Catching up

 I have finally cracked the code and am back in control of my own blog.

Here's a few photos to mark some of the things I have rambled over since I last posted in July 2022.

In August, Dad and I headed to Junee for what would end up being our last train hunt. He didn't last as long as 4497, which is still plying the rails around Harefield as it was on the 10th August.

In early September I was lucky enough to hit Bowning, just as GM10 and GM22 went north with a railset.

October was Streamliners. What an event!

At Christmas we had snuck over to Colorado for a family holiday.  One of the things I didn't expect to see was PRLX 4687 on a short San Luis and Rio Grande grain near Antonito on 29 December.

On the last day of 2022 we happened to be shopping at the Railyard Markets when a New Mexico Rail Runner left Santa Fe.

The next day we caught the Polar Express out of Durango for a great fun evening.

A week later I had a leave pass to watch the passing parade of UP power through Laramie in the snow. I saw 68 trains in a 16-hour period - not all moving. Here is one on January 6th.

The next day was better weather and I marveled at the wonders in the Colorado State Railroad Museum at Golden.

Only thing better than one Shay is two Shays....

We finished off the States with a bit of time in LA, which meant plenty of trains around Pasadena and Palm Springs.

Finally, back in Australia, the past few months have been too busy to chase too many trains.  But I did manage to catch 4532 and 44204 leaving Goulburn on a ballast on 14 March.

And that is about it for a catch up. I will finish with this snap from the young bloke, who  got VL354, 4917, 4911, 4904 and CLF2 on an up grain approaching Moss Vale on 3 June.

Back to normal transmission soon, I hope.

Cheers

Don

Doot doot doot looking out my back door

For about five years, my train hunting was sorted.  I usually just sat in my backyard, pretending to garden.  It got the usual parade of about 40 daylight trains - like 26 September 2016 when G516 worked an up trippy past the back fence.

If feeling athletic I went down to the either ends of the street, or even the local stations (Hurlstone Park and Canterbury), both about 600 metres away. But mostly, it was 'head out the kitchen window' stuff, like it was on 19 December 2015 when S317, GM22 and VL356 popped through at breakfast time with 8146 up containers.

But now I am up country, an hour away from any decent railway action unless garbage trains are your thing. Not complaining, but I miss the whine of a Helga pulling a trippy with a load of flat wheels at 11:45pm.

But not anymore.  The last time I looked, Australia has fewer than five decent, live streaming, webcams.  We are lagging the world, even the USA.  I have since happened upon two sites Virtual Railfan (virtualrailfan.com) and Rail Stream (https://railstream.net). Both are brilliant! 

Virtual Railfan has 81 camera at 50 locations, covering 25 states and 22 railroads. It will come as no surprise to readers to learn that so far I have satisfied myself with the 15+ free cameras, although I am seriously thinking about upgrading.  Subscriptions equal the cost of a Netflix subscription,so wifey may be a disappointed very shortly because we don't need both.

I will admit that I have never heard of some of these locations, but boyo, the trains. I started in the terrific town of Flagstaff, even sorted the local scanner so I am a bit ahead of the action.  It is a bit gritty, but BNSF rocket through here about every 15 minutes. This screen shot shows a little consist - up to five units regularly work through, with mid-train helpers and pushers too. Amtrak turns up here when it wants to.

I have since moved to the mid-west, to places like Fort Madison with its preserved steamy watching double stacks roll by.

Viewing Kansas City got more interesting this week when some auto-racks derailed on the overhead bridge. No pontiacs were injured in the preparation of this blog. Heere's another screenshot, again with two BNSF locos. I fluffed the screenshot of seven Norfolk Southerns locos, showing that my actual rail-fanning photography traits are transferable to the virtual world.

There are many things this world lacks... two in particular are diamonds and street running. I am getting my fill of both.  Two diamonds I have been watching are at La Planta in Florida and Deschler, Ohio.  Here is the latter, keeping with my BNSF theme. 

Now, street running and, more relevantly, the perils of street running.  La Grange is a lovely looking place, especially when CSX work to the nearby Ford Motor plant. A couple of nights ago one such working took place.

This train rolled into La Grange at 7:51am last Thursday morning, local time, just as the town was coming to life.  When the last car rolled past 42 minutes later, the locals got their town back.

Anyway, it is time to get back to train watching, this time in Galesburg.  It doesn't quite equal sitting in your backyard, but it is better than watching the weeds grow.

Cheers,

Don

Dunsmuir, a long way from home

Going a bit further afield with this post, but it covers a tick on the bucket list for this rabbit.

During the 2000s, the wide and wild world of the Internet even allowed you to gawk at massive US consists climbing up Tehachapi Pass and rolling through a small northern Californian town called Dunsmuir.  And the best bit about these websites is that you could see reasonably clear and up to date train workings, free of charge, without passwords, rolling ads and incessant encouragements to upgrade.  These websites were run by Trainorders, and the sites disappeared about the same time someone realised how to monetise these offerings.

Here's four shots that I'll admit I purloined for a rainy day.  They are a bit grainy but they convey (to me at least) a pretty attractive location for train watching, so its always been a dream to get there.

Anyway, today my dream became a reality. Snow on the hills, whistles echoing up and down the valley, fog rising, with the promise of more snow to come.  Around 7:30am local time I parked our rented steed in front of the substantial brick building in the Trainorders photographs, and wandered across the depot (see, I am learning the lingo!). And waited.

Hey, Dunsmuir is just like home, nothing runs when I go trackside!  Finally, around 9:00am my patience was rewarded with Union Pacific's 6039, 5393 and 8560 work south on a double stacked container train. Here's a couple of shots of it sliding into the loop, which got me excited about a cross which never eventuated.

After 30 minutes of waiting I packed up. Watching the flashing tail light of a freight has never been much of a thing for me.  Lucky I did quit, as I saw the same train stowed in the loop 3 hours later.

A break in intensive family holidaying late this afternoon gave me a second chance to sit at Dunsmuir's depot. This time a 15 minute drop-in produced the following cross.  First up, Union Pacific's 5444, 6204 and 7434 worked a south-bound freight into Dunsmuir's loop.  

I was heartened to see a couple of historic wagons included in the 115 wagon consist... a Chicago & North Western hopper and a vintage-liveried Canadian Pacific boxcar.

As the tail-light for this train traversed the level crossing, Union Pacific's 5321, 9093 and 5050 roared north with a similarly sized freight.

And the best part? When all the noise cleared a young couple approached me, explained that they loved trains, and we got talking. He showed me how to use the scanner app so I am now able to hear trains approaching town.  Its a great past-time when people from half a world away can have a yarn about something that isn't corrosive to humanity.

If you ever get an opportunity, look this little town up. The pizza palace is a good hang out, and one of the burger joints is in the top 100 for USA... what other reasons do you need?

Cheers,
Don

North west Pacific

And now for something completely different to NSW... ten years ago this week I headed to the States with a group of non-railway enthusiasts.  It took them a while but eventually they got the meaning of 'hey! Pull over quick!'.  We started in San Fransisco.  It took the brightest of my traveling companions about 48 hours to work out what was going on... BART, MUNI, cable cars, Market Street trolleys... like this one... 

After a couple of days I snuck away to Sacramento to the Cal State Railroad Museum for the day. A particular favourite of mine is the Western Pacific F7A pictured here.

More modern locomotive power got me there and back again. Slightly larger loading gauge than your NSWGR profile!

If you ever get to Sacramento, stick around the downtown area as a steady diet of UP freights mingle with the passengers.

I took tons of very average phots that day. One I particularly liked shows a pretty decrepit Southern Pacific loco teamed with a Union Pacific sister on a fuel train. This was taken from the cafe car on the train I was riding... its good to spend time in the cafe cars.
 

The second half of the holiday was up north - Portland and thereabouts.  It was notable for three things... first I have no photos but UP Challenger 3985 was in town in steam for the weekend.  I saw it from a distance and heard it whistling every hour.  Absolutely sensational stuff.

The second memory is this...

What? Well it shows that the curse I have (coming upon the last half of a train or a train in a cutting) transcends continents.  I reckon I saw the back third or the top quarter of 30-odd trains that week.

Third, I went to Tillamook. If you ever get a chance, go there.  Its famed for cheese and beer, but it also has Tillamook Naval Air Station which contains a blimp hangar the largest wooden structure in the world built in 1942.  

If you are not impressed with the immense scale of the hangar, take another look at its floor. There are standard gauge tracks, used to tow the dirigibles in and out of the shed.

Just as impressive, just across the carpark was the open air servicing area for the Port of Tillamook shortline.  The loco I had been wanting to see all trip was there - it had been the subject of a Trains article and it deserved to by seen by this little tourist. so, here it is... a loco painted up like a cow.

For the slightly more historically inclined, I also hunted down this Baldwin logging Mikado (built in 1926 for the Polson Logging Company of Hoquiam, Washington State).  With 48 inch driving wheels it looked anything but a typical logging loco.

The Pacific north west is full of logging railroads, but I was unsuccessful in convincing the others to spend a day riding the rails. Instead we went to see an active volcano - probably a fair call. We did stop along the way to photograph railroad bridge signage.

Anyway, it was a marvelous trip. Travel broadens some minds, they say. Will return soon with some homegrown ramblings.

Ciao for now!
Don

Travels with & in Uncle Sam

Over nearly a hundred posts on this blog I think I may have displayed a fairly parochial view of railways.  To recompense, it may be time to  display a broader horizon, starting with my various travels in the United States of America.

I have been there a fair few times - some might say a few too many times. Say what you want about the place, the central place of railroads in modern America has been a particular interest of mine.  The first trip I made around the States taught me a lot about how big and different railroads were over there.

Growing up accustomed to an hourly freight train being a good day on many NSW lines, I remember being gobsmacked at the Transcon in western California and Arizona when first there in 1990.  Seeing four, five and even six diesels sitting on 90mph pacing the Interstate was something you just didn't see anywhere in NSW at that time. With four mates, I did 4,000 miles over five weeks in December 1990. Scenes like the following were, to coin a phrase, a dime a dozen.

The States has many examples of railroad decay - though not as many in 2014 as they did in 1990. One Sunday morning in Alabama the rest of the touring party were in bed while I toured the former station at Montgomery - Amtrak had relocated to a utilitarian building adjacent to this majestic shed.
 

 
This was my first train trip in the States - 3 January 1991 on the Texas Eagle.  Over the next eight days I travelled from Texas to Chicago, then to Portland Oregon on the Empire Builder, then back to LA on the Coast Starlight.  A truly great experience, starting with this quick snap of me about to board in Austin on a freezing morning.

Later that day in Dallas I hopped off for a walk to find this crazy guy doing a few running repairs.

I actually managed to fluke a half decent shot of the Empire Builders crossing in the middle of Nowhere.

I saw the snow drifts build up to the window level, so the following shot was pretty mild.

Again, from the rear carriage of the Empire Builder... a view of Nowhere, next stop, Oblivion.

Will finish up with a couple of shots of the Starlight.  The first from Oregon and the second much closer to southern California.

So its been nearly 25 years since my first trip Stateside.  Over the next 100 blog posts I will try to bring you a few other half interesting shots from the Land of the Free.

Ciao!