Today's Train of Thought- It's a Gas Gas Gas, Aug 24, 2011

Today's train of thought shows us what can be best described as a pipeline on wheels out in Big Sky Country.



Once upon a time, Conoco Philip's [NYSE: COP] Yellowstone pipeline carried gasoline all the way from Billings, MT to Spokanne, WA. However, after a 3000 barrel spill in 1993 on the Flathead Indian Reservation, the tribal council there revoked the pipeline easement. This left a 56-mile gap through the reservation and there was no talk of relocating that portion



Into the breech stepped Montana Rail Link, offering to have the gas offloaded from the pipeline in Missoula into tank cars for a 129-mile trek into Thompson Falls, MT where it is placed back into the western end of the Yellowstone pipeline to complete its westward journey to Spokane. At Thompson Falls, the locomotives, empty tank cars and spacer car on each end are turned around for the return trip. The outbound train is usually referred to as 'The Gas Local' while the returning cars are sometimes referred to as 'Gas Cans'.



Railpictures.net contributor Amy Miller caught an outbound Gas Local in August 2010 with SD45-2 #332 leading SD70ACE #4308 at Arlee, MT. The two locomotives represent two dramatically different epochs in EMD's manufacturing- the #332 started out life as an SDP45 for the Erie Lackawana nearly 40 years ago before the E-L became a part of Conrail. At some point in its career, #332 got into a wreck and her rear hood was rebuilt before being pressed into service as a leaser with Motive Power International and sold to the Montana Rail Link [Occasionally even older locomotives will hitch a ride with the Gas Local, as MRL's GP9s shuttle between their Paradise, MT assignment and Missoula- NANESB!].



By contrast, the #4308 was built new for the MRL in 2005 by EMD and has been in service since then in a variety of duties ever since.

Today's Train of Thought- A (Gypsy) Rose by Any Other Name; July 15 2011

With a name like Lancaster & Chester, you would expect today's Train of Thought to highlight a bucolic shortline running through Pennsylvania Dutch Country. While the countryside the L&C runs through can be described as bucolic the railway actually runs through the northern reaches of the Palmetto State.

The L&C, also known as the Springmaid Line, started up from an 1877 charter to build a 29-mile rail line connecting Chesterfield and Chester counties. Given the inevitable changes that the larger carriers the L&C interchanged with over the last century, operations along the Springmaid Line itself was relatively unchanged until the last decade or so.

However, under the tenure of Elliot White Springs in the 1950s, the shortline embarked on a series of flamboyant and tongue-in-cheek promotions including appointing 29 different Vice Presidents- one for each mile of track.

Perhaps the most memorable was when striptease artist and burlesque entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee (above) was named Lancaster & Chester's 'Vice President of Unveiling'. The railroad also offered a fictitious menu for a number of entrees served on their nonexistent passenger trains, including items like 'Split Dixiecrats with Frozen Assets' or 'Back Bay Trollops with Harvard Accent'- despite the fact that the L&C didn't even own a dining car.

Over the years, traffic has consisted of coal, textile products, aggregates, fertilizer, wood products, sand and fiberglass, with a stable of powder-blue EMD end cab switchers doing most of the heavy lifting throughout much of the L&C's diesel era.

In the late 1990s, JP Henderson Inc set up shop on L&C property and began extensively refurbishing and restoring passenger cars. In 2001, the L&C entered into a lease agreement with the Norfolk Southern to begin operating additional trackage in Lancaster County between Catawba Jct and Kershaw. The expansion meant additional motive power for the L&C- first a pair of SW1200s followed by a pair of SW1500s.

However, in addition to borrowing some LLPX loaners the L&C made their first ever purchase of EMD roadswitchers with the purchase of a couple of ex Norfolk Southern (nee Conrail) GP38-2s that were eventually painted in Lancaster & Chester's powder blue scheme and lettered for the Springmaid Line.

In late 2010, the it was announced that Tenessee-based Gulf & Ohio railways would acquire the L&C. The Gulf & Ohio operates the Yadkin Valley and Laurinburg Southern just up the road in North Carolina. In June of this year, the G&O began sending motive power to the L&C starting with a former Kansas City Southern GP38-3. Apparently the plan is to replace the LLPX locomotives with power from other G&O operations as their leases expire.

Bringing us to the very top of the page, railpictures.net contributor Joe Hinson caught a trio of L&C GP38s working the Norfolk Southern interchange at Chester, SC in May 2011. The third unit in the consist is apparently one of the LLPX loaners still on property, although it's difficult to say if it was obscured by design on the photographer's part.

Today's Train of Thought- Hoosier Gonna Call; March 20, 2011

In keeping with the snow theme while there's still some on the ground in various parts of the country, today's Train of Thought brings us to the Hoosier state and the all-EMD shortline Indiana Northeastern.

The Indiana Northeastern- not surprisingly operates in the northeastern corner of Indiana as well as the far northwestern corner of Ohio where it connects with the Norfolk Southern at Montpelier, OH and the former Hillsdale County Railroad (nee New York Central) trackage between Jonesville and Sturgis, MI where it connects with Pioneer Rail corp's Michigan Southern (and onto another connection with the NS line between Elkhart, IN and Kalamazoo, MI currently being leased to WATCO's Grand Elk Railroad at White Pigeon, MI). Besides agricultural products such as corn, soybeans, wheat and flour, the IN also hauls coal, lumber, glass and chemicals among other commodities.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Aaron C Schlegel caught a Northbound Indiana Northeastern freight ducking under the Fox Lake Rd bridge in Angola, IN with a lashup of power that prominently features first generation power- the two lead units are largely unmodified GP9s. According to the Diesel Shop, the lead unit- Indiana Northeastern #1601 started out life as Reading #606 in August 1952 while Indiana Northeastern #1602 was built in April 1957 as Great Northern #693 and bringing up the rear is the only slightly newer 1963-built GP30 #2230, which was built as Pennsylvania railroad #2230.

Both the 1601 and 1602 retain their classic as-built high hoods- and it's entirely likely that each unit was ordered to replace the last of the serviceable steam locomotives on their respective railways (Reading & Great Northern).

Jennifertillyfan.com

Like the 2 lead units, another worthwhile product of the 1950s would include actress and World Series of Poker participant Jennifer Tilly. I know I've mentioned this before, but even though I don't regularly follow Poker tournaments or the latter day entries in the Child's Play series of movies, I still continue to be impressed at how Tilly continues to be easy on the eyes just past the half-century mark [I know I can't be the only one- NANESB!].

Today's Train of Thought- Oy! Oy! Oy! Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

Wouldn't you know it? Today happens to be Australia Day. January 26th marks the arrival of the first fleet of ships from England arriving with 1500 colonists (more than half of them convicts) to what is now Sydney Harbor in 1788. Although the early years were quote rough, Australia has grown from a backwards isolated colony where the British would dump their convicts to a leading exporter of minerals and a popular destination for tourists throughout the world. And let's face it- some of the scenery in Australia is simply amazing. Even without tourism, the Aussie economy is on strong footing due to rising commodity prices and voracious international demand for iron ore, gold, copper, zinc, uranium, bauxite or nickel.

With the growth of Australia as a colony (and ultimately and independent nation), many states built up their own rail networks- each of them using different standards and varying between broad gauge, narrow gauge and standard gauge. This proved to be problematic with the expansion of Australia's population and it's transportation network. For instance, the famous Indian Pacific wasn't able to complete it's transcontinental route until completion of a standard gauge route through South Australia in 1970. With the national network as a whole lacking a uniform track gauge until the mid 1990s, this hindered both interstate passenger and railfreight traffic. Some railways have found a way around this problem by installing dual-gauge tracks. Others, like in Tasmania and Western Australia, remain isolated from the national railway network.

One series of such railroads includes the network of iron ore mining railroads in the rugged northwestern corner of Western Australia- also known as the Pilbarra region. This is railroading on a massive scale in some of the most rugged conditions on earth. Companies like Fortescue Minreals, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton haul iron ore from their mines in the Chichester, Hammersley and Pillbara mountain ranges to waiting ships at Port Hedland for export in trains that routinely exceed 200 cars (only the railroads run by Brazil's VALE mining company comes close).

With that in mind, the Aussie mining companies have selected American horsepower to handle this daunting task for the past several decades. Railpictures.net contributor Phil Melling caught BHP Billiton iron ore SD70ace in 'new earth' livery leading a GE AC6000CW north through the red red earth of the Chichester Range in Munjina, Western Australia as she brings a loaded ore train towards Port Hedland.

Just to give you an idea of the scope of the Western Australia iron ore roads, here is some footage of a 224 car BHP Billiton iron ore train.

I think if the GE and EMD products in service there are reliable enough to survive the scorching, rugged conditions of the Australian outback, they can handle pretty much anything else that comes their way.

Today's Train of Thought- SD70MAC Attack Up North, January 15, 2011.

Even though Alaska is by far the biggest state in the Union, big trains are something of a rarity in the Big Dipper State, as the Alaska Railroad is isolated and disconnected from the rest of the rail network in the USA and Canada.

The link is provided instead by rail barges between Seattle, WA- where the cars are interchanged with BNSF or Union Pacific- or Prince Rupert, BC where the cars are interchanged with the Canadian National Railway.

The barges can typically accomodate anywhere from 40-55 cars each, but there are intra-line unit coal trains that can measure 75 cars in length. Although some of this coal is bound for on line customers like Fort Wainright, University of Alaska-Fairbanks or Eileson AFB, a good deal of the coal (mined at Healy, AK) travels to port at Seward where it is loaded onto ships for export to South Korea or Chile.

Railpictures.net photographer (and Alaska Railroad employee) David Blaze explains that on December 10, 2010, one of these 75 car trains was in the middle of unloading at Seward, but had to stop halfway through because of high winds. The train ended up leaving with 4 units and half of it's consist. The following day, another coal train showed up at Seward and was able to successfully offload its coal along with the other half of the train that had to stop on account of the wind.

For the return trip to Anchorage, the consist was successfully doubled up on December 12th, resulting in a 10 unit, 113 car, 7000 ft behemoth of a train- essentially 1½ trains. Here, David Blaze catches SD70MAC #4016 in charge of nine other EMD Behemoths as it snakes its way northward around the Turnagain Arm at Indian, AK on December 12, 2010.