Today's Train of Thought- This Ain't No Polar Express, Aug 14, 2010

With a name like Hudson Bay Railway, you'd think that today's rather convoluted train of thought might be the next best thing to The Polar Express. However, you would be off by more than 1500 miles.



In 1997, Colorado-based Omnitrax reached an agreement with the Canadian National to purchase and operate more than 800 miles of track in northern Manitoba between The Pas and the Hudson Bay port of Churchill. At the same time and about 1600 miles to the south, the newly-formed Burlington Northern-Santa Fe began divesting itself of some lesser-used branchlines in Illinois. North American RailNet would end up picking up four disconnected former BNSF lines in the Land of Lincoln. By 2005, the North American RailNet would sell their remaining American railroad properties to Omnitrax, including the Illinois Railway (formerly Illinois Railnet).



In recent years, Omnitrax has taken steps to improve capacity at the port of Churchill, including incrementally rebuilding the track between The Pas and Churchill and purchasing newer locomotives to operate over the line. Included as part of the new power is at least 10 former Union Pacific (nee Missouri Pacific) SD50s.



While the Hudson Bay SD50s were probably assigned to the Illinois Railway for test runs after being rebuilt and repainted in HBRY colors, the Omnitrax Illinois affiliate seems to have taken a liking to at least two of the 6-axle beasts as some of them have been on the property since at least late 2008.



Here, railpictures.net contributor Steve Smedley caught the matched pair of Hudson Bay SD50s #5009 and #5008 and a leased Helm GP38-2 as they crossed the Fox River in Montgomery, IL with more than 50 empty cars on their way back from BNSF's Eola yard in Aurora, IL on Mother's Day 2010.



The train is heading back to Ottawa, IL on home rails after traversing BNSF via trackage rights between Aurora and Montgomery and the cars are bound for US Silica's Ottawa plant. At Ottawa, the Illinois Railway interchanges with the CSX and Iowa Interstate while heading furhter south to Streator, IL where it interchanges with the Norfolk Southern and BNSF.



However out of place the two six axle beasts may be, they certainly do look sharp with their new green/white/gold paint scheme.

Today's Train of Thought- Courtesey the Red White & Blue

Prior to the nation's 1976 bicentennial, a number of American railways decided to mark the occasion by introducing one-of-a-kind bicentennial paint schemes. The paint scheme was usually limited to one or two engines- some of which were renumbered 1776 or 1976 for the occasion.

A number of these locomotives have since been repainted, sold, retired or scrapped since then, but there were a number of holdouts. The Alaska Railroad had a pair of F7As that remained in the bicentenial scheme well into the 1980s. Belt Railway of Chicago had one of their then-new MP15AC's delivered in a red, white & blue scheme which didn't get repainted until the late 1990s. Pennsylvania's Pittsburgh and Shawmut was apparently so taken with their bicentinial scheme that they repainted the remainder of their small fleet of SW9s in red white & blue until their 1999 takeover by Genesee & Wyoming. ALCo holdout Delaware & Hudson had a chop-nose RS3u renumbered 1976 that was stored serviceable by the time then-parent company Guilford divested themselves of the D&H. The locomotive never saw service again with the D&H, but it found a home along Pennsylvania's Northern Tier hauling freight and excursion trains for the Tioga Central- where it still remains in its bicentennial colors.

With that in mind, today's star spangled train of thought takes us to the deep south and features some red white and blue engines hard at work.

A solid set of rent-a-wreck SD40-2s- with red, white and blue Helm Leasing #6204 and #6206 leading the way- trundle across the Chattahoochee River Bridge between Phenix City, AL and Columbus, GA with Norfolk Southern stone train 67G in October 2007. Interestingly, railpictures.net contributor Casey Thomason was watching the train approach from another Time Zone as the Georgia-Alabama state line marks the boundary between the Eastern and Central Time Zones.

As all-American as this scene might look, the leading pair of locomotives started out life in Canada, built at EMD's London, ON shops for BC Rail. Not too long after the SD40-2s were delivered, the BC Rail went from a two-tone green paint scheme to red white and blue up right up until their 2003 takeover by Canadian National. The CN deemed the units surplus and they were acquired by Helm Financial and subleased to railroads like Norfolk Southern, Pan Am Railways or Kansas City Southern.

Today's Train of Thought- Peace Through Superior FireHorsepower

Today's train of thought- perhaps unsurprisingly- brings us not only north of the border, but about as far north as one can get on the North American standard gauge railroad network (while Fairbanks, AK would be further north, railcars moving to and from Alaska actually have to travel by ship). Around a hundred years ago, it was determined that the Peace River region in northwestern Alberta was one of the few places remaining for settlers which could support agriculture under the dominion of Canada's land grants. The only problem was that there was no rail link to the rest of Canada, so a series of competing lines were awarded charters to build lines radiating north and west out of Edmonton. After WWI, many of these lines were struggling financially or incomplete and after a series of lease agreements with the province. Alberta would then continue to group these railroads under the Northern Alberta Railways umbrella and the line to Dawson Creek, BC would serve as the railhead to the Alaska Highway construction project following US entry into WWII. The NAR would see some postwar traffic, but it began to taper off when Pacific Great Eastern (BC Rail's predecessor) built a line into Dawson Creek from the south.

Already half owned by Canadian National, the NAR would cease to exist as a separate entity when CN purchased a controlling interest in NAR in 1981. In the late 1990s, much of the NAR lines were targeted for divestiture by the CN, only to have the separate entities (mostly operated by Rail America, Savage Rail Services and CANDO) be reacquired by 2007.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Tim Stevens caught CN SD40 #6001 leading a pair of battered GP40-2LWs as they cross a trestle in Peace River, AB with a slightly overpowered local bound for the Daishowa Paper mill west of town on August 29, 2008.

Also to the west of town is the junction where the line to Hines Creek, AB meanders west while the line to Hay River, NWT heads north. Hay River is terminus for the northernmost standard gauge line in Canada.

I thought I'd close out Canada day with this.

Today's Train of Thought- Meanwhile in Valley City; May 24, 2010

Today's train of thought brings us to an impressive span in a state that is synonymous with 'flat'. About 60 miles west of Fargo, the town of Valley City, ND also goes by the moniker 'city of bridges'.

In addition to the smaller vehicle and footbridges closer to the town center that span the winding Sheyenne River, there's the soaring former Northern Pacific Hi-Line bridge north of town. The 103 year old structure is more than 3800 feet long and 162 feet high and was built by the Northern Pacific to bypass the steep grades in and out of the valley on it's Twin Cities-Seattle mainline. In the course of traversing the valley, the bridge (now BNSF's) crosses a county highway, the Sheyenne River and the Carrington Subdivision on Canadian Pacific's former Soo Line route between the Twin Cities and the Canadian border at Portal, ND.

Above, railpictures.net contributor Bryant Kaden caught BNSF SD40-2 #6885 leading an eastbound Jamestown, ND to Fargo, ND local freight as the 2nd generation EMD locomotives come off the eastern end of the trestle on June 10, 2010. The CP Rail's Carrington Subdivision is just visible in the bottom left of the image.


As a bonus, railpictures.net contributor Jerimiah Rindahl caught the same train at the same time from a slightly different location, offering an even more panoramic view of the surrounding countryside.

I'll let you compare and contrast the two images and see which one you find more appealing.

Today's Train of Thought- The Forestry for the Trees; April 5, 2010

Today's train of thought takes us to Idaho along the remnants of one of the last transcontinental railroads- the Milwaukee Road's Pacific extension between Minneapolis, MN and Seattle, WA.

Construction began on the pacific extension in 1906 and was completed just over three years later with a Golden Spike ceremony at Garrison, MT. Because the line was built so late, the Miwaukee Road had to expand westward by acquiring smaller railroads and purchasing individual parcels of land. However, thanks to abundant hydroelectric energy and available copper from western Montana, the Milwaukee Road became a pioneer in electrification- with much of the line between Harlowtown, MT and Tacoma, WA featuring overhead wire.

But the fact that the line bypassed populated areas out west proved to be its undoing and by 1974, it had removed all signs of electrification [just in time for the OPEC-induced oil crisis! -NANESB!] and in 1979, with much of the Pacific extension suffering from deferred maintenance and 10 MPH slow orders, the Milwaukee Road decided to abandon all lines west of Terry, MT- more than 1100 miles total.

A few remnants of the Milwaukee Road Pacific extension and the branches that fed into it are in use today. Notable examples include Washington State's Pend Oreille Valley Railroad, the appropriately named Tacoma Rail, Montana's Central Montana out of Lewistown, MT and the 71-mile St Maries River Railroad in Idaho. The St. Marie's started up in 1980 on a stretch of former Milwaukee Road Pacific extension between Plummer, ID and Avery, ID (although the line to Avery was eventually condemned and shut down by the federal government).

For the first 30 years, the line was owned and operated by the Potlatch Corporation. However, in 2010 the line was sold to the Williams Group out of Missouri- which operates another railway (the Bountiful Grain and Craig Mountain) further South. Like many other railways, the Saint Maries River found themselves a reliable workhorse in EMD's GP9, which had been with them since the beginning- albeit in a chopped hood variation.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Matt Adams catches GP9s #102 and #101 trundling across the spindly trestle at Lake Benewah, ID with 9 cars bound for the Union Pacific itnerchange at Plummer in July 2008. Not surprisingly, the primary source of traffic for the line is lumber and forestry products. Interestingly, both the track and locomotives come from the Milwaukee Road.

The St Maries also occasionally uses a couple of former MILW cabooses to assist in lengthy backup moves.