6pm Friday evening is never the most active time at the Roseville yard, but it feels particularly quiet this evening. No thrum of EMD 2 cycle engines or chugging GEs. Only a few people working in n engines around the shop. The spring snow storm in the mountains has exacerbated the toilet paper shortage here in Roseville and one has to assume UP was working aggressively all week, but this evening it is peaceful. And lest you are worried outdoor activities are allowed during the shelter in place and nobody was near me. Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk
In contrast to the warm n sunny, well it wasn't here on Thursday! And then Friday a.m. was a bit frosty. The hoarfrost on these days is amazing!
Rosenberg in the fall of 2006. This GP50 was usually on the local coming down from Somerville, Texas.
From April 1980, C&NW power idles at the road's Proviso Yard in Chicago. The 6918 and 6813 are SD-40-2s, both early in their careers.
The pilot plow on 6918 has me wondering if she had been in a minor derailment. Looks a bit worse than just normal occasional strikes on a rail head.
About six years ago, Amtrak had their "Train Days" consist in my area. This car was a part of that display:
Technically Proviso is in Melrose Park Illinois. Those SD40-2s are my primary memory of the Chicago Northwestern in the 80s and early 90s. Moving trains from Chicago to Proviso and then west to council bluffs. Then sometimes you'd get a transfer from Conrail that featured a C&NW 40-2 and a conrail SD50. Those SDs lasted on the mains well into the 2000s, because of the C&NW cab signalling. You'd regularly see a manifest led by a 40-2 with nose bell followed by big modern units.
Thanks! I'll re-label my slides with the proper locale. Now some 40 years removed, I can't recall how a friend and I found our way to Proviso. He was an adventurous driver undeterred by heavy Chicagoland traffic and in that pre-GPS era, we somehow found the place and Bensenville too.
Them C&NW 40's do bring memories! Watching them blast a "Falcon" through town was always a headrush as a kid!
Proviso is easy to find. Just take lake st. All the way out from the loop under the green line then through oak park, river forest, Maywood. The yard is roughly at lake and Manheim Bensenville is a bit harder, but not impossible. It's also on or about Mannheim, but further north. Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk
I had to drive up to Reno, Nv. twice, once Thursday and again on Friday to do pickups at a place off of US 395. Friday, I caught the local working what used to be the Western Pacific's Reno branch:
GTW 4910(GP38-2) L56791 21 Red School Rd-Central City, IA CN Cedar Rapids Sub March 21, 2020 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Tier 4 Credit ES44AC CN 3869 Central City, IA L56791 21 March 21, 2020 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Did you hit up the Walmart warehouse and bring back some toilet paper? Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk
Actually, at the very beginning of the nonsense, I delivered to three Costco stores in the Central Valley, a store employee told me that there was a fist fight over TP! The p!lace I went to in Reno makes Hidden Valley Ranch...and yes, I got a couple of sample bottles!
"Double the Fun" Double Amtrak heritage units (156 and 184) lead the 21 Mar 20 Amtrak Empire Builder eastbound at Minot, ND.
A late addition. California Northern #500 and #1570 pass Sherman Parkway in Newman, Ca and their way south towards Los Banos.
Los Banos? The bathrooms? *ROTFL* It probably means something completely different, but my minimal Spanish recollection gives me an immature laugh.