Pigs Eye Code Blue

I had an half an hour to spend around Pigs Eye Monday, and it was possibly the finest half-hour I've ever had railfanning. It started with a chase down the hill. There were 2 NS SD70ACes on the point of an EB Manifest:

I looked south to the yard and I could see a WB CSX fertilizer train getting ready to roll out with a triple header of CSX power.

As those two clear I see a BNSF manifest and an Earthworm holding to head East. As I admire them a BNSF Ore MT rolled up. That covered my Dash-9 fix as well as ES44DCs and SD70MACs.

The UP made there standard appearance, putting together a manifest to send down to Shakopee.

I headed over to the shops and looky-looky! More of the new CP GP30C ECOs!

And the pair of out of town guests that have eluded me all year! The Indiana Railroad SD9043MACs!

As I was getting ready to leave, I caught a CP transfer at the bluff with some great looking DME power on the point!

Shortly there-after the TCWR rolled through.

Not too shabby, eh? And people wonder why Minnesotans would put up with Sub-Zero temps half the year. The railfanning makes it worth it!

Pigs Eye

I live a short hop from the Pigs Eye Yard in St. Paul Minnesota. The yard is named for the landfill the railroad built on top of. [Useless Fact Alert!] When the CP built their new office here they had to run pile 160 feet down through garbage to hold the structure up. It is always a hot spot and there are plenty of great things to see. Last Saturday was no exception.
CP 6243 was one of two freshly painted SD60s on the property today.

There was a lineup of MP15ACs, notice all three are in different paint schemes. There are also still SOO white and some bandit MP15s working the yard here as well.

 UP 3236 was pulling the UP-TCWR transfer uphill toward downtown. The TCWR power was chasing behind running light.

 TCWR 40155 is one of the best patch jobs I've seen in a while, I just had to share...

On the left is the CP-UP transfer in UP's Hoffman Yard which runs right next to Pigs Eye Yard. The TCWR GP30C #4302 is getting ready to head back to Hopkins.

 A BNSF manifest (with a UP engine) approaches Pigs Eye on the BNSF mainline, pulling some wind turbine nacelles. These loads are cool in that they are bolted to the cars at their base, notice there are no straps or cables over the top.

 DME 6050 was one of the ICE/DME SD40-3s at Pigs Eye, this one just happened to be passing through.

It only rains on the unloved

I didn't realize that I never reposted this set of pictures from this fall... they were just sitting in my draft folder. A little late, but nevertheless... enjoy.

TC&W GP20C pulling some grain hoppers out of MNNR Yard A. BNSF Snoot nosed SD39-2 #1896 with GP38 #2196 assigned as Midway switch power in the St. Paul rain. Thanks for the correction Hans!

BNSF C44-9W #966 waiting to pull away from MNNR Yard A on a soggy day. In the background you can see MNNR RS27 #316 getting ready to pull out with the Hennepin Ave. turn (yes, he runs backwards up through Park Jct.).