Nov.-Dec. 2011 Local Action

Photos by Dave Ingles

Aside from the trip to Tennessee for the Lexington group, the gray November we had in SE Wisconsin was not conducive to much train photography. Here's CN #446 coming into central Waukesha at 12:39 on November 29th, units 8906/IC 1012 (repainted CN) with 106 cars.

I was out on this cloudy day because i'd been alerted to a very rare happening -- a road freight on CN led by a GP9! It's train #335 with units 4028/2410/5710 with 78 cars, coming by the Waukesha depot at 1:12 p.m. CN still has a bunch of GP9s, all rebuilt of course, many mated with slugs, but aside from some that are, or were, paired with IC or GTW GP units for Chicago local work, there are few stationed in the U.S.

As I left central Waukesha for a "mini-chase," the sun began coming out more, and just as I got to Duplainville the CP gates went down and local G67 scooted west with the 4509, an ex-MILW GP38, and 16 cars, at 1:23.

So with the CN having to slow for the interlocking to clear, I went back to Joseph Road for this shot at 1:32.

The 4028, rebuilt in 1984, was one of 32 survivors in the 4000-4143 series a couple of years ago. It originally was CN 4526. The majority of surviving GP9M's, over 150 a couple of years ago, are in the 7000 and 7200 series for yard engines.

Finally I got more or less full sunlight at Weyer Road at 1:40 for the finale on #335.

Amtrak # 8 showed up at Duplainville at 1:59 with the 39/52 and the usual 12 cars, on track #1.

Saw this at a corner as I was returning home. Not every day do we see an Alaska plate in the Milwaukee area!

Next day, Nov. 30, here is CN #335 in Waukesha with 2525/2615 at 1:45 pm. This is old "Main St. Yard" site, with the Phoenix Hts. single-family homes at the left on the old foundry site that had been the early Wisconsin Central shops.

He had a Waukesha siding meet with #446, which came by the depot at 2:17 with 8829/8825/2286 and 120 cars.

Then up to Duplainville for Amtrak #8, which had units 76/137 and 11 cars, and had to crawl along until a track foreman ahead in Brookfield gave up his track and time. Amtrak is already over an hour late; it's 3 p.m. and his speed was slow enough I tried this mirror shot first.

And away he goes, in some sunlight, at little after 3 p.m., on track 1; turns out he'd run by an ethanol train here on track 2.

Here's the ethanol train, symboled #626, with CEFX 3121/IC&E 6412/IC&E 6426 and 78 cars, 3:09 p.m.

When I'm alone I use digital throw-away shots to get unit numbers, but these are perhaps worth a short look as IC&E's SD40-2's are named for on-line cities, Lansing, Iowa, in this case.

Some of the tank cars are marked, some not.

Leaving early to beat the rush hour on Dec. 6th and taking the long way to meeting friends for supper before a slide show south of Milwaukee, and knowing the Empire Builder had left Chicago 45 minutes late, I drove thru downtown. A freight was already west of the depot, so I went down along the tracks near where Cut-Off Tower used to be, and first shot this "sun dog," or light ray, call it whatever, about 4:10 p.m.

If it were a spotlight, it would be emanating from about where County Stadium used to be.

The freight was crawling along Track 2, probably to set out cars into the yard at Cut-Off and also waiting for Amtrak to go by. It's train #277, "the DM&E train," with three Sd40-2's: NREX 6301/IC&E 6411/IC&E 6423. Time is 4:20 p.m. I'm pretty much under the 27th St. viaduct across the Menomonee River valley.

And under almost a full moon!

I went on down to the depot and found the Empire Builder there. It departed at 4:40 with engines 52/54/197 and 11 cars.

On Dec. 8th, #8 the eastbound Builder had Heritage unit 66 trailing 55/158 as the train went thru Duplainville at 2:30, about 50 minutes late.

As soon as #8 passed, CP #281 crossed over from Track 1 to Track 2 and passed me at 2:36, with three SD40-2's, 5935/5970/CITX 3055, and 79 cars.

Waiting for #281 at end of two main tracks in Pewaukee was CP #499 a short 28 cars behind 9558/9502, passing under Hwy 16 at MP 105 at 2:50 p.m. We call this Oakton Ave/Wisconsin Ave. grade crossing "wooden owl crossing" for the "bird" on the pole at left.

Waiting for both westbounds out at Nashotah, about MP 111, was local G67, which came thru Pewaukee at 3:22 with 4509/4602 (ex-MILW GP38/ex-Soo GP40) and 4 cars. He makes a Milwaukee-Watertown turn.

Behind him was an ethanol eastbound, #694, with 8855/9531 and 105 cars, at 3:40 p.m. You'll notice the lack of snow. We basically had no snow that stuck to things until New Year's Day 2012, whereas a year ago we had a big early December storm that left snowcover until a New Year's weekend thaw and melt, then more storms in January that left snowcover for two months or more. No complaints this year!

A bare-table extra on CN comes thru Waukesha on Dec. 9th behind 8947/5610/2566 at 2:14 p.m.

A family event on Dec. 11 took us to Rockford, IL, so with a sunny day at hand we left home early and went via Janesville, where serendipity occurred and this eastbound WSOR train was leaving town just as we entered the city. He stopped at the east side setout track, Wheeler Pit, near where the Amtrak station was a decade ago, to make a pickup: Units 4079/4078/4076 with 82 cars at 12:40 p.m.

With the Janesville GM plant closed, UP's old C&NW yard, which used to have several pairs of MP15's assigned, is quiet and full of stored trilevel cars. At the old engine terminal was this one "patch" SP unit talking quietly to itself in the company of a shell of an old BN E9, owned by the Illinois Railway Museum, and from which WSOR scavenged many parts to make its E9B into an active unit. Wanna buy an E9 shell?

Dec. 16th, eastbound Empire Builder, Duplainville, 11 cars, engines 47/73/111, at 1:48 p.m. almost on-time. In winter, BNSF requires 3 units.

Our GP38-2 local engines of the fall were replaced by GP40W 9592, parked at the depot on Dec. 18th. At least CN repainted it from the last time we saw it a few years ago.

Dec. 21st, a southbound CN coincided with a post-office run in Waukesha, engines 2327/2252 at 11:05 a.m. I always have the camera along just in case something unusual shows up, which hardly ever happens.

No snow, but a nice street decoration in Pewaukee at the lakefront as #8 comes along on the day after Christmas, 1:36 p.m. dead on-time, with 185/152/809 and engineer Willett at the throttle.

Today's Sperry Railcar, No. 964, northbound thru Waukesha on the CN at 2:10 p.m.

After disembarking in Milwaukee, engineer Craig Willett called me to report they'd just passed CP #281 with SD40-2's, so I went back to Pewaukee for this shot, at 2:55 p.m., with CITX 3054/IC&E 6413 and 98 cars. It took him about 45 minutes to climb the hill from Milwaukee and get out here.

An outing on Dec. 29th began with #8 at Duplainville, 132/191/123 and 12 cars, at 2:43 p.m., about 1 hour late. The 12th car is a Twin Cities-Chicago coach on the end, during the busy holiday season ( and also thru the summer ).

The way things often work around here in the afternoon, a quick trip to see Amtrak #8, and possibly nothing else, turned into 90 minutes and 6 trains. Second up was CN #193, a northbound stacker with 420 axles behind 8830/2532/8871/2647, here at MP 104.5 at 2:55 p.m.

CN #347 was a slide only, 8866/2406, at 3:08, then here is #335, 5752/2513, at 3:41 p.m. behind him.

Those 2 met CN #196, 8943/8906, at Duplainville; he is leaving at 3:32 for the CP diamond.

I thought this would be the last shot of the day, of a Herzog work train parked in the materials yard up at North Duplainville (MP 105); this creature, HZGX 189, sounds like and looks similar to a GP40.

The south end has just an enclosed control cab and other apparatus on a flatcar.

The sun had come out, and was setting, and Amtrak #7 was on-time, so I hung around Dupy to watch him go by. We're at Duplainville Road here looking southwest as the sun hits the horizon at 4:12. It's closest to the shortest-daylight day of the year, about a week before.

Only about 4 minutes off best time here, at 4:18, comes #7 with 194 leading, Heritage 66 (again) in the middle, and an unrecorded third unit. I was concentrating on trying the going-away sunset view.

In case I made no shots on the 30th or 31st, this would be a symbolic close to 2011 photography. However, Dec. 31st would turn into a nice afternoon. Not so for this train, which struck a pickup truck at a private crossing west of Ixonia about a half hour later, killing the driver and sole occupant, which delayed the train over 3 hours. The track is parallel to Hwy 16 there, and the man turned left from the highway and went into the crossing without apparently being aware of the speeding Amtrak train catching up to him. The damage to the lead engine was not enough to prevent the train continuing when the site was cleared.

Going out on the 31st for possibly a "last photo of the year," of Amtrak #8, turned into the usual 90 minutes with 6 trains. Sound familiar? Here's #8 at Pewaukee, 185/152 (no 3rd unit), 12 cars, at 2:03 p.m., only about 20 minutes late.

A "rollby" on the scanner alerted us to #281, with 8934/9732/4651 and 87 cars, passing Dupy at 2:13 p.m. The lead unit is quite new. Jeff Hampton tells me the current CP order just completed was for 61 ES44ACs, 8900 - 8960, and another order for 2012 is for an additional 30 ES44ACs, 9350 - 9379, which will be Tier III compliant on emissions.

The rear unit began life as Boston & Maine 316.

Next up: CN #446, 2527/2324, 94 cars, Joseph Road just south of Dupy, 2:22 p.m.

Then the jackpot of the day, #335, with six units but only 44 cars, 19 of which he set off at the Weyer Road "set out track" at North Duplainville. Time of arrival 2:45 (he was here 45 minutes), units 8961/2292/IC 2721/2175/2133/2341. The 4th and 5th untis are ex-Santa Fe/BNSF and C&NW/UP, respectively.

I had 6 or so slides left in the camera when I left home, and this view duplicates the last frame of film I exposed in 2011, as #335 made his setout. Of course the 2 previous frames were roster shots of the shiny secondhanders.

Nothing like sunlight and a holiday week day to draw the fans out to Duplainville, as a CP coke train comes east behind 8717/9676 at 3:19 p.m.

One more CN, #342 with 3 shiny although routine units, 2246/5682/2257 and 129 cars, became the last train of 2011, rolling through MP 104 at 3:24 p.m. With a cloud bank rolling in to cover the sun, I called it a day ... and a year.

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