The Emporia Sub had some good things and some bad things for me when I visited on June 4. Thanks again to everyone for helping me find my way around that area and letting me know what to expect.
[tup]
6 trains in half an hour in downtown Emporia.
A couple of SD70ACEs.
Several Z trains - I don’t get to see them very often in Omaha.
14 engines on one train near Matfield Green.
Great scenery and decent weather.
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After the first 6 trains in Emporia it was 2 hours until another one came by.
While trying to find a good spot to watch around Matfield Green 4 trains went by (all of which happened to go by while we couldn’t see them very well due to trees and hills).
Finally ended up in Bazaar and waited another 2 hours before another train came through.
Only two more trains over the next hour for a grand total of 10 trains - I could’ve seen more in the same amount of time by going 2 miles to the Amtrak station in downtown Omaha.
Basically, Sunday, June 4 must have been a lousy day on the BNSF
Willy: Some Sundays here are that same way. Especially when you have out of town/state company and you want to impress with all of the train traffic you see.
That always seems to be the day BNSF decides to have a holiday and nothing moves for hours!
Then your guests go home thinking you are balmy since you always brag how much traffic there is where you watch!
At least you can add it to your “places I have been” list!
hey willy, I found out when I went to work on sunday that they decided to do couple of maintenance windows on the emporia sub. should have been around bout 8 pm when the dog catches broke loose. oh well thats railroads for you.
Sounds like you had a mixed time on Sunday. As mentioned above, maintanence windows can put a dark cloud on railfanning, but when the flood gates open, the parade seems endless.
During my railfanning times in the Emporia area, I noticed that after a 4-6 set of trains, usually in one direction, there is a lull, then the flow of another set comes through, sometimes going the opposite direction. I guess that’s the way the dispatcher set it up. Usually traffic picked up Wednesday afternoons and continue until early Sunday. This was the way it was on the Santa Fe. It may have changed now with BNSF. What is still probably the same is when the local yard job in Emporia taks a cut of empties to the Bunge grain elevator (east side of town), they normally had a very short window of time to cross over, otherwise they would hold up traffic. When it puts together the loaded cars to bring back to the yard, it will have to come out on the number 1 main a couple of times to put the cuts of cars together. That too sometimes delayed traffic, but only for a short time. Then, it was crossing back across the main lines (another short window) to roll down to the yard.
Along the route from Ellinor to Wellington, I usually carried a scanner to let me know what was happening, and timed my photo spots accordingly. Usually westbound traffic took priority over eastbound traffic except for the LANY, 891, and other eastbound “Q” trains the Santa Fe ran along that route.
Don’t let the bad experiences keep you from going back. I’ve lost count of the many times I sat at trackside staring at the horizon waiting for the next one.
I think next year or the year after I will be back to Emporia. The only thing I’ll do different is choose a day other than Sunday and spend more time in the Flint Hills region.
I guess my experience is part of the thrill of railfanning; you never what’s going to happen or come your way.