Western Railroad Discussion > Glad info was wrong - CN on BNSF FRS

I erroneously reported in my last post that the H GRFDEN 30 had traversed the Front Range Sub in Colorado at night. I did the hard-core thing and slept with the scanner on all night, I was banished to the guest room bed away from the family. I thought for sure I heard about 3 trains and one was that one. Perhaps I was dreaming, but I sure felt like crap in the morning after all those interruptions! In the morning, I decided not to intercept it at Broomfield or Utah Junction because the weather forecast near Denver was for clouds. Good thing I didn't, my information was so bad, the train was still at Cheyenne, and my son found out so well into the afternoon. Off we piled into the car for a harried trip up to Cheyenne, I wasn't going to miss this consist on the FRS! After all, lead motor 8945 led a CN Director Train when it was new on 8-14-11, and 3 in a row are rare as hen's teeth around these parts. As it turned out, we had to wait a lot longer as they had some switching to do first, but we made it!

Photo 1 - The sun angle was wrong as the train sat next to the new depot, so we had to wait until a switching move to get a good sun angle at the curve leaving the yard southbound. So these wouldn't look just like shots in Canada, we tried to incorporate location tags into the photos. Here ahead of the nose is the south leg of the Cheyenne Wye, and the Wyoming State Capitol dome glitters in the distance.

Photo 2 - And here is what we drove here for, and while waiting, we had a nice conversation with Mr. rminer. The GRFDEN with the all-CN consist leaps over the UP Transcon mains on the unmistakable C&S overpass at West Cheyenne, WY. Gee, feels like I was just here yesterday!

Photo 3 - Rounding the curve at the South Siding Switch of Speer, WY, heading nearly directly into the rapidly-setting sun.

There's mooore...

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Photo 4 - By the time the train hit the Wyoming/Colorado State Line, the sun was nearly gone, here being paced by the competition on I-25 right at the border. Time for some ISO 1600 and High-ISO noise reduction already...

Photo 5 - Leaning into the gathering night having just entered Colorado, being greeted by the buffalo sign on the hilltop.

Photo 6 - After sunset, testing the High-ISO noise reduction to its limits, the train eases to a stop to throw the switch at Platte River Junction that was left in reverse position after the Rawhide Coal Empty left the powerplant where the electricity to run this computer comes from.

One mooore...

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Photo 7 - After throwing the switch at Platte River Junction back to the main and getting another Track Warrant, the CN-powered GRFDEN accelerates past the switch to the powerplant spur into the gathering evening. Our next photo was a broadside video in the dark on Mason St. in Fort Collins with the Old Town Christmas Lights in the background. Hope these and the two CN's on the rail train empty two days ago come back through, we'll wait and see. Though I can't stand what CN did to Wisconsin Central, Fond Du Lac and Byron Hill will never be the same, and Duluth and the DM&IR, well, don't even get me started, they still look pretty nice out here where they don't belong.

Happy O Canada railfanning! === === = === JLH

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At last, a train which falls down enough to be useful for photos.

Nice stuff, Jim.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Nice catch HGG! Had I known when you were "leaving Dodge", I would have done my best to tie up the crossing for say a half hour or so:}

Nices series of photos Sir!

GREAT set of pics!!!! Thanks for sharing.

Very nice JLH!