Thursday Proto Photo, Apr 27/23

[Lenny53]

Walkley Yard - Ottawa, ON Oct 13,2007

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[packers#1]

Caught the local shortline just above downtown Fountain Inn by the old Wilson plant.

[mu26aeh]

The Gettysburg and Northern got a new piece of equipment this week.  LTEX 3833 showed up freshly shopped and painted from Larry's Truck and Electric with the new owners paint scheme.  Definitely going to be different seeing this on the line.

Well past my modeling timeline but I've already contacted CMR about doing decals for it, as they've already got a Patriot Rail company in their offerings.  Waiting to see if at least a 2nd unit arrives sometime soon.  The G&N currently rosters 2 rebuilt low nose GP 10, both lettered for PREX.  1 is lettered for its previous shortline, Elkhart and Western while the other is straight black with an old IC logo showing thru the patches.  A 3rd GP10 is painted in Gettysburg red and gold that is only used when one of the others is down for maintenance or very long/heavy trains that a 3rd unit is required although very rare.

[wes_sutton]

Not keen on flying the drone too high as it tends to flatten out the landscape, but went a bit higher (40 metres) for this shot of Aurizon's Wirrida to Whyalla loaded iron ore train #9612 on Monday 24 April 2023.
Passing the salt pans at Wirrappa are GWU13/GWB101 with fuel tanks, crew car and 128 wagons (64 pairs) for a total trailing weight of 11200 tonnes. Right on the edge of the frame is loco GWB103 bringing in up the rear in distributed power mode. The locos still carry G & W colours despite the business having been sold three years ago.

Ore in the landscape by Bingley Hall, on Flickr

[MK]

Wes, what drone model are you using?

[wes_sutton]

Wes, what drone model are you using?

DJI Mini SE, bought about a year ago. Pretty basic, but all I can afford at the moment. Not too keen on the wide-angle lens, but to be fair I'm still blown away with some of the images I get from it.
Very light and compact (under 9 ounces) so takes up very little room when carrying it around.
It still plays second fiddle to my DSLR.

[glenng6]

Wes,
I am blown away by that photo. You did a great job of framing it and I think that "basic drone", to use your own words, takes wonderful photos. Although, your composition does wonders. Glenn

[aikorob]

Not keen on flying the drone too high as it tends to flatten out the landscape, but went a bit higher (40 metres) for this shot of Aurizon's Wirrida to Whyalla loaded iron ore train #9612 on Monday 24 April 2023.
Passing the salt pans at Wirrappa are GWU13/GWB101 with fuel tanks, crew car and 128 wagons (64 pairs) for a total trailing weight of 11200 tonnes. Right on the edge of the frame is loco GWB103 bringing in up the rear in distributed power mode. The locos still carry G & W colours despite the business having been sold three years ago.

Ore in the landscape by Bingley Hall, on Flickr

Any US roads use a bunk car for crew changes?

[R L Smith]

A dreary, overcast weekend in western NY resulted in a CSK intermodal roaring east through Bergen NY on the former NYC main, and an NS intermodal eastbound through Silver Springs NY. The NS train had BNSF power and was caught passing two CP units that were parked on the siding.  Not being from the area, I assume (uh-oh) the CP units are used for switching the Morton Salt plant in Silver Springs, but wiser folks will set me straight on that.

On the way home we passed through Olean, but there were no units parked in front of the enginehouse - first time I'd seen that (or didn't see, actually) in several years. The only unit visible from the road was the 630, which according to posts on FB is being stripped of useable parts before being donated to a group in Meadville PA.








Ron

[lock4244]

Not keen on flying the drone too high as it tends to flatten out the landscape, but went a bit higher (40 metres) for this shot of Aurizon's Wirrida to Whyalla loaded iron ore train #9612 on Monday 24 April 2023.
Passing the salt pans at Wirrappa are GWU13/GWB101 with fuel tanks, crew car and 128 wagons (64 pairs) for a total trailing weight of 11200 tonnes. Right on the edge of the frame is loco GWB103 bringing in up the rear in distributed power mode. The locos still carry G & W colours despite the business having been sold three years ago.

Ore in the landscape by Bingley Hall, on Flickr

Generally I dislike drone photography (not sure if it's because on some level I consider it cheating), but that's an impressive image Wes!

[lock4244]

On the way home we passed through Olean, but there were no units parked in front of the enginehouse - first time I'd seen that (or didn't see, actually) in several years. The only unit visible from the road was the 630, which according to posts on FB is being stripped of useable parts before being donated to a group in Meadville PA.

This makes me sad, the 630 has a bit of a history behind it and it's sad to see it being parted out. Nice that it'll be preserved by a group that includes people who actually ran the unit and behind it's purchase by the WNYP in the first place, but it like it better when they run. I'm very glad I made trips there in 2009, 2011, and then blitzed it in 2019 with four trips (three were week long affairs), was good times and met some nice folks down there, too.

Now if anyone doesn't know the story, WNYP was built as CP 4500, the class unit of their eight C630M's. When CP retired the big MLW's in 1993 the 4500 was donated to an individual for preservation. As I understand it it was agreed that the donation meant that it was not to be sold since it was a donation, it was for preservation / tourist use only. I remember seeing it stored in the open alongside CN's Oakville Sub in Oakville (west of Toronto), think it spent a winter there. The owner was unable to find a suitable use for it, and the free room and board alongside the Oakville Sub was not permanent so he had to move it somewhere (I think it may have spent some time stored in Uxbridge on the York Durham Heritage Railway). Somewhere ended up being sold to the Arkansas & Missouri RR for $10k.

This got back to CP and it ended the donation of anything to private people, which pissed a friend of mine off considerably as he had an agreement with CP to have an FPA-4 donated to him (to turn into a guest house iirc... he lived in a caboose). Once CP found out about the 4500 sale his FPA-4 donation was nixed and it went to scrap. And yes, CP had four FPA-4's (possibly a mix of A and B's, can't recall) but they never ran on CP... were purchased from VIA for their traction motors, prime movers, and generators for use in their RS-18 fleet. All four were sold for scrap.

So CP to some dude to A&M to WNYP to paperweight.

[lock4244]

Best thing about the WNYP was the ALCO / MLW locomotives (and the crews who run and maintained them). The second best thing about the WNYP is the shop is so conveniently located for time exposures on public land 

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[reinhardtjh]

The only unit visible from the road was the 630, which according to posts on FB is being stripped of useable parts before being donated to a group in Meadville PA.
Ron

What FB group are these posts in?

That's so sad.   

[R L Smith]

What FB group are these posts in?

"The LA&L Railroad Family" is the FB page that often covers the WNY&P, and occasionally there will be a cross-post on "NS Southern Tier Line".