Western Railroad Discussion > Rolling Towards The Weekend On The BNSF--A Bit Of Traction

It was a cool breezy partly cloudy day in Ritzville, WA on the BNSF Lakeside Sub on the Northern Transcon. The high-low was 58-34 with .12 of rain last evening, Traffic is at 20 trains since midnight with more on the way. Over 40 trains yesterday, very busy in the evening. Here are some trains from yesterday and today with a bit of Traction.

5/12/2022

1. WB 237pm grain train with BNSF 7386-8264 on the point with DPU.
2. DPU BNSF 7186 on same train.
3. WB 328pm manifest train with BNSF 4220-5175-6845 on the pull with no DPU and a friendly toot-toot-wave from the hogger.

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4. Grab Shot of EB 402pm manifest train with BNSF Orange Blast on the point with no DPU.
5. EB 541pm manifest train with BNSF 4865-7059-6756 on the pull with no DPU in the rain.
6. WB 613pm coal train with BNSF 7645 and Grinstein 9806? on the point with DPU's in the rain.

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7. DPU's BNSF 4541-6759 on same train in bad light.

5/13/2022

8. WB 1043am manifest train with BNSF 7048-5974 on the pull with no DPU and a friendly toot-toot from the hogger.
9. A clean new LINX 7248 reefer rolling in same train. Had two other LINX  reefers in same train with graffiti.

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10. WB 1106am manifest train with BNSF 7114-3626 on the point with DPU.
11. A now cleaned up BNSF reefer rolling in same train.
12. DPU CP 7033 on same train.

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13. WB 237pm manifest train with BNSF 4406-8354 on the pull with no DPU.
14. WB 1203pm work tie train of 4 cars with BNSF 123-105 on the point with no DPU on yard track.
15. Work train power BNSF 105-123 noe back on the mainline for EB move.

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16. WB 104pm coal train with BNSF 6910-7734 on the pull with DPU's
17. DPU's BNSF 4080 and CN 5632 on same train.

Now for a bit of Traction from the Andy Goddard collection--Jerry Squire photos.

18. Pacific Electric MTA 1546 on it's Charter around the system in the 1950's. Need location help Charlie.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

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19. A glimpse of an Older H-series streetcar on the 7 Line in Los Angeles. Need help on exact location.
20. Wig-wag grade crossing on the PE with no overhead wire. Need location help.
21. Inside look of San Francisco Muni 1009 on a Charter in the late 1960's.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/22 16:05 by Ritzville.

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22. OT-- A washed out shot of some of SF Muni White bus fleet in the 1950's.

That's it for today. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Thank you so much for taking a look!

Larry
Ritzville, WA

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Good stuff Larry. Had not seen the Lineage Reefers before or the Railcare hoppers.
Regards,DK

No 18 appears to be taken from the city property (park?) in downtown Compton. That's S Willowbrook Ave
in the foreground and the 1546 has just passed the Compton station, headed south.

No 19 seems to show a 7-Line car closely approaching its northern terminus close to LA's City Hall. 
Wikipedia says the last run on the 7 route was on May 22, 1955. Looks like a typical mid-fifties day to me.

Will have to do some more research on No 20. It's somewhere on the PE but that upper-quadrant, permanent blade
puzzles me. 

EDIT: Doing more research I'm going to go out on the limb and say; (guess?), that No 20 is showing the distant signal
that governed outbound (southbound) PE trains approaching the SP's bascule bridge over the "Turning Basin" at San Pedro.
Some background: SP was the first railroad on the scene, followed by "Old" PE in 1905; both using long pile trestles over
tidelands to reach San Pedro. The presence of these trestles prevented any development of what today is the "West Basin".
In 1907 the War Department ordered the SP and PE to build drawbridges to alleviate the blockage and allow development
in the area. SP and PE (remember--they were separate entities in 1907) 'dithered' until 1911 when SP chose to build, what at 
that time was "one of the largest single-span drawbridges ever constructed" over the narrow channel connecting the inner
harbor with the West Basin. By the time the the bridge was finished, "New" PE was now 'part of the family' and SP leased
the bridge to their new subsidiary.
  
The bridge was sufficiently wide enough to accommodate two tracks and at first glance would appear to be double tracked.
But that was not the case. It was actually a bridge with the tracks of two separate railroads, one a 'steam' road--SP; the other
electrically operated PE as only the west track (seen here closest to the camera) had trolley wire, which is missing by the
time of this photo.
 
Fast forward to September 28, 1955; an errant ship strikes the bridge---forever forcing PE to use
their West Basin bypass but the bridge remained, in the open position, until it was officially retired on
January 1, 1958 after seeing no traffic for over 2 years---which explains the rusty condition of the rails
and the lack of trolley wire as apparently PE removed their wire prior to the bridge being retired.

How's that sound? (Climbing back in, off the limb now) 

Charlie 

 



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/14/22 14:39 by cewherry.

Nice day in Ritzville with a variety of traffic types and motive power.  CP unit really looks red and ready.
That White bus scene is definitely interesting.  The wrecker may be an Autocar but cannot say positively.
Thanks for keeping us updated, entertained, and challenged.
ALLEN

Thanks DK, Charlie and Allen for all your interesting comments, a;ways enjoyable!

Larry

What is the function for the blade?

Posted from Android

Mulberry Wrote:
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> What is the function for the blade?
>
> Posted from Android

Hoping Charlie will tell us, not sure myself. Might caution to speed.

Larry

Just submitted my entry for 'creative writing'. 
(Check my original post)

Charlie

 

Thanks Charlie for going out on a limb amd furnishing very interesting information.

Larry