load heading for Omaha and a run up the Sioux City sub to Minneapolis. I was able to catch the DPU passing a late MCBNP on the east side of Fremont. The tardy MCBNP had UP 4332-1976-8285 as power and was being held for the empty perishable.

With the back tracking done I headed back east out of town to Military Ave to follow the tracks over to the Elkhorn river.The overnight rain had turned this normally decent gravel road into a mess, ruts and soggy car tracks made for a fun drive. Gumbo really lets one know its time for new tires as I was spinning and sliding the whole time.

UP 6866 leads the MSSNP into Arlington.

No trains were spotted until Arlington where I encountered the MSSNP dropping down off of Arlington Hill on the east side of town. The MSSNP had the UP 6866-8139 DPU 6952 as power.

The next train I encountered was a westbound stack train between Arlington and Kennard. UP 8638-4759 DPU 7622 made good work of the climb up Arlington Hill. The train was mostly domestic containers with some maritime containers thrown in.

As I dropped down the hill on Hwy 30 into Kennard I spotted another westbound stack train with UP 7831-4526 DPU 5226-7524 as power. This train was made up of mostly maritime containers and may have been a Seattle bound train.

From Kennard to Council Bluffs I didn't encounter anymore trains which was unusual. At N. Council Bluffs the first coaler I had encountered in Fremont was holding at beanos for the MNPCH with UP 4346-8227-4975 to run around it.

While in Council Bluffs I was surprised to see that the CN/IC yard was empty. Saturday has been a day that the road train comes into CB but the road power was nowhere to be found. Scanner chatter did reveal that the CN Switch crew was out and over on the Omaha side.

Over in the UP Pool yard UP 536-511-512 were noted sitting in the middle of the yard. These units maybe the N. Omaha power as its unusual to see three GP38-2's together unless they are on this train. While checking these units out the NSPX train encountered at had pulled up to 9th street to wait for the two trains in front of it to head out of town. With nothing currently moving I headed over to get some gas and to check out the BNSF and IAIS.

The BNSF Island Park local was working at the S. Bartlett elevator putting its train of aboutr 5 cars together. Today's power was BNSF 9634-6797-3020 which was overkill for the amount of cars to be moved. The BNSF CB switcher is BNSF 8613 and she had about 25 cars tied on to her. These would be interchanged with the IAIS later in the evening.

The IAIS was quite. The CBBI was already made up and had two ES44AC's and a GP38-2 as power. With the opening of the new shop at Yocum the stored power has been slowly moving east. There was around 6-8 units still on the storage tracks though.

Before heading for home I headed back over to 9th Ave to catch an eastbound mixed freight. Power was UP 4104-8656-KCS 4615. Its unusual to see KCS power on the UP in this area so that was an interesting sight. The terminal yard master was giving the MCBDM permission to make a double over and to head out of town so I headed down to see what the power would be. A ratty GE was today's leader so I decided it was time to head for home.