Duplainville and Waukesha Local Items
Spring 2010

Photos by J. David Ingles

Jan. 29, 2010

CN 2464, one of the former Conrail-lease GE LMSX units now in IC 2460 series for CN, leads train 336 at North Duplainville, MP 104.5, at 1557 hours on Jan. 29, 2010, with a whopping 170 cars behind 5 units (others are 5657/5652/9590/9518).

We could tell business was rebounding when the likes of these units began showing up again on CN. Train 341 at North Duplainville meeting #336 at 1559 hours behind SD40-3R 6006/SD40-2W 5284/IC SD60 1017.

Feb 12, 2010

OK, it's not quite Spring yet, but here's an EJ&E SD38 in the consist of CN #336 climbing Waukesha's Cemetery Hill on Lincoln's Birthday, 95 cars behind eng. 8806/2416/2596/EJ&E 660/5735, 15:33 hours.

Feb. 13, 2010

Pewaukee lakefront, 2/13, 16:44 hours, a 94-car CP 396 grain train behind Soo 6047/6058/CP 4404/4406.

Feb. 14, 2010

Re-crew on a CN coal load off BNSF in Chicago, bound for Wis. Public Service at Green Bay, North Duplainville, Valentine's Day, 16:28 hours, eng. 6294/9220/9593. The higher-sided cars in these old sets are in the 1000-1100 series, so we always watch for the 1027!

March 1, 2010

It's March 1st, we still have snow cover, as a CN 781 grain empty climbs away from Spring Creek along Duplainville siding at MP 104.25 with 2538/6017/2202/5502 at 16:05 hours

A rare meet of moving Empire Builders on March 1st, at Springdale Road just east of the CN diamonds, 16:26 hours. Slow-moving #7, about 5 minutes late, has 138/82/148, while #8, about 3 hours down, has 165 leading, 15 trailing, and I didn't get the middle unit number; both have 10 cars. #7 crossed over at Duplainville to track 2.

March 16, 2010

CP local G-67 returning west from Milwaukee 3/16/10, passing CP track crews at work. One unit is unusual; usually there are two.

CN L510, the nightly N. Fond du Lac-Duplainville local turn, had its engine, IC 6202, die on morning of 3/16; rescue came from Shops (N. Fond du Lac), but not before the crew expired on its 12 hours of service. Here, help has just arrived.

March 19, 2010

Timely catch as the gates came down on Whiterock Ave., 3/19, as WC 3024 lugged 15 cars out of the siding. This is CN L504, our local job based in Waukesha, and he's headed for Burlington, Wis. This one of seven WC GP40's still active; we had 3 of them thru the winter, one for a couple of months straight.

March 21, 2010

CP 636, the symbol for ethanol off the DM&E, skirts the Lake Pewaukee lakefront in downtown Village of Pewaukee 3/21, with the usual required buffer car between engines and tank cars. CP 5920, in lead, is one of 20 CP SD40-2's leased to DM&E/IC&E system before CP took them over. Trailing units are DM&E 6055 and 6091; 81-car train, 4:45 p.m.

WSOR train from Janesville to Horicon passing site of old Soo/WC Main St. yard on CN main line in Waukesha, 3/21/10, 5:15 p.m., units 4001/3807/4053, 70 cars. Note "Grow Wisconsin" lettering on rear unit, and Model Railroader 70th anniv. boxcar third back from engines.

March 29, 2010

CP SD40-2 6073 is solo power on an empty 65-car ethanol train, symboled 613, rattling the CN diamond at Duplainville on 3/29/10, at 5:06 p.m. Whether empty or loaded, ethanol trains are required to have a buffer car between locomotive(s) and tank cars. This train is crossing over from 1 Main to 2 Main to skirt a dead freight ahead on 1, awaiting a re-crew, at MP 104, short of the end of double track at Pewaukee. That train sat idle for 4 days!

CN train 447 makes a pick-up at the North Duplainville set-out track, MP 104.5, at 4:09 p.m. 3/29/10. Behind road units 8805 and 5699 are three CEFX GE's, many of a series that have been, and remain, on lease to CP: CEFX 1015, 1005, and 1022. They are bound for the Lake Superior & Ishpeming, to help replace its fleet of ex-BN U30C's and C30-7's.

We could tell rail business was beginning to rebound this Spring as CN brought back into service some SD40-2W's and CP some SD40-2's plus most if not all of its 42 remaining stored Soo SD60's, one of which, 6052, leads GE 8842 west through Duplainville on 75-car train 295 at 4:50 p.m. 3/29/10.

My favorite new-ish Canadian grain hoppers are this series seen beginning a couple of years ago. This is in CN train 346, the 8870 South, on 3/29/10. Ranking right behind them are the Alberta series with town names on them. I believe, not sure, that this Saskatchewan series is only for use on CN, with the reporting marks SKNX, if it follows the practice in the Alberta cars, which are in series ALNX and ALPX, for use from points of origin on CN and CP, respectively. In general, Canadian cars have much less graffiti than U.S. cars.

April 9, 2010

Spring Creek Bridge along Duplainville Road, MP 103.5, CN 8838 South, with veteran GE 2418 in middle, 8844 trailing, 3:49 pm, 4/9/10. Spring Creek rises just northwest in Sussex, and is about 2 or 3 miles long, flowing into the Fox River, which flows south to the Illinois River at Ottawa, Ill.

April 11, 2010

Running 19 hours, 20 minutes late, Amtrak's Empire Builder of April 8 approaches Duplainville diamond at 9:06 a.m. on 4/11/10. The BNSF unit was added at Havre, MT, when trailing Amtrak unit 11 crapped out, but that delay was minimal compared with what was ahead. Somewhere west of Williston, N.Dak, a BNSF grain train entering a passing siding drailed its two rear DPU units and a few cars, and tore up quite a bit of mainline track, so the Builder had to just sit west of the mess for 12 hours or more. The lead Amtrak unit is 162. Waving at us from 4376's cab is friend Craig Willett, engineer, photographer, modeler, historian, and author (and a big E-unit fan), whose regular run is the Builder to and from Winona, Minn. Owing to the delays to this train, he and the conductors were vanned from Winona to St. Paul to bring this train to Milwaukee.

Amtrak #7, Empire Builder, with Twin Cities Milwaukee 261 group's ex- Milwaukee Super Dome and Skytop obs on the rear. Pewaukee lakefront, 4:19 p.m., on-time, eng. 145/23, 15 cars.

Just like old times on the back end!

April 13, 2010

Waukesha-based local L504, eng. GTW 5849 (an ex-Pittsburgh & Lake Erie GP38), backs down the mile-long Amron spur to service two customers, one of which sends out large transformers and such on deep- well flats. That's Waukesha Memorial Hospital in the background, on a hill just west of downtown.

April 19, 2010

Homeward bound from Hwy. 50 in Kenosha County to Waukesha this afternoon, we heard one southward train hit the Antioch detector ahead of us, unseen but then beginning in Burlington with a meet, found a flurry of trains.

CN 198, 8877/2203, 83 cars, Burlington, 1536 hours

CN Burlington depot, 1545 hours

CN 341, 8020/UP 7629/BNSF 9168, 158 cars, Burlington north side, 1555 hours.

CN grain extra south, 80080/IC 2461, 98 cars, 1618 hours, MP 78.8 Honey Creek detector

CN 347, 8900/IC 2716, 110 cars, stopping in Vernon siding for meet, south of Benson Rd., 1720 hours

CN 346, 5790/2516/BNSF 9876, 122 cars, Grand Avenue, 1751 hours

CN 347 again, "Main St. Yard site," Waukesha, 1818 hours (so I could get closeups of that brand-new 8900 leading!)

May 1, 2010

Celebrate Amtrak's 39th birthday with a dome-car ride on the Empire Builder. Amtrak #8, eng. 168/130, Pewaukee, 2:12 p.m., about a half hour late, PV's Puget Sound and Sierra Hotel, ex-CB&Q domes, on the rear.

May 5, 2010

Union Pacific 10-car business train, with C&NW Heritage unit 1995, ran from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Butler Yard (Milwaukee), before heading to Chicago and down the old GM&O to St. Louis the next day. Stabbed by a broken rail in western Wisconsin, it was running 2 hours late when it passed Clyman Jct., Wis., at 6:30 p.m.