Well, I had the day off and spent the afternoon hanging around the NS tracks just south of Cham-bana, IL. With my magazine in hand and a camera (which I quickly found out was dead) I sat and hoped to catch a Triple Crown. Within 10 minutes I got my wish, but it had a twist.
The eastbound train was being dragged by a single, orange, BNSF loco (sorry, no pic - camera was dead). With it being my first time spotting on this line, it just struck me that the first unit that I see would not be an NS unit.
Does anyone know if the crew would have been BNSF or NS? I assume that it had originated somewhere in BNSF territory and wasn’t going to be changed until Ft Worth, but I was just interested in which crew would be behind the throttle.
As luck would have it, that was the only Triple Crown I saw, but I did get to see a westbound Geep slowly dragging a short train of hoppers followed shortly by an eastbound 3-unit mixed freight racing out of the siding. A decent day for just a couple hours and definitely a bonus for finding a nice new location to use up some vacation time.
The crew would have been NS, most likely the train was going to Ft. Worth but not necessarily. IF BNSF owes NS for Horsepower hours, NS can use the BNSF locomotive on any train it wants to, including Roadrailers not going to BNSF. There was a BNSF locomotive on the Minneapolis Roadrailer a few weeks ago. The Minneapolis train is handled by UP west of Chicago. The BNSF loco made a roundtrip.
…Triple Crown trains are interesting trains to witness passing through town…Here in Muncie we get a chance to do that each morning roughly at 11 am as it heads south.
It generally is a long train…often with about 140 trailers and in general it passes quietly and smooth riding. Sometimes with just a few screeching wheels, etc…Recently as I caught them, they have had 2 6-axle engines for power. Most always NS.
Triple Crown 251 is headed your way. It started south on the New Castle District about 1125am and IIRC, BNSF 9888 is the lead unit.
Krazy,
If the TC train you saw was Eastbound, how is it going to Fort Worth?? It would be a better guess to say that it was headed to the TC hub in Fort Wayne.
TC runs 267 (a Westbound) to Fort Worth using NS and BNSF. The 251 is headed to Atlanta, yet has BNSF power. Most of the time you can’t tell who a train belongs to by the color scheme on the locomotive(s).
I’ve been there a couple of times, including an entire day I spent there back in 1976 when the operator still controlled the crossing.
As previously stated, the locomotive on the front may or may not indicate where the train is going or coming from or may be a unit that they are using for horsepower hours.
Have you been down to Tuscola? Another interesting spot.
…Mike, it so happens we did see it pass here today…We were in downtown Muncie and I was waiting at a stoplight and heard a horn and looked in the rear view mirror and saw it passing through downtown Muncie crossing walnut St. and I looked at my watch and it was 1 pm…How many miles north from us are you…?
Thanks for the Roadrailer video. The whole idea just makes so much sense. I wish Fred Smith (Fedex) would take it and Railrunner on, and spread it all over. He realized when he started Federal Express, it would need to offer service to all of the major cities nationwide from day one or it wouldn’t succeed.
I was about halfway between Tolono and Philo, slightly closer to Tolono. There was a nice bridge over a deep ditch that was running alongside the tracks. I was able to sit in my car out of the wind and see approaching trains way off in both directions. I have been to Tuscola, but not for train watching.
You’re not alone when it comes to getting the wrong “fort”. When I worked at the airport it was a (all too) regular thing to call Dallas/Fort Worth to tell them to expedite the “mis-tagged” luggage to us so we could deliver it to the owner.
You’ll have to hurry today, I saw 251 heading south at MP CF 175 at 0742 this morning. Walnut St is at milepost CF120.3 a difference of about 55 miles. So I am going to estimate it will be in Royerton Siding around 0900, waiting for CSX to give permission to cross the B-Line.
Yesterday, I heard it “turn the corner” at HUGO interlocking which is MP 184.1 roughly 64 miles from where you saw it. Track speed is 60MPH, so I think it must have waited for either 230 or 235 or CSX before you saw it at Walnut St Interlocking
Hello i must be living under a rock. Having been a rail fan for some time and looking at this video. I had to google the term and was i surprised.This is the first time i have heard of this and this video is great.How long has this been around.Guess i have been looking at steam too long.Thanks for the education.
…As I read the note from Mike…{rrnut282}, it is 8:25 so if I would hurry I could drive into Muncie and witness it pass…I’m out on the west side of Muncie, just north of Yorktown. About 6.5 miles from the “depot”, now Trail Head, but it passes right there…The tracks are parallel there to the ex C&O tracks, now the trail.
Note: Correction…! I just looked at my timepieces here and realized I’m an hour off…! So, going into Muncie to see 251 would have to have been done an hour ago…Guess that squelches that.
Anyway, it’s a real nice sunny day here but still cold…28 degrees now as I send this.