This has nothing to do with the Frisco, but ..... I was driving back from a luncheon today when I was stopped by the crossing gates at the Geyer Road UP (ex-MP) crossing. A westbound was coming, and making quite a bit of noise. I was the first car at the gates south of the tracks. The train proved to be a general merchandise train, and was really roaring along. Power was a three unit consist, two UP 5100 somethings plus a trailing 4100 something. I'll have to look them up to see what they were. But, my point was they were pulling a general merchandise train that was really worth seeing. It had many, many box cars, a few of them older, virtually all of them graffitied up, all at least 50ft, in the consist. It had tank cars - lots of huge LPG cars, some caustic soda, plus some other unknown liquid ladings. It had a bunch of gondolas, couldn't see what, if anything, they were carrying. It had a few open top hoppers, looked to be empties. It had a whole bunch of covered hoppers, big ones, plus a few two-bays. One was a brand new UP ACF Center Flow, a four bay, that looked like it was on its first trip. Then came a mid-train helper of all things, a UP 8100 something. Then a bunch of FMC soda ash cars, full, coming in from Wyoming, plus a few ash cars from other suppliers. Then a bunch of auto racks, empties, and a couple of steel coil cars with the covers on them. Then, the Fred at the end. It was fun to enjoy being a railfan, and to see an interesting train again! No endless unit coal hoppers, no endless container loads, no trailers on flat cars. Should have had a caboose though. Ken
I'm with you, Ken. We live across the road from the UP and lots of rail traffic goes by. Last week a train of flat cars was hauling a bunch of those giant wind mill blades. They were huge and a site to behold. I love trains in general. Always have
Interesting about the mid-train helper. I've never seen one on the Jeff City sub. Must've been a monster train! I think that the coal trains outnumber the general merchandise trains on that line probably 10 to 1. Impressive as they are, they all look alike. Last summer, I seen a Great Northern open top hopper in a g.m. train going eastbound through Washington. It looked like it had survived an atomic detonation, but it was still very much in service, and it was a nice departure from the usual mundane cars that I'm used to seeing on this line. I seen those wind mill blades on the BNSF rolling westbound through Cuba a few years ago. If I remember correctly, there was one blade for every two flatcars. Quite a sight, indeed. I'd love to get a glimpse of one of their trains that haul 737 fusalages, but I think that those travel from somewhere in Kansas to California, so they're out of my territory. Pat Moreland, Union Mo.
Pat, those Boeing 737s come through Kansas City from Wichita (up the old Frisco line) and into Murray Yard (old CB&Q) and then up the Q line on their way to teh great northwest.
Maybe it's the nature of the routes that pass through my area, but I haven't seen a trailer-on-flat-car (TOFC) for quite a while. Rich
The last few weeks on the Ex-MP/Now UP Coffeyville-Little Rock line have shown some pretty cool trains. I have seen plenty of fallen flag cars and 3 different passenger cars, an ACL/Amtrak Diner, a Dome car lettered for the Montana Daylight, and plain gray gray heavyweight coach(don't know which road). I have also seen work trains and a variety of motive power in fresh paint from Little Rock's Jenks shop. If that wasn't enough I get to watch the Arkansas & Missouri, Fort Smith Railroad, and the Kansas City Southern.
We were driving up Highway 50 on Thanksgiving morning and saw what looked like hundreds of empty coal hoppers on the old line towards Owensville. I figured at least 3 miles worth, with breaks at rail crossings. Stored until AC season? I think that old track joins up with the Labadie line somewhere. Dan
On the Ft. Scott (ex ash grove) sub its mainly empty coal trains. I don't know if its cause of schedule change or what but this past spring and summer i saw several mixed trains (and auto rack trains and even a few intermodal) but I'm not seeing them now. They even got to a point were frequently they had pooled power. Normally it was ns, but i also saw csx, kcs, and up a few times thrown in the mix. Ethan
Meteor910s post #1 about the train he saw though Kirkwood had an odd feel to it. The tale of the distributed power in the merchandise freight clinched it that he was talking about "the other Kirkwood railroad." Closer to home (and sort of the topic), the ex-Rolla Sub of the Eastern Division has offered a few intriguing sights in the last month. In no particular order: Strings of shiny black, brand new tank cars that look like they are for ethanol carriage go east on the morning freight. The same train may have strings of similar cars placarded UN 1267 for petroleum crude oil. Some of these loads even have ADMX reporting marks indicating they have been switched over from ethanol. There have been strings of brand new double covered hoppers as well. Flatcars with pipe are also in the consists along with asphalt, chemicals, LP, sheet rock and other freight. A Herzog crane train spent a couple days picking up the last of the piles of rails, ties, rubber crossing and other junk left over from the Big Bend crossing re-surfacing done last March. Some local amateurs tried to beat them to it a couple months ago, but the local police stopped them after they stuffed their pick-up with "evidence." Finally, in the 18 days between November 5 and Thanksgiving, there have been 9 gray and red warbonnet Dash-9 C44W locomotives pulling the morning eastbound freight. Ozarktraveler reported a 10th in N. St. Louis during that time. No, they are not B&W nor O&W, but these days we must be content with what we get. George
George - Glad to hear the BNSF finally picked up all the junk left over from the Big Bend/Geyer crossing improvement. Funny story about the amateurs - hope they were not railfans! That event, and the Kirkwood Police, probably stimulated the BNSF to come out and get the stuff. Yes, a lot of t/c's formerly in ethanol service are being switched over to crude oil so as to help move more of the huge quantities of crude being produced in the Bakken field in N. Dakota down to the refineries. A much more vlauable use for those cars in my opinion. Sounds like the Frisco Eastern Division remains live and well. Good! Ken
Ken, I have wondered why the railroads haven't reinstated cabooses on trains since 9/11. With BNSF cracking down on tresspassers (see Friends of BNSF site) this is a security issue and not about trainmen riding the rear of long freights but still, it might still come along sooner or later. Joe Toth
Very few intermodal trains roll thru Muskogee, but we get plenty of the other kind, such as unit coal, grain, ethanol, and frac sand trains, plus the usual manifest freights. UP's ex-Katy main runs 1/4 mile west of the house, and I can also go to either Claremore or Tulsa to catch all the BNSF action I want. This part of thr former Frisco is NOT quiet, by any means, with lotsa doublestacks running Memphis-Avard. Plus, Bakken Shale unit oil trains en route to Stroud for offloading.
I saw a northbound Iowa, Chicago and Eastern SD40-2 followed by two CP locos pulling a string of black tank cars north here on the UP's mainline. I love seeing those old SD40s still working!
