Hard to believe KCS is now a fallen flag... Here's a DMVW southbound wayfreight on a fine spring day in North Dakota, while the snow flies. NoDak didn't get the memo spring was here! 21 Mar 23, Falkirk, ND:
On September 17, 2007, Trainboard member LADiver was visiting the area from where he lived in Langdon, Alberta. We met up and I took him around to show him the railroad "Hot Spots" around here. We were in Sealy, Texas when a KCS train came through on the Sunset Route with a rather scruffy looking SD40-2 in the old white paint scheme. We chased the train to Columbus where I took this shot. I wonder why they stopped painting them like that?
From 12/1986, SD-60 6551 and a friend ascend the Saluda Grade at Sand Cut. Several years ago I tried to hike to this spot again and things were so thick with overgrowth that I gave up. It was recently announced that SC and NC will purchase this line, jointly acquiring 31 miles from Inman, SC to Zirconia, NC to remove the track and develop it into a hiking trail. It saddens me to have watched the steady decline of western NC railroading over the last 40 years.
Here we have a ZRODV just coming out of the 35mph curves, and just knocked the signal down at west Debeque CO, 3 DRGW Tunnel units in charge. Woody is the conductor that day. All are my image prints, scanned. DRGW 5392 leading the way. Horn moved rearward, Gyra/class lights removed, and ditch lights installed. Ditch lights were FRA mandatory by 1997, I think. This unit consist has both original and modified, so it is a bit before 1997, Im thinking 1995ish. DRGW's 5395, and 5346 lean into the tonnage too, well what little tonnage there is on this TOFC train. Note the 5346 still has the original DRGW light package. GP40,40-2's would have been so much better on these trains but they ran what they had on hand. GP's load up so much faster and with all the speed changes between GJ and DV it would actually make a difference in running time. And no, your not crazy, The "8" is backwards on the cab side of this DRGW 3085, at east Palisade CO. All the dust from the sanders really makes the under-frame details on this unit stand out, you can barely make out that the #1 and 3 cooling fans had been replaced as the base's are still in primer, not enough soot and oil to make them appear black yet. You can make out the axle generator on the #1 axle, also note a door latch has been replaced on the front cab door and a door just under the #3 cooling fan. That hose you see hanging down under the frame just ahead of the #3 axle brake cylinder, is as I recall, the drain for the engine "sock filter" housing. Note how the journal box oil seeps under and around the end cover plates. Looks like the plow has been replaced recently too. Have a good weekend everybody.
DRGW's Roper yard, SLC UT to DV Denver CO. Roseville is a good guess tho, I bet Roseville would have been a LOT longer train LOL. But the RR lacked the desire at that point, to put such a thing together. The ZRODV-ZDVRO was kind of a remnant of the DRGW RailBlazer. SP put an end to this train a few years later, got in the way of slow moving money generating traffic, which was in a way kind of SP's thing.
Crummy, my foot! For a cell phone picture, I wouldn't put it at the crummy end of the spectrum at all. It's pretty darn good - sharp, nice composition, good color, a nice secondary point of interest in the headlight's reflection in the ice on the ground, and some good advice on not smoking. Even the locomotives look clean! I love it.
