Due to the sun and clouds none of my shots turned out real spectacular but I did what I could. I still wanted to share my shots from this outing anyway.

As was discussed in the out-and-about forum several of us go together at University for several hours. After a brief mishap I got there around 11:30AM. MilwaukeeRoadMatt, and his son, Nat, the "fireman" and Keith were already there.

The first train I caught was the BNSF 4539 heading to the east. (I know that MRM has most if not all of these train symbols so I'll let him post them if he'd like.)



Given the angle I tried to incorporate the University sign into several of my shots.

The second train caught was the BNSF 9688, also eastbound.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... SF9688.jpg

There was going to be a three-way meet at the signal bridge.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... 9688_2.jpg

After that the BNSF 5506 was able to get rolling and started to head to the west.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... SF5506.jpg

Someone wanted to tell Bush something on the fuel tank.

The next train caught was the NS 8930 eastbound.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... NS8930.jpg

Next train to roll past us were three GE's with BNSF 5413 on the point followed by a NS unit and a second BNSF unit.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... SF5413.jpg

A short time later BNSF 5211 was eastbound. Again I incorporated the University sign into my shot. As seen in the picture the second unit was the BNSF 7784 in the wedge paint.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... SF5211.jpg

The third unit in this train had definitely seen better days..

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... SF4527.jpg

This Dash 9 is by far the worst faded I've ever seen any unit in all of my railfanning anywhere. This train would also encounter two other trains at the signal bridge just to our east.

A relatively short CP train makes it way to the west. The entire train can be seen in the shot (CP transfer?).

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... OO6040.jpg

Next train to come through was my favorite of the day. Led by BNSF 9374 (SD70ACe) and with DPU.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... SF9374.jpg

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... _close.jpg

Of course the sun was behind a strong band of clouds when it got near us...

As the train passed us BNSF 4666 could be seen on the rear pushing in DPU mode.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... 66_DPU.jpg

Next was the BNSF 5451 heading into Northtown. The train was cut at the location seen in my other photos above.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... SF5451.jpg

The conductor along for the ride:

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... 467364.jpg

Next the BNSF 7637 ran past us. Note the string of cars to the right that were cut from the previous train.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... SF7637.jpg

It was now about 1400. That would pretty well do it for BNSF rail action for awhile. A BNSF work crew permission to work at University until 1510.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... rkcrew.jpg

A bit later CP 8571 crawled out and I was able to snag this shot as it came around the curve.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... CP8571.jpg

Behind the BNSF work crew CN 5675 could be seen slowly moving along in the background. From this shot it's evident how the sun was poking through the clouds, just not at the trains.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... CN5675.jpg

Second unit in this train was an interesting catch in my opinion. I decided to take a roster shot.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... CN2445.jpg

According to this roster site: http://www.ole.net/~rcraig/CN.HTML The second unit was a GE C40-8M (1/55 on the CN roster).

The last train I would catch at University for the day would be a GE Dash 8-40CW in the wedge paint scheme. Here BNSF 882 is about to proceed past the work crew.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... NSF882.jpg

I had to be someplace in the afternoon so I ended up leaving University around 2:45PM. I decided to try and snag a shot of the CP 2816 steam engine sitting across the tracks from us.

http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0 ... CP3094.jpg

I had to shoot through a fence and I'm not sure what those pallets are but it really wrecked my shot.

The pictures listed above are not some of my best work but I wanted to share my pictures from a fun railfan get together. Hopefully you enjoyed. I hope to see other photos from this event as well.

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John Fladung
Saint Paul, MN

Thanks for posting the pictures it could have been a rainy day with no trains but with all the TCR members present it still would have been a great day

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Milwaukee Road Matt

I probably only missed you by 10 minutes John. But it was great meeting Nat and spending an impromptu 5 hours from work.

The "second shifters" saw about 4 Norfolk Southern units, by my rough math from your pictures, there were nearly 10 in one day! They sure put the NS in BNSF.

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The railfan side

My pictures

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John Fladung
Saint Paul, MN

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John Fladung
Saint Paul, MN