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CNW's Leading at Des
Moines Wide cab GE's, IAIS tramp, and CNW on the Indianola Branch! |
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PHOTO |
NOTES |
| MKSIT had some nice looking power waiting to go north when I passed through Short Line on the way home on the 12th. | |
| A wide-angle shot of CNW 8680 for the roster roosters out there. Note the goofy number board. | |
| At the sand towers, UP 3043 idled. Notice that the UP shield on the front is completely gone, exposing the 'CNW' on the nose. I will be waiting for my next opportunity to get a head -on shot of this unit leading a train! | |
| A truck speeds by overhead on Interstate 235 as CNW 8680 eases up to Easton Blvd. E. 21st/Delaware remains closed, making northbound chases mighty tricky on the Spine. | |
| I continued north and met Jennifer at Polk City. She wanted to go to Wal Mart in Ankeny, and who do you suppose we'd see? The Ankeny crew with UP 670 and brand new set of UP "blue logo" climate-controlled reefers for Des Moines Cold Storage. | |
| "Tex" | Conductor "Tex" says hi before getting down to make a switch move on the Ankeny Job. |
| CNW 8828 | Back at Short Line, CNW 8828 waits next to UP 4295. 8828 will power MDMSS, while the 4295 will make a run to Kansas City. Much to the dismay of the dispatcher, the crews at Des Moines turned the engines so that they were all facing the wrong way. 8828 was actually supposed to be the last unit, to be dropped off at Nevada for a grain train. Instead, 8828 made the trip to St. Paul, and the last UP unit in the consist was discarded instead. |
| CNW 8828 | CNW 8828 leads the train past the last east/west road on the north side of Des Moines. The train will round the corner and head northeast toward Elkhart and Cambridge. |
| mystery SD45 | This mystery SD45 had no reporting marks, and only the number 9012 for identification. I liked the DME type scheme. |
| IAIS 401 | JULY 27: After nearly two weeks without any train-watching, I finally find time to make it to Short Line Yard. Crews were installing the new welded rail on the ex-RI mainline, and a second signal head was mounted on the new signal. There will definitely be some changes taking place soon at Short Line. As work crews cleared the way, this IAIS tramp was able to proceed eastbound into Short Line Yard. Here it is approaching SE 18th St. |
| IAIS 401 | IAIS 401 soon got permission to enter Short Line Yard, and passed the signal at SE 18th. The GP 7 is dwarfed by the giant Heartland Coop elevator there. |
| CNW 6858 | JULY 28: After work, I noticed a trace that showed CNW 6858 bound for Carlisle. Since Indianola is right down the road, I thought it would be worth a shot to catch the engine. Lucky for me, they put it on the point of the ballast train they were picking up. |
| CNW 6858 on the Indianola Branch | Six cars were parked on the Indianola branch, which meant that the power would back into the old Rock Line to retrieve them. |
| Indianola Jct. | For a change, the target for the switch is red, and CNW 6858 eases its short train off of what's left of the Indianola branch, just as it would have before the tracks were ripped up south of here in 1998. |
| Rounding the Curve... | Here's a distance shot of the ballast train rounding a curve north of Avon in the trees. |
| One last look... | CNW 8680 negotiates the S-curve at the ADM plant south of Euclid Avenue in Des Moines. The train is bound for Itasca. |
| LAST WEEK'S UPDATE | Frank Rozycki
Photography Revisited Spine Line Memories |
