No pics, but doing some drive-by railfanning.

[JCitron]

No pics, but doing some drive-by railfanning. ==== A travel blog

I've been out storm chasing again this year. Sadly we've had no storms other than the wicked cold rain. On our travel today from Garden City Kansas to Amarillo, Texas. I saw some really nice long freights.

Before I hit the main road, we followed some old granger lines in the middle of nowhere. They had their own locos and a couple were switching cars. One had a couple of Alcos in really nice paint scheme and looked like they were in a really nicely maintained shape. Someone else used some old SW2 that were painted light blue and were in excellent shape, and another place, just outside of Garden, City used an old GP-7 or GP-9. They painted their engine in an orange-striped paint scheme similar to the BNSF, but it was not. While we went over the yard, the UP had a small yard to the east, and a freight was coming along into the yard from the distance.

Once out on the main road, the tracks were to the right, we followed the BNSF all the way through Liberal, KS to Amarillo. In Liberal, KS is an old Rock Island caboose stuffed and sitting in a park. We stopped for gas near the grain elevators, and a container train had the crossing tied up. He was over the crossing by two cars. Later on we passed two coal unit trains. One of them had brand new cars that were still in numerical sequence, Car 00 next to 01, etc. This is the first time I've ever seen this. There were 5 locos on the train; two on each end and one in the middle.

Amarillo is neat. The two yards are huge here, and I can here the trains pulling in to them. They blow their horns at the multitude of crossings. Really neat because the NIMBYs don't allow horn blowing where I live.

Oh I forgot to add that yesterday we were in Dodge City, KS and there's an old stuffed CB&Q or NP steam loco stuffed like an old elephant and covered with Christmas lights. The poor old beast is setup next to the mainline near the station and looks like it could use at least a new paint job. One of my fellow travelers is from Ireland and is also a railfan. He went over to the loco and looked it over. He's been up to York and his grand dad worked for the LMS before Beecham had taken over. We had a great conversation after wards about railroads, and about the poor old loco. He took a peek underneath and said things were in pretty rotten shape.

Anyway I'm off to NM tomorrow, and hopefully I'll see some more good stuff.

John

 

[JCitron]

Here's another update from the past couple of days:

We traveled to Carlsbad, NM and then back to Roswell on our return to Amarillo.

I saw a couple of Potash trains in Carlsbad as well as a couple of RS2s at the airport. They were both operational and one had a string of mixed freight cars behind it. Being Sunday, they were both not being used.

Later on during our trip back to Amarillo, I saw quite a few container trains and a couple of coal unit trains. This was on the former AFSF. On our way towards Hereford, there was quite a meet. An EB container train slowed to a stop because of traffic ahead of him. The signal had gone from clear to yellow. Up ahead was another container train that had already stopped, and farther up the line was another coal train waiting.

As we approached Hereford, there was a local moving along on the right-most track at quite a clip. He was off to switch cars at what looked like an ethanol plant and a meat processing plant.

As the tracks turned south around the town, there was a WB container train moving at a good speed. He was the one that was slowing down the EB parade.

This was quite a show, and something I don't see too often. I didn't bother to take any pictures or videos. If I wasn't traveling with a bunch of people, I would've stopped on the side of the road and watched the show.

Near one of the grain elevators outside of Hereford, there were was a string of BNSF locomotives that were idling off the mainline, waiting for the parade to proceed. Also there was an old light blue Plymouth 60-tonner?

The one thing that I wonder about though is the stink. Those feed lots are wicked, and almost burn the nose hairs right out of your head! I feel bad for the crew that gets stuck at a siding near them as well as for the track maintainers.

John

 

[JCitron]

More Trains Today!

On the road again today. This time from Amarillo northwest towards Limon, CO. Saw plenty of BNSF freights including the local that was out near Hereford, TX yesterday. It took him all night to make it near Amarillo. He must've outlawed somewhere long the way.

While in Amarillo, we stay at the Asford Inn, which is located just outside of the city near I40. We go over the big yard there on the way to the hotel and I can hear the engine horns all night. The yard is huge and full of activity. It's quite nice to see a full and busy yard like that.

On the way up to Limon, I saw quite a few coal trains making their way east on the BNSF. We eventually left the main road, and ended up going through many small dried up towns. The old SF and RI branches are long gone. You can still see the old depots and former yard areas down near the old grain elevators, but the tracks are long gone.

In between Amarillo and Limon, we stopped for lunch in Lamar, CO. There's an old stuffed oil burner outside the Amtrak station there. It's pretty sad I think when they do that to the old steam locos. It would be nice to seem them active again.

Up here in Limon, I'm staying not too far from the Kyle Railway, which I think was once the old RI line to Denver, or part of it at least. The tracks are nicely maintained and a freight just passed through as I typed this.

Anyway, we saw some small storms. Nothing really big; instead a only a few small low precipitation (LP) supercells. These are very high based, and this time of year quite cold. They produced some small tiny bits of hail, a splash of rain, and a few lightning bolts. I took some pictures and when I get home, I'll post some links to them.

More to follow tomorrow.

John

 

[NIARTcar]

I have to say that I've always wanted to go storm chasing, its been a second interest to me (second to trains).... I've never been one to follow or dabble in meteorology, but I have always enjoyed watching storms form and flex their power........

I hope you continue with the updates, Id love to hear about anything you come across...

cheers

 

[JCitron]

I have to say that I've always wanted to go storm chasing, its been a second interest to me (second to trains).... I've never been one to follow or dabble in meteorology, but I have always enjoyed watching storms form and flex their power........

I hope you continue with the updates, Id love to hear about anything you come across...

cheers

I'll try to give some info on the storms I see. Today we saw the only storms on the continental US. They were in eastern Colorado probably 60 miles north of Limon.

Storm chasing is a lot of fun, a lot of riding, and there's a lot of waiting. It's also very addicting, and people actually suffer from wintertime SCW (Storm Chaseer Withdrawl) symptoms where they seek out videos, and gatherings to discuss storms. I'm not that bad yet, but some of my fellow chasers are like that. We do get a few busy moments, but most of the time is spent out on the road.

I've been going out since May 2008, and I've been bitten by the bug. I've never traveled with any other tour leader than Roger Hill of Silverlining Tours. www.silverliningtours.com and www.stormchase.net . He's seen over 400 tornados in his lifetime and has conducted tours for over 20 years.

His tours are professional and fairly safe - unlike some chasers you see on TV who get too close. Roger gets us close enough, but knows when to pull out before it gets dangerous. He also has that extensive experience to get you to the storms, and sometimes the only storms in the US. What I also like is he actually teaches us about the weather, even showing slides about the weather patterns and discussing how they interact. It's very interesting and the more I listen to him, the more I learn.

Anyway I can say it's also a great way to do some railfanning particularly if you like western railroads. I've been following along the BNSF, UP, and other regionals as we've been criss-crossing the western and southwestern states. This is early chase season, and for some reason ends up in the TX Panhandle, western OK, parts of KS, and this time CO, NM, and even up to WY. For some reason the air is very dry and cool so there are fewer than normal storms so we're driving farther. Tomorrow I'll be bouncing around in OK, TX, and maybe KS.

John

 

[NIARTcar]

that sounds like a great way to hit two birds with one stone........ if theres no storms, theres always trains......

I've always loved the conditions that accompany a storm, that rediculous rain curtain, or barrage of hail stones..... just the situations that present themselves, when you can step back and look at the storm as a thing of beauty and power....

cheers

 

[UP5521]

that sounds like a great way to hit two birds with one stone........ if theres no storms, theres always trains......

I've always loved the conditions that accompany a storm, that rediculous rain curtain, or barrage of hail stones..... just the situations that present themselves, when you can step back and look at the storm as a thing of beauty and power....

cheers

I couldn't agree more,what more could you want, trains and tornadoes,well all I can say is watch yourself out there,JCitron!

 

[JCitron]

I couldn't agree more,what more could you want, trains and tornadoes,well all I can say is watch yourself out there,JCitron!

I sure am! I travel with the best storm chaser in the business -- Roger Hill! He's seen more than 440 tornados in his chasing lifetime, and runs one of the safest chasing tours around. He did the consulting for the movie Twister, which they barely used his advice for, and has done numerous documentaries for TWC, Nationional Geographic Channel, Discovery, Travel Channel, and the BBC.

His websites are www.silverliningtours.com and www.stormchase.net

Anyway... Back to Trains and storms.

The past two days have been busy on both fronts. We left Limon, CO and headed back southeast to Amarillo. On the way we were parallel to the BNSF main line (Sante Fe) for a good part of the trip through the Texas Panhandle.
There were a few coal trains and a few container trains. There was one local in the Hereford area. He was on the right-most track while there were two through freights on the left two tracks. Hereford is setup really nice with a big grain silo and other industries on the right side of the tracks, heading east/north. The tracks make a nice curve at this point too so with the road running parallel to the tracks, you can see right down the main, and sight the signals for a few blocks. The freight that was keeping up with us, slowed for the signal ahead. He had a blinking yellow. The local was moving along quite fast and not interfering with anyone. The container train was slowing because there was a parade of coal trains heading west and had the single track ahead blocked. What a sight, but I didn't want to bother anyone for pictures. It was a sight to watch, and go back to some day.

The Amarillo yard is packed with trains. There are locals being sorted, container trains being switched around, through freights moving through, and engines galore all over the place. This activity can be seen from the highway bridge that crosses over the yard. Quite a sight and too bad we couldn't have this kind of activity in Trainz. I could feel the framerates drop as I watched this from the bridge!

April 21st found us back around Hereford again. This time we were storm chasing, although the freight activity was pretty cool as well.

These were big supercells, but they were high-based and didn't do much. They were pretty and neat. We also ended up around La Junta, CO as well. This is a big RR town with a wye in the middle. The mainline and the branch are on a bridge over the street. Near the old wye and station is another stuffed Sante Fe locomotive. The headlight works, but the poor old lady sits many feet from the main where she used to run.

From La Junta, we continued northwest chasing and spent the night in Lamar, CO. There's another old lady stuffed near the Amtrak station. While we were eating lunch, a train came through with the engineer blowing his horn constantly for all the crossings. We chased a bit around Lamar and spent the night there.

On April 21nd we journeyed back to Amarillo, through Buffalo Creek, OK and then through Hereford. We got to Amarillo late and stayed the night. Yesterday, the 22nd, we ended up around south and east of Amarillo. I saw a few trains as we crossed over that gorgeous freight yard! It was quite busy and we, or as I should say, I could hear the horns all night from the trains pulling in.

This day brought 5 tornados in eastern TX. We were actually 100 yards from one touching down and then move off to find another spot. There were way too many chasers out though. It was like the leaf peepers up my way. They went as far as to stop in the middle of an intersection in front of us to watch the sky! Later on we moved away from this spot and went north and east a bit to watch. It was quite a sight to behold. The lightning was amazing and quite close. I was a bit apprehensive about getting out of the van, but I did and got some nice video, which I still need to process. We then headed west again not too far from where we started. This time the storms were spinning right over our heads. I swear I could reach up and pull the cotton down from the sky above me. The lightning wasn't too bad, but a bit scary.

After this we headed up and away from the storm front to stay east of it. The wall cloud kept pushing up towards us and the lightning was so bright and close. One bolt hit so close there was a boom and flash at the same time. It left an imprint in my retina for about 5 minutes afterwards!

So now, after a very long drive in the dark, we ended up in OKC. We're heading out early tomorrow for Nebraska and Kansas. After that I don't know.

There are times when you can say "Holy cow", well this was a time when you can say "Holy flying cows!"

John

 

[JCitron]

Today sent us up to Lincoln, Nebraska. The landscape went from lower plains and high desert areas to rolling hills and valleys with steep-sided creeks and rivers. There were puffy little cumulus clouds, but nothing in the way of storms. Initially the though was to head east over to the Tex, AR, OK border. This area was ruled out for two reasons. First due to the poor terrain - it's pretty, but that's about it. There are too many trees and hills to see anything worth viewing, and the winding roads make it difficult to chase, and the road trip back to OK would be over 700 miles, which is really impossible to do on the last tour day.

Well it was a good thing we didn't head east and headed north instead. The storms south and east went bust, and didn't even produce a funnel cloud. There were gust-front thunderstorms and plenty of rain. That was about it. Up in the Nebraska and Kansas area, the storms developed into supercells. This is what we were looking for. From what was explained to us, there is a large circulating airmass that's pulling up moist warm air from the gulf up to the plains, and the thunderstorms form along the front. This huge circulating airmass, however has what is called a strong CAP, which keeps thunderstorms from forming. Eventually, the CAP broke enough for storms to form in the north, but nothing happened in the south.

There wasn't much rail activity along the road from Oklahoma City to Lincoln. There were a few east-west lines that crossed under the highway as well as plenty of abandoned grainger lines. Sadly the telegraph poles were still up as though the tracks came up recently. Eventually we stopped for gas and to watch the sky for developing storms. This was outside of Fairmont, NE. There is an ethanol plant there across the road, and across a huge pasture. The plant is probably about a mile mile or so across from the gas station.

There was a switcher, painted grey, switching cuts of tankers and hoppers. There were also a couple of boxcars sitting on the branch as well. Up ahead, probably about the same distance is a junction with a branch line. It's difficult to judge distances because everything is so wide open in the plains.

As we sat there, I heard a horn blow and what appeared to be a UP local with another blue-colored Geep in tow uncoupled from his train travel down the mill branch. These were probably Helm Leasing-painted locos, but from that distance, there was no way to tell. The two locos came back from their trip down the branch to the mill with a couple of cars in tow and connected to their train out on the main branch. He then proceeded again down the mill-branch and connected to a long string of grain hoppers and tanks that were sitting on the siding there, and pulled them out along with his original tanker and hopper. At this point, we had sat quite some time, and I didn't care if we saw a storm. I was perfectly happy watching the swithing operation!

Unfortunately at this point, we left so I couldn't watch the rest of the action. We left and went over the railroad where I could see the mill branch connection to the "main". There are what appear to be three tracks there making what appeared to be a small yard. The branch-line switching job had quite a train with what appeared to be his train on the branch plus what he was picking up at the mill.

Eventually we made it into Lincoln, NE. There I saw the UP, former CNW?, main line. Again these tracks, like the branch above, were in awesome condition. I was totally amazed at all the trains in the yard there. There were three empty coal trains passing through on their way back to the Powder River Basin - one in the yard with two waiting to enter, and there were other full coal trains lined up at the washer where the coal is washed to keep the dust down. Through out the yard were all kinds of container trains, coal empties and loaded, and general goods freights. The engine area was totally stuffed with engines, and again the track was in excellent condition.

From there we headed up towards Omaha. We cross over what appeared to be a BNSF line. This is along the Platte river, and there were two trains doing a meet. The main was beautiful and the yard in Omaha, though not as busy, still had quite a few container trains in it.

We eventually ended up in Alvio, NE area to watch storms. There was a large outbreak of supercell thunderstorms. We didn't see any tornados this time, but the lightning and the clouds were enough of a show. We hung around long enough to get cored as the biggest storm dumped it's core on us. The lightning show was specatular.

Tomorrow we'll do a little bit of chasing, but sadly the tour is coming to an end. We're actually heading back to OKC where our planes back home await us on Sunday.

John