Mickoo's North American Railroad vacations
- Thread starter mickoo
- Start date
I am very much enjoying your photographs! I lived in Washington State for 4 years (Pullman*, in the southwest corner) and traveled extensively. It is really nice to see the landscape of the Columbia Gorge and the flood basalts again, as well as some superb railroad photographs. Looking forward to more and enjoy your trip up to Spokane.
George!
* Pullman was re-named in the hope that George Pullman would bring his railroad through town. He didn't. He preferred somewhere with a gap in the mountains! When I was there in the early '90s we did however still have branches of both the UP and Burlington Northern (as it was then). Traffic was mainly a couple of coal hoppers per week tripped down from Spokane for the University powerplant (long since shut) and huge grain trains clearing out the harvest in the autumn/early winter. The UP line was lifted while I was there, but the BNSF line is still in place, I'm not sure how much it is used though.
George!
* Pullman was re-named in the hope that George Pullman would bring his railroad through town. He didn't. He preferred somewhere with a gap in the mountains! When I was there in the early '90s we did however still have branches of both the UP and Burlington Northern (as it was then). Traffic was mainly a couple of coal hoppers per week tripped down from Spokane for the University powerplant (long since shut) and huge grain trains clearing out the harvest in the autumn/early winter. The UP line was lifted while I was there, but the BNSF line is still in place, I'm not sure how much it is used though.
Brian Daniels
Western Thunderer
"but KCS is about as far aware from Oregon as you can get."
Oh I don't know Mickoo, got this TFM C30-S7N 2364 at Wishram. See it went to KCS but was it still Mexican in 2003?
Oh I don't know Mickoo, got this TFM C30-S7N 2364 at Wishram. See it went to KCS but was it still Mexican in 2003?
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mickoo
Western Thunderer
I was…..and I wasn’tYou'll be aware that CP & KCS merged recently....
richard carr
Western Thunderer
They certainly are, the CP yard in Chicago now has more KCS power on it than CP.
Big Train James
Western Thunderer
The last train is almost certainly potash rather than cement. Canpotex is short for CANadian POTash EXporters, which act as a clearing house of sorts for a group of Canadian potash mining companies. They're going to be 3-bay hoppers typically, although limited volume, so smaller than the 3-bay grain cars. They also feature trough hatches up top, cement hoppers are going to have round hatches. Globally, Canada is the largest producer of potash, so it's not especially surprising to see CP power bringing it south from Saskatchewan.
Regarding foreign road power, in the modern era with horsepower sharing arrangements, it's common for power for any Class One road (meaning the big ones like UP or BNSF) to end up somewhere else. It's certainly true for run through trains like intermodal or commodity unit trains, where the trains just go back and forth in whole, interchanging between roads without dropping and adding local power. But foreign roads often hang onto power whenever possible, using it on a regular basis as one of their own, for as long as they can get away it. It's a fool's errand, what goes around comes around, and other roads are abusing foreign power in much the same way.
So it wouldn't be surprising to see KCS power around the country, even without the recent merger. What I do see since the merger is more KCS power on run-through trains that are of CP origin, like oil trains, rather than the random occurrences before. And I'm also seeing more of the KCS de Mexico units specifically.
Regarding foreign road power, in the modern era with horsepower sharing arrangements, it's common for power for any Class One road (meaning the big ones like UP or BNSF) to end up somewhere else. It's certainly true for run through trains like intermodal or commodity unit trains, where the trains just go back and forth in whole, interchanging between roads without dropping and adding local power. But foreign roads often hang onto power whenever possible, using it on a regular basis as one of their own, for as long as they can get away it. It's a fool's errand, what goes around comes around, and other roads are abusing foreign power in much the same way.
So it wouldn't be surprising to see KCS power around the country, even without the recent merger. What I do see since the merger is more KCS power on run-through trains that are of CP origin, like oil trains, rather than the random occurrences before. And I'm also seeing more of the KCS de Mexico units specifically.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Funnily enough I did think it was potash but hedged for cement, that about sums up my luck out here
Worst day ever today, spoke to the BNSF crew at Bingen, they just shrugged their shoulders, MOW was supposed to finish days ago but every morning they turned up a new line closure sat on the desk, luckily I'd got up early and managed to grab a few but most into the sun, DPU's saved the day basically.
This one blew through Bingen with the local sat on one side, I missed the locals arrival....and his departure....because I was so pi55ed off waiting for the work orders to end and left.
It was nice to sit in the sun with the windows open and listen to that 567 block idling.
Moments later a westbound freight out of the sun and the dratted poles played their hand perfectly.
Right behind was the morning Amtrak.
Then I headed south buoyed by the traffic flow and set up for an eastbound shot with my back to a tunnel, it wasn't long before another westbound rolled past and only the DPU saved the day.
Followed quickly by another.....
That was it for four hours until they let the trash train through, this spot is great if the sun is right but it was over cooked by an hour so the nose and rock face are in shadow.
It was another five-ish hours before the next train, thankfully heading into the sun near Horse Thief Lake, by now the work order had cleared but there was just over 40 mins of sun left.
Followed closely by a coal train and ACe DPU.
I have not renewed my stay here, tomorrow it's on up toward Spokane and Sandpoint where BNSF funnels three into one and then splits into two again with the MRL. No idea where I'm going or staying, let alone what I'll see, either way, Columbia River Gorge is a washout until BNSF sort all their work orders, likely as not tomorrow, but I can't take that risk.
cmax
Western Thunderer
Another great set of photos Mick, good luck tomorrow.Funnily enough I did think it was potash but hedged for cement, that about sums up my luck out here
Worst day ever today, spoke to the BNSF crew at Bingen, they just shrugged their shoulders, MOW was supposed to finish days ago but every morning they turned up a new line closure sat on the desk, luckily I'd got up early and managed to grab a few but most into the sun, DPU's saved the day basically.
This one blew through Bingen with the local sat on one side, I missed the locals arrival....and his departure....because I was so pi55ed off waiting for the work orders to end and left.
View attachment 195563
View attachment 195564
It was nice to sit in the sun with the windows open and listen to that 567 block idling.
Moments later a westbound freight out of the sun and the dratted poles played their hand perfectly.
View attachment 195565
Right behind was the morning Amtrak.
View attachment 195566
Then I headed south buoyed by the traffic flow and set up for an eastbound shot with my back to a tunnel, it wasn't long before another westbound rolled past and only the DPU saved the day.
View attachment 195567
Followed quickly by another.....
View attachment 195568
That was it for four hours until they let the trash train through, this spot is great if the sun is right but it was over cooked by an hour so the nose and rock face are in shadow.
View attachment 195569
View attachment 195570
It was another five-ish hours before the next train, thankfully heading into the sun near Horse Thief Lake, by now the work order had cleared but there was just over 40 mins of sun left.
View attachment 195571
Followed closely by a coal train and ACe DPU.
View attachment 195572
View attachment 195573
I have not renewed my stay here, tomorrow it's on up toward Spokane and Sandpoint where BNSF funnels three into one and then splits into two again with the MRL. No idea where I'm going or staying, let alone what I'll see, either way, Columbia River Gorge is a washout until BNSF sort all their work orders, likely as not tomorrow, but I can't take that risk.
oldravendale
Western Thunderer
Lancastrian
Western Thunderer
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Just normal BNSF traffic flow, I'm afraid, should be like this in the gorge if not for the MOW work.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
YesHave you got to double digits yet ?
Ian
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Upped sticks and headed north east, stopped off at Connell which was productive and ended up just east of Spokane, I was going onto Sandpoint but a thick have hung over the mountains to the east so bailed out at a motel I'd saved, nice, expensive and only one night.
Up shot is, going further east is a waste of time, thick brown smoke and fog about 30-40 miles east of here a motorcyclist said in the foyer so will have to re-plan in the morning.
Connell is good, lots of traffic but it's north south line so anything north bound is coming out of the sun, once again DPU's saved the day. The star of the show is clearly the Connell local which is made up of roots blown SD9's and boy do they sound good.
First up a rear end oil train DPU was sat in the yard.
He was held for a northbound Z which rolled through shortly after.
Then the local rolled in, the Aussie guys had said it had geeps on....I will educate them next time we meet! It's quite a steep grade into town from the north and the SD9s roll down to the crossing and then back their train into the sidings, uncouple and switch back to the branch.
Within minutes the Pasco local arrives for the transfer, in this case a pale face 60M, MAC and SD9 which I assume was returning after servicing. THE BNSF local drops it's train to the south of the crossing and runs up to connect with the Connell stock in the siding. THe SD9's then drop back onto the BNSF local and give it the beans up the grade out of town. Once clear, the BNSF local heads back to Pasco, all this took about ten minutes.
Shoving back into the sidings
Pasco local arrives.
Draws forward to connect with Connell local stock.
In the back ground the BNSF...now Connell local is just going up the hill.
I wanted to get a shot at the crossing of the MAC but he was off and gone before I got back to the rental so I decided to try and see where the local went, blitzed down some country roads and picked him up on the less steeper part of the climb and he sounded good
Need to revisit this when I get home, the lighting on the lap top looks a bit off.
I did some mobile phone video, looks good on the phone but suspect it'll be rubbish on the PC, will try and upload but have to say when those SD9's shoved hard it, coma waking audio!
Back at Connell another southbound loaded grainer waits for clearance.
Real dog turd trailing unit, no number boards and odd panels here and there, both units are out of storage Dash-9s, they sound good but high mileage hasn't been kind to them. but H2 cigar band on point is always a bonus.
Just to the south the line drops into the grassed canyon and I picked up an empty coal coming up the grade.
DPU again saved the day.
Then the beat up loaded grainer descended.
With H2 cigar band DPU heading down around the bends.
Followed quickly by another loaded grainer and yet another H2 cigar band....getting to like this quite a lot.
Back at Connell there was time for one more shot of a Z train waiting his path.
Moments later another manifest train headed up the grade past this, that photo is just a photo for photo's sake so not processed. In a quirk of fate, the coal train with the NS unit seen earlier also rolled under the bridge at Marshall as I was scouting around after the local had passed and even with me having stopped for a 30 min flash nap (utterly knackered) heading up the 395, in fact that was the second as I had to have one an hour after leaving the motel this morning
It's miles and miles of grass or grain as far as the eye can see, and up on the plateau that's a very long way! Plus, it's almost a constant up hill climb from Pasco to the plateau....70 miles away.
Whilst there were a lot of trains today on this line, the scenery for me is rather bland, however all this traffic is headed for the gorge and Pasco yard was rammed solid so maybe the gorge is open again, I'll not risk going back there until next week I think, I still have ten days to fill.
The scenery changes in about 2 miles from grass lands to forest, but they've had one hell of a big forest fire up here, at least a 20 mile stretch along the 395 was burnt and just ash, mostly to the east as the wind comes from the west predominately but to the west it was burnt for a couple of miles westward: quite sad and sobering to see such devastation.
Finally I got to Marshall just south of Spokane, just as I crossed over the bridge (planned photo spot) a short local rolled underneath, a quick Uie and I grabbed him at Scribner. This is a lovely location and much as I like tree's, there's too many of them here for good shots. I'll have another poke around tomorrow and spend a few hours here to see what gives and then move on.
Both UP and BNSF have parallel lines neck and neck here so it should be quite busy, again it's north/south, so northbound trains are going to be sunny side down, however, the higher angle from the bridge might help. The bridge also has no pavement so I expect I'll get moved on quite quickly by the local law enforcement.
Up shot is, going further east is a waste of time, thick brown smoke and fog about 30-40 miles east of here a motorcyclist said in the foyer so will have to re-plan in the morning.
Connell is good, lots of traffic but it's north south line so anything north bound is coming out of the sun, once again DPU's saved the day. The star of the show is clearly the Connell local which is made up of roots blown SD9's and boy do they sound good.
First up a rear end oil train DPU was sat in the yard.
He was held for a northbound Z which rolled through shortly after.
Then the local rolled in, the Aussie guys had said it had geeps on....I will educate them next time we meet! It's quite a steep grade into town from the north and the SD9s roll down to the crossing and then back their train into the sidings, uncouple and switch back to the branch.
Within minutes the Pasco local arrives for the transfer, in this case a pale face 60M, MAC and SD9 which I assume was returning after servicing. THE BNSF local drops it's train to the south of the crossing and runs up to connect with the Connell stock in the siding. THe SD9's then drop back onto the BNSF local and give it the beans up the grade out of town. Once clear, the BNSF local heads back to Pasco, all this took about ten minutes.
Shoving back into the sidings
Pasco local arrives.
Draws forward to connect with Connell local stock.
In the back ground the BNSF...now Connell local is just going up the hill.
I wanted to get a shot at the crossing of the MAC but he was off and gone before I got back to the rental so I decided to try and see where the local went, blitzed down some country roads and picked him up on the less steeper part of the climb and he sounded good
Need to revisit this when I get home, the lighting on the lap top looks a bit off.
I did some mobile phone video, looks good on the phone but suspect it'll be rubbish on the PC, will try and upload but have to say when those SD9's shoved hard it, coma waking audio!
Back at Connell another southbound loaded grainer waits for clearance.
Real dog turd trailing unit, no number boards and odd panels here and there, both units are out of storage Dash-9s, they sound good but high mileage hasn't been kind to them. but H2 cigar band on point is always a bonus.
Just to the south the line drops into the grassed canyon and I picked up an empty coal coming up the grade.
DPU again saved the day.
Then the beat up loaded grainer descended.
With H2 cigar band DPU heading down around the bends.
Followed quickly by another loaded grainer and yet another H2 cigar band....getting to like this quite a lot.
Back at Connell there was time for one more shot of a Z train waiting his path.
Moments later another manifest train headed up the grade past this, that photo is just a photo for photo's sake so not processed. In a quirk of fate, the coal train with the NS unit seen earlier also rolled under the bridge at Marshall as I was scouting around after the local had passed and even with me having stopped for a 30 min flash nap (utterly knackered) heading up the 395, in fact that was the second as I had to have one an hour after leaving the motel this morning
It's miles and miles of grass or grain as far as the eye can see, and up on the plateau that's a very long way! Plus, it's almost a constant up hill climb from Pasco to the plateau....70 miles away.Whilst there were a lot of trains today on this line, the scenery for me is rather bland, however all this traffic is headed for the gorge and Pasco yard was rammed solid so maybe the gorge is open again, I'll not risk going back there until next week I think, I still have ten days to fill.
The scenery changes in about 2 miles from grass lands to forest, but they've had one hell of a big forest fire up here, at least a 20 mile stretch along the 395 was burnt and just ash, mostly to the east as the wind comes from the west predominately but to the west it was burnt for a couple of miles westward: quite sad and sobering to see such devastation.
Finally I got to Marshall just south of Spokane, just as I crossed over the bridge (planned photo spot) a short local rolled underneath, a quick Uie and I grabbed him at Scribner. This is a lovely location and much as I like tree's, there's too many of them here for good shots. I'll have another poke around tomorrow and spend a few hours here to see what gives and then move on.
Both UP and BNSF have parallel lines neck and neck here so it should be quite busy, again it's north/south, so northbound trains are going to be sunny side down, however, the higher angle from the bridge might help. The bridge also has no pavement so I expect I'll get moved on quite quickly by the local law enforcement.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Funny ole day, for what's supposed to be BNSF arterial trunk route it wasn't that busy. BNSF have been carrying out massive works on this route to make it double track with CTC and numerous crossovers, they've also built a second bridge across Lake Pend Oreille just south of Sandpoint.
Today was always going to be a prospecting day but I had a few pins in google maps to explore, by chance I stumbled on this beaten up old GP39-2, I've not checked the origin but it's a mish mash of parts, the radiator core is GP38 for sure but that blower duct looks very GP60, either way it's a bit of a mess and right next to a golf course and yes several balls dinged off the hoppers whilst I was there. I did joke with one golfer who came to collect his ball, good job they put that there to stop your ball, he laughed and then showed me his box of spares.
Then it was of to location #1, to be honest it works much better in the late afternoon and it was some time before anything turned up. Rolling southbound a loaded grainer which came to a stand, mainly because the single track bridge was blocked with a northbound.
You can just see the northbound coming around the distant corner.
Then I went prospecting on the other side of the lake, I'd seen some shots of the bridge but access was impossible due to private properties, I suspect the shots I'd seen online were where folks had walked along the BNSFV ROW to access them, I couldn't be bothered.
There is a nice little outcrop that gives reasonable views up the grade and part of the bridge. An empty coal train was the first customer.
I'd like to talk to BNSF and ask them to ditch 25 gons, then I can get the whole train in that last view; I'm sure they won't be receptive.
Next up a southbound manifest, I didn't clock the lead unit until later when I drove back past him on I90
Tail end Charlie is now being wound right out for the slog up the grade, it did sound good.
BNSF 4723 is the uniquely marked one for the Microsoft Train simulator and appeared as an engine in the game, I used to play it a lot and develop for it as well, so decided I needed at least a better shot and it wasn't hard to get ahead. I'd spotted this location on the way up but it can only be accessed from the southbound carriageway, unless you go a fair few more miles south to Athol and double back.
You can just about make out the MS Train Simulator logo on the nose side, I dare not think how long ago that paying 'hobby' was my main interest.
Next stop was a big wide open road crossing at a small location called North Pole....for goodness sake! By now BNSF were winding up the traffic flow and they came thick and fast, the only down side is that you can only effectively photograph 50% of the trains.
First up a loaded grainer heading south.
And DPU into the sun, I keep taking these but realize as soon as I push the shutter the shot is just rubbish, the signals just about save it, and I mean just.
Next up a 13,000t coal train wheeled by.
Then a northbound empty oil train which I didn't bother to take except for the DPU, but almost as soon as he'd passed there came an unsighted (far track) southbound Z going like the clappers.
Once he'd cleared I packed everything up for the drive back and early finish and spotted this stacker coming north and taking the cross over.
After that the signals went dark, a sure sign the blitz is over and I'm not surprised, south of there at Rathdrum BNSF have built a massive kind of holding pen for trains, it's only eight tracks wide but will take two of the biggest trains nose to tail or three smaller trains. It's a bit like the holding pattern over the south downs for Gatwick, trains arrive here and are held until there's space in Spokane. Conversely, BNSF sends stuff out of Spokane and holds it here to siphon it into Transcon 1 going north in an effort to take out peaks and troughs in traffic flow.
Needless to say when I passed it late afternoon it was rammed solid, which does beg the question how effective it actually is. Tomorrow I have no idea what I'm going to do, I'd like to find an east/west leg of line that can be photographed, the Aussie guys are still in Connell and said they'd seen a dozen or more trains so quite a lot is going south still and thus (supposedly) through the gorge, I might do a long out and back to Kootenai falls or push on further to Whitefish.
Today was always going to be a prospecting day but I had a few pins in google maps to explore, by chance I stumbled on this beaten up old GP39-2, I've not checked the origin but it's a mish mash of parts, the radiator core is GP38 for sure but that blower duct looks very GP60, either way it's a bit of a mess and right next to a golf course and yes several balls dinged off the hoppers whilst I was there. I did joke with one golfer who came to collect his ball, good job they put that there to stop your ball, he laughed and then showed me his box of spares.
Then it was of to location #1, to be honest it works much better in the late afternoon and it was some time before anything turned up. Rolling southbound a loaded grainer which came to a stand, mainly because the single track bridge was blocked with a northbound.
You can just see the northbound coming around the distant corner.
Then I went prospecting on the other side of the lake, I'd seen some shots of the bridge but access was impossible due to private properties, I suspect the shots I'd seen online were where folks had walked along the BNSFV ROW to access them, I couldn't be bothered.
There is a nice little outcrop that gives reasonable views up the grade and part of the bridge. An empty coal train was the first customer.
I'd like to talk to BNSF and ask them to ditch 25 gons, then I can get the whole train in that last view; I'm sure they won't be receptive.
Next up a southbound manifest, I didn't clock the lead unit until later when I drove back past him on I90
Tail end Charlie is now being wound right out for the slog up the grade, it did sound good.
BNSF 4723 is the uniquely marked one for the Microsoft Train simulator and appeared as an engine in the game, I used to play it a lot and develop for it as well, so decided I needed at least a better shot and it wasn't hard to get ahead. I'd spotted this location on the way up but it can only be accessed from the southbound carriageway, unless you go a fair few more miles south to Athol and double back.
You can just about make out the MS Train Simulator logo on the nose side, I dare not think how long ago that paying 'hobby' was my main interest.
Next stop was a big wide open road crossing at a small location called North Pole....for goodness sake! By now BNSF were winding up the traffic flow and they came thick and fast, the only down side is that you can only effectively photograph 50% of the trains.
First up a loaded grainer heading south.
And DPU into the sun, I keep taking these but realize as soon as I push the shutter the shot is just rubbish, the signals just about save it, and I mean just.
Next up a 13,000t coal train wheeled by.
Then a northbound empty oil train which I didn't bother to take except for the DPU, but almost as soon as he'd passed there came an unsighted (far track) southbound Z going like the clappers.
Once he'd cleared I packed everything up for the drive back and early finish and spotted this stacker coming north and taking the cross over.
After that the signals went dark, a sure sign the blitz is over and I'm not surprised, south of there at Rathdrum BNSF have built a massive kind of holding pen for trains, it's only eight tracks wide but will take two of the biggest trains nose to tail or three smaller trains. It's a bit like the holding pattern over the south downs for Gatwick, trains arrive here and are held until there's space in Spokane. Conversely, BNSF sends stuff out of Spokane and holds it here to siphon it into Transcon 1 going north in an effort to take out peaks and troughs in traffic flow.
Needless to say when I passed it late afternoon it was rammed solid, which does beg the question how effective it actually is. Tomorrow I have no idea what I'm going to do, I'd like to find an east/west leg of line that can be photographed, the Aussie guys are still in Connell and said they'd seen a dozen or more trains so quite a lot is going south still and thus (supposedly) through the gorge, I might do a long out and back to Kootenai falls or push on further to Whitefish.
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Big Train James
Western Thunderer
Guessing gp50. No gp's have the taller radiator screens except the 50's and 60's (there are rare oddballs like the gp49 or gp59 granted) and the gp60's have a boxy dynamic brake blister. Probably rebuilt to gp38-2 specs, downrated in horsepower at the same time.
Just guessing, I could look it up, maybe later. It probably says on the trailing edge of the cab, under the window. Although that probably lists the current rebuilt model designation.
Just guessing, I could look it up, maybe later. It probably says on the trailing edge of the cab, under the window. Although that probably lists the current rebuilt model designation.
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Big Train James
Western Thunderer
Stand corrected, I guess there were late gp39-2's with the bigger grilles 
. This one is ex-MKT. Built in 1984, so almost at the end of the dash 2 era. That explains the angled blower duct and the gp50/60 style radiators.
. This one is ex-MKT. Built in 1984, so almost at the end of the dash 2 era. That explains the angled blower duct and the gp50/60 style radiators.