Unplanned Railfanning 1/9/2017

What I have done recently is have my scanner up on my desk and going while I am not busy doing anything school-related. Today was one of those days, as this was the first day of classes and I only had one class today. At about 3pm, I heard dispatch give a local a speed restriction on the BNSF Ravenna Sub at milepost 20.4. The closest possible railfan spot to me on the Ravenna Sub is MP 8.1, which is Emerald, NE. I figured I could beat this thing to Emerald, so I got in the car and rushed my way down to Emerald. I paced an empty coal train all the way there and got out of the car with 20 seconds to spare at the 91st Street crossing near Emerald:

It did not take long for a manifest stopped in the distance to get moving, with a coal train having just stopped on the other main. I decided to stay put at 91st Street and not go any farther West away from Lincoln, as it is a Monday after all. It was also nice to see an executive schemed SD70MAC trailing, as these are on very borrowed time.

I decided to ditch the stopped coal train in the distance and head back East towards Lincoln, as I needed gas anyway. After filling up my car, I heard the UP Lincoln-Valley local call something out on the radio, so I figured I may as well go to the 1st Street crossing in Lincoln, as I had a slight chance of catching it. Spoiler alert, I did not catch it. I did, however, snap a LOT of photos of an empty coal train heading West into Carling Yard in Lincoln:

And I ended my day off with a light engine movement going down the St. Joe Sub, which I had heard at a detector back when I was at 91st Street. I did not catch the milepost, but I heard 12 axles:

Hope you enjoyed this post! If you want to see more, be sure to follow the blog and subscribe to me on YouTube. Thanks for reading!

~Matt

Railfanning on 10/23/2016

Yesterday, I took a road trip to the UP Columbus Sub, about an hour away from where I reside in Lincoln. I went there mainly to hunt down 1996, as it was set to pass by in the afternoon, peak time for taking pictures of it as it was a WB. I got to a spot just West of North Bend at about 12:30 and spent most of my day there. It was dead for a bit, then I caught two Westbounds, a coal train and a grain train, both of which I took videos of but no still pictures. After another brief dead period, a light engine movement rushed by me with 3 SD70Ms:

After a brief pause, a WB autorack train that normally passes at about this time of day flew by:

About 15 minutes later a WB manifest passed by...

... With a patched SP DPU! And right when this train ended, an EB came:

Followed by yet another WB manifest:

After that manifest, there was an unusually long lull that lasted about 50 minutes. After a while, I figured that the IG4TA (which 1996 was on) had to be next, and she came with two CSX units trailing too! It is very hard to catch a train on this line without any armor yellow.

After 1996 passed, I took a quick break to use the restroom and get some food. When I came back, I saw EB headlights. I did not bother taking any still pictures of it, because the sun was getting lower and would have resulted in a ton of backlight. It turned out to be a wonderful QNPPR with a UP SD70ACe leader, CSX SD40-3, NS SD60E, and NS SD70ACU.

After a brief dead period of about 30 minutes, I decided I would leave after the next train. The next train did not disappoint, as it was a Herzog ballast train:

After this, I packed up and headed to North Bend to see if I could get any backlit grain elevator shots. I got one of the OMAX coal train there, but that didn't turn out so well.

~Matt

Amtrak's Executive Train in Texas

The consist was Amtrak 145, 822, 204, and 130.

Today, I caught Amtrak #2, the Sunset Limited, in Eastgate, TX. What was so special about this train was that the president was on it. There were five executive cars on the end, which you can see in the video I post below. On top of that, the train was led by 4 engines, including the two Phase 3 heritage units!

A bit of scenery from my "heritage unit spot"

~Matt

An Update on Life

Hello everyone! I would like to thank those of you who follow me despite the fact that I have not posted in three months, it means a lot to me. I have only railfanned twice since Christmas, and both of those times were in Rosenberg. I did not have any still pictures due to the fact that my house is being remodeled, and my camera got lost in that process. I do still have my camcorder though, so I just need to edit the videos from my most recent trip, which was last Saturday. Those should be on YouTube sometime this weekend. Here is the one still picture that I took with my camcorder last week:

I typically do not take still pictures on the camcorder due to the fact that it is a bit pixely. I couldn't waste that sun angle though.

But yeah, with school being busy (senior year, can't give up now!) and the camera thing, I really have had nothing to post.

Speaking of Senior year, several people already know where I am going to school next year. I will not announce that to the public until next month. I did not want to wait too long, but I did not want to make the announcement too early. I will give three hints as to where I will be going to school starting in August: It is not in Texas, it is in the US, and not many people want to live there (but I do). After making the announcement, I will have to decide how that affects the name of this blog. If you want another hint: It may change the meaning of "Below 40 Degree Railfan." ;)

Finally, future trips. I may railfan a bit this upcoming week as it is Spring Break. That is not for certain though, as we could have record shattering heat here in Houston (almost 90 on Monday!), and I hate railfanning in hot weather with a passion. I will be in California two weeks from now, and I will try to have a Good Friday dedicated to some railfanning, which may (will) include a trip to Fullerton. After that, I may attend the Flatonia pavilion party the following weekend, followed by Rosenberg Railfest the weekend after that. That could be three straight weekends of railfanning!

Thank you for reading, be sure to subscribe to my channel on YouTube, and have a great day!

~Matt

Awesome Day of Railfanning

I'm back to posting! Yesterday, I had probably one of the best railfanning days I have ever had. Of the ten trains I caught, only THREE had no rare power, and only two had nothing significant on it. What I am posting here are some of the highlights from yesterday.

I chased a train from the 59 freeway to Richmond. Unlike my grey ghost chase in April, I actually arrived in Richmond with a few minutes to spare. Unfavorable cloud conditions made this bridge shot gloomy, but better than nothing.

After getting the bridge shot, I drove down to my typical spot in Rosenberg. There was a ton of traffic there, and I got there right as a UP train with a patched CNW unit passed by. I was standing by my car when it passed, so I couldn't get a great shot, but once again, better than nothing:

The next train was a BNSF Intermodal led by all common power, but with Ex-Amtrak reefers at the end!

A few minutes after this train passed, we were treated to a BNSF grain train on the Glidden Sub led by two Ferromex units, the leader being a Diexaños GEVO.

A bunch of horses suddenly started walking on the road in between trains.

After the horse parade, a UP manifest with a CSX Tier 4 GEVO trailing came by. This is my first time catching a Tier 4 locomotive.

This train had nothing significant, but I figured I may as well post it because this train came by during the one bout of sun that there was all day.

After that, a KCS manifest came by moments later with a BNSF Tier 4 GEVO trailing:

After about 30 minutes, I caught my very first BNSF AC44C4M, leading a manifest train:

After the AC44C4M, my friend had to leave. I decided to head to my car and began to debate whether or not I should go home. While I was debating, I heard the defect detector at 34.5 go off, so I decided that I may as well capture this train. I was surprised to see this headlight configuration off in the distance:

Well, it turned out to be the UP ASPLDR, led by CSX SD40-2 8042 and CSX SD50-2 8550! It was a pleasant surprise! I did capture the photo of it...

... But I forgot to hit record!!! Well, the best I could do was chase it down to East Bernard and video it there. Chasing it was not hard, there was a brake problem with one of the cars, so the conductor had to walk the train. I got to East Bernard with lots of time to spare, and managed to get this video of it:

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check my YouTube channel later on for videos of all of these trains and more!

An Update on Everything

Hello everyone!

Just figured that I would give everyone an update on everything. I have been very inactive lately due to school and band stuff. I did have time for a day of railfanning on September 19, but I have not uploaded the videos due to the fact that I cannot find my camcorder. I also have a LOT of videos from California in July that I have not uploaded, and may not get to uploading. We will see on that.

As for the My View On... posts, I have a new topic in my head, but I have not gotten to writing it yet. As soon as I have time, I will start on it.

As for future railfanning, I should have more time as band winds down in November. I will be in Lincoln, Nebraska on 11/6, if I have time to railfan then I most certainly will. I will probably not be able to railfan the week of Thanksgiving, but maybe the weekend after I will, if everything goes right. I know that I will railfan in Rosenberg at least once more before Christmas. For Christmas Break, I will go to California like I always do, albeit for a shorter time than usual. That is all I have planned for the future!

I appreciate all the people who read this blog, and be sure to keep following!
~Matt

My View On: Controversy Against Railfanning

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/webhostingreview/3090392251

Almost every true railfan has to talk to a police officer for being "suspicious" at least once. A lot of times, the police officer is responding to a call about the "suspicious" railfan, whether it is from a crazy bystander, or a train conductor. The craziest story I have heard is when a lady called in a railfan who had brought his dog with him for "wanting to throw a dog in front of a train." In this post, I will talk about incidents on both public and private property, and who is right to do what in those cases.

As I said in the paragraph above, most cases of a police officer coming up to a railfan is due to somebody calling in "suspicious activity." And in most cases, officers let railfans go if they are on public property and it is clear that they are doing nothing wrong. No, photography is not wrong. No, having a scanner while railfanning is not wrong. No, RAILFANNING IS NOT WRONG. And a lot of police officers do understand that. I know of a lot of railfans who are completely anti-police officer. I do not agree with those railfans, and they are wrong to believe that cops are always at fault. If you are on private railroad property, for example, then they are right to kick you out. Even if you are not on private property, but somebody called you in for being "suspicious," they are CORRECT to ask for your ID. Amtrak's photo policy is very clearly stated, and while most railfans do not follow the rule about having to have a ticket on a platform (even I am guilty sometimes), if an Amtrak employee asks you to leave, then they have every right to. Union Pacific's just states that you may not trespass on railroad property, very simple. BNSF's policy not only allows railfanning on PUBLIC PROPERTY, they actually encourage railfans to report suspicious activity. I have seen way too many railfans climb on signal bridges for better views, put their cameras under a train, and even stand in between tracks while waiting for a train. THAT IS ILLEGAL. Please, don't ruin it for other railfans.

On the flip-side, if a railfan is doing nothing wrong on public property, police do NOT have the right to force you out of that spot. If one tries to, I highly recommend that you record the conversation with the police officer. I do not recommend hardcore arguing back with them, as police can go overboard and arrest you. Although they will have no legitimate way to press charges against you, it is really not worth being treated like a criminal.

The video above from SpeakerPolice is a good example of a run-in with some of the ruder police officers. They may or may not have been on CSX property, I couldn't tell from the light, but the cops were extremely rude, especially referring to hardworking train engineers and conductors as "rail monkeys." Nevertheless, these people handled their encounter with some overprotective police officers very well, they kept their cool and complied to their requests. Even though these officers were rude, they did comply with their orders, which is sometimes what has to be done to avoid being arrested, lawful or unlawful.

So some railfans think that cops are always the bad guys. While in very rare cases this may be true, sometimes it's the train crew, or sometimes, railfans are the bad guys. So if a cop tells you to leave private property, then please leave the private property.

The Mobile Blog

I would like to apologize to anybody who viewed my post from yesterday on their cell phones, I looked this morning and noticed that you could not see any text, just pictures. The issue has been resolved.

~Matt

Photos from Rosenberg on August 1st

Been a while since I've posted, but I am back with some more photos! I will likely upload some Tehachapi Pass videos to YouTube soon, but until then, enjoy some pictures from Rosenberg, TX from last week!

A BNSF ES44AC, 6131, leads an ethanol train with two NS units trailing.

A one unit wonder, BNSF 5225 leads an Intermodal.

My first time catching a Norfolk Southern EMD leader, SD70ACe 1076 leads the UP MEWLD-01.

BNSF 9280 leads a coal train South on the Galveston Sub.

One of my signature catches of the day, CSX Dash 8 7876 leads a Manifest East on the Glidden Sub.

A freshly washed BNSF Fakebonnet Dash 9!!

Yes, I did see more trains, but all of those photos were backlit and had nothing really interesting in them. Thanks for reading!

~Matt