Western Railroad Discussion > Leftover 'streetcar shootery'! (alpha group)

When you have a record-setting day behind the camera it becomes impossible to share every train in a given thread. Even a leftover thread like this one can’t carry all of the images that are worth a look-see. But there is fun in giving it the “old college try”. So here we go with some follow-up images of trains already posted ( Trains running like streetcars! (trainorders.com) ). Toss in a few scenes that didn’t make the original cut. We’ll bounce around between locations, so ya better fasten your seatbelt>>v

1. BNSF 4992 sits crewless at 6:02 AM on main 3 at Saffordville, KS. Looking east from the ‘Zz’ road crossing. A fresh crew will rescue this train before the day is over...

2. At 6:08 AM here is an alternate of my original sunup at Ellinor, KS.

3. With 3 trains now in the bag I returned to Ellinor for another ‘scene shot’. At 7:07 AM our parked train from image #1 is still way back there at Saffordville. (With some questionable Photoshop darkening effect in use... ;^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/22 08:46 by santafe199.

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4. Here’s the first of a few ‘away shots’ of trains in the link above. BNSF 5327 is rolling eastbound through the plant at Ellinor at 7:16 AM. This time that 4992 parked back at Saffordville received no darkening effects from Photoshop.

5. BNSF 6973 is rolling away at 7:40 AM at the former east siding switch at Gladstone, KS.

6. Snooping around Strong City, KS at 7:47 AM. Apparently drone photography is getting more covert every day. I simply could not figure out who was in control here... ;^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/22 08:19 by santafe199.

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7. BNSF 4136 east is a bit closer to my camera in this 7:50 AM shot at Strong City on the La Junta Sub.

8. & 9. At 7:59 AM I’ve dropped down to Flint, KS on the Emporia Sub. BNSF 8192 passes my vantage point with a rare Grinstein paint scheme in consist.

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10. At 8:02 AM the rear end of 8192 west finally rolls away in my 220mm view at Flint. The telephoto effect has shown that the brand new track on the right has settled in a bit, and will no doubt get some surfacing refinement.

11. It’s a pure grab shot, but I thought this quarter-century old, obsolete BNSF (1032) paint scheme was worth a glance here at Strong City, KS. It’s 8:12 AM and I’ll be picking up my friend Nick within the hour at Cottonwood Falls.

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12. & 13. At 8:23 AM here’s the only foreign leader I’ll see today. NS 3640 is westbound at the Miller Cemetery stub crossing. In my Santa Fe heart this will always be Gladstone, KS. Even though the siding by that name no longer exists in this brave new double-track, BNSF world.

14. If this image looks oddly familiar, check out images 5-8 here ( Art gets the last laugh? (trainorders.com) ). BNSF 6870 was at the other end of the left-hand train in image #11 above. This train is now departing the Strong City area at 8:33 AM.

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At this point in time I made the short dash over to Cottonwood Falls to pick up TO member ‘ntharlson’. With my rallying cry “time’s a-wasting” Nick & I plunged right into the chase...

15. At 9:57 AM, with 3 trains already in our collective bags here are railfan entities Nick Tharalson & Willie IV observing BNSF DP consist 7417 rolling away at the former east Gladstone. BTW: Nick is the one in blue jeans... ;^)

16. It’s 11:59 AM and I’m keeping to my patented hit & run railfanning method. Even so, we dang near missed BNSF 7352 here at Matfield Green, KS. We knew a westbound was imminent and on a split-second/last second impulse I decided to cut up behind the old Post Office in “greater downtown Matfield” to se..... OOPS, here he is Nick, grab your camera!!!

17. At 1:24 PM here is the ‘away’ shot for image #10 in the link up top. From the West Rd crossing east of Strong City this is BNSF 6748 east with a pair of battle-weary Red & Silver units trailing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/22 08:52 by santafe199.

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18. I wanted to show Nick the DT progress between Ellinor & at least as far as Aikman on the Emporia Sub. At 2:56 PM we caught BNSF 6588 stopped overlapping the Flint, KS crossover limits. The new 2nd main will be laid down in the white subgrade area on the left. And the track on the right will be retained as the east end of Bazar Siding. This newly “deforested” area is about 2 miles NNE (TT east) of the tiny burg called Bazaar, KS.

19. When the train above finally started moving Nick & I decided give it chase. At 3:57 PM we caught it in decent light at the reworked overpass over KS hwy 177 west of Matfield Green. Note how the construction crews have put down some green colored “stuff” on the finished embankment. After this shot we jumped right back in the rig and moved further south...
(19 photos taken June 15, 2022)

Time out for a necessary break. But keep a lookout for my ‘omega’ thread tomorrow...

Thanks for looking!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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Thanks for posting this nice series, Lance!  Back when they were running EB and WB through Matfield, I caught 52 in daylight and about 15 more that night at the Emporia depot.

RC Lundgren 

Wow, Lance really enjoyed all the pics from your record setting day. Really, good shots with info to make them more interesting. Really, like the one where you broke the rules and shot directly into low sunlight. And the other low lights. Someday, MAYBE I'll try to bag 20.
 

As always a plethora of interesting photos from the Billiard Table and Alps of Kansas. Nice stuff. Speaking of "stuff" that green stuff appears to be the soil stabilizing spray-on stuff that also contains grass seeds to prevent erosion on new landscape fills and such stuff. I've also seen a woven mat similar stuff that is used for the same purpose but often blown by the wind or a heavy rain from the intended site.
Gonut
 

Nice to see more of your shots from our chase.  BTW, in #15, you got my best side!  LOL

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA