Western Railroad Discussion > ...the last siding before home!

This will be familiar scene to all of you train service guys out there, but it probably won’t evoke any pleasant memories! It’s that time honored, ‘stuck-in-the-LAST-siding-before-home’ syndrome, assuming Herington, KS is home terminal for this crew. I had just passed through Herington on my way down to Wichita. The yard looked kinda full and there was a train at the fuel rack, along with a traffic jam of 4 trains north of town: 2 waiting to enter with 1 trying to leave right behind another one. Even if Herington is an ‘away-from-home’ terminal for this crew, these poor guys looked to be stuck here at Lost Springs for quite a while.

I’m sure the mood of this crew matched up perfectly with the cold grey weather. Been there ~ done that many times in my career…

1. CSXT 7620 heads up a northbound UP train stashed away in the siding at Lost Springs, KS on December 19, 2014. (I wonder if the hogger knew his ditch lights were still on?)

Thankful it’s not ME out there (anymore)!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

---

Nice pic!!

Ahh yes, the beauty of the Hub...this crew could call home in Salina, Wichita, or Herington! Take your pick...excellent shot!

Heck, I've been put in a siding 50 miles out because all the sidings ahead of me were full of trains waiting to get into a terminal...

Snow cover and the ditch lights add lots of spice to the photo. Nice catch. The original Lost Springs on the Santa Fe Trail was 1-1/2 miles or so west of the town site.

Can definately identify as once on a westbound pig out of Barstow with four big jacks and FOUR PIGS the ramp at Los Angeles Hobart yard made us with FOUR HOURS within sight of my car before allowing us to shove our four cars into a buggy track. Talk about going postal!
JB

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 1. CSXT 7620 heads up a northbound UP train
> stashed away in the siding at Lost Springs, KS on
> December 19, 2014. (I wonder if the hogger knew
> his ditch lights were still on?)

He's probably used to UP road power which almost always only has once headlight switch that controls the both headlights and ditch lights. I'm guessing CSX went a different route and had separate switches for headlights and ditch lights.

3rdswitch Wrote: > ... made us [sit for] FOUR HOURS within sight of my car...

Yikes!!! That's brutal. I'd say that's sufficient grounds for justifiable "Yardmaster-cide"...

If it'd a former Conrail the ditch lights were a secondary switch and not interlocked into the headlights

Posted from Android

I see you have some of CSX's finest power on the point.