Rapid City Rails
Here is another from 2018 that I kind of like. This is a piece of railroad that I've always been fascinated by ever since first learning about it in a 1995 issue of Trains magazine. I think it was the fact that I had a love of the state going back to several family trips taken as a child to the region. And the fact that by that late date this was an island disconnected from the balance of the Chicago and Northwestern System since the Cowboy Line had been abandoned and the PRC had been sold off to the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern.
I'd never rail fanned in South Dakota, but when I drove cross country in January 2018 I snagged what trains I could, and this was one I ran into and tried to chase for a bit. Not knowing anything about this route I wasn't too successful but did get a few I kind of liked on this bitterly cold but perfectly clear afternoon. Here is a southbound Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern train rolling thru Rapid City with a nice original DME blue and yellow leader. The train is crossing East St. Patrick Street at MP 97.6 on the Black Hills Sub only a half mile from the north end of the yard where they will end their day. It seems that billboards are omnipresent throughout the state and I remembered being entertained with them (especially the 'Where the Heck is Wall Drug?' ones) on those childhood cross country trips. So it was great to include the train passing beneath a few that are wedged between the tracks and parallel East St. Joseph Street.
Considering that I'd never seen this railroad before, even this little taste was a treat, but I really want to go back. I believe this was a turn coming back from Belle Fourche with bentonite loads out of Colony, Wyoming but it may have turned at Whitewood. I'm honestly not at all familiar with this road's operations so maybe one of my followers here can elaborate.
Rapid City, South Dakota
Thursday January 11, 2019
Rapid City Rails
Here is another from 2018 that I kind of like. This is a piece of railroad that I've always been fascinated by ever since first learning about it in a 1995 issue of Trains magazine. I think it was the fact that I had a love of the state going back to several family trips taken as a child to the region. And the fact that by that late date this was an island disconnected from the balance of the Chicago and Northwestern System since the Cowboy Line had been abandoned and the PRC had been sold off to the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern.
I'd never rail fanned in South Dakota, but when I drove cross country in January 2018 I snagged what trains I could, and this was one I ran into and tried to chase for a bit. Not knowing anything about this route I wasn't too successful but did get a few I kind of liked on this bitterly cold but perfectly clear afternoon. Here is a southbound Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern train rolling thru Rapid City with a nice original DME blue and yellow leader. The train is crossing East St. Patrick Street at MP 97.6 on the Black Hills Sub only a half mile from the north end of the yard where they will end their day. It seems that billboards are omnipresent throughout the state and I remembered being entertained with them (especially the 'Where the Heck is Wall Drug?' ones) on those childhood cross country trips. So it was great to include the train passing beneath a few that are wedged between the tracks and parallel East St. Joseph Street.
Considering that I'd never seen this railroad before, even this little taste was a treat, but I really want to go back. I believe this was a turn coming back from Belle Fourche with bentonite loads out of Colony, Wyoming but it may have turned at Whitewood. I'm honestly not at all familiar with this road's operations so maybe one of my followers here can elaborate.
Rapid City, South Dakota
Thursday January 11, 2019