Scale7JB
Western Thunderer
Yes apologies, I was still nursing my overly sugary McDonalds Vanilla Latte, but I was kicking myself for the rest of the day for not having snapped the switcher.
JB.
Richard's American Train Adventures
- Thread starter richard carr
- Start date
JB.
Big Train James
Western Thunderer
Well, he kind of is actually, so I think this one is more about me than about him.Yeah.... guess who isn't building a Proto48 switching layout....
It shall remain my cross to bear.The irony is that among original owners, SP/Cotton Belt owned roughly 30% of all sw1500's built, and had three times as many units as the second place road. They also owned the mp15dc's and mp15ac's. Combined together, they owned roughly 21% of all of the late EMD end cab switchers, 305 units out of 1405 produced.
I did talk him into buying an Atlas mp15dc at the Chicago Meet a year or two ago. The problem is that nobody makes a suitable RTR sw1500 or mp15ac in O scale. There have been "sw1500" and "mp15ac" models produced by the likes of MTH and Lionel, but they're all Frankenstein creations marrying inappropriate chassis from other models to compromised bodies that only just barely represent either prototype. Overland did import them in O scale a long time ago, but those models don't seem to come available very often.
The net result is that if you want an accurate model of either an sw1500 or an mp15ac, you will have to build it yourself. I know somebody (cough cough, ahem) that's gone down that route, he's just slow and distracted so it never gets done.
Someday, perhaps.
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
Is that a milepost for Glasgow?
richard carr
Western Thunderer
On to Friday, we decided to go and explore the Hammond Whiting East Chicago area, we started at Hammond/Whiting Amtrak Station.
There are 7 tracks at the station, 4 to the west 3 of them being the main NS route to Chicago, the 4th track runs into a small yard used by stack trains. To the east are 3 lines, to north they run into various yards, to the south they run to the steel works.
It turned out to be a very busy place, it was also freezing cold with a bitter wind blowing in from the west.
The first train we saw was Amtrak but that was 2 minutes after we arrived and my video footage was all over the place as I hadn't had tme to setup the tripod, JB was still busy drinking his coffee.
The next train to arrive was of course the switcher train, so no photos I'm afraid, coffee was too important, it is on the video.
Next was this stack train that very slowly made it's way into the yard, at one point it stopped for the conductor to get out and set the switch to the correct road.
Next we had this CP manifest, CP has running rights on the NS mainline through Elkhart to Butler and then on the wabash to detroit.
Next another Amtrak train comes hurtling through the station, at the same time another stack train had arrived, it had a flashing yellow signal ahead of it but pulled up well short and waited there for almost an hour.
Then a light engine appeared and pulled up by the stack train
Then I saw this in the distance.
It's a EJ&E SD38-2 (I looked it up) taking a short train of coils to towards the steel works. The EJE&E did run to here and into the yards to the north.
There are 7 tracks at the station, 4 to the west 3 of them being the main NS route to Chicago, the 4th track runs into a small yard used by stack trains. To the east are 3 lines, to north they run into various yards, to the south they run to the steel works.
It turned out to be a very busy place, it was also freezing cold with a bitter wind blowing in from the west.
The first train we saw was Amtrak but that was 2 minutes after we arrived and my video footage was all over the place as I hadn't had tme to setup the tripod, JB was still busy drinking his coffee.
The next train to arrive was of course the switcher train, so no photos I'm afraid, coffee was too important, it is on the video.
Next was this stack train that very slowly made it's way into the yard, at one point it stopped for the conductor to get out and set the switch to the correct road.
Next we had this CP manifest, CP has running rights on the NS mainline through Elkhart to Butler and then on the wabash to detroit.
Next another Amtrak train comes hurtling through the station, at the same time another stack train had arrived, it had a flashing yellow signal ahead of it but pulled up well short and waited there for almost an hour.
Then a light engine appeared and pulled up by the stack train
Then I saw this in the distance.
It's a EJ&E SD38-2 (I looked it up) taking a short train of coils to towards the steel works. The EJE&E did run to here and into the yards to the north.
richard carr
Western Thunderer
Next we had this, an empty BNSF powered coal train heading back to the powder river coal field.
The stack train appeared to be waiting for the coal train to go by, although all this time he did have the flashing yellow signal in front of it.
Once the coal train had rushed through, another coil train appeared on the lakeside lines heading north into the yards.
It's an ACe on the back
Next another eastbound stack train
and finally the light engine came back with a train of loaded well cars running long nose first.
The stack train appeared to be waiting for the coal train to go by, although all this time he did have the flashing yellow signal in front of it.
Once the coal train had rushed through, another coil train appeared on the lakeside lines heading north into the yards.
It's an ACe on the back
Next another eastbound stack train
and finally the light engine came back with a train of loaded well cars running long nose first.
richard carr
Western Thunderer
So for the final part of this trip we moved to Portage/Ogden Dunes South Shore Electric station about 20 miles further east on the other side of Gary. It's quite an interesting drive past a huge oil/gas refinery. I was trying to drive past the steel works but sat nav took us another way but we did see a few trains including a South Shore freight.
The parking for the station is in the middle of the NS mainline and the South Shore Electric lines, in the distance to the east is the steel works and burns harbor yard.
The signals you can see in the photo normally are yellow, when they turn red, something is coming from the opposite direction, here we have a coil train heading for the yard..
It's an Ace at the back
As the coil train was disappearing into the distance, this manifest arrived
All GE power this time with AC44C6M leading
More GE power but this time an ES44AC, note the deeper radiator compared to the AC44C6M
The parking for the station is in the middle of the NS mainline and the South Shore Electric lines, in the distance to the east is the steel works and burns harbor yard.
The signals you can see in the photo normally are yellow, when they turn red, something is coming from the opposite direction, here we have a coil train heading for the yard..
It's an Ace at the back
As the coil train was disappearing into the distance, this manifest arrived
All GE power this time with AC44C6M leading
More GE power but this time an ES44AC, note the deeper radiator compared to the AC44C6M
richard carr
Western Thunderer
SO next the south shore line arrived heading to Chicago.
Followed by another east bound manifest, this had stopped just before the crossing for about 15 minutes before it moved forward
The second loco was a UP SD70M
Finally an Indiana Harbor Belt powered train arrived, a pair of GP38-2s going flat out to get their train moving.
And that was it for the day we had seen about 30 trains so a pretty good day. It was over an hour to get back to the hole and once again sat nav took us through the dodgy area of Gary, but we survived.
Followed by another east bound manifest, this had stopped just before the crossing for about 15 minutes before it moved forward
The second loco was a UP SD70M
Finally an Indiana Harbor Belt powered train arrived, a pair of GP38-2s going flat out to get their train moving.
And that was it for the day we had seen about 30 trains so a pretty good day. It was over an hour to get back to the hole and once again sat nav took us through the dodgy area of Gary, but we survived.
Jordan or Plymouth Mad
Mid-Western Thunderer
Those IHB locos are rather spiffy aren't they? Minimal weathering required! 