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.

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.