Recent Digital Photos
by Mike Condren

What's wrong here?

Springdale looks like the early days with units in the colors of their previous owners. They are also dealing with ALCos other than C420s, 12/30/06.

As I was headed north on US 62 at Gateway, AR, I ran under the A&M underpass and spotted a covered hopper with a FRED. As I crossed into Missouri, I spotted the locomotives as they spotted some sand hoppers on a siding. I headed on into Seligman, MO where the Eureka Springs Railway, later Missouri & North Arkansas, then Missouri & Arkansas, and still later Arkansas & Ozarks interchanged with the Frisco Central Division. The Missouri & Arkansas used trackage rights from Seligman to Washburn, MO where it then took off and headed to Neosho, MO and a connection with the KCS. At Neosho, the M&A used trackage rights to reach Joplin, MO, completing its journey from Helena, AR on the Mississippi River.. In the top photo one can see the concrete outline of the station platform. The M&A ran to the left , behind the station to a turntable.

Here we see the Seligman depot with the M&A tracks behind the station.

The chase is on with the train running 45-55 mph.

I got ahead of the train and waited just south of Washburn, MO, 12/30/06.

Missouri highway 37 improves north of Cassville, allowing me to get ahead of the train again. However, it had started to mist heavily and the train made a pickup at a grain elevator before this view just north of Purdy, 12/30/06.

I then sought shelter from the heavy mist under the US 60 overpass in Monett as the train eased down the hill and around the wye into the BNSF yard in Monett, 12/30/06. A crew member had gotten off and was now driving a company truck ahead of the train to line the switches into the yard.

It is hard to believe that this area was once the busy passenger station where trains from the Central and Kansas Divisions connected with the trains from the mainline, 12/30/06. The A&M engines meet the BNSF engines in the terminal area of the yard. The engines are last seen from the overpass over the middle of the yard. Traffic forced me to move before the engines got more into view. This was my first chase of a train on the north end of the railroad, in either Frisco or A&M days.

This loaded unit coal train was sitting at the west end of the Springfield yard, 12/30/06. The puzzle is , why would a loaded coal train be sitting in the yard with the power on the west end since the junction to Kansas City and the Powder River Basin is west of the yard. Could this train be for the power plant located just west of Springfield on the line to Tulsa.

In Rolla, I discovered this display near the location of the former passenger station, 12/30/06. The number is not correct for a Frisco caboose.

Elkhart Grain ex-BNSF nee-ATSF)GP7 #1317 sits alongside the company elevator along the former GM&O mainline in Elkhart, IL, 12/31/06.

BNSF # 2913 and 2343 were the local power in Rochelle, IL, 12/31/06.

The first eastbound was a stack train coming out of Global III with several Hub Group contrainers, Rochelle, IL, 12/31/06.

The next train was an eastbound coal train with a locomotive that a truck which was not always on line. There was a high scrill sound as if the wheel slip mechanism was not properly operating.

The track inspector asked for some "Track & Time" to bring out "a machine" to work on a mud hole. This tamper picked the track up out of the mud and tamped the ballast so as to give a good foundation. The ballast regulator then used the plow blades to spread the ballast and clear the flange ways with several passes. When finished, the track inspector removed the 25mph slow order over the mud hole.

UP SD40-2 #2993 (ex-C&NW) leads a westbound past Rochelle Railroad Park.

The next westbound had an interesting unit behind the power, a new diesel hybrid on GE hi-ad trucks.

There was a meet between the next eastbound and westbound right at the park.

The last train for me was this stack train coming out of Global III.

Upon reaching Davis Jct. on the road up from Holcomb, I look west and see a unit ethanol train headed towards me. I race to the crossing and shoot the train as it proceeds east. As I left I also shot the unit spotted at Davis Jct.

I then raised east towards I39 to get another shot.