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.

Weekend in Grand Island, NE

Winter just seems to want to stick around and the weekend of March 23rd and 24th was a good example of that. The girlfriend and I headed over to Grand Island, NE for the state Womens Bowling tournament that she was bowling in and for me to spend a couple of hours or so watching trains.

We left the Omaha area in bright sunshine but a storm was getting its act together out west. The brunt of this early spring snow storm was supposed to impact Kansas with a predicted 2-4 inched in the Grand Island area. Thankfully this never occurred but we did get a chance to drive on some icy roads on Sunday morning.

Saturday March 23rd
I left the girlfriend at the Bowling center around noon and had about 3 hours to get out and explore. The weather was pretty bad at this time with really dark skies with light snow and rain. Not a good scenario or having too much fun but I made the most of it.

The first train I encountered was the ZG2SC as it passed through the yard and headed west. Figuring I would not be able to get ahead of it I detoured over to N Oak and E Front St to see what was going on. Under the BNSF overcrossing the Nebraska Central was doing some work on the west end of the Grand Island yard. NCRC 8118-8123 were switching out a box car that they eventually shoved down into the area of the yard that they park their power at. After watching them do this and taking a look at the signals and hearing no scanner traffic, I made an impulse decision to head west and see how far I could get before having to turn around.

While crossing over the UP mainline on the west side of Grand Island, I noticed that the z train was still in the area and moving west really slow.

UP 7990 and the ZG2SC from Hwy 30.

Not sure why this high priority train was basically crawling along at 45 mph but I figured it was a good opportunity to get some foul weather moody pacing shots. I was able to catch up to it between Alda and Wood River, NE and fired off a couple of shots that I knew would not be perfect but was hoping they would be salvageable. Power for the ZG2SC was UP 7990-7201-4376-4888-4055.

At Gibbon, NE an empty coaler was holding on the Marysville line for the westbound Z train and a loaded coaler was slowly rolling toward the jct. UP 6747-6621 DPU 6608 had the eastbound coal load while UP 5921-7121 DPU 7236 held on the Marysville line with the empties..

UP 6747 leads a coal load west of Gibbon, NE.

Having made some good time to Gibbon, I continued over to Kearney, NE to see if I could catch the ex BRC GP7 at the Peavey elevator. As my luck has been with this unit it was locked up in the elevator load shed. A drive by the UP yard did revel the UP 504-823 that are the local switchers based in Kearney. With just over a hour to get back to the bowling center, I headed back into Grand Island with only one more train seen for the day. The Grand Island to North Platte local was seen at Alda with UP 1645-1641-1593 and about 30 cars in tow. This train has been powered by three SD40-2's and SD40N's for the last 3 years or so and reminds me of the days when I would sit along side the tracks in Wood River watching the UP run trains like street cars.

Sunday March 24th
We woke up to some nice clear skies but a brutal north wind around 30 mph. A quick morning rush to get the gf to the bowling center by 0730 was needed before any train watching could occur and this allowed the sun to get a bit higher in the sky.

I was able to get about 3.5 hours of train watching in before heading back to the Omaha area. Since I was also out taking pictures of the old buildings and signs that are still around, I did miss a few trains during that time.

0740 - Westbound UP stack train
UP 8710-7613 DPU 7431

A drive around the yard to check out the local power and various MOW train power sets.
Switcher set - 518-508
MOW train - 4069-4658
Loaded grain train 6313-6398-7920
MOW train - 5184-9640
MOW train - 8248-5631
Nebraska Central - 8118-8123 and a set of two additional SD40-2's

Nebraska Central SD40-2's 8118-8123

After getting pics of the Nebraska Central units I took off to find some old and obscure items in downtown Grand Island. During this time I missed a BNSF westbound stack train that was followed by a westbound freight. The UP sent a coal empty and an eastbound stack train thru also.

0905 - Eastbound UP stack train
UP 6850-6743-6052-5072 DPU 6713

With the downturn in coal loadings formerly coal train only power is starting to become common on these higher priority trains.

UP 6850 leads a eastbound stacker into Grand Island.

0920 - BNSF Coal empties
BNSF 6340-6054 DPU 5856

BNSF 5856 passes over the UP QNPEL.

0922 - UP QNPEL eastbound
UP 8498-7736

0935 - UP ZSKGR westbound
UP 6451-6470-7097

UP 6451 leads the empty salad shooter out of Grand Island, NE.

0945 - BNSF Coal load
Missed the single headend unit but got the 6221 DPU

1009 - BNSF Coal load
BNSF 9272-5897 DPU 9835

BNSF 9272 leads a coal load south over the UP mainline.

1011 - UP Mid America coal empties
UP 5700-7195 DPU 7279

1019 - UP loaded grain train westbound.
UP 7920-6398-6313

Power had run around the train and departed westbound with the loaded train from earlier. While getting in position to photograph this train the BNSF sent a coal load over the departing train.

UP 7920 departing Grand Island with a loaded grain train as a BNSF coal load passes over head.

1050 -UP  ZG2SE westbound.
UP 8477-7607-7806-8778-8576

1052 - BNSF coal empties
BNSF 9277-9938 DPU 5729

1111 - BNSF eastbound freight
BNSF 4325-4169 DPU 6763

BNSF 4325 leads a southbound freight through Grand Island, NE

After this last train passed through it was time to meet the gf , have some lunch and head back to Omaha.

A couple of days along the BNSF Creston Sub

I was able to spend some time on Saturday and Sunday along the BNSF Creston sub in Lincoln and Ashland, NE. Its been awhile since I've spent anytime in that area and it was good to see something other than dirty yellow GE's.

Saturday March 2nd.

BNSF 8970 starts to head into the Lincoln yard.

As is typical, the closer one gets to Lincoln the more common it is to see trains backed up waiting for a spot in the yard. Taking the I-80 off ramp into Waverly, NE two coal empties were seen waiting for a slot in the yard.First in line was a empty KC Power and Light with BNSF 8970-5807 and DPU 9688 as power. Behind it was another empty coaler with a mixed bag of private reporting marks on the cars. Power was BNSF 9229-5895-9148 and no DPU.

BNSF 9229 leads mixed bag of empty coal hoppers into Lincoln, NE.

Both coalers needed to clear the main in order for a couple of loaded coalers to head east. While waiting for these movements to start the MLINLIN pulled up through Waverly and held on the west side of town.

The MLINLIN holds the main west of Waverly, NE.

The first of the eastbounds to head out was a Mid-America coaler for Council Bluffs, IA. Power was BNSF 6136-9964 and no DPU. The second train was being moved from the yard to Pacific Jct., IA. Instructions for it where to tied down in the old yard after backing down the east side of the wye to the Napier Sub. I wasn't able to get the power numbers as it passed on the opposite side of the BNSF 9229 in Havelock, NE.

After the brief stop on the east side of the Havelock shops, I headed over to the old depot area to take a look at the local power that is typically tied down there. BNSF 3171 and 8613 were noted as the local switch units which is a far cry from the days when they ran the Transcon full out.

BNSF 3171 and 8613 are the Havelock local switch engines.

Next stop was the area on the east end of the yard where the St. Joe, Creston, and Hastings subs all come together. This area is now no mans land as the BNSF had the city close J st. through the wye over to S 1st st. There are a couple of locations to park near the grade crossing at S 1st st, but since one of them is a private business there is no guarantee that one can park there for long.

While getting parked I noticed a set of lite power on the east end of the yard and was hoping they would come out a little bit closer to the road as the lead unit was BNSF 769 which still wears its red and silver BNSF scheme. She had the BNSF 4300 and a unknown CSX C40-8W trailing.

With no more eastbounds lined up to leave the yard the last train for me was another empty coaler with BNSF 9231 and DPU BNSF 9818.

BNSF 9231 curves under the signal bridge on the east side of the  Lincoln NE yard.

Sunday March 3rd.
Sunday started out with hazy sunny skies but soon turned to clouds. Since the sun was shinning I took off for Ashland, NE hoping to get a fair amount of traffic before having to head back home at noon.

BNSF 9693 leads an empty coaler through Ashland, NE.

Soon after getting parked the scanner started chirping letting me know an EOT was somewhere close. Within a couple of minutes an empty coaler came around the curve on the far east side of Ashland. BNSF 9693-6220 and DPU 6273 roared by in some nice light. The signal just to the west of where I was parked soon returned to yellow and then flashing yellow as another westbound approached. Today's MLINLIN came into view with the same units (BNSF 9161-6102) as the day before plus the BNSF 521 that they picked up in Omaha, NE..

BNSF 9161-6102-521 on the MLINLIN.

Video of the MLINLIN

Next up was another empty coaler setup as a 1x1 train. BNSF 6067 lead with BNSF 9955 as the DPU.

Another empty coaler was following pretty close behind. BNSF 6191-8851-9699 headed to Lincoln on the heals of the BNSF 9955. The yard must have been pretty fluid that morning to have empties this following close together.

After the EOT passed traffic died down on the Creston sub. A southbound on the Sioux City Sub toned out the DS for permission enter the Creston Sub. About 15 minutes after the radio exchanges a southbound loaded ethanol train slowly crossed the Salt Creek bridge and took the west leg of the wye to head for Lincoln. BNSF 4346-5281 and DPU 1078 where the power for the train.

Soon after the ETOH train cleared the Sioux City sub the DS was giving track and time to the track inspector on the Sioux City sub and another track inspector was heading east on the Creston sub. Seeing as the DS only lets the inspectors out when there is a lull in traffic, I took this as a clue to head for home.

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.

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