BNSF 7018 and 5110

thcri RIP

Gone But Not Forgotten
When I was a kid I was intrigued by Trains. When my daughters gave me a camera and told me to do some photography I first started with moving trains.

There is roughly or almost 8900 horsepower here with the two engines. And there maybe one more engine at the back.


 

California

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Trains are fascinating.

I grew up a mile from a railyard. The continual sounds seemed natural like a form of background music.

My home in town now is a little farther from it, I don't hear routine noise but after midnight when everything is quiet I hear the horn announcing the nightly departure from the yard headed for Los Angeles, the rumble of diesels slowly coming up to cruise power over time measured in minutes, then along with that the successive fainter crossing horn warnings as it heads out through the surrounding area.

We took Amtrak once from Sacramento to Reno. What impressed me - overwhelmed me - was how the grade up to the crest of the Sierras - sea level to 8,000 ft in 86 miles (Roseville switchyard where the freight trains add engines for the climb, to Donner Summit) was so well engineered that the diesels pulled at an absolutely constant rate nearly all the way. That route was surveyed about the time of the Civil War - it was important to finally connect California to the US at the time - and those surveyors got it right. The route climbs following the walls of steep canyons as the foothills become granite cliffs. It's hard to imagine how they found a continuous route at constant grade upward through that maze. Listening to the engines pull was like going to the symphony.

Thanks for posting the great photo.
 
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thcri RIP

Gone But Not Forgotten
What a wonderful memory and story Chris! Thanks for sharing.

I have a cabin on Lake Pepin. The Burlington Northern line runs on the east side of the Lake which I am on. The Canadian Pacific runs on the West Side. The CP line is three miles across almost but if the wind is right I hear the horns. The BN trains I hear the horns all the time. I love them.

I used to go into town and watch/listen to the trains. Sitting by the store fronts beer in hand was always fun. But both towns on the BN line either side of me has gone to “No Train Horn Towns” so no more horns in town.

I belong to a Amtrak group so I watch and photograph lots of them. This first pic posted here I git a lot of recognition for it.

The second pic is a favorite of mine. It was running seven hours late and was doing the maximum speed allowed for an Amtrak on the CP line 79 miles per hour. Why 79 and not 80 I don’t know why. It is what the engineers come up with. It had a BNSF engine leading the way. To see a BNSF leading is common in the winter months but never in the summer. Today it did. I did not think I would get this one clear at the speed it was going and the dust it was kicking up.








 

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Wow that thing is hauling!

We see similar as we head over to the ranch. Amtrak (Capital Corridor) runs faster than traffic on the parallel I-80 freeway.

We've waited a while for passenger service (SMART, Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit District) to begin service that can bring Daughter from SF up to the ranch here 60 miles north of SF. After many delays they finally got some trains running but the temporary southern end is at San Rafael, still short of the intended connection at Larkspur where passenger ferrys connect into San Francisco. The final link to Larkspur is a few years away and lacks several $millions, as yet unfunded. So that line isn't really an alternative for drivers who still commute daily from up here into San Francisco. Someday .... Meanwhile Golden Gate Bridge remains a choke point for any travel between San Francisco and the populated areas north of it.
 

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It's near midnight here in town and I just heard the longest crossing-warning train horn I've ever heard in my life.

3 quick loud blasts then continuous for what sounded like a full minute.

I was sure it would end with a crunch and then sirens. But whatever spooked that engineer apparently got off the track in time.

Those guys earn their money. It can't be fun to know you couldn't stop when someone's life is in your hands.

I'm still a little rattled from hearing that horn for so long and imagining what was going on while it blasted continuous.
 

thcri RIP

Gone But Not Forgotten
I found a description for that train horn last night:

Okay... what was that incredibly loud horn sound that just wouldn’t end a few minutes ago.

"Auto vs train that resulted into a DUI arrest." Driver survived, arrested.


Glad you found it. Had me baffled most of the day. I thought kids or car but you didn’t hear anything at the end.

We had an accident last summer where an elderly couple got trapped in the middle of the two arms in the crossing. They got hit. Luckily they didn’t get hurt. The train was already going at a slow pace due to the yard in St Paul being full. If this train was running normal this couple would not be here today.
 

thcri RIP

Gone But Not Forgotten
Here is one I took last winter. I did my best to catch one kicking up snow after a storm but it just didn’t happen


 

thcri RIP

Gone But Not Forgotten
Amtrak on the Gasman Bridge just west of Minot North Dakota. Many passengers close their eyes when going over.




 

thcri RIP

Gone But Not Forgotten
Another Amtrak running a few hours behind. One has a Burlington Northern rule on the front. Both trains due to running behind are pushing the 79 mile an hour speed limit. My camera seems to make them look slow


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG6zsAMPGmo[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2oarrXPt5Q[/ame]
 

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Not up to the quality standard of your photos, but I found a collection of interesting train photos.

https://imgur.com/t/trains/mRQO3

ptNHDd1.jpg



.. .And a forum with other train photo collections. Wide variety, some collections are good photography, some are interesting hardware, some are just nonsense.

https://imgur.com/t/trains


9LAMQQU.jpg



A comment on this one says it is a Russian locomotive modified to become an emergency community power plant that can be dispatched anywhere.

BonCfoe.jpg
 

thcri RIP

Gone But Not Forgotten
Not up to the quality standard of your photos, but I found a collection of interesting train photos.




A comment on this one says it is a Russian locomotive modified to become an emergency community power plant that can be dispatched anywhere.


Great places, thanks for sharing! Some photos were of now plows on trains. I was watching YouTube videos the other night of them. Awesome rigs.
 
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