This just Blows! Part 1

I have no idea who took these photos but I had to post them.

Note: No revenue loads attached to the plow. South Saskatchewan short line railways take note!!!!!!!
These photos were taken on the Bellwood Subdivision, between Seward and David City, Nebraska on the BNSF Ry. Seward is about 25 miles west of Lincoln, on the Ravenna Sub. A few blizzards and sub zero temperatures coupled with moderate winds made for a beautiful, but, flash frozen environment. A freight train was snowed in at David City and a rotary snow plow was sent to clear the track of drifts that varied from 6ft or less up to 12ft in spots!! The photos were taken on Jan. 8th through Jan. 10th.

This just Blows! Part 2

I couldn't resist posting these photos along with the following caption.

Note: No revenue loads attached to the plow. South Saskatchewan short line railways take note!!!!!!!

These photos were taken on the Bellwood Subdivision, between Seward and David City, Nebraska on the BNSF Ry. Seward is about 25 miles west of Lincoln, on the Ravenna Sub. A few blizzards and sub zero temperatures coupled with moderate winds made for a beautiful, but, flash frozen environment. A freight train was snowed in at David City and a rotary snow plow was sent to clear the track of drifts that varied from 6ft or less up to 12ft in spots!! The photos were taken on Jan. 8th through Jan. 10th.

Hockey weekend gone bad!

Well as you already know my son Garrett and I were in Smithers over the weekend for Hockey. Unfortunately his weekend was ended early during the second period on Saturday night when he slid into the end boards on a break away. The end result was a trip to the hospital by ambulance where we found out he had broken his right tibia finishing his hockey season. I have to tell you he`s one tough kid...... not a tear! The crappy thing is he`s now in a cast from his toes to the mid thigh.

Heavy Coal along the Skeena river

Sunday morning Jan 17 Garrett and I headed home for Smithers after a disappointing hockey weekend (more on that later). About 35 miles East of Terrace there is a pull off right on the edge of the Skeena where you can look across at the CN mainline on the North side. I`ve passed by this point to many times to remember without ever seeing a train but today was my lucky day. 5791 and 2414 were leading a coal train loaded for the coast so I managed to get a couple of pick photos.

8853 in Smithers heading West

Well another weekend hockey trip to Smithers with Garrett so we made a quick trip to the rail yard where 8853 and 2583 waited to depart for Prince Rupert approximately 3:00 pm with about 10,000 feet of well cars in tow.

BC Rail 1862 still in service

Well it's not very often to see a caboose in service due to the use of "FRED's" but every now and then one shows up in maintenance service. When CN assumed control of BC Rail I recall seeing a large number of them for sale through a CN asset sale. BC Rail 1862 was in the Smithers yard with a string of Difco dump cars Saturday Jan 16 where it was photographed.

Loading the car float

Well I thought I'd share a few more photos of the crew loading the rail barge the other day. The first one shows CN and Foss crews bolting the switch points before pushing rail cars on the the barge. The next on shows the locomotives backing down the grade with 5 bulkhead flat cars used as idlers. You can see the cars on the mainline in the left of the photo. The last show a hopper being pushed along the outside of the barge. The pictures where all taken from the ramp control room located in the tower closest to shore.

Short ride in 5602.....

Well today was a definitely a good day to go rail fanning. I managed to make it to Pillsbury Point (just West of mile post 93 on the Skeena subdivison) where I got to watch the rail crew load the AquaTrain rail barge. While I was taking photos of the locomotives from the beach I was waved up to the loco by the engineer and was invited in, before I knew it I was on my way for a short cab ride to the grade crossing at Fairview dock.

Six days late....better then never

Well the Foss Marine tug "Jeffery Foss" showed up six days after its planned arrival. Bad weather forced the crew to spend 6 days jogging back and forth in a sheltered inlet waiting for a break before heading South for Rupert. CN crews started off loading at 4:00 am. but had to stop and wait for the tide before resuming at 10:30 am.

Happy New Year from Prince Rupert

Well I made a trip down to the waterfront and was luck enough to take a few photos of a container train that arrived earlier in the evening. 5602 was in the lead followed by BC Rail 4608, I suspect it will be pulled into the container terminal on the graveyard shift at 1:00 a.m.