Midweek Photos 7/13/2016

This week we take a look at action   at Red Bank on NJ Transit's North Jersey Coast line. Consists seen are comprised of multi-level and "Comet" equipment powered by ALP-46 electrics and ALP-45DP dual mode units. 

Bob

A couple of shots on a hot Kansas afternoon.  I grabbed these quickly while driving home from the Santa Fe Convention in Wichita last month.  Usually, the busy days are Tuesday through Saturday, and traffic was predictably sparse this Sunday.  This is what BNSF looks like in central southern Kansas.

These two are taken just a couple of miles west of Wellington, 300 miles from home.  For a long time, I had wanted to get a really compressed shot of a train coming through the distant sag and up over the hump at this location, but, when I arrived there, this train was already approaching at high speed, so I had almost no time to get ready and just used the short telephoto that was already on the camera.  The going-away shot shows Wellington, Kansas, where the train will stop and exchange its Amarillo crew for a Kansas City crew.  Next trip I vow that I'll take a whole weekday en route to shoot trains between Attica and Wellington.  During the week, there will be enough traffic that I can carefully set up a shot and a train will come to me before long.

These two were taken out on the prairie between Kiowa and Attica, Kansas.  Just out of sight behind the camera there is a controlled signal for eastward trains. and there's a convenient gravel area where I stopped to take a look at the signal.  It was green over red, which means that a train is lined up.  Sure enough, I heard a whistle and a headlight peeked over the hump.  The train approached and passed at a very moderate speed, because it was not a top priority train and it was the weekend.  BNSF operates all but the hottest trains at reduced speed on the weekend, as there is no point in rushing this train to Kansas City or Chicago and unloading it on the weekend, when the customers will not come to pick up the containers until Monday.  By reducing the speed, the railroad avoids unnecessary container storage at its facilities and - more importantly - saves quite a bit of money on fuel.

Thought I had set my camera to 'video' but all I got was this faraway shot.

Back to the Railroad Museum of PA.  The Conrail unit, GP30 2233, was a big draw.  These kids really like the "modern" stuff, although the next day at the Strasburg Rail Road would turn them into steam fans, too. 

A few of the locomotive cabs were opened, and they piled into the GP9, 7006 and the streamlined GG1

Out in the yard, some of them explored the electric locomotives, GG1 4800 "old rivets" new addition AEM7 915 and the E60, 603.

Finishing touches are being made to 4-4-2 no. 460 "the Lindbergh engine" in the restoration facility.  This will be on display soon, and other smaller projects will be done before the museum staff tackles the next big project.

Here are a shot of some high hoods in Dundalk, Md.

Here are some other neat items in the Pennsylvania collection.  To the left is the tail-end car from the 1930s Reading Crusader train, and one of the 1960s Penn Central Metroliner cars.

Maryland & Pennsylvania NW2 number 81. 

We just took this grab shot (a bit late, since the boiler is hidden by the pole) as Strasburg 90 was paced by the mule-led wagon.

RailCamp continued on Thursday with the 24 boys taking on several roles, big and small, that the railroaders do.  Starting with intros and a safety briefing.

Rick Musser of the Rail Road discusses the plans for the day and introduces former RailCamper Erich Armpreister to the gang.

Number 90 is smoking up a storm. 

Freight duties are handled by visiting GP9 764 from the Morristown & Erie.  The Maine Eastern markings are from a Maine-based operation they ran the past 10 or so years.

On to the first event for this group.  Running the Lancaster Oxford & Southern  doodlebug.

Ryan Merrill gives the history of this car before giving each person, including me, some time at the throttle. 

Not me, this is Jacob, one of the campers.