Western Railroad Discussion > Avard sub activity

Friday December 9 a friend and I decided to do a bit of exploring on BNSF's Avard sub west of Tulsa, OK.  After ingesting some IHOP grub, we got trackside around 0930 under overcast skies that were allegedly going to clear soon.  The prognosticators missed it; we had clouds all day.  Oh well.

1 and 2.  A westbound mixed freight passes the signals at East Mannford near MP 446.  It met an eastbound autorack train that was stuck in the siding for at least one more.

3.  The next westbound is about to knock down the signal at West Mannford.

2 more pages.  Please hold.
 

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4.  The stacker we saw at West Mannford is being overtaken by a Z at West Hallett.  The Z will meet an eastbound at Camp, the next siding west of Hallett.  We reposition to catch it "somewhere".

5.  "Somewhere" turned out to be a mile east of a little uncontrolled siding called Casey.  It was a mixed freight with a trio of GEs.

6.  After meeting the Z at Morrison, the next eastbound would come to Camp to meet the stacker that the Z had passed at Hallett.  It was another stack train loaded with international boxes in 40' well cars.

One more page....

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Did that rear unit catch your eye like it did ours?  We decided another runby was in order, so we took advantage of the Cimarron Turnpike to get quickly back to Mannford.  It turned out that our expedient travel wasn't really necessary since the stack train waited at Hallett for an eastbound Z to overtake it.  We got to East Mannford again in time to find the mixed freight we'd seen near Casey waiting patiently in the siding for Mr. Z with an unexciting quartet of GEs.

7.  The Z is long gone, the mixed freight has departed the siding, and finally our stack train with the CSXT unit gets its turn at the East Mannford signal.

8 and 9.  So what was so special about the CSXT unit?  How about an AC6000CW?  Not many in existance, and they surely don't appear in Oklahoma very often.

Thanks for enduring the clouds with me.

Bill Gillfillan
Tulsa, OK

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Great series of photos.

Ronda Thomas

Just curious, did BNSF ever get around to installing CTC on the Avandia Sub? If not, is it being planned?

Thanks for the photos.

Orient Wrote:
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> Just curious, did BNSF ever get around to
> installing CTC on the Avandia Sub? If not, is it
> being planned?

You mean the Avard Sub?  CTC has been installed for at least a couple years now.

TTownTrains Wrote: > ... stacker we saw at West Mannford...
I remember scouting out the shot at Basin Rd west of downtown Mannford back in March of '13 on my "scouting trip" over from Perry. I can't wait to get back down there and get the nickel tour from you fine fans in the Tulsa gang. (Heck... I'd even pay a dime... ;^)

Lance

Yes, Avard.... No thanks to Android for that little hiccup. Ha!

czephyr17 Wrote:

> > Just curious, did BNSF ever get around to
> > installing CTC on the Avandia Sub? If not, is
> > it being planned?
>
> You mean the Avard Sub?  CTC has been installed
> for at least a couple years now.

And it's a 70 mph railroad, although with numerous exceptions, especially between Tulsa and Enid.

Bill G.

May I assume that Milepost 448 is from St. Louis?  If so, what's the milepost for Black Bear?  TIA

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

ntharalson Wrote:
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> May I assume that Milepost 448 is from St. Louis?
>  If so, what's the milepost for Black Bear?
>  TIA
>
> Nick Tharalson,
> Marion, IA

502.6