Western Railroad Discussion > Across northern Missouri

Here’s a fun little 2’ 40” interlude last May on my way back east to Philly:

1. NS 9086 leading an autorack train westbound on paired trackage (with BNSF) through Camden, MO.

2. A bit down the road here is BNSF 7850 rolling west with a manifest at the 92nd St crossing west of Hardin, MO. This is still ‘paired’ trackage, but the old Wabash/N&W/NS right-of-way is about ¼ mile to the south. You can just make out the crossing gates at the right hand side of the frame.

---

---

At Carrollton, MO the two paired RRs unhitch themselves and proceed east on their own separate (right-of) ways. I opted to stay with US 24 and keep following the NS, at least for a little bit. In doing so I got lucky:

3. & 4. I managed to get ahead of NS 7565 passing eastbound through De Witt, MO with an autorack train.

5. Here’s the same 7565 crossing the Grand River just west of Brunswick, MO.

---

---

---

At Brunswick the beautiful clouds I had been shooting all day were now showing signs of their desire to cluster up in an unfavorable manner. So I broke away from the NS and went straight north to Mendon, MO, a favorite spot I’ve been to many times in the last few years. The first time I was at this small town on BNSF main line it still had Santa Fe’s classic black overhead searchlight signal bridges on both ends of the Mendon crossover plant. I made several trips to this hallowed spot. But I haven’t visited Mendon nearly so much after they were replaced with the modern-day, single masted whuchamacallit signals. Go figure…

6. I took up position at the Felt St crossing and was forced to waste nearly 10 whole minutes before spotting an eastbound headlight way down yonder. An eastbound telephoto shot from the south side is cursed with trackside clutter such as a switchstand and a “frog” sign. So with the overcast sky now firmly in place I was fixin’ to shoot from the north side to get a clean shot of the train coming through the plant. But then a horn from behind announced the imminent arrival of a hot westbound train. A quick judgement told me the westbound would arrive first, but not by much. But to get the correct angle on a meet shot I had to get back on the southside and just deal with the clutter. With a medium telephoto setting here’s a westbound stacker hauling assets behind BNSF 6701 & 4 more big jacks.

7. I turned and with full bore telephoto I threaded the needle between the switchstand & the frog sign to catch BNSF 6533 meeting the 6701 at speed. That means a combined ‘meet’ speed of 140 MPH!

8. Backing down to the lowest telephoto setting I could I got the clutter mostly out of the way of the composition.
(Photos 6-8 taken in Mendon, MO. All photos taken May 6, 2019)

Thanks for riding along!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/11/19 12:27 by santafe199.

---

---

---

Another killer series Lance - I really like the composition of no. 2

BB

A very NICE series Lance! Thanks for bring back good memories. I used to stay in Carrolton, MO and run around that whole area back in the 1980's thru mid 90's. I'd hang out in Camden, Mo at the last wigwaged crossing in MO on the BNSF with the NS just a stone's throw away. Carrolton used to have a wigwag also, but came out in the early 1990's.

Larry

Nice shots, Lance!

Randy Lundgren

bmarti7 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Another killer series Lance - I really like the
> composition of no. 2
>
> BB

Agreed!
If pic #2 isn't IOTD material, I don't know what is!

Nice shots!

Awesome shots. Moberly is my away from home terminal. Sometimes when I have long layovers I venture out that way. I recognize several of the locations shown. Always seems to be a lot of train action. There’s lots of neat old bridges out that way too.

Posted from iPhone