Western Railroad Discussion > Topeka Sub Tuesday: 'Grey Light' in Eudora

Last Friday, one of Amtrak 4's P42s failed. They managed to pull an engine off of a 3; however, they lost around 6 hours in the process.

Saturday Morning, I was trackside on the Topeka Sub in Eudora to catch the late passenger train. Because it was overcast, i set my camera speed up to 400, and kept an ear to my newly-acquired scanner, hoping to catch 4 calling BNSF DS 104 after they left Lawrence. I also had ATCS, and I found it strange that #4 went through Lawrence without me hearing the Dispatcher call.

I did hear something on AAR Channel 69 that I had not heard when monitoring the railroad radio with my previous scanner: "B-N-S-F Detector, Milepost two-one-point-eight. No Defects. Repeat: No Defects. Total axles: four-zero. Out." From where I parked my Subaru, I see a sign along the tracks reading one-nine, so I'd best be getting myself into position.

1: Amtrak 94 leads the Chief through Eudora. 

2: Closeup of the three P42s. Presumable, the engine they pulled of #3 is the trailing unit, which is facing the passengar equipment.

3: Obligatory rolling away shot of the Chief crossing Eudora's Main Street.

 

Richie Kennedy
Lawrence, KS
route56.com

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Before I left the house, I heard DS chatter on the scanner indicating that a train was run ahead of Amtrak. They had called in to report possible storm damage along the line. According to ATCS, there was also another train being run up the Topeka Sub. So, I made a quick trip over to Casey's for a water, Gatorade, and a slice of Peperoni pizza, then headed back to my spot.

About and hour after the Chief passed, I heard the detector going off again.

4: Our second featured train is a set of Autoracks, led by BNSF 7723

5: Hark, is that a speck of Santa Fe blue and yellow that I spy?

6: BNSF 7723

Richie Kennedy
Lawrence, KS
route56.com

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7: My eyes were not deceiving, there is indeed a blue and yellow SD40-2 amongst the pumpkins: BNSF 1629.

8: Middle unit BNSF 4906.

With nothing else scheduled behind the autoracks, I decided to go over to Micro Center to see if I could find a couple of accessories for my scanner, then I was over to Fred's to expand my HO Scale freight car collection.

All Photos taken: June 27, 2020.

Thanks for Looking,

(now, I gotta go walk the dog)

Richie Kennedy
Lawrence, KS
route56.com

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Hey Richie, Woof, Woof!    wag216

Nice!

Randy Lundgren

Back when I was an engineer, we were westbound on the Topeka Sub, but we had to stop at Eudora to wait for a gang that was replacing the crossing. It would be a couple of hours, so we tied the train down, walked a couple of blocks to Bickelmier's BBQ, and had lunch. I could have gone home for lunch since I live just SW of town.

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