That was a fun movie! Here I caught an exec unit on a long slow H train leaving the yard. There are several freshly painted boxcars and a few other interesting ones among the oil and such.
If it was long and slow, seems like it would be an "M" instead of an "H". Or does it pick up speed/time significantly, when out of town?
They are slow leaving the yard due to a 10mph restriction from the yard, acceleration begins after the rear clears the yard.
I looked to me as only the 2 units on HE was on-line. They ain't going to setting the ballast on fire for sure.
Yup. And last I heard, the speed limit is 40mph and notch 6 for the division from here to Dickinson. To save fuel. Mind you, Beaver Hill is just east of town and it is a grueling climb which required helper service until the advent of dpu's. No helper on this train will slow them way down going up!
I read that BNSF was lifting these limits, (in response to crew complaints- STB hearings), in order to get trains moved more quickly. Maybe this has not happened as yet, or that news was false?
It may be a regional thing. I was pacing a freight eastbound from Billings, and it was at 60. So it just may be this piece twixt here n Dickinson? Or maybe it's just 'cause they have that long slow crawl up the hills.
It was a busy week with scarcely any time to railfan. But here's a few from the one video I got, and some extra goodies from the week. Freshly painted! And a clean Potash car! Inspection special. It sat on the east end of 3 track most of a day. Just 9086, the buffer car and it. Nose to nose for some reason...
If there only wasn't a chainlink fence.... And yesterday a Northtown 40-2 from a 27 year gone road, Coal with a mismatched couple. But neat numbers!
And just for kicks on a day with little activity and an empty yard, looking 'west' from the east end of the yard,
Did you happen to notice any effects on traffic through your area, during the Sandpoint bridge shut down last week?
Not really. Traffic has been sporadic, as usual. Not even a change in what types of trains go through. Why was the Sandpoint bridge down?
Not sure how, but they discovered a broken support girder. It is an old bridge, even with much upkeep through the years. So it was shut down (less than 24 hours) for repairs. Trains were backing up around the vicinity, including traffic on and off Montana Rail Link. Amtrak should not have been effected, as #8 was through before it was discovered, and repairs were done before #7 was due. Perhaps now they will increase speed of building that new bridge.
So far this week, there have been units in town from UP, CN, and NS, but I wasn't able to catch them on vid or pic. However, yesterday I was able to catch this soon to be gone unit from KCS, And this high zoom shot of two coal loads waiting for crews at the same time.
And then I did find a few minutes to catch a train, a coal load with a unique power set. Two ACe's sequentially numbered and a cleanish SD70MAC in Grinstein Green! In the rain!
