Western Railroad Discussion > a DP kind of day

Even in this day & age of instant communication via text messages and actual cell phone conversations a railfan photographer can still stumble and miss a train. Or two. Or at least the head end shots. I think we’re getting spoiled with our high success rates. Back in the old days we would tend to find a location and camp out until a train showed up. Today we push the envelope a bit by trying make it to a location a little bit better than the one we should have stayed at. In both cases here I knew a train was coming my way, but I got greedy and tried to get to a more scenic location than where I was when I first knew of the train. And I failed twice. Ya just can’t win ‘em all…

1. & 2. UP dp units 5728 & 8517 are back-to-back in the middle of a stacker that must have been 3 miles long. Taken from a private crossing just off the dog-leg left turn of McFarland Rd NE of Alma, KS.

3. UP dp unit 6295 is in backward position pushing right to left on this hopper train east of Volland, KS.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/20 08:42 by santafe199.

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One more: I actually got the head end of this one, but I had to “cheat”. Sorta…

4. UP 7899 is solo on a string of empty coal buckets being transferred from one storage location to another. Looking east from the 1200 Rd crossing east of Dwight, KS. But this train was tied down, with no crew on it. (Kinda hard to blow this shot, eh… ;^)
4 photos taken July 7, 2020.

Hmmm… I wonder what those other 2 lead units were?
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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Nice DP series! I've had those kinda days, lol!

Larry

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>Today we push the
> envelope a bit by trying make it to a location a
> little bit better than the one we should have
> stayed at. In both cases here I knew a train was
> coming my way, but I got greedy and tried to get
> to a more scenic location than where I was when I
> first knew of the train. And I failed twice. Ya
> just can’t win ‘em all…


Definitely been there plenty of times. Except with my luck, I'm usually just left with a FRED whizzing by. Nice shots!

PQM

Nixce shots, Lance!  Sometimes we get a second chance with DPUs.

Randy Lundgren

Good ones, Lance.  Interesting to see in the first shot is that the door is open!  Now why would they do that?  There's no one on the engine and it would mess up 
the air conditioning for the computers.  Just asking.  

Nick Tharalson, 
Marion, IA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/20 18:44 by ntharalson.

ntharalson Wrote: > ... why would they do that?

It's not so much that "they did that". It was probably left open through lack of attention. It's fairly common for crew member to leave a non-leading door open, or not get a door fully shut (latched). If you watch passing consists closely you'll see the occasional open cab door. With modern cab design, even leading nose doors can be inadvertently open from time to time: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3108145,3108145#msg-3108145

Whenever I was "captain of the ship" (engineer) I always went through each trailing unit in my consist to make sure doors were properly closed, mirrors & sunshades folded in or down and that all number board lights were off, unless my train was cleared with a trailing unit...

Lance

santafe199 Wrote:
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> ntharalson Wrote: > ... why would they do that?
>
> It's not so much that "they did that". It was
> probably left open through lack of attention. It's
> fairly common for crew member to leave a
> non-leading door open, or not get a door fully
> shut (latched). If you watch passing consists
> closely you'll see the occasional open cab door.
> With modern cab design, even leading nose doors
> can be inadvertently open from time to time:
> https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,
> 3108145,3108145#msg-3108145
>
> Whenever I was "captain of the ship" (engineer) I
> always went through each trailing unit in my
> consist to make sure doors were properly closed,
> mirrors & sunshades folded in or down and that all
> number board lights were off, unless my train was
> cleared with a trailing unit...
>
> Lance

Didn't know or realize this.  Thanks.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA