An Old Friend Passes Through

A normal visit to Pan Am's District 1 with the DT&I Fan didn't yield much excitement, at first.  We started at 'the junctions' and worked our way to Leeds Jct.  We saw nothing and the scanner was silent.  At Leeds Jct. the signal was sporting a 'pair of greens'.  Strange since we saw nothing on the way. 

I got a photo of the signal since two greens are unusual, though not rare.  It could only mean we missed an eastbound back around L/A.  The scene at Leeds Jct. may also soon be changed, or at least cleaned up, by a tie crew working it's way east from Royal Jct. lately.  Still a far cry from the old Maine Central days when the track was good for 40mph or better. 

 In a rare moment of clarity I decided to head back into Greene to trace the rails in case something was actually eastbound and nearby.  Just after we crossed the tracks and headed for College Ave. in Lewiston, we heard "The Lady of The Woods" detector at MP 157 speak.  In fact is wasn't long after the two of us were talking about it being out of commission.  We turned around and headed for Sullivan Rd. crossing.  I was intrigued since I don't recall having used the crossing for railfanning before.

About 10 minutes later, a long time given that we were about 3 miles away from the detector and had to turn around etc to get to the crossing, POWA made its appearance.  602 on the point was at least reasonably clean but the lighting was pretty harsh.  It took a lot of editing to get that photo to show anything through all the deep shadows.  However, as the train went by I discovered that roster shots and such were ideally lit looking the other way.  Too bad I didn't see the shadow to the crossing signals first.

 The former BN unit caught my attention.  It had wandered these rails before but this is the first time I've had a chance to photograph it.  As I do with all BN SD40-2's I encounter, I checked the number real quick to see if it might have been a Colorado and Southern unit.  The number looked familiar enough but I'd have to check a roster to be sure.  In the meantime I simply checked the image on my camera and this is what I saw:

 There, above the rear end number boards was the elusive 'C&S' sub-lettering!  Nice!  The first one I'd seen in-person in Maine.  I spent the bulk of my growing up along the Colorado and Southern so this was a unit I'd probably seen in my youth.  These units were purchased by the BN for Powder River coal service mainly but they took their turn running along the Colorado front range by my home in Fort Collins.  This unit was built in 1978 while I was in high school.  The C&S was folded into the BN on the last day of 1981 while I was in college.  This unit probably rode the original C&S once in a while.

The original number was probably the C&S three digit #972.  However, the late batches were numbered directly into the BN four digit system right from EMD.  Given that 980 and 996 were 'master and slave' early model 'distributive power units' numbered well away from other units, and with no other numbers used in between, this one may have gone either way.   There were lots of 900 series SD40-2's on the rails along the front range mixed in with other BN and C&S six axle units.  After the merger was complete, the three digit numbers were updated into the BN four digit number system.  The paint on this one looks unaltered.



After POWA passed us in Greene, we had not heard any Rumford jobs yet so we headed to Danville Jct.  The idea was to catch a possible PORU following behind.  It was only a guess backed up by a hunch.  The radio was not helping us at all.  We met the head end of POSJ at Black Cat Rd. crossing as we approached Danville.  The long string of centerbeams on the point told us right away that it wasn't PORU.  No time for photos and it wasn't that photogenic anyway.  Driving over the crossings in the village we saw that the signals at the west end of Danville were dark.  At this point we decided to head home rather than give chase.  District 1 just didn't cause much excitement on this day.  Another eastbound might have changed that. 

A mere two hour tour and we saw two trains.  A high average for Maine but that's allowing the stats to lie for us.  If we'd kept going on until dark, the one train per hour average would have faded.   It was too nice a day to miss even a piece of it in the sun given all the clouds we've had all summer.

BC

North Platte or Bust: Part 7, Nebraska

SUNDAY AUG. 12, 2012

When we left KC on Sunday 8/12, we pretty much chose the fastest route to North Platte.  That meant heading north to Nebraska City and west to I-80.  All roads are fast in this part of the world so that was easy.  We wanted to follow the UP transcontinental route from Grand Island to North Platte along US 30.  This would take us by Gibbon Jct. where the line from KC comes in and forms a 3 track main to North Platte and O'Fallons. We passed many lines radiating out of KC and Omaha.  Some were busy and some were long gone.  The GPS "short range sensors" kept showing tracks that were no longer in place.  The Rand McNalley Railroad Atlas was the best we could do this far west. 

Grand Island, NE

Grand Island, NE

Once in Grand Island, NE we simply had to seek the point where the BNSF crosses the UP.  This is a single track overpass that is roughly 10 years old now.  The line used to cross at grade but with Powder River coal traffic on both lines, the bottlenecks would have been a disaster.  BNSF is even now seeking to double track this overpass because it is becoming a bottleneck.  The next day we would see two trains stacked up waiting to use it. 

Grand Island, NE

Grand Island, NE

Grand Island, NE

The UP was curiously quiet when we arrived but that didn't last forever.  We got a steady stream of coal loads heading east on the BNSF while we waited.  Eventually we even got one train passing over another.  The lead units were not synchronized but the trailing DPU's were close enough to see each other. 

Grand Island, NE

Grand Island, NE

The UP then provided a couple of westbounds, though the yard seemed active too, just out of sight.  The coal train's trailing DPU had a door swinging in the breeze, and we played tag with that train most of the way to North Platte.

Grand Island, NE

Grand Island, NE

Grand Island, NE

WB Gibbon Jct., NE

EB DPU Gibbon Jct., NE

 Our next target west was Gibbon Jct.  This is where the Marysville line from Kansas City joins the transcontinental line.  Depending on your perspective, this is where the 3 track mainline begins or ends.  Coal traffic has caused the UP to double track the Marysville Sub and add the 3rd track to the transcontinental line. 

Gibbon Jct., NE

KCS unit Gibbon Jct., NE

We saw a continuous barrage of trains in the short time we sat at the crossing there.  Something on every line.  The westbounds we saw coming as we arrived from the east, all seemed to be held at the junction for a short time.  SP and KCS made appearances.  I think we stayed less than an hour.



Down the road to the west we ran into the city of Kearny to see what we could see.  The original

Local power, Kearney, NE

depot is now gone but UP has one of their yellow brick square offices near there.  Down the tracks along a parkway we found some local power idling.




We didn't linger in Kearney and headed west.  Here we encountered the curious town of Cozad.  The depot was in an attractive little park now

The 100th Meridian - Cozad, NE

and everything highlighted the fact that the 100th Meridian passes through here.  In fact, there was a commemorative plaque for the ceremony when the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad reached Cozad.  UP also provided a caboose to the park. 

The 100th Meridian - Cozad, NE

West of Gothenberg, NE

Along the 3 track line we noticed that the small towns had elaborate, and new, pedestrian overpasses.  They seemed to be of a common design.  As it became apparent that these might be useful, we scoped one out for future use.   When we passed the town of Gothenburg the sunlight looked like it might fail soon and it was time to find a crossing to watch the action from.  We found a very isolated crossing as it turned out.

West of Gothenberg, NE

West of Gothenberg, NE

We had grabbed some Subway sandwiches in Cozad so it was time to eat too.  We saw several trains and a meet while we parked at that isolated crossing.    The sunset made for some spectacular lighting.

A couple of crossings west of Gothenberg, NE

We ended the day pretty much as planned.  We had passed grain elevators from tiny to unit train sized.  We'd passed ammonia plant and ethanal plants.  All manner of plains agribusiness.  US 30 proved to be ideal for our travels.  We were near enough to North Platte to call it a day and we had scoped out the overpass in Brady for our return.  Now all we had to do was retire.   One of my last shots turned out to be pretty good for someone who generally avoids the artsie-fartsie stuff

A couple of crossings west of Gothenberg, NE

BC