Recent Digital Photos
by Mike Condren
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50 Years of Railroad Photography |
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Dec. 10, 2010
| On my trip from Memphis to Tahlequah, I made my normal tour of the UP, former MP, yard in Van Buren and found this loaded unit coal train at the S. 28th St. end of the yard. It was a typical winter day in western Arkansas. |
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| At the other end of the yard, the A&M was putting together its transfer for the Ft. Smith Railroad. |
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| When I got to Stilweel, OK, a northbound empty grain train was pulling into town. It stopped in the clear on the siding between the main grade crossings. |
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| Also in town was an interesting combination of Jordan Spreader and GP9. |
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Here we see the Santa Train sign at the station. It says Dec. 13, 4:00-7:00PM. I will be back as I have never seen the KCS Santa Claus train. |
| In then headed back toward the head-end of the empty grain train and missed the loaded grain train moving at track speed through town. I could not even shoot it through the front window as the auto-focus kept focusing on stuff on the inside of the car. I ended up going to the crossing that leads to the Tyson plant and set up. |
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Dec. 12, 2010
| In an attempt to shoot the Santa Train, I drove to Heavener, OK after church on a very cold day. There was not a cloud in the sky. I found the DPUs of an empty grain train getting refueled by taking old US59 along the north end of the yard, alongside the former Howe Coal Co. balloon track. |
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| Here we see the head-end power of the empty grain train at the fuel dock. |
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| At the north end of the yard was another set of DPUs. |
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| The Santa Train was parked around the south leg of the wye, with the F-units at the east end of the wye in the trees. |
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| Here we see the crew preparing to back the Santa Train from the wye, first onto the passing track, and then the mainline. After these pictures, I discovered that my camera battery was dead! Fortunately I had two spares in the car and quickly changed the battery. |
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| After changing the battery, I then had to content with something new, sun blinding me, coming in around the camera making it very hard to see what I was shooting. |
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| After backing to the south end of the passing track, the train is now heading north on the mainline to stop with the last 6 cars parked at the yard office which once was CTC office. The two-story wooden station stood just south of that building. |
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| The last 6-cars were spotted at the old station platform. |  |
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| The "business train" uncoupled from the Santa Train and pulled north to the fuel dock. |
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| After the "business train" pulled north, this group of engines started their switching. |
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| Here we see the "business train" sitting at the fuel dock. |
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| Here is the loaded grain train sitting at the fuel dock. |
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| When I arrived at Heavener, this DPU unit was blocked by the truck refueling the units. |
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Dec. 13, 2010
| After arriving at the station at Stilwell, we walked over to the crosswalk and waited to cross. |
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| The reindeer flat car this day has a G-scale train running around under the flying reindeer. |
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| This GP9 appears to be a Paducah rebuild due to its frog eye headlights. Since the windows are covered, I assume that this engine is remotely controlled. |
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| The "business train" was uncoupled from the "Santa Train" and pulled north. |
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| We then got in line to tour the inside of the train. In the Santa caboose of course was Santa and Mrs. Claus. |
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| In the green caboose there was an HO scale model on the floor in the cupola area with a walkway over it. I do not know what caused the brown area in the center of the picture. |
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| This panel lists the corporate sponsors. |
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| The last picture in Stilwell was taken from the car on US59 showing the lights on the Santa Train. |
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This page was designed and is maintained by Mike Condren.
If you have materials
that you would like to contribute, contact me at mcondren@cbu.edu