Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been spending part of my Saturdays attempting to capture UP’s latest high-priority coast-to-coast perishable service, ZWASKP, which runs once a week through here. With a little inside help from a fellow forum member, I’ve been able to get in position prior to this train’s anticipated arrival in .
So far, I’m batting 0 for 2.
Last week, I headed to my photo spot after hearing that the train had passed through Belle Plaine, which is about 30-40 miles west. From my vantage point I could make out the front end of a unit coal train sitting to the west of a crossover on Track 1. Great, I figured- they’re holding everything else up for this one, and it should be here in no time. 45 minutes and NO moving trains later, I had to leave my vantage point to honor a haircut appointment. Near as we can figure, ZWASKP came through about five minutes after I left. Oh well, it was a cloudy, dreary day anyway. Not the best photo conditions.
This week proved to be even more entertaining. I wasn’t nearly as close to my vantage point this time; last week I was only a few minutes away from it, but this week I was at home, which is half-an-hour away. However, based on last week’s experience, I was not too worried about missing it. Once I got there, again I could see a train being held on Track 1 at the crossover- this time it was a COFC! OK, I thought, this looks promising. So I waited, standing next to a highway overpass in 35-degree weather with a biting NW wind.&nb
That short, TOFC was probably one of the eastbound “birds” (or Z train if you prefer). The kind you wait a couple of hours for sometimes.
Brian, if you think your lucks been bad, a week ago Thursday I had to lay off a trip to take my wife to a Dr’s appointment in Des Moines. My turn caught the 2 ZSKWAP, 55 empties going west. Not as important as the eastbound counterpart, but still.
Brian - I can relate. One time my mom and I were waiting for the Challenger to come into Fremont, Nebraska. We sat around waiting for about an hour and then my mom had to go to the bathroom (women and their over-active bladders!). As you can probably guess, the steamer came in during the 5 minutes that we were gone. Seems all of the good stuff always comes by just after a person has left.
Even though you didn’t get what you were out for, your pics of the other trains are very nice!
I heard a northbound on the air Friday. Nothing special, but it was a train. So I set up to get a look. And sat, and sat. Finally I figure out that they will be doing some work at the yard between me and where I first heard them. OK, fine, I’ll go take care of a couple of the errands I was in town to do anyhow.
About an hour and a half later (maybe two), I heard them calling a block station on their way out of town. I was too far away to bother chasing them…
Jeff, when does the westbound fly across Iowa? It might be a better target for Brian (probably the wrong time of week for somebody with civilian hours, though).
The intended target is still in Iowa–will probably hit here while I’m asleep.
Brian, if we ever get a chance to linger in CR, I’d love to experience those locations!
I’ll bet that is the easiest day’s pay of anything your roster can pull. And I would also wager that you probably caught the worst thing going when you marked back up. Isn’t that the way it usually works?
Hey Jeff, how you doin’? Until today, I honestly believed that COFC trains waited for no one. It really surprised me to see the one in the second shot sitting by the sewage treatment plant for that long. And then that TOFC passed it up, and I thought “you’re waiting for THAT? Woah…”
Thanks for the compliments on the shots, guys. In spite of missing my intended target, I really did have an enjoyable, if somewhat cold, couple of hours. I just realized something else about today that strikes me as being actually somewhat odd- not a single foreign engine! All UP.
Actually, deadheading is the easiest job. There is normally more eastbounds out of Fremont/OMC than westbounds going in, so there are usually a couple of groups of 2 or 3 crews deadheading west per day. During the time the TRT (concrete tie gang) has been working, some westbounds detoured around so on certain days they would deadhead 12 to 16 crews a day west. For the large deadheads they would get a bus.
Most of the double stacks aren’t that hot, unless a long pool crew is on it. Those Z trains with only TOFC are the hot ones. One trip I waited 3 and a half hours at Missouri Valley to meet the eastbound Z that had left North Platte about the same time I had left Boone. I thought I was going to have a real good trip that day as we hadn’t stopped since we had left Boone. The westbound bird wasn’t far behind and it went around after about the first 40 minutes. Then eastbound coal trains, manifests and stackers came and went. Finally after the Z showed up, it was safe for us to go west across the Blair sub.
The last couple of Thursday mornings the westbound empty reefers have been called out of Boone around 9am.
BTW, the concrete tie gang/TRT is or just about finished working in Illinois and will be moving to the Omaha area. I’ve heard they’re going to do a stretch from Omaha to over around Elkhorn.
Hi Brian, seems like only yesterday when we met with the Trains magazine guys out at Rochelle RR park on that nice warm sunny day, but in reality a lot has happened since then to limit my train watching to small bits. My Dad passed away September 14 at age 86 (a nice long and good life but still very sad to have him leave us) and my business load has been heavy. Hope to see you either back at Rochelle when the weather warms or perhaps at my beloved Eola yard sometime in the future. Jim
I live less than 1/2 a mile from the EJ&E, on a nice day recently, I struck out along the main line, hoping to catch something. (I hear air horns quite often during the day, so I assumed I would have a good day’s shooting) I followed the line west, where it paralells Route 30, occasionally stopping where I could to check for headlights…Nothing, nada, zip. . But, I want some photos of the EJE locos (I only have 1) so I figured I would eventually catch something. I had all day also, since it was my day off, and nothing going on… Well, after nearly 6 hours of traversing the line, stopping, looking and etc… I gave up and went home.
No sooner do I get to my apartment complex, and get out of my car… Yep, you guessed it…an air horn from the EJE is clearly audible… It just figures, every time…
I haven’t been able to go out lately in large part due to the crappy weather on my days off…
My sympathies to you and your family, Jim. I’m hoping to get over to Rochelle again sometime within the next month or so, as Chris (CopCarSS) is planning on visiting his old stomping grounds here soon and I’d like to meet him there. And I’d LOVE to visit Eola. We are planning a foray into downtown Chicago to catch the play “Wicked” again, this time with our son and daughter-in-law, on December 30th and spend the night, but I doubt that I’ll have much time or inclination to relax in Rochelle’s shelter then.