Well, I suppose it
had to happen
sooner or later I'd have a bad day. I suppose that last Fridays
rainstorm killing my spotting before it even started was bad enough.
But this time I actually got out lineside before things got bad. It was
a ridiculously early finish from work today. 8:45 to be exact. On my
way to Pigs Eye I had to stop in Richfield and pick up my race packet
for the Urban Wildland Half marathon so it was 10am before I was
driving along Warner Road on the riverfront. Things looked good,
there was a pair of UP GP's waiting to move out so I thought I was in
for some fun. I turned off and found a good spot looking across the
yard. It was then I discovered that the UP train was blocking my entire
view of the yard! Even worse it wasn't moving so all I could see was
this UP SD60 leading a mixed freight with another SD in tow and it
wasn't going anywhere anytime
soon...
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After a while the UP
train in
front of me reversed back into the yard.
"Oh Goody"
I thought. "Now I'll be able to see something". About a
dozen wagons passed and it stopped again. Just to annoy me even more a
Pair of CP ES44AC's passed behind it and this is what I saw.
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Then the UP train eased
backwards again and the two GP's 1242 a GP39 and 393 came into view.
After all the
trouble they were giving me. I was pleased that they had at last got
into shot. But this train was out to annoy me. No question about it.
another 6 wagons passed by and the darned thing stopped again. This
time for good it didn't move for 10 minutes.
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| I'd been there half an
hour and this train had been blocking me all the time. I'd had enough
so I decided to head over to Midway and see what I could see there. As
I drove past the track at the foot of Daytons bluff I saw a gang
working on the track. This was going to cause me trouble. When I got to
midtown I was immedately heartened by the sight of this pair of NS
40-CW's that were preparing to shut down for the day. Perhaps things
would be better here. |
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| In front of me was a 6 unit lash
up on a train of Road railers lead by UP power with a plethora of
leased locos behind it. I think I got them all... |
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But it wasn't moving. Nothing
was. There was a couple of other loco's to be seen NS and UP power in
the yard but nothing was hapenning.
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Clearly the track
gang at the
foot of the bluff was causing the problems, nothing was going to move
until they were done. So I decided to call it a day and cheer myself up
with a toffee latte at Coffee Corner, even though that was still an
hours drive away. To compound my annoyance even further. I glimpsed
this 4 unit lash up waiting at Union Junction going nowhere. See the
Green and red unit in the back? That belongs to Ferromex, the Mexican
Railways. Quite what a Mexican loco is doing in Minnesota is beyond me.
But there it is tanatalisingly out of reach of my camera.
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There you are a
thoroughly
annoying few hours lineside. You may think that its not all that bad
but everything would have been so much better if things had been
moving. I could have seen that lot in 20 minutes.
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