Last Day of Summer Outing

After 9 straight days of sitting at home except for trips to the store, I decided I needed to get out for a few hours yesterday. I realized that I haven't actually shot much orange since moving to BNSF country because I would only go out if I knew a Warbonnet was leading or if the West Texas & Lubbock was on the Slaton Sub. As usual, I went to Canyon Jct. to see if there was anything ready to head west on the Slaton or east on the Plainview. The SLAAMS train (Slaton, TX to Amarillo (South), TX) was talking to the dispatcher on the south side of town. "BNSF 786" Seriously?! Even though I was looking for orange, I would take another Warbonnet for my collection. They had work to do in the yard and the light hadn't gotten far enough around for any good shots so I decided to do some exploring. I ventured to the west side of the yard to see if there was any accessibility. Much to my surprise, I was able to drive right by the ex-ATSF passenger station, which is now the yard office. Also to my surprise, a "BNSF 998" was now talking to the dispatcher and the SLAAMS. I continued driving up and down different roads until I saw him pull up to the yard office and stop to get permission past the track foreman's limits at Canyon Jct. I found a spot at the intersection of Avenue F and 9th Street where I could shoot them departing.

I drove back to Canyon Jct. to see what the SLAAMS was up to. It wasn't much of a wait until he would ask the dispatcher for permission past the signal to double his train, which was granted before the afternoon locals would be in the picture. I walked up onto the Avenue Q overpass for my first shots from the vantage point.

 

I hung out on the bridge as they reversed back to the rest of the train in the yard. I could hear the local making its way towards the junction. A minute later the "201 local" popped out from under the overpass with two SD40-2s on the point. 

Once they were in the clear, it was the "342's" turn. I saw the caboose appear from behind BNSF 786 and stop at the switch for the industrial track that heads east across 3rd Street. I quickly ran back to the car to get into position for them heading over the wooden trestle accessible from the public parks off of Avenue K. Unfortunately, the angle I chose wasn't too appealing but as [lack of] luck would have it, I would get an error message as my camera recorded the images. I had to take out the battery to get the camera to reset and lost the photos. This is a future angle to try when I catch them on the branch again.

I checked the map and found where the Purina mill was that they would be working. While they switched the mill, I drove down a bit to shoot the current end of track.

The industrial track was originally built as the Crosbyton-Southplains Railroad from Lubbock to Crosbyton in 1911. It would be purchased by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (ATSF) in 1915. The line would be owned by the ATSF until 1989, when it was sold to the Crosbyton Railroad. They began operation in January 1990 but wouldn't even survive a full year. The line was abandoned shortly after. Today, BNSF uses a mile and half of the line to reach Purina.

I sat watching the SD40-2/GP39-2 duo go back and forth until I heard BNSF 786 getting their track warrant for the Plainview Sub. I drove back to Canyon Junction and barely made it back before they got the signal.

Once the head-end was under the bridge, it was back to the car and back to the mill to shoot the local. Just west of the mill is a bridge over Ash Ave. that is still lettered "Santa Fe". They kept pulling out onto the bridge as they got the last of the cars in order allowing for different angles.

Finally, I moved my truck into position for their departure and didn't have to wait long.

I had found a cool spot on my way back to Canyon Jct. on the branch where the tracks cross I-27.

I made it back to the 1st Street crossing with plenty of time to spare. This area is pretty cool because the line is surrounded by public park land as is the case here with Pallottine Park.

Less than a quarter mile later, the branch, basically running in people's backyards, rejoins the mainline.

That would do it for me as I started making my way back home only to get caught at the Avenue P crossing at Canyon Jct. for an eastbound intermodal. One last shot out the driver window of the DPU as I went across would officially end my day.

A Weekend on the "Pokey" - Part 2

After being up shooting until 11:15PM the night before, we didn't hit the road looking for something to shoot until 8:45AM. This didn't turn out to be such a bad thing for us as we would soon run into the first train of the day, NS 194 being led by UP 4692, at an S-curve outside of Welch at 9:08AM. This eastbound would take us all the way to Elkhorn with shots at Welch, Kimball, Keystone, and Elkhorn.

Elkorn is known as Crozier on the railroad, and that is where we ended our chase of 194 at 9:44AM. As soon as the power went around the corner, we heard him radio a westbound warning him to make noise for "some photographers" at the crossing. Two minutes later, NS 6788 would poke out from around the corner. It was still too early for a good angle on the westbound, but I happened to grab a shot of the power going away including NREX 9294, an SD45T-2, which had "B-unit Do Not Occupy" on the door.

Apparently we wanted another eastbound since it was still early and we drove back west ending up in Twin Branch for the first time this trip. At 10:49AM we got our eastbound exiting Twin Branch tunnel behind NS 9155.

Rather than chasing east due to the lack of a direct route out of Twin Branch, we ventured further west to Iaeger. With nothing happening on the mainline, we spent a few minutes shooting whatever we found in the yard.

It was already noon before we started heading back east. We ended up at Roderfield where we found the westbound we had seen at Crozier in the morning sitting in the tunnel. A helper set led by NS 9368 would run around them a few minutes later.

With the sun swinging to the west, we drove a little further east to Welch. Things were about to become a whole lot busier on the Pocahontas District! At 1:12PM we caught an eastbound autorack train behind the lone NS 6605. Of course, an eastbound is the opposite of what we wanted but some lucky clouds made a shot possible.

We drove up the little ways to find the eastbound we had shot at Twin Branch sitting by the coaling tower at Farm waiting for helpers to be put on the rear.

We went back to our spot in Welch between 2:27PM and 3:06PM to catch a westbound behind NS 2661, a helper set led by UP 9788, an eastbound manifest (no good photo), and another helper set with NS 9024 up front.

Finally, NS 9155 was on the move from Farm so we changed our location for a better sun angle. We chose the east end of the twin-bore Huger Tunnel in Superior.

Knowing there were helpers on the end for well-lit going-away shots, we picked Vivian as our next spot. Before we would get the eastbound, we saw yet another helper set heading west past a (what-I-can-only-assume-was-an-abandoned) baseball field.

We continued the chase of the eastbound as it sailed through Northfork and wound up getting ahead of it again at Crozier.

I believe we were driving back west when a westbound caught up to us around Kimball with NS 8304 in Conrail blue on the point.

We thought ahead and went straight to Sandy Huff, just east of Iaeger, where the light would be the best. Upon our arrival, we found the helper set with UP 9788 on the west end sitting by the crossing. A cloud would pass in front of the sun as NS 8304 finally got to us at 5:43PM.

We made our way east towards Landgraff and the Elkhorn Inn once again with only a sunny shot of the helper power to show for our efforts. One more surprise was in store for us in the form of NS 6742, also in Conrail blue, working the small yard in Kimball in beautiful afternoon light.

We arrived back at the Inn in time to see the helpers of an eastbound disappear out of sight from the porch as the sun ducked behind the mountains to the west. I went out for a few more shots before darkness would fall over the valley. A helper set rounded the corner heading back west at the same time an eastbound rounded the curve at the end of the long straightaway in the opposite direction. Perfect timing yielding one of my favorite photos from the entire trip.

Light faded quickly as we made our way back onto the porch as another eastbound slipped by some 12 minutes later followed by a westbound at 8:48PM.

The hazy/foggy conditions in the valley made another night of photography too luring to pass up. We went down to try to get more "anticipation" photos as trains lit up the scene before appearing into view as was the case for this eastbound at 10:41PM. This was by far the best shot of the trip and made for the perfect ending to the trip.

A Weekend on the "Pokey" - Part 1

Back in August 2006, my brother, Christopher, my cousin, Mark, and I set off for a weekend adventure on the NS Pocahontas District, or the Pokey, between Bluefield, WV and Williamson, WV. Checking the dates, it looks like Mark took Friday off from work to make it a three-day weekend, Aug. 4-6. I believe we stayed overnight somewhere in Virginia before starting Friday morning in Bluefield, WV. We didn't spend too much time (no photos) here before moving further west along the line to Yards, WV on the VA/WV border where we got the first official train of the trip (at least to me), a westbound manifest splitting the CPL signals at 11:05AM.

We made our way up the line, stopping at Bramwell to take pictures of the station before reaching our destination of Welch, WV or "Farm" on the NS. This location boasts a steam-era coaling tower as well as a group of ex-N&W CPLs. The CPLs have since been replaced with new Safetrans signals. At Farm, we caught an eastbound work train led by a sole leaser SD40-2, FURX 7245, at 1:45PM.

After the departure of the work train, we stuck around and were rewarded with another eastbound an hour later at 2:46PM. This time it would be a loaded coal train, which the line sees many of, being in the heart of coal country. NS 9656 would be the leader followed by NS 6571 and NS 8884, whom we would see later this trip.

This eastbound would be our entertainment for the afternoon as we took off in pursuit of it. We would get ahead of it at Kimball where we set up at the portal of Vivian Tunnel. NS hadn't started its Heartland Corridor project yet (the reason I think we took the trip down there) so it is nice having views of the untouched tunnels.

I chose to put some shots in black & white for two reasons: 1. the weather wasn't too cooperative on the first day 2. we didn't do a great job picking spots that offered the best lighting situations but we did okay! After Kimball, we got back ahead of them at Northfork. Northfork is the site of O. Winston Link's famous photo "Main Line on Main Street." The buildings seen in Link's photo were destroyed by a flood and are reduced to ruins as seen at our next location.

We continued eastward to Switchback where we set up by a small waterfall created by recent rainstorms. The N&W put up slide fences along parts of the route because of the proximity of the tracks to the rocky cliffs and hills. One such fence can be seen in the photo at Switchback.

We waited for the helpers to pass for a going away shot.

We continued the chase a few miles to grab one last shot of the helpers going above the road at Maybeury at 3:58PM.

For whatever reason, we turned around and headed back west to Welch arriving sometime around 5PM. There we found another eastbound coal train sitting under the coaling tower.

Nothing happened with them so we made our way further west to Roderfield, in between Roderfield and Vaughn Tunnels, where we would see a westbound light engine move led by UP 9788 at 6:05PM.

This would be the last movement in daylight we would see for the day as we went to check into the Elkhorn Inn in Landgraff for the night. Traffic appears to have been pretty good as I have (bad) photos taken from the porch of one at 9:09PM and one at 10:11PM. I don't remember if all three of us went down to the tracks to do some night stuff or just me, but it didn't take long for another train to come along as the headlight started lighting up the valley at 10:37PM. The fog and light from the train helped create an amazing effect silhouetting the CPL signal bridge in the distance.

I stayed out for the next train, a westbound, a little over half an hour later at 11:11PM. You can see my brother and cousin on the porch of the Elkhorn Inn as the headlight of the train lights up the surroundings  and again as the end of train device flashes away.

That would be it for the night and we were up and out by 8:45AM the next morning in Part 2!