Nostalgia & History > BN train 60 eb Ashland NE 1995ish

One of my favorite photos.  I sat and thought for a while before remembering 
where I shot this beautiful train,  

You can ball park a date on a photo on whether or not loco's have ditch lights.
I can't remember when the govt required them.  But I did start start noticing
the SP in 1992/3 installing on locos.

I recall you could operate a train max speed if 2 of the 3 headlight were operational.
From time to time a failure enroute happened.   A few train engr would pull a bulb 
and change out the burned out bulb.  

Has LED started replacing bulb's?    

photo by me



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/25 13:23 by highgreen.

---

A-B-B consist.

Paul Boggs
Canton, GA

Ashland NE? Nice photo.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/25 12:15 by King_Coal.

Yes.

3 locations?
1 - Ashland to Sioux City (business is picking up on this line).  You can move east or west 
off this subdivision.  Wonder when BNSF will ctc the Sioux Line.   
2 - Ashland to Omaha over the hill.  (when I dispatched the Omaha line we sent coal
loads up this line to interchange with UPRR),  The right of way was litter with drawbars and knuckles.
This was before DP.  Coal loads would have 4 big 6 axle units on the point.  Hopefully evening amtrk
was long gone before attempted this move.  BNSF loss the contract to UP and no longer ran coal 
this way.   
3 - Ashland to Oreapolis along the Platte River.  River grade.  Routed heavy grain and coal thiis way
Before BNSF added double track between Oreapolis and Ashland.  We had 3 small siding along this route.
If amtrak and 60/63 were not in the picture, sent hoppers through Omaha.   
I was surprise to see bnsf double tracking the bridge at Pacific Jct.  The original bridge had a weight 
restriction.  Heavy coal, grain, oil, ethanol resticted to the new bridge.   
Forgot to meantion.   Hotshot intermodal was train #60.   

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/25 13:16 by highgreen.

highgreen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes.
>
> 3 locations?
> 1 - Ashland to Sioux City (business is picking up
> on this line).  You can move east or west 
> off this subdivision.  Wonder when BNSF will ctc
> the Sioux Line.   
> 2 - Ashland to Omaha over the hill.  (when I
> dispatched the Omaha line we sent coal
> loads up this line to interchange with UPRR),
>  The right of way was litter with drawbars and
> knuckles.
> This was before DP.  Coal loads would have 4 big
> 6 axle units on the point.  Hopefully evening
> amtrk
> was long gone before attempted this move.  BNSF
> loss the contract to UP and no longer ran coal 
> this way.   
> 3 - Ashland to Oreapolis along the Platte River.
>  River grade.  Routed heavy grain and coal thiis
> way
> Before BNSF added double track between Oreapolis
> and Ashland.  We had 3 small siding along this
> route.
> If amtrak and 60/63 were not in the picture, sent
> hoppers through Omaha.   
> I was surprise to see bnsf double tracking the
> bridge at Pacific Jct.  The original bridge had a
> weight 
> restriction.  Heavy coal, grain, oil, ethanol
> resticted to the new bridge.   
> Forgot to meantion.   Hotshot intermodal was
> train #60.   
>
When I went down to Mt Pleasant IA in the late 80s/early 90s hottest trains were daytime #65 WB, #63 WB at night , sometimes a #61 during the holiday season. 
EB hotshots were #60 and sometimes a #62. 
There was for a short time Expediters #69 and 68 across Iowa to Omaha but they were night moves and didnt last long. 
MILW86A 
 

This is 60.    I even remember a form B and the MW being instructed to clear
60 through without delay.  

I was on a road trip and waiting on SX City bound train to pick me up.  

 

As a fireman/engineer in Lincoln from 1980 to 1983, by choice I marked up for turns on those routes and also was fireman on Amtrak 6 and 5. Of course going east took us to Creston, Iowa. Since number 6 was an early A.M. departure from Lincoln I got to know dispatcher Paul Gardner. The regular engineer was Harvey Morton. When I couldn't hold the Amtrak job I worked with James "catfish" Moeller or Bill Johnson. I also trained on the sub with engineer Stanley Bird. Their experience on the hills into Omaha and over to Creston was invaluable. Much of the iron laying track side at "Knuckle Junction" in south Omaha was there because of an old switch into a meat packing hide house on the north side of the track near the L street overpass. At that spot the track had a bit of a sag after coming up the 1.25% long climb.  With the four six axle engines pulling 110 cars of coal at 1300+ amps and the speed around 6/7 MPH with the throttle in run 8 there was no room for error. The break in two's at that location were caused when engineers failed to drop a notch on the throttle causing the engines to have a wheel slip when the wheels hit the gap at the frog of the switch. I was on two consecutive trips on coal trains when I had extra board engineers. On both trips I'm telling them about the hazard of the switch and the need to have the amps dropping as the engines went over the frog. Both engineers were bull headed and ignored my advice. Sure enough they broke a knuckle. The breaks would usually occur in the vicinity of the 15th to 25th car. When the knuckle was changed the only option then was to double the train up the hill.  Getting those coal trains past the summit and down the steeper hill into Omaha Station and onto the Union Pacific Bridge Subdivision had challenges as well. 

During those years the hot shots were 63/100. 63 ran from the Lincoln Depot to Hastings, NE and 100 from Hastings to Lincoln Hobson Yard. I held the fireman job on the 63/100 for awhile to Hastings. It was an every other day turn. The crew had the option of going to a Hastings downtown hotel for the layover. I would rest on a Hastings locker room bench since it was such a short stay.

Kennard Britton
Shawnee, KS