In todays video, we explore all of the neat static rail equipment around Omaha and Council Bluffs. Merch Shop: okieprint.com/SPR/shop/home Official Discord Server: / discord
The transfer caboose shown was an actual road caboose. Towards the tail end of cabooses i saw several of those bring up the rear of UP trains running over CNW into Proviso. Apparently both UP and MP used that design as a cost cutting design with the idea that they didn't need possible sleeping spaces anymore and that design was deemed to have sufficient room. CNW has a bit of history of locomotives not liking their new clothes. There's stories of a former Chicago Great Western GP30 assigned to the Belvidere Illinois Chrysler plant trains that completely shed it's new yellow and green to the point if you didn't see bits of yellow and green that managed to stick around hinges it would look like it had never been painted.
Oops, it sure looked like a transfer caboose! That's interesting that CNW/CGW engines did that. Do you think it has something to do with the chemical makeup of the paint, or possibly the clear coat?
@Southern_Plains_Railfan CNW didn't have the nickname Cheap & Nothing Wasted for nothing and a lot of the late 60s early 70s repaints were done quick and dirty and the 30s saw a lot of time on the CGW's Chicago division where they'd be running in notch 8 up the grade out of the Mississippi River valley to the Winston tunnel where the exhaust would quickly turn the locomotives SP levels of grungy. Considering the level that it shed the repaint it most likely got a trip through the wash rack that got the surface grime off but as they went over the Scotchlite herald and road numbers they didn't do a full degreasing and at minimum scuff up the paint to give the new paint some tooth to grip on to and the greasy residue allowed the new paint to just fall off.
The Rock Island flat car is also noteworthy because of its construction. It’s manufactured by General Steel Castings Co., a company that produced all sorts of cast steel and iron parts for railroads including trucks, couplers, steam locomotive beds, etc.. What makes it noteworthy is that this entire car is a single casting! No welded or riveted fabrication of parts, just one big solid casting! They also produced them in a bulkhead flat version that featured cast bulkheads, but as I recall, the two bulkheads were separate castings that were welded on. Not totally sure about that, but I think that’s right. There were thousands of these cars in service at one time, but they’re relatively scarce in 2024!
Great video really like seeing all the old locomotives. Especially that elevator switcher, but there was one Mistake the North Shore, scenic railroad is based out of Duluth Minnesota. Not Michigan
N & W used a block heater on one of their Trainmasters at Oak Hill, WVa until it was replaced in the late 70's. It was required because the neighbors complained about the noise of the idling engine. One of the magazines did a story on it titled The Plugged In Trainmaster
If you search up large moves here on RU-vid and then do a bit of scrolling you can find an episode of large moves showing the prosses that it toke to get both big boy 4014 and 6900 to there spot by the interstate.
North Shore Scenic Railroad worker here, we operate out of Duluth, Minnesota. 192 has been sitting for a while, and it might be a while until it operates again.
I was told a story once of the old SD9 used in woodburn, Oregon! So the story goes, the crews used to leave it running 364 days a year, only turning it off for either christmas or New years! 😂 From what it sounded like, once they shut it off, the entire town sighed in relief until the railroad sent out a pickup truck full of car batteries just to jump start the locomotive! 🤣 I also snapped a photo of an old Rock Island hopper a few weeks back! It's super cool to see such old cars floating around still, even though there are less and less 😅 Oh, and don't forget the NW-5 in Portland on the OP! 😊
Someone else has probably already pointed this out, but the North Shore Scenic Railroad operates out of Duluth, Minnesota. I've seen this particular engine several times, as Duluth is just down the road from me. When it is not in use, this rare beauty can be found at their impressive railroad museum located right in the heart of Duluth. The Duluth Railroad Museum has a great RU-vid channel of their own, and they've done videos featuring this EMD NW5 unit, and on their other engines too. They have a nice collection of former Great Northern engines and rolling stock. It is absolutely worth checking out if you're ever in Duluth. Minnesota that is, not Michigan... 😛
Breaks my heart to see 994 like that as being a big Great Northern fan. I love the NW5s and I've gotten to see No. 192 at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth on a couple of occasions, all of which No. 192 was not in operation but placed on a storage/display track on the museum's grounds. July 2021 saw it inside the museum on the left parallel line to Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range M-3 Class No. 227. The most recent visit back in late May 2023, No. 192 under the parking lot getting a hose down from one of the museum's staff as preparation for the trip down to the St. Paul Union depot for display behind S-3 Class 261 for the Annual St. Paul Union Depot Train Days.
Its Duluth Minnesota, not Michigan. NW5's are cool tho, really its like EMD's version of the Alco RS1, in some ways odd they weren't more popular. If you are ever in Duluth, the 192 is neat to see in person.
Yes indeed it’s in MN, was just going to say that but wanted to see if anyone else beat me to it! As a Minnesotan, I’d prefer not to associate with our friends across the lake
I’ll be going to Omaha this summer for the annual LCCA Convention and I can’t wait to be in Union Pacific’s own backyard seeing trains running and maybe 4014 passing through.
As far as the elevator switcher, They can install a ZTR autostart system, since it is self contained. I have installed several on GP7s, and SD9s that were otherwise electromechanical. Super easy to install because these old GP7s have a DC generator with an integrated start winding so there is no need to customize the start circuit.
The Missouri Pacific caboose was not a transfer caboose. It's a short bay window caboose. Union Pacific had something similar. They were classified as CA-11 cabooses. They were made to save time and space for the railroads. Plus, they saved money for the MP and UP. MP's short bay window cabooses and UP's CA-11's were not transfer cabooses.
I worked for Lamb Weston in Richland WA. so yes I have seen quite a few of the refer cars and the odd tank car used to transport the oil used in the fryers.
Very neat to see an old ONWR box. I work what is left of the ONWR/WYCO line in Eastern Oregon. We also still service Lamb Weston reefers, though now they lease CRYX/LINX reefers.
NW5s are my favorite EMD switchers. Also the BN is my favorite fallen flag is serves as one of America's best fallen flags. I also love that Oregon Northwestern car and that Lamb Western boxcar.
Hi southern love you’re videos keep up the good work man and it’s a shame that that BN unit is at that state of its life I hope it will get restored to preserve its history!
Lot's of interesting stuff in this video! Neat to see an old CNW locomotive preserved and still used. I didn't know that some caboose's had alternators, until my brother discovered one on another display caboose. The CN yard near me uses a caboose on short freight hauls between the yard and the next town.
Great footage. It’s always amazing to see things that are more and more rare to the day like the Alco HH660 sitting in the weeds in Mankato Minnesota. As for the MP caboose, it is a common misconception that they are transfer cabooses but in fact they were actually road cabooses. The Family Lines and Oneida and Western had very similar cabooses.
That Rock Island flatcar began life as a General Steel Castings (GSC) 53'6" bulkhead flatcar, probably built in the 1950's. This was a very popular line of cars, offered both with and without bulkheads, and many still survive today in MOW service. Are you sure it's waiting to be scrapped what with the fresh looking reflective striping? It looks like it's been relegated to MOW service for Iowa Interstate (IAIS). Those tank cars are WAY older than you think. The fixtures on the side of the tank dome identify this as a car built in the 1910's or 1920's! The HMHX reporting mark indicates it was last owned by Tank Car Corporation of America. The company used to refurbish tank cars from 1920 to 2001, so these may have been used on their site for storage. The company is gone now and the former plant site is a nasty environmental cleanup site now. That Lamb Weston 62' Pacific Car & Foundry (PC&F) insulated boxcar is a rare find! The XTRX reporting mark identifies the last owner / lessor as First Union Rail. Lamb Weston now uses more modern "cryo-cars" for transporting frozen food products (think FRENCH FRIES!) from Idaho. The KELX boxcar was last owned by the Kellogg Company! UP 25661 is a class CA-9 caboose, part of a series of 100 (#25600 - 25699) built by International Car in 1967. It was retired in 1989 and donated to the Village of Waterloo, Nebraska, after which it changed hands several times in the 1990's before ending up where it is now sometime before 2001. The "Pullman car" appears to be an ancient heavyweight coach. I can not identify the private line it was painted up for, though. The BAEX reporting marks on the former Cotton Belt (SSW) car show it was last owned by The Andersens, Inc, a large Texas-based agri-business. The last photo of it in service I can find is from 2008. BAEX 684 began life as SSW 61056, a class B-70-32 boxcar built by Pacific Car & Foundry (PC&R) in 1967. The faded yellow on the door indicates it was originally used in lumber service. During the Golden West period, when SP sold off cars to private owners and then leased them back, the car ended up with Ventura County Railway as VCY 61056. The car was eventually sold off to the Chicago, Central & Pacific RR (reporting marks CC) which is a subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railroad, itself part of the former Illinois Central which is now owned by Canadian National. The car was then sold to The Andersens and now it sits here, and can not be moved even if the tracks were still connected as it is over 50 years old and cannot be interchanged. UP 24558 is a class CA-13 bay window caboose. The CA-13's were actually inherited from the Rock Island. MP 13045 is NOT a transfer caboose. This short-bodied bay window car was actually built for road service and MP used them all over the system, replacing older cupola cabooses. I used to see countless ones of these on MP trains running in Texas, and actually got to ride one a whole two city blocks back in the 1980's. I understand they road rough and crews were not fond of them. Two manufacturers are now finally producing HO scale models of these ubiquitous cars. That NW5 would have been such a treasure if it was intact. It's about as rare as the few remaining Alco C415's.
Technically railroads are allowed to waive the 50 year rule, but it is rare. And it doesn't apply to locomotives or passenger cars. "Condemned" cars can also get waived.
@@MilwaukeeF40CI was thinking a couple of years ago that the 50 year rule prevented interchange operation, but ... with only the handful of Class I monopolies controlling North America, I was wondering if ancient cars could still ply the rails as long as they stayed on home rails. That would still allow use in entire quarters of the country. IDK if that would be a loophole there.
If you look at the reporting marks on the flat car they are IAIS (Iowa Interstate)Which is behind the elevator tracks its sitting on. The 2 loco shells are on the containers to keep them from sinking and rotting into the earth. I have a picture in my office of these and other locos from Union Pacific that were part of really bad court case. These locos were parked on the "y" at Council Bluffs Railway and were stripped and sold off. The shells just sat on theyre frames and trucks. The Manager of the Shortline(CBGR) Council Bluffs/Great Western Railway of Iowa Got large loans from a bank on them and then got caught. The long line of freight cars are no where near any tracks because they are just sitting in a field, The owner uses them for a large "STEEL" fence to keep the Thieves out of his property. He tears down old buildings and brings in large amounts of brick and cleans it up and sells it,in fact he tore down the old Falstaff brewery off 26th street after it burned down and the old steel holding tanks that were out back of it I welded them together for him end to end so they could be used as culverts under a county road north of Council Bluffs,Iowa. The old Passenger car is from :The Old Spahgetti Works" in downtown Omaha in the "Old Market" It was rotting and he hauled it away for them. Thats why there is ceiling fans in there. And please go back and look at your film and you will notice I hope they are not old,They are modern. I know both of these people I am referring to but I will not say theyre names. I know all of this because I worked for the CBGR for a number of years until Iowa Interstate bought us out. I helped the man with the freight cars on many a nite busting thieves on his and our property they all were stealing for meth money.
I don’t know if you know but there is an almost complete NW5 in Portland Oregon in cascade green & black. It is also kept under cover, lock & key to save it from metal thieves. OPRC has it. Worth a trip out west …
I live in Omaha Nebraska and I’m very fortunate to have the railroading that we have here! I have driven past 4331 100s of times. The Rock is operating in Louisiana today!
maybe you should check out the Indiana Harbor Belt, they have an old roundhouse like the one in Silvis but instead of right next to the yard, it's part of the yard. I think it's called the Gibson Yard, not exactly sure. but yea they also have something similar to that RP14 thing called the RP15BDF.
Hi I’m from the northwest Illinois and I’ve seen light on older diesel locomotives in Clinton Iowa at the ADM Clinton location like the lights on 4331. This locomotive in Clinton is there for helping unload grain cars full of corn ready to be used by the corn plant there in Clinton Iowa. I see this locomotive almost every day because I’m a CDL driver and I deliver corn almost on the daily
st louis transportation museum has both a big boy and a dd40ax next each other. They are some very large trains. This place also have a ton of 1 of a kind of trains, freight cars, and cars.
I live in Council Bluffs. Love this video. Few things: When I first saw the 994, I always thought it was an RS3 until I got close one day. I never knew what it was until now. That absolutely blows my mind. There's another old SW switcher in Council Bluffs that works a grain tower, not far from where the Big Boy and Centennial are. This engine, nicknamed Lady Diana, also has these lights that the GP7 has. I got to go inside it as a kid. I believe it has problems because I rarely see the engine anymore. If anyone has more info on it, that would be really cool. I'm surprised you didn't show the Railswest Rock Island train museum that has the 814, one of the surviving sister locomotives to the 844. Not exactly as notable as some of these backyard finds but still really cool. I was part of the Greater Omaha Society of Model Engineer when I was younger so I was constantly around that train depo and basically grew up playing on that engine.
Those block heaters are setup to keep the coolant warm, air compressor, radiator lines and water lines through the block. Those riveted tank cars were built through the 20s, 30s.
1:08 Also pioneered the -2 electronics, that’s why there’s the “X” in the designation. Just saw that was (somewhat) mentioned. 8:05 No evidence for this, but those cars could be owned by the nearby RailsWest Museum. 9:37 There is also one still in service on UP in the CB yard, no idea what it is used for, but it’s there with MoPac markings. (MP 13080) There is also a KCS NW2 in the Grey Ghost scheme at Bartlett North 10:51 BRAN 71 was originally built for the Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway 30 (I think, reporting marks are WIM) in 1950, then sold to the Tacoma Municipal Belt Railway becoming their 907, before ending up on the Brandon Railroad as 71. The Brandon Railroad operated in South Omaha (iirc as the last form of the South Omaha Terminal Railway). 12:54 192 was actually also used on the Council Bluffs Railway, where 994 was. As far as I know 994 was a parts unit for 192 (992 on the CBGR) I’m glad you enjoyed your visit to my city!
I have pictures on my wall of all the old locos that Great Western aka Council Bluffs Railway.I worked there. And all those locos including 992 were a big farse...they had no internals they were shells on frames all of the prime movers,alternators,ect were all sold many moons ago and the man who was the general manager of the railroad took loans out on them as if they were runnung locos and boy did he get in big trouble. I know the guy who owns the 2 loco shells and they are just ornaments but for the right amount he will about anything. The cars all sitting in the field are owned by Anderson excavating and salvage and he uses them as a big iron fence to keep thieves from stealing his stuff and if you are from here you should know where that old passenger car is from.
great post👍👍we had 9 r.r.in 1949 St Paul...np,gn had huge yards by my 🏠, passenger/ freight repair shops,flares, torpedo's, cabooses,best x in my life🎉
what caught my eye were the abandoned cars. I've never seen that many and it's interesting all the couplers were removed. I remember finding 2 old passenger cars sitting in an industrial park on an old abandoned spurr. They had been there for years. Maybe some museum or some company was going to either scrap or repair them and never got the chance.
I just recently discovered that the NW5 has a lesser known little sister, the RS1325. Very similar to the NW5 in both concept and appearance but with slightly greater horsepower and a lower short hood, in 1960 EMD built 2 RS1325s for the Chicago and Illinois Midland, and that was the entirety of their production. They were used to haul coal until 2020 and 2022, and have since both been sold to railroad museums, making them one of the rare models of locomotive to have a 100% preservation rate.
There is a tourism promotional film about Alexandria, Minnesota back in the early 1950s on You Tube. It is titled "Alexandria, Minnesota's Vacationland - Community and Tourist Info". The film has brief footage of an NW5 pulling the local passenger train, of Pullman Green heavyweight cars, into the Alexandria station. That train probably ran between Grand Forks ND and St. Paul MN.
Im so glad this video popped up in my recommended! Summer 22 from Massachusetts all the way the Wyoming we did a camping trip and I actually happened to drive by this place and got a pretty bad but good enough photo of what I believe is that BN unit and ive never been able to find any info on it. Its really cool to now finally know what it was and cool to know how rare it is. Thanks for the education video.
Saldy 2100 isn’t in service at this time. I think they’re upgrading” 2100 sense that’s what they did to 1729 (now 1749). 2100 will at some point get back in service, and most likely doing excursions with 1749. Along with the 2 GP38-2’s doing the normal PA-2 route. Recently MCER just leased a B39-8E, I’m guessing it’s so the GP38-2’s get a brake, or it’s so the Geeps can start excursions, while they’re fixing up 2100. You never know.
I see car like the boxcar at 8:30 all the time while riding the Metra to chicago on the Racetrak because there is a big deadline of cushion cars Railboxs and more!
AFAIK Mass Central 2100 hasn't hauled freight since the mid 2010s. But they did repaint it into the railroad's current B&M-inspired 'bluebird' livery in recent history. It would be odd for them to repaint a locomotive that has been stored dead for some time, unless they had some sort of plans in store for it.
it not only got repainted, it got work done on its engine…that happened before the pandemic hit, so freight operations were hut hard putting it out of service but only until needed
@@bostonrailfan2427 Didn't know a lot about the specifics... years ago when 2100 was sitting around at Ware I had heard from someone that they stopped using the loco because the current traffic was too heavy for it, and somehow that was why it was in dead storage. Good to know more about what kind of attention it was given. I was wondering if it or 1729/49 was given any attention aside from the new paint.
@@leverettrailfan5414 i had to look it up and saw it in different places and then being worked on…someone else said it’s going to be on excursion trains which has kept it around for good reason
Now wouldn't it be great if the owners of 4331 repainted her back to as built condition. It would surely boost the popularity of the locomotive and the area? Another great film there sir. Thanks again.... From Cambridge, England
1:06 The cab used on the DDA40X was/is not a true "Safety cab" because it consisted mainly of restyled sheet metal and lacked the structural reinforcements of the later Canadian design.
@whiteknightcat Comfort cab or safety cab, they are basically the same thing. The Canadian "Comfort" cabs were the first cab that was designed with crew safety in mind, the earlier ones like on the DDA40Xs were not.
@whiteknightcat what I'm the getting at is that the myth of the DDA40Xs cab being the first safety/comfort cab is not true because it doesn't have the internal reinforcements that the Canadian Cab has. So therefore the Canadian cabs were the first comfort/safety cabs
Can you imagine being the employee who wrote those famous words that became the name of the arguably most popular steam locomotives in the world. Just a joke that stuck, and stuck very well
Theres two MoPac Cabooses in Kansas (as far as I know) that are still in use (kind of). Theres one in Topeka that UP uses in their yard, and the other is at the end of a wye (kind of) in Salina. The Salina one is more on an unofficial display, but is easy to get two and still in good shape.
