Western Railroad Discussion > Wind blade stare down

I remember the first train of wind farm blades I ever saw. It was in August of 2011 in Topeka and I ended up chasing that train all the way out to Abilene over the KP. Here’s a link to that thread: ( https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2547141,2547141#msg-2547141 ). I was not only chasing something I had never seen before, I was chasing the novelty of BNSF power running over Union Pacific trackage that didn’t normally see such a thing. What I couldn’t know then is I would be seeing these blade & component trains on a semi-regular basis in the coming future. Even so, if I’m out on the chase and I see one after the weather has crapped out I’ll still shoot it. There’s always some novel, operational story to tell.

In the image below we see a blade train doing the routine dance at West Abilene, KS. It’s eastbound, leaving home rails for a running rights jog down to Lost Springs over the BNSF, where it regains home rails. This is a pretty common scene with coal & grain movements, but not so much with these future wind farm components. And for yours truly it will always be a novel sight to see Uncle Pete using my beloved Uncle John’s rails in my second home town. For you Santa Fe historians: If you look a bit closer at the image you’ll see a track peeling away to the left. That’s what remains of Santa Fe’s own track running over to Salina. It was built and put into service by November of 1887. And with Santa Fe running rights established over the KP between Abilene & Salina in place it was completely out of use by 1935.

1. UP 5606 is on the connection to BNSF trackage at West Abilene, KS on March 2, 2019.

Thanks for looking!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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santafe199 Wrote:
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> If you look a bit closer at the image you’ll see a
> track peeling away to the left. That’s what
> remains of Santa Fe’s own track running over to
> Salina. It was built and put into service by
> November of 1887. And with Santa Fe running rights
> established over the KP between Abilene & Salina
> in place it was completely out of use by 1935.

It always amazes me  - the amount of steel rails, long-abandoned, that could be salvaged and recycled.

BB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/19 12:28 by bmarti7.

bmarti7 Wrote: > ... could be slavaged and recycled ...

The spur seen here is now the 'transfer track' between BNSF & UP. The rails end a few yards beyond the derail & just shy of S Washington St. I imagine that it wouldn't be cost-effective to pay a crew to take up a few yards of 90 lb rail...

bmarti7 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> santafe199 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > If you look a bit closer at the image you’ll
> see a
> > track peeling away to the left. That’s what
> > remains of Santa Fe’s own track running over
> to
> > Salina. It was built and put into service by
> > November of 1887. And with Santa Fe running
> rights
> > established over the KP between Abilene &
> Salina
> > in place it was completely out of use by 1935.
>
> It always amazes me  - the amount of steel rails,
> long-abandoned, that could be slavaged and
> recycled.
>
> BB

Many, many miles of out of service rails were pulled up during the scrap metal drives of WWII.

Don't windmills cause cancer, lol.

Posted from Android

The-late-EMD Wrote:
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> Don't windmills cause cancer, lol.
>
> Posted from Android

Yeah, apparently it's the noise.

To see them cluttering the landscape and many times not turning at all, these I speak of are along the Columbia river from Biggs east and those east of highway 97 south of there shows how good they really are. Look at the load factor on line that the BPA web site has.  Very costly to maintain and un reliable power are just two of the down sides, the third is what rate payers and tax payers pay to buy and install them.  Those are facts never brought out.

EsPee1229 Wrote: > ... apparently it's the noise ...

OH YEAH!!! There's a lot of noise, alright...