Digital Day on BNSF

Digital Day on BNSF
November 23,2002

November 23, 2002 had been set aside by Mr. Steinblock of BNSFpix.com as the first Day on BNSF. The forecast was typical for November, no weather person this side of San Diego can predict what it will be like. Of course, after a prediction for a mostly cloudy day, the sun peaked over the horizon to very few clouds, so I headed up to Galesburg to see what I could find to put into the camera. I had a few ideas for photo locations that might be of interest to those visiting BNSFpix. I started off at the Overpass, where I encountered a set of power being hostled(is that a real word?) out the south end of the pit. The early morning light was really nice here. At the north end of the yard, I noticed a headlight entering the receiving tracks. Also, the TP&W's Galesburg Turn was queued to get into the yard. They would end up spending the morning in the yard, most likely requiring a new crew to take the train back to Peoria. Any ways, the first train was the previously mentioned headlight. I was hoping they would take an open track, as opposed to those between cuts of cars where the early morning sun had yet to reach. Of course, they did, so here is a manifest freight from Chicago, the EMDX 760 @ Thirwell:

As I was waiting for this guy to creep down the yard tracks, a manifest with CSX and Soo power could be seen heading east down the Santa Fe. The CSX power looked to be fresh, so after putting this train to disk, I headed out to the EBurg trestle to see what that looked like. With my carefully planned route, I managed to beat the train there by less than a minute. The CSX power turned out to be a pair of ex-Conrail SD60M's, recently repainted into the now old CSX YN3 paint scheme. I like that paint scheme much better than their new Dark Future, but what are you gonna do? However, since this is a Day on BNSF, and the light at the EBurg trestle wasn't exactly perfect, the CSX shot won't go on this page. I then started to think that if Matthew wanted all BNSF power for his pics, that might be hard to do around here since a good percentage of the trains are led by foreign power. The UP is very visible on the Santa Fe transcon, and I saw at least three trains with all UP power today. Also, to add to the tally of foreign power, I shot a train at Oromonde with a solid consist of three Norfolk Southern EMDs, a set of CN power wyeing at 4th St., and a southbound CN-IC runthrough coal train with a pair of ex-KCS, now GTW(but still in KCS gray with big CN noodles) SD40-3s. Yet, luckily, the BNSF did run enough of their own trains to present something here.
After the CSXperience at EBurg, I headed back to the yard, and what did I spy but another eastbound on the Santa Fe, this time, a V-SBDMCI, the AutoMax train. I had to get this "only on BNSF" train for the contest, so, as the train was changing crews for some reason at GI, I took advantage and headed all the way over to Dahinda to see what I could do with the Spoon River bridge. I heard that the V train was to wait on one to get around him at Williamsfield. As I was cruising the back roads of Knox County, I came upon the shooter that was running around him. Also, as I got to Dahinda, I spied a train parked on the hill east of town. Now, I didn't think there was any way that the V train had gotten around me, so this must've been the stacker I had seen earlier. I then proceeded to notice that the right of way all along the Spoon River bridge was covered with trees. They had done some work up here a couple of years ago and cleared all of them out, but apparently, trees grow back, who'd-a thunk it. Thinking that the V train might be close behind, I tried to pull something out of this trip way out of my way(it's way out of my way today, but really only about 15 miles from my house, talk about backtracking). There is a hill to the south of the river bridge, so I motored up there to scope it out. Pretty good view of the valley, but a little far away. Still, that might get rid of the tree's affect. Judge for yourself; here is the V-SBDMCI rolling across the Spoon River valley @ Dahinda, IL:

The Spoon River bridge really is pretty impressive, a local game warden even stopped me to make sure I was getting pictures of the "neat old bridge". However, it's not nearly as impressive as what's to come. After this shot, I immediately headed back to Galesburg on the blacktop. After checking the yard again, I headed west along the Santa Fe to my primary target. I rolled through Smithshire, and passed two eastbound trains. Hopefully there would be a couple more behind them, because that is what I needed, or so I thought. As I got into Media, I scoped out what there was for views of the big bridge. Not too bad from the gravel road, so I stayed there, ready to jump from the truck as fast as possible. This is a tough spot to shoot from, there aren't any audible defectors down in the valley, and you really can't hear trains until they are practically on top of the bridge. Still, I managed to get a few, and missed a few. Here is the first attempt at an eastbound, the BNSF 4495 @ the Media Trestle:

Now that's a real trestle. Any Civil Engineer would be proud of that thing. After the eastbound, I headed out to Media proper to see if I could spy anything else approaching. Yet, just as I left my spot, a westbound with a pair of GPs came flying by. But, this gave me another idea. Since the light was not really right for the eastbounders anymore, and probably wasn't that great in the above shot, I decided to see what I could do with westbounders. Due to the State of Illinois' strategic guardrail placement, waiting for a westbound requires sitting outside of the truck until something comes along. While waiting, I did happen to see a wild turkey fly across the road right in front of me. Those birds are huge, I don't exactly know how they fly. Anyways, the next train was by shortly, and the sound of old GPs got me thinking something else strange was on the way. Sure enough, out of the trees pokes this train, the V-MCISBD8-23(trust me, the AutoMax's were on the tail end) with the BNSF 1494 @ the Media Trestle:

How's that for strange power? And how about that bridge, eh? That is the second GP15 that I caught leading on the Santa Fe today. The other was at Dahinda on the local, and that one was in H1, I didn't think they had painted any.
After the 1494 had passed,I headed back to the Burg to see what there was left. And what there was left was not much. By now, I had been joined by the one and only Mr. DPJ, so we both climbed the 4th St. Hill to see what we could see. There was a manifest on the Quincy main with a freshly repainted SD75M, the 8255, on the point. They pulled just as another train, the BNSF 5294 had come out onto the main to start doubling his train and setting out Bad Orders. It looked like that might be it for the day, so I made due with a "going away" shot as the train was moving back and forth in the departure yard. Here is the BNSF 5294 making his moves @ 4th St.:

I like the light reflecting off of the Scotchlite strips along the sill of the 779, really makes it stand out. It would have been nice to stand here in the old days when the large area between the two trains was filled with yard tracks and the roundhouse. We were noticing what looks like part of the old coaling tower still laying down there closer to the depot.
A couple of trains did in fact come by while we were up there, but they both took the passenger main out of town, not into the yard where they needed to go. Oh well, it was cold and getting dark, so I started to head back to Elmwood. However, as I passed the yard, I noticed that the sunset was putting some spectacular colors into the sky, so I headed up onto the overpass again to try out the digital on some time exposures. This is really where digital technology shines, in that you can get immediate feedback from the camera, and adjust the camera accordingly. We'll see how this turns out, take a peek:

I suppose that is it for my Day on BNSF. Overall, it was a pretty successful day, and I love the idea of having the Day on BNSF. Hopefully the tradition will continue.

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