Rare treat? or trick?
One of the few sources of excitement out on the west end of the Minneapolis Sub are the very sporadic autorack extras. Word through the interwebs this day had one such extra on its way with a BNSF leader and FXE trailing. It was a nice fall day so I headed out to see if I could intercept the train. Leapfrogging crossings I carefully made my way east.
When I got to Cylon I discovered the extra stopped. My spirits rose for a moment thinking they must have stopped to change up the power, FXE leader? My hopes were dashed once I got a closer look. The trailing unit was still tied onto the train with the lead unit running around the wye. They would run nose to nose the rest of the trip to the autoport. Ugh.
I shot it a few times anyway since I needed to go back to town. Without ditch lights they set no speed records at 20 mph. There must have been some reason the FXE could not lead at all. Turning the 4986 would allow it run short hood forward back to back with the FXE once the crew was rested to go east. In the wee hours the crew would return east (contrary to the past practice for these extras). Without any cars released yet at the autoport they would go east with a handful of loaded used tie gondolas. October 28, 2022.
Rare treat? or trick?
One of the few sources of excitement out on the west end of the Minneapolis Sub are the very sporadic autorack extras. Word through the interwebs this day had one such extra on its way with a BNSF leader and FXE trailing. It was a nice fall day so I headed out to see if I could intercept the train. Leapfrogging crossings I carefully made my way east.
When I got to Cylon I discovered the extra stopped. My spirits rose for a moment thinking they must have stopped to change up the power, FXE leader? My hopes were dashed once I got a closer look. The trailing unit was still tied onto the train with the lead unit running around the wye. They would run nose to nose the rest of the trip to the autoport. Ugh.
I shot it a few times anyway since I needed to go back to town. Without ditch lights they set no speed records at 20 mph. There must have been some reason the FXE could not lead at all. Turning the 4986 would allow it run short hood forward back to back with the FXE once the crew was rested to go east. In the wee hours the crew would return east (contrary to the past practice for these extras). Without any cars released yet at the autoport they would go east with a handful of loaded used tie gondolas. October 28, 2022.