Archive for January, 2009

Thanks to mountain grades and heavy tonnage we rarely see trains with only one unit in the Pacific Northwest. So I’m sure you can imagine I was shocked today when the G-CIMVAW (Collins, MT to Vancouver, WA) came rolling past me at Columbia Vista with the BNSF 961 all by itself on the point. I kept watching the train as it passed because I was quite curious if there was some unusual DP arrangement.

As the rear of the train approached I could see smoke so I was fairly certain I’d find a couple of units on the rear. Sure enough there were two on the back working just as hard as the 961 up front.

Why the unusual arrangement? I have three theories…

1. This train was placed into the grain yard at Pasco until Vancouver opened up and instead of backing around the wye into the yard it was just run straight in.
2. It was run into the loader at Collins, MT this way. While there is a loop at the Collins elevator, the switch only opens north so there is no way to get the power to the other end of the train.
3. An engine failed enroute and it was most convenient to add to the rear of the train.

I think #1 or #3 is most likely because usually the power doesn’t stay with the train at Collins and usually the empties go east with three units on the point. Whatever the reason this was certainly something a bit different for a run of the mill grain train.

Technorati Tags: train, railroad, railfan, photo, photography, BNSF, grain, Vancouver, Washington, Collins, MT,

I had a nice surprise this morning when I caught up with the U-MBAVAW (Missile Base, WA to Vancouver, WA) and its pair of warbonnets. Ok, so these aren’t pure warbonnets thanks to the block lettered BNSF on the side, but the red, silver, and yellow still says Santa Fe all the way. With the sunny skies today the combination could not be beat!

This is an interesting ballast train. The cars all have a conveyor system underneath that feeds ballast towards a car that is used for distribution. The nice thing is it appears the employee dumping the ballast is inside the control booth on the distribution car and not out in the dust.

For the locals, it sounds like the power will be staying on the train while it is tied down on the NP side.

Technorati Tags: train, railroad, railfan, photo, photgraphy, BNSF, ballast, Herzog, Santa Fe, warbonnet

Many parts of Western Washington are inundated with water as I write this.  Railfan reports have slides down at various locations over the major rail lines and Amtrak and BNSF have cancelled service between Eugene, OR and Vancouver, BC.   WADOT has closed I-5 around Chehalis and Centralia again which means the BNSF Seattle sub isn’t far behind.

It time to bring out the shovel! Since the rain is ending by tomorrow morning I imagine it will be a few days until things start to returning to normal.

Technorati Tags: train, railroad, railfan, photo, photography, BNSF, Amtrak, flood, water, rain, weather

My last post featured railroad workers in the snow… so how about a shot from a couple months ago on a sunny day near the Los Angeles Harbor, where a brakeman rides the end of an intermodal cut being shoved towards an unloading track.

From the category of “I’ve been in DPU service too long”….

Technorati Tags: train, photo, photography, dirt, BNSF, railfan,