Today was my first day off after working 7 days straight. Of course it was nice that the weather cooperated with me. Getting myself up early enough to get ready and on the road by 7AM helped greatly. I started out by fueling up my truck and grabbing a breakfast sandwich at an SA. I then hit HWY 10 with a destination of Prescott, WI. As I entered Prescott I watched a westbound train cross the lift bridge. This train was a mixed freight led by BNSF 8012. Due to everything running west it was pointless for me to go there this morning. The BNSF also decided to do track work about an hour after I got there and they had track time until 12:30PM. I decided to leave when I heard about that.
Other trains/movements I saw in Prescott include:
2. BNSF 4720 (west). Stack train.
3. BNSF Track inspector (east). High-rail pickup truck
4. BNSF 4759 (west). Stack train.
Heading back towards the Twin Cities I spotted a CP train led by a pair of SOO geeps heading east. As I was taking the Glen Road exit in Newport I spotted a BNSF train but due to traffic conditions I couldn’t get the road number of the GE. I then decided to hit up one of the pedestrian overpasses in Newport. I got into place when I saw a train coming from the east. This happened to be a stack train led by CP 5939, shortly after that headlights from the west emerged from under I-494. When the train got closer I snagged this shot. This crop seemed to work best and if you look closely you can see the CP train in the upper right hand corner.
http://johnfladung.net/images/BNSF/091207BNSF4689.html
Things died down pretty fast so after about an hour on the pedestrian overpass I decided to head back to my truck. This would be a mistake I would later regret… Getting back to my truck I see another CP train heading west. This train was a mixed freight led by CP 5902. After a few minutes I was back on HWY 10. I look to the tracks and see a CEFX unit and a nice looking CP unit heading east—a train I wish I could have got a shot of!
It was time for a quick break. I swung back to my apartment for a short time then went to the McDonald’s drive thru for lunch. I brought my lunch to Pig’s Eye Yard to see if anyone I knew was sitting down there. There wasn’t so I didn’t stay long but before I left I saw CP 1404 doing some yard work.
Next stop for me would be University. To my despise there were coal hoppers sitting there which as we all know makes railfanning there difficult at best. I moved on to Northtown.
When I first got to Northtown I saw two cranes working on a girder for the CP bridge and a slow moving BNSF train led by a pair of SD40-2s. A stack train led by BNSF 5242 was limited to 10MPH and stopped for a bit for things to clear up. The train was on the yard track furthest to the west. They had things pretty well tied up with the cranes working and it sounded like the dispatcher was going to have a busy afternoon/evening ahead of them with several tracks tied up due to the work. The cranes eventually moved out of the way and some yard work was underway.
http://johnfladung.net/images/BNSF/091207BNSF6332.html
After watching the happenings in the yard for a period of time I decided to move on. I really was looking forward to my next stop and planned it out so that the sun should be in the proper spot—Union Junction.
After getting into position it wasn’t long when the signal came on with a red. Shortly after that headlights could be seen coming at me on down the grade. Fist train was the CP 9009. Unfortunately, my shot did not turn out. It came out somewhat blurry on all of my attempts on this train and I’m not exactly sure what the camera was focusing on.
Not long after that train went through the NS 8911 made its’ way down the grade and I was able to snag this shot.
http://johnfladung.net/images/otherroad ... S8911.html
This train really slowed down as it went by me and eventually came to a stop. Next thing I know more headlights appear at the top of the grade.
http://www.johnfladung.net/files/2007_0912/backedup.jpg
I heard a train over at Midway, looked over and saw a former ATSF Warbonnet (678?) with former Conrail unit taking some stacks to the east.
A bit after that the train seen at the top of the grade in a shot posted above finally got the signal to move on. When it got closer I got this shot:
http://johnfladung.net/images/BNSF/091207BNSF9791.html
Again, another train was heard over in Midway. This time it was a BNSF mixed train led by a Dash 9 in H1 paint (1071?), another eastbound. The last train I saw from this location was the BNSF 8044, which was a mixed freight, running east.
A final stop at Pig’s Eye only yielded a BNSF train (unknown unit road number). I then decided to head back to my apartment tired and hungry. The greatest dispaointment was obviously Prescott but I will try it again in the future and I'm glad the rest of the day wasn't a wash. Mike V. was able to snag the same coal empties I did. I saw at least 21 different trains today. I hope you enjoyed my report and thanks for reading!
