Western Railroad Discussion > Fueling a rival

Getting an interesting heads-up about some train over my hometown “KP” is the easy part! The hard part is getting Uncle Pete to actually deliver the train somewhere close to its original figure. So when I got word that a BNSF-led coal train would be coming right through my home town KP, it became another ‘drop everything and run’ event. I always like shooting the descendant of my old Santa Fe running over its traditional arch-rival UP.

I grabbed the camera bag and put my standard chase method into effect. I traced the KP west, figuring on intercepting the train for a nice little chase back to the east. But that fell apart when I got all the way to Salina before finding it. It was sitting at Cozy with the consist getting fueled & serviced. And by now the sun was giving me some harsh back-light. Worse, there was no crew aboard ready to roll east. It turned out that train never left Salina until after dark! Score another jilted railfan for Uncle Pete...

1. BNSF 5695 leads an eastbound coal load stopped on the Union Pacific “KP” at Cozy in Salina, KS. The consist is getting the standard fueling by a mobile truck. With such a hard back-lit scene to work I had to employ quite a bit of Photoshop trickery...
Photo date: July 23, 2021.

Thanks for squinting!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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Good job!

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

That must be a some what regular occurance, given the paved pad next to the rail and the red dumpster
on the edge of the ROW.

WJEX Wrote: > ...  must be a some what regular occurance ...

That's exactly what "Cozy" was created for in the late 1990s. It looks for all the world like a main line/siding arangement. But until just recently it got constant use as a mobile fueling station (both tracks ~ both ends) and a 1000(?) mile inspection point in both directions. And with Uncle Pete's pencil-pushers bleeding every PSR nickel they can out of the property Salina has lost its roundhouse facility and most of the mechanical personnel. Cripes... they even dug out the turntable at the (former) RH and stole it away. So seeing a consist get fueled here is becoming a rare sight...

Lance/199

A good shot, Lance!

RC Lundgren