Nostalgia & History > CNW Powder River coal trains '93

Spent a day at Powder River, WY on 6-2-93. There was a lot of rain that year and that day continued the trend as it was cloudy the entire day with scattered rain. 
In the first photo, the silhouette of a stopped CNW coal empty is visible with rain falling behind.
Another empty coal train was stopped behind with the 8537 on the point.
Next, the 8537 is on the move with a third CNW empty coal stopped behind.

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A close-up of C40-8 8575 while waiting for a signal.
Last one, the three empty coal trains all stopped. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/25 14:51 by GreenFlag.

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Interesting to see the action.
The last photo has a number of out buildings across the field that match with photos of the present MP91 crossovers. The upper track and apparent grade sure match.
t4p.

Nice shots!
Looks like the afternoon NB empty elephant walk had started.  My experience in the mid 90s, the NB empties would back up nose to tail in the afternoons waiting to get into the mines, as seen here on 6/3/95 with CNW 8705 topping out at Logan Hill passing nose to tail empties.
Cooper



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/25 16:08 by SOU3921.

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At last! CNW 8705, my personal notorious engine! 
First, the standard cab C40's were a large improvement over the C30 or C36 types. Probably my number 2 choice for favorite loco behind my and many other Hogheads #1 choice, the SD40-2. 
About this time, UP was using these CNW C44's West on hot Chicago-LA Intermodal trains. They had the newer to us UP hogheads, an Alerter. We promptly flipped that control console switch to "Off" so as to not be bothered. Until it became mandatory to have them enabled. 
The really annoying thing was they were delivered without Air Conditioners and had an empty box on the left walkway until a future installation. 
So here comes a Westbound stack train for crew change in Yermo, middle of Summer. 115 degrees air temp, felt like boiling inside the heat soaked cab from all afternoon coming in from Las Vegas.  I grabbed about 5 frozen water bottles and set them up on the desktop controls to melt and I would drink the cold meltwater and nibble on salty snacks. 
I really did like my Conductor, really I did. Nice personable guy, just a 60 watt bulb in 100 watt chandelier. He didn't eat anything all day except a package of Twinkies and now a run to LA in the heat AND smoke from some fire in the back mountains near Cajon Pass. I tell him start drinking (water) heavily and eating salty snacks. He does not. Wonderful. 
Leaving Yermo at Daggett, my dim bulb Conductor says he doesn't feel so good, acts woozy. Great! I say, "Look man, lets call the Dispatcher and stop in Barstow at the Santa Fe crew change steps and get you feeling better." He says no, he'll be alright. 
So we chug through the increasingly smoky desert into the sunset at 45 mph with the front cab door and inner cab door wide open and a gale in the cab. 
Every few minutes I ask if he is still okay. He says yes but eyes are closed and he feels sick. At East Oro Grande he leans forward and puts his head down on the cab desk. Oh no. I call out - no response. Heat stroke, unconscious. Dammit, no watts at all now. Punch 911, tell Cajon Sub I have an unconscious Crewman and ask where do I stop to meet Paramedics?
Dispatcher says Victorville and I lean Mr. Zero watts back  in the chair and spash water on him. 
Drive train to a stop at the road crossing and paramedics board, administer IV, strap him in the basket and out the back door to the Ambulance. 
The Road Foreman arrives and asks if I can take the train further maybe to Summit or San Bernardino, but I'm not gonna push the hero thing and we go to Hesperia for a crew swap and then a crew van ride to LA. 
Mr. 60 Watts returns to work about 6 weeks later and says he had a headache for a month. 
I think he may have learned something?
So now, I have an Athearn CNW C44-9W and you can bet I will renumber it 8705. 
 

That 8705 story is priceless. Yikes.

Agree with the afternoon empties all stacked up, in 2017 anyways.
t4p.

Heck of  a story.