PROTOTYPE Weekend Proto Fun 10/07/2022

Kicking off the Weekend Proto Fun with some more Rock Island, This is from back in July. I never got a chance to catch this unit when it wasn't back lit but was still cool to see

 

From 07/22/1989 at Asheville, NC, the NRHS National is in full swing and 1218 is at stage left. It was a good week for Kodak.

 

Not as purty, but still unique, CSX 233 on the tail of a westbound empty...

 

Sometimes it's just not worth the effort. On Thursday night, I went to Mac's and grabbed some dinner for my wife and myself. No sooner had I walked into the house than I heard a train coming into town from the West (Saginaw). I grabbed my camera and climbed back in the truck hoping for some sort of interesting night shot. The switching moves were interesting. They brought two engines and an empty tank car, working the two engines together to pull a load of biodiesel from a trailing point spur and replace it with the empty. The load wound up headed back toward Saginaw spliced between the two diesels, something I definitely wanted a photo of. I wound up chasing the consist west to Silverwood, (Not the best idea, but we get caught up in these things) and was just never in the right place for a good photo op. HESR has been working on the track over the last few years and I was totally surprised at the track speed, barely making each photo op. Every shot got successively worse until I finally threw in the towel at greater metropolitan Silverwood about twelve miles away. The low fuel alarm went off as I crossed the Marlette city limits. Dinner was a cold Big Mac. To paraphrase the unfortunate Irish bricklayer, I hope this will explain why Railmix didn't post a photo today.

As a side note, doubtless due to the increse in fuel prices, demand for the biodiesel produed locally at a large farm and tranferred from trucks at Marlette has increased considerably. Previously, there would be one or two tank cars spotted on the spur. There are now five. I'm not sure about all the customers for the fuel, but was told by an HESR employee that they include CN and Lake State Railway.

 

Hmm!! Reminds me of the dog we had on the farm. He loved chasing cars down the highway. Have fun.

 

Chasing trains is always fun! Even if you don't get a 'good' or that desired shot!

 

Years ago I think I read an editorial on the pleasure of putting down the camera and just watching. It's hard to do, but in poor light I find it easier.

 

Remember the days when low ASA films like Kodachrome 64 forced your camera into its bag as evening approached? Blurry! [05/28/1983, Susquehanna, PA]

 

As long as one doesn't start barking at the train when chasing it...

 

Only a little when I saw the results of my efforts. On the plus side, I did learn something about shortline operation. It never occurred to me that a prototype railroad would handle that problem in that way. It probably saved them something over two miles by not having to drop the car on the siding and run around it. That's something I'll tuck away in memory as there should be opportunities to use it on a model railroad. Since Huron and Eastern lands on the modern end of my scrolling era, I'm totally legit in doing that.

 

I have not seen many of these on TB, so here goes. On 12/02/2004, I was in OK City for the big train show and took a tour to the automobile plant railcar loading area. I just had to take some pictures. Here is one :



I just realized that this loco looks suspiciously like a "Rock" unit. Was the AOK a part of The Rock ? ?

 

They operate on two segments of former Rock Island trackage.

Both engines are former Conrail B23-7's.

 

This is a beautifully done heritage scheme, much the same way as HESR's GP7's wore a livery taken almost seamlessly from Pere Marquette's E7's. Since then, I've had an appreciation for heritage liveries, and this is one of the best looking ones I've seen.