Chasing Z-BKPH-30

It's always a good idea to step back once in a while from working on the layout to truely railfan or chase a train across the railroad that you have planned and built.

This past Sunday afternoon I did just that and decided to railfan the west end of St. Clair Sub and see what train came our way. 

Sitting at the local McDonalds off I-75 It wasnt long before my scanner crackled to life with CN2224 east requesting DTC block authority for EMID, SQUA, and RIVE from the St. Clair Sub Dispatcher. Knowing the train was roughly 15 miles west of our location we took the opportunity to head to the east side of the Saginaw River Swing Bridge and setup for the train.

CN2224 and CN6256 leading the Z-BKPH-30 over the Saginaw River. This train is an overhead haulage freight from Battle Creek to Port Huron using MCIS tracks. The St. Clair Sub sees two of these trains daily, one east and one west. Power can be anything from western road power to Ferromex engines, but normally it is two CN engines.

After catching the train crossing the river at an illustrious 10mph, we knew the train would be stopping at Bay Yard to change crews before continuing onto Port Huron, so a photo at the yard would be win as well.

Quick snapshot of outbound crew boarding CN2224. Soon after boarding and running through their necessary paperwork, they called up the St. Clair Desk and requested DTC authority to Port Huron. Beings it was Saturday, traffic was a lighter, meaning the dispatcher gave them the road all the way to Kincaid roughly 50 miles west. We were going to be hot pursuit with nothing opposing the train at 40mph track speed.

After the Z crept away from depot we were pleasantly suprised to catch MCIS SD40-2M #4059 and SD40-2 #4052 on point of the M-BAMC-31 awaiting its crew. Can't railfan the MCIS without capturing at least one home road motor.

On the way east to begin chase, we stopped briefly on the M-33 overpass to photograph the train coming out of Bay Yard.

Traversing Chessie Jct on "Bay 1"

"Bay 1, Bay 2, and east yard lead coming together"

Looking west as the FDL16 and 645 began spooling up to tackle the gradual grade out of the Saginaw River valley.

Tail end of train snaking through Chessie Jct. past Lakes Forest Products. You can always catch a good mix of the Canadian Wheat Board hoppers on these trains.

The train was now well underway through fertile farmland dotted with sugar beets, corn, and soybean fields ready for harvest. While it would run through Gerhard and Edsel we opted to intercept down the line at Upper Huron.

The scanner came to life as the crew released "GERH" and "EDSE" blocks. We knew it wouldn't be long before the rumble would become a headlight coming into view at Upper Huron. 

Beings that Upper Huron is the highest point on the Sub and crest of the grade, we could hear the engineer notching off the throttle as he passed by. From here to Grays Lake he could maintain track speed with small input and the trains i tonnage. Upper Huron in itself is a nice place to railfan for the day with the wye to the Port Belle branch hosting a daily turn, weekly coal train to Michigan Sugar, and intermittent aggregate and grain trains.

Not the best shot but caught the leader before crossing Quincassee Creek.

Continuing the chase into Grays Lake I decided to capture the train with the sleepy town as the setting with the train traveling through it.

This Saturday afternoon Grays Lake was pretty quiet with exception of the lonely garbage truck as the train lumbered by in the background.

Passing through the east side of Grays Lake we pass a billboard for Tim Horton's. CN and Tim Hortons... Couldn't think of two things that are more synonymous with Canada than these two .

Out of Grays Lake the county highway parallels the main into Gerhard allowing us to capture the head end with the passing siding and local setout track in the foreground. Most of the time we would make a meet here but with a quiet Saturday the train races along at track speed.

With our last spot picked out in advance of the arriving train we catch Z-BKPH-30 passing Gerhards restored station on its way to Port Huron. As the train rolls out of "GRAY" and into "GERH" block we hear the dispatcher issue the "KINC SDG" block at Kincaid to westbound U-MYPB-30 (Empty limestone Marysville to Port Belle), signifying the Z-BKPH will hold the main and continue on east.

The entire trip I have focused on the motors but as the train slips past I notice some intersting graffiti on the Chlorine tank car, and figure what a neat inspiration to model.

Lastly what looks to be a freshly painted Minnesota Commercial boxcar brings up the rear.

Peeking into the photos foreground is MCIS GP40-2 #4008. Traffic levels from numerous customers at Gerhard and Grays Lake warrant a local switcher, which is based out of Gerhard during weekdays. Normally any four axle general pool EMD can be found on this assignment, but lately 4008 has been holding the job. Here in a week or two we will see it back at Bay City for its 90 day, probably swapping with GP38-2 #3816.

We could continue the chase onto Port Huron or wait here for the U-MYPB-30 which never has a dissapointing consist, but today we are going to call it and head for home.

I hope everyone has enjoyed this narrated chase of Z-BKPH-30 on the St. Clair Sub.

GM

Happy Halloween

Everyone have a safe and happy Halloween.

Virginia Sightings

Railcars whether private or railroad constantly criss-cross the North American rail network carrying goods of an endless variety of different customers. While we as modelers can easily model the rest of the "network" through modeled interchanges or staging yards, some modelers exchange or share cars with other like theme/era modelers. Beyond your normal empty - load car cycle cars also transit to a host of shops for work that could range from cleaning, painting, and light repairs to full rebuilds extending their lifespan.

Shannon Crabtree snapped photos of various pieces of Michigan Interstate equipment transiting the Virginia Midland and Virginia Central over the past month. Since Shannon's VMS contract shop does work for MCIS, it is not uncommon to see our equipment in Virginia. Let's take a look at what each piece of rolling stock was 

MCIS 8590 loaded for Specialized Beverage with cases of "Laker Lager" coming from Great Lakes Brewing. While a regional brew folks in the MidAtlantic really got a taste for it.

MCBT 8498 loaded with wood veneer from Michigan's Upper Peninsula for Klotz Distributors.

Three FMC 4700s for beet pulp/pellet and agricultural service at Fredricksburg Flats. Just like the ACF car below they had transited to VMS for interior lining and finishing details. It didn't take very long for vandals to tag their "art" on two of the cars.

One of MCIS' rebuilt ACF 4600s now in malted barley service for Huron Malting. The cars were painted by FRS in Michigan but the interior linings and final detailing / decaling were completed at VMS. The cars are in the "stealth" scheme that has been used in the past year on covered hopper repaints. Additionally these repaints received an American flag in the upper left corner similar to PAR's boxcars.

MCIS ballast hopper at Virginia Central yard heading to VMS for dump door refitting and solar panels for automatic operations. 

**Backstory - these cars all went to Shannon Crabtree for weathering, as you can see from the pictures his work is awesome which is a testament to his modeling skills. Check out his blog for more photos and videos**

Everyone have a great Halloween in case I don't get my Late October post out. Life can be crazy with kiddos so you never know what your schedule will hold.

GM

Wordless Wednesday #36

Mid October Update

October is well in progress, with Halloween just around the corner. So what modeling have I been up to? Layout time has been limited to working on my Sugar Beet Plant kitbash project.  Wordless Wednesday #35 showcases the main power plant / Cogen boiler structure. I have been planning this industry for sometime and collected eight Walthers kits to use as part sources. I hope to have photos for end of month update showing the progress complete so far. Along with kitbashing, I also visited  a local show and layout so let's get into the pictures shall we.

Texas Western Model Railroad Club Show

     TWMRC banner at entry table.

The second year for this show which I absolutely love attending because it has reasonable admission ($6), free parking, vendors of all sorts, they improved from last year, and it's in Fort Worth!!

I picked up some great bargains for $100 

  - 6 Norscot Heavy Equipment Pieces

  - Built / weathered building for Gerhard malt or cereal plant.

    Building roughed in for Malt or Cereal Plant @ Gerhard. A lot of neat kitbashed character in shape, paint, weathering, and covered track area.

  Lower level was all vendors, I liked this change over last year.

                         On3

                 O gauge - Tinplate

                        N scale

           NTGRC - G scale setup

Additionally there were layout open houses and clinics that you could attend.

Don Murphey's St. Louis, Atlantic, and Pacific

Last week I had the opportunity to visit I Don's layout to discuss future operating strategies and see the great work he already had in place. This was my first opportunity to see the RailOp car forwarding systerm in use. The layout is 26x40 with a 450' double track mainline run. Provided is a synopsis of the layout (courtesy of the DFW Interchange Website):

East meets west and north meets south on the St. Louis, Atlantic, and Pacific. This railroad recalls Don's experience with St. Louis Union Station and its passenger trains. Over 30 railroads operated passenger and freight trains through this area in the steam to diesel transition era. Focal point of this 26' x 40' foot railroad is a 15 track Union Station. Complicated throat trackage utilizing single and double slip switches to route the trains to their assigned tracks. Don has carefully engineered his track and cars to allow long trains to back into the depot. Visitors will be able to return to the days when exotic train names such as Zephyr, Eagle, Rocket, Firefly, and Chief were common in railroading, In addition to Union Station, a 450 foot double track main line winds around the room. A suburban depot reminiscent of Tower Grove, Missouri is another feature, along with extensive steam and diesel facilities. Freight operations center around several on line towns. Don’s wife helps with scenery work and 60% of the scenery is complete, including several well detailed scenes. Era is elastic, including both steam and modern diesel power. This is an opportunity to see a railroad where passenger trains and terminal operations are king.

  Overall room view from entrance.

       St. Louis yard and loco servicing

            St. Louis Union Terminal 

              Kansas City Industries

                Jefferson City, MO

                   Kirkwood, MO 

This layout was a lot of fun to railfan and operate on. Beings I do not model steam, early diesel, or passenger ops this gave me a great opportunity to experience and understand more of this side of the hobby. Definitely a great side effect of making friends in the hobby is getting to experience a model railroad that is not your own. Personally I feel it that it adds a greater depth of knowledge which can be translated and used to further my own model railroad.

Have a great month.

GM

Wordless Wednesday #35

Wordless Wednesday #34