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UP just recently changed some of the train make up instructions. Manifest trains over 12000 ft and weighing over 14000 tons have to have a DPU on the rear end as well as a DPU mid-train. Those big manifests get torn apart fairly regularly. They think putting one on the rear will help. I have my doubts.
Lower 90's today, partly cloudy, medium humidity, windy. Pleasant. 1 BNSF northbound (6104) through Fremont, NE. DPU 8076. Others were standing engines. Plus a pile driver east of Kennard on the 12th. No trains that day. I learned today that the line from Sioux City to Ashland was built by the Great Northern in the early 1900's. That explains the sign just north of Ashland that says GN. Called out on track warrants as "Station Sign GN".
Went out today and found a train at Valley, NE getting ready to head for Lincoln. First time I've see a train on this line for many years. This single track used to be the Marysville sub but tracks were removed from Lincoln south as the the line from Gibbon Jct is better. 4-12-2's and U50's plied this line over the years. First couple are as the tracks leave the Platte river valley and go to Yutan. Flooding caused many trees to die. Then at Mead.
Mead has a large elevator and an orange GP 9 that was way far on the west end. Another UP train with 8494 waiting to go north, but the dispatch computer went down so no track warrant. I took a picture of the red fire plug because it looks funny at the edge of a cornfield. A pleasant 85 degrees around noon today.
I think I finally found that old GN line. I believe it is the one marked BNSF that crosses the Missouri River south of Sioux City, IA and runs south to Ashland roughly parallel to US 77. It must be a forgotten branch line of the GN as I could not find any reference to it in GN listings on the internet.
Yes that is it. One of things that sparked my comment about it was little mention in one of the local railfan news letters. I will copy it and post it, with proper credit, The town of Walthill is named after Walter Hill of the GN.
I call lines like that Outpost Lines. They are lines which are far removed from a railroad's better known mainlines such as the New York Central's Paducah, KY branch, the C&NW's "Cowboy" branch to Lander(?), WY, and the Soo Line's branch to Whitetail, MT.
It will be interesting to see what your research comes up with as to who built and owned the Ashland line.
A few shots from Council Bluffs IA this afternoon. Fresh looking SD40N's pull a manifest from the old CNW yard towards the west on the UP main. I believe they may have pushed it into the main CB yard as they didn't venture into the Nebraska side of the Missouri. In the last shot, a former IAIS geep was active in the Alter Metals complex.
Good shots Ed. That view looking west toward Alter’s always throws me. I have to stare at for 5 sec. to get my bearings. They sure have cleaned it up and nice to still the geep in there.
Wow! Batting 1000 on the UP Lincoln line again. This time two trains. One was a rock train that tied up all of Mead Ne. 3 crossings and locos way up on the west end so no picture. and the Lincoln local at Yutan that had to wait for a BNSF train coming south on the Sioux City Sub. Last photo was taken with the Nikon P900 super zoom just to show the sag. Train was dropping off many cars at a place apparently not accessible by common railfans east of Wahoo. Wahooooooo! for all you non-Nebraskans. Looking at the pictures again, I guess I didn’t zoom it out as far as I thought.
Don't think it does but then there seems to be at least 1 train each way a day. And the Sioux Line is busy so it could happen more than I think. What kind of surprised me was how long the red light for the crossing came on before the BNSF train got there. The UP train was already in sight and he still had to wait for the BNSF. I've got to figure out where the rock train goes. It stopped at the siding at Mead and last week there was an empty at Mead, More research is needed.
One at Yutan today. Got a base for my bigger scanner antenna, unfortunately BNSF started sending track warrants to the locomotive via computer. I can only hear when they release the warrant, not the limits. Oh well back to railfanning like we did before I could afford a radio.
a nice portrait of UP 500 at Valley NE. They are working on the bridge at Kennard so the main line through Omaha is seeing more traffic this week. I spent some time trying out how to find trains on the BNSF Sioux Line since they stopped giving warrants over the radio. They do release them over the radio so at least I know where the train was.
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