Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF with NS on CP and UP on BNSF

On Thursday, I had to make a run to a store in Ottumwa, Iowa to get a part for a sink repair for the third day in a row.  After quickly getting what's hopefully the last piece (knocks on all wood within reach), Amtrak #6 happened to be approaching the city.  So, I stuck around for bit to catch it arrive.

1) The eastbound California Zephyr appears on Main 1.

2-3) AMTK 155 leads Amtrak #6 through the crossover to Main 2.

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4) #6 reaches the diamond crossing with the Canadian Pacific.

5) Smoky signal split.

6) AMTK 4 is second out on #6.

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I was thinking about leap-frogging Amtrak while it did its station stop to catch it again before leaving town, but I heard the horn of a northbound on the CP after #6 passed so I decided to stick close to the diamond.  I was expecting either a red CP GE or BNSF orange on one of the coal trains that are interchanged here and go north to power plants near the Quad Cities.  For second, I saw red as the train appeared and thought CP, but I was immediately throw off by seeing silver.

7) BNSF 4706 in the warbonnet scheme leads the way across the diamond.

8) Then the second unit turns out to be a Norfolk Southern Dash 9, NS 9252, and an Operation Lifesaver 25th anniversary unit to boot.  This is only the second time I can remember seeing one of these.  Now it would be one thing is these two were leading the daily mixed freight on this line which often has foreign power.  But this turns out to be the coal train going to the MidAmerican plant at Fruitland.  Which means BNSF was the one to assign this coal load two Dash 9s.  I've hardly ever seen BNSF put a Dash 9 on a coal load; definitely not recently.

9) The mid-train DPUs are what's typically seen on BNSF coal trains.  BNSF 6354 is the first of the two.

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10) SD70ACe BNSF 9357 is the second mid-train DPU.

11) Then we have the rear DPUs.  BNSF 4298 is an ES44C4, which is not a model usually seen on coal trains.

12) BNSF 7135 is another ES44C4.  This means that of the six engines on the train, only two are the six-AC-traction-motor power one would expect.  I later heard the crew report to a trainmaster over the radio they were able to make it to the top of Rutledge Hill, so I guess someone at CP thought this power might not be a sure thing.  Also, take note of what look like a shining headlight between the two units.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/20 22:12 by Agent.

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13) The passing of the coal train revealed BNSF had an eastbound waiting for it to go by.

14) No BNSF power here though.  Three Union Pacific engines are on the front of this coal train.

15) UP 2753 leads its train into Ottumwa.

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It wasn't just the power of the train that was UP, most of the cars were UP as well.  A few had CTRN reporting marks like these.

16) CTRN 601502

17) CTRN 602272

18) UP 7200 as the DPU.

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It took a bit longer than I hoped, but I managed to get ahead of the UP coal train again.  Lucked into picking a spot I could see it pass a stopped BNSF ballast train.

19-20) The coal train meets the ballast train.  BNSF 7087 is on what I believe is the rear of its train.  I think the light ahead of the ballast train on Main 1 is a MoW machine.

21) Side-by-side.

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22) UP 2753, a C45AH I think, reaches the Fir Avenue overpass.

23) Gevo UP 7855.

24) SD70AH UP 9075.

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25) Looking down in the coal cars.

26) AC4400CW UP 7200.

27) Going-away shot as the train rounds a curve.

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You did well on your run to get parts for the sink. I hope the repair went OK.
John