Members Hoot

Taking advantage of a full day of rest on Memorial Day before traveling for work, I made my way up to Duplainville to capture some images.

Leading off after I arrived at 11:15, the Canadian Pacific provided a westbound sulfur empty (611) led by 9650.

After some Sudoku time, the Canadian National obliged with a southbound manifest (336) through the "crossroads of Canada" at 11:53.



CP provided the high-priority 295 train next, at 12:48, featuring a SOO SD60 trailing.


CP took another turn at 13:27, with the 852 coal loads rolling by. Included in the 304-axle trainset were new hoppers with MILW reporting marks, notably.


The CN followed in short order at 13:34, with a 402-axle hopper train led by the mixed combo of a GE, a wide-nose SD40, and an Illinois Central 6000-series SD40 variant.

The 'Empire Builder' then dropped the CN signals to red, passing near the advertised at 13:51 with 64 axles led by motors 56-40.

CP took another turn then at 13:53, with a westbound led by GEs 8552-8574.

After impatiently waiting, the CN then took over, first running a southbound heavy at 14:00 with company motors 2237-5419-5555.



This, in turn, met a northbound 331 at Waukesha, which passed at 14:19 with a pair of GEs in the lead.

After a pause long enough to get more water from Kwik Trip, the parade resumed, with the CP starting the show at 15:29 with an eastbound.


Then, a southbound CN approached, with enough lead time for me to get to the curve south of the diamonds before its appearance at 15:38.



The closing acts of my afternoon there started with the appearance of the CN's Milwaukee turn (L510) at 16:09. Featuring the SD35R 2500, its diminished size foreshadows the imminent cancellation of this service, to be replaced by interchange with the WSOR at Ackerville.


However, before it could make its way onto the CP connection, the westbound 'Builder appeared at 16:17.


With Amtrak out of the way, CP Wisconsin Dispatcher cleared the signals and lined the connection, and the 2500 was on its way.







All in all, a good day. The week would see me traveling to Oakland and back, and returning to Milwaukee, but down time before that was much appreciated.

Labels: amtrak, canadian national, canadian pacific, soo line, trains, wisconsin central