Potash and the arrival of Fall and Winter

[trainboyH16-44]

I didn’t get around to posting this for a month after I took it, but I’m willing to bet most of you still have green leaves on some of your trees! Click the pic for a larger picture and more info.

[trainboyH16-44]

You guys don’t like potash very much, do you? Next time I’ll post some coal.

[overall]

The bottom picture is of an auto rack train. I guess the top one is the potash in the covered hoppers? Both of them are beautifully executed. Thanks for sharing.

George

[Bruce_Kelly]

Trainboy, of all the trains that run near my home in north Idaho on BNSF’s Funnel and UP’s former SI route, the ones that tend to impress me the most are the potash loads that get handed off from CP to UP at Eastport, Idaho, (and occasionally to BNSF at Sweetgrass, Montana). Long, heavy, unique-looking cars, very photogenic. On CP, these things typically come over Crowsnest Pass with one DPU in the middle and one on the rear, but the DPUs are rearranged before entering the U.S. They used to come down the SI/UP with both DPUs in the middle; I really liked how that looked. Now they’re coming south with both DPUs on the rear. This traffic prompted a lot of overhaul to the SI trackage in the late 1990s. The recent Trains reporting on DPUs and truck/axle technology to reduce friction and flange wear could have paid more attention to the self-steering trucks on heavy haul cars like the Canpotex hoppers. These cars also allowed CP and UP to move more tonnage in a single train without drastically increasing train length, because the cars have more height but less length than your typical covered hopper.

[samfp1943]

Matt:

Really nice! The scenery is spectacular!

The posters comments on Rail Pictures.net are Spot On!

[CNW_6000]

Trainboy, of all the trains that run near my home in north Idaho on BNSF’s Funnel and UP’s former SI route, the ones that tend to impress me the most are the potash loads that get handed off from CP to UP at Eastport, Idaho, (and occasionally to BNSF at Sweetgrass, Montana). Long, heavy, unique-looking cars, very photogenic. On CP, these things typically come over Crowsnest Pass with one DPU in the middle and one on the rear, but the DPUs are rearranged before entering the U.S. They used to come down the SI/UP with both DPUs in the middle; I really liked how that looked. Now they’re coming south with both DPUs on the rear. This traffic prompted a lot of overhaul to the SI trackage in the late 1990s. The recent Trains reporting on DPUs and truck/axle technology to reduce friction and flange wear could have paid more attention to the self-steering trucks on heavy haul cars like the Canpotex hoppers. These cars also allowed CP and UP to move more tonnage in a single train without drastically increasing train length, because the cars have more height but less length than your typical covered hopper.

Similar to CN’s train M346 and M347. These trains are mostly potash and almost always have DPUs, typically mids on NB and rears (lately) on SB. I’ve been seeing a lot of newer Potash Corp and Canpotex cars on these trains. Some have build dates as recent as within the last 6 months.

[trainboyH16-44]

Thanks for the comments and stories, everyone! One of my favorite parts of this forum is how whenever I do a picture post, related stories just pop up out of the woodwork.