Railfanning Adventure: May 29, 2009

Well, I think I can safely say this is the first extensive railfanning I've done for a long time. I was going to go over to my aunt's house later in the day, so I decided to get up early to come down to my closest and favourite railfanning spot: the lovely intersection at 3rd and Laurel. I had planned on staying there for a couple of hours before getting on the bus to go out to my aunt's. I arrived at about 6:15 to try and catch the northbound Lincoln Service train #300, which I sometimes still affectionately refer to as "The Statehouse." I rode that train the first time when I was 6. It was awesome. Anyway, I got down there, and I could hear a K5LA in the distance, so I wasn't sure if I'd made it in time or not. However, while I was looking down the tracks, the signal in front of me suddenly began to blink yellow. I thought "Blinking approach?" or something like that, so I turned around just in time to see a set of headlights come around the curve out of Iles Junction. Sure enough, here's what I caught...




It was, indeed, the train I'd come down to hunt. Amtrak Lincoln Service train #300, with Genesis P42DC #33 leading.

Afterwards, I kind of chilled out on the tracks (yes, on the tracks) for about 45 minutes. I snapped a few pictures in the process, too.



After waiting for about 45 minutes or so for things to come along, I decided to start walking down the tracks towards downtown. I then thought I'd go wait at the Amtrak station for the #302 coming in at 8:30. I made it down to the station at about 8:00, so I had about half an hour to spare. I went to the lock place next to the station to call my mom, telling her I'd accidentally left my cell phone at the house. From what I gathered, she couldn't believe I'd walked all that way. I may do it again sometime, actually. That was pretty fun. Either way, I set up shop on the Northwest corner of 4th and Jefferson to await the arrival of what turned out to be the catch of the day for me. I knew that Amtrak sometimes stuck Cabbages on the inbound end of the #302, so I was praying that one was on this one as well. At about 8:29, I walked down to the tracks to watch for the train, and at about 8:31, it came around the bend all the way down by where I'd just walked from. It seemed kind of eerie. I'd never done anything like this before, and couldn't believe I'd walked that much distance. I'm a fatass, and incredibly out of shape, so of course I was surprised. Anyway, I retreated back to my position to begin shooting, and about two minutes later, the K5LA of the Amtrak started blaring away as it got closer and closer to the station...






Isn't she gorgeous? I never thought I'd get to see one of these things again, much less in Phase III paint. This was by far the best moment of the day. Just getting to see one of these things basking in the sun. It had a beautiful smoker K5LA on it, too (for a smoker horn, it was damn good). I also got the train pulling out of the station, with P42DC #28 providing the power.

SD70ACe encounter

Well, I was on my way back from testing for a job with the State of Illinois ("A" ON THE OFFICE ASSOCIATE TEST! FUCK YEAH!), and when I got to 5th and Laurel, there was a grain train stopped up at 3rd. Since I had heard what I was sure was a K5HL from the leader during the test, I wanted desperately to see the head-end power. I had a pretty good idea what I would find if I saw it. Hookay, so...here's the.....no, that's an entirely different thing. Anyway, what I did was I hightailed it down the nearby alley and backtracked to 5th street. I took it all the way down to Iles St and hung a right. The tracks were about two blocks in front of me, and I could see a widecab GE sitting in front of me facing north, back towards the train. So, I figured this couldn't have been the lead locomotive. As I got closer, the lead locomotive came into view. Just as I had suspected, it was a Union Pacific SD70ACe, number 8594, looking majestic as ever, idling right before my very eyes. This wasn't the only surprise in the consist, however. Behind the widecab (UP AC4400W (C44AC) 6524) was a CSX widecab, number 647. I was under the impression that this was an AC4400W, since I knew it wasn't a GEVO, and I remembered that a lot of 4400s were low numbers. I also didn't think any railroads still rostered the AC6000W. I was pretty sure that Union Pacific had gotten rid of theirs and foolishly assumed other railroads had followed suit. I really didn't believe there were any left. However, I looked it up after I got home and discovered, to my astonishment, that it was, indeed, an AC6000W. Turns out that it was the SD90MAC, which also produces 6000 hp, that Union Pacific had gotten rid of. Apparently the AC6000s are doing just fine. They were waiting just before the interlocking at the junction, so I assumed Norfolk Southern traffic was en route. I had pulled into a nearby parking lot at this point to observe the ACe a little more closely. After this, I pulled back out of the parking lot and went over to where the road would have gone through had it still been there. I was trying to turn to where I would be parallel with the barricade. As I was backing up slightly to finish the maneuver, I see this big black thing in my mirror coming up behind me. I turn around to find myself face to face with a pair of Catfishes and what I thought was a train in tow. However, it was just a "light" power move. I use the term light very loosely, because a pair of massive GE widecabs, each with 4000 horsepower, is not what I would call light. After this, I figured "Okay, the freight's got to start moving now." Not 30 seconds after this, I hear the brakes get released on the locomotives, and I hear them start to growl. I rolled down the passenger side window so I could get a better listen. The SD70ACe sounded especially fantastic. I could hear the 710 distinctly whining, while the other two let out a deep, throaty growl as the trio throttled up. Man...what a way to finish off a day. My only regret was I didn't have a camera...

Yet Another Texas Eagle Encounter

I happen to have a lot of these. Frankly, I almost pray for a Lincoln Service train every time the gates go down and I hear a K5LA, though this could mainly be because sometimes they have the borrowed Cascades "cabbage" on them occasionally. Anyway, I was on my way up to mass at my old high school, and I happened to be looking up 6th street (which I couldn't help, because that's the street I was on), and I saw the gates flashing. An Amtrak train crossed up at North Grand. So, I hit the turn signal and turned onto some random street to go back to 5th street. From there, I went back South for a block and turned right. Fortunately, the Amtrak hadn't gotten there yet, so I flipped out the camera and started recording...