Western Railroad Discussion > The Great Mini-Q Chase

After completing my second year in college, I have returned home to Colorado for the summer. Yesterday, Trainorders’ member 757guy and I met up and decided to drive down south to the Joint Line to grab a few trains and maybe even chase a few trains. Considering this was one of my first days trackside, what better way to start the summer off than a quick trip down to the Joint Line and a chase of the Q-ALTPTL (aka the Mini-Q ).

1: Starting off mid-morning after a quick errand, BNSF 5738 leads a southbound coal train out of Littleton, CO as it begins the climb towards Palmer Lake.
2: After dealing with slow traffic and grabbing lunch, we still managed to get ahead of the same coal train heading south. Here, BNSF 5738 slowly climbs up the hill over the bridge in Larkspur, CO.
3: After the train passed, we decided to move to Greenland, CO to hopefully grab a northbound. Thankfully, the next northbound was in Monument and, even better, it was the Mini-Q. Here, BNSF 5792 leads the Mini-Q (not so “mini” today) as it races through Greenland, CO.

There's more...

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4: The Q-ALTPTL flies into Littleton, CO over a small creek after completing its daily journey north on the Joint Line.
5: After the Mini-Q re-crewed in Denver and we struggled through rush hour traffic, the Q-ALTPTL snakes into Louisville, CO on the BNSF Front Range Subdivision to end the day and end the chase.

Thanks for looking!!

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Neat pics. I like the name BNSF mini-Q

I'm watching and listening for today's NB mini-Q. It should pass my house during mid-day. I'll try to count the cars and ID the containers.

Joe in Castle Rock, CO on the Joint Line

Interesting, that 5738 has swoosh logo's on the side, but still has the cigar band logo on the nose.

Nice shots! Interesting lettering on that 5738 (Thanks for pointing that out rhmich!) and I like that shot of the 'Q' passing over the Highline Canal, not a view commonly seen!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/17 11:13 by SP8595.

Darn, I just missed taking pictures of today's NB BNSF mini-Q. I was almost asleep on the couch. I got up and counted 26 well cars with containers (no trailers) - mostly JB Hunt, some Schneider, three blue ?, one Swift, two 20' tan containers, and one or two 53' stacked on top of 40' or 45' containers.

The train passes my house in about 30 seconds and I don't have much warning that its approaching.

I'll try to do better.
Joe in Castle Rock, CO on the Joint Line.

Great shots! It was definitely fun to chase the "Mini-Q." Glad it worked out to get that shot crossing the High Line Canal. There certainly wasn't much time to spare!

I missed two more Mini-Qs but in kinda strange circumstances:

a. Very late Friday afternoon/early evening I caught a fleeting glimpse of the last few JB Hunt and one Swift contains on a NB. I have no clue how many cars. The time of day was strange. Normally I see the NB Mini-Q around mid-day
b. Surprise! Early Saturday morning BNSF 23 car NB container train. HUH - this train did not have the usual JB Hunt nor Schneider containers? The 20 cars had some CMG-CMA contains and other very nondescript containers that I could not identify in single or double stack configurations. The last three cars were autoracks! This seemed like an "odd ball" train IMO. Could be a "one off" train? Maybe someone has more information.