An Hour at the East Lansing Amtrak Station 8/8/2005

[RailCanon]

I was really bored last night, so I decided to go out to the Amtrak station and see what was going on. I didn't see or hear anything on the GT Line, and the signals at Trowbridge were dark, so I went to check CSX. Same story. Red Signals in both directions, and no trains. However, as I am walking back to the Amtrak station, I hear a horn. I get back to the station, and sure enough, the signals are lit-up for a westbound.
This train had fully cowled CN SD50F 5507 on the point, and NS C40-9W 9843 trailing, with about 107 cars in tow.


After viewing this train, I went back over to the CSX line to see if anything had changed over there. The mainline signal at Trowbridge was now showing Yellow-over-Red, meaning a train was nearby. About 5 minutes later, the signal switched to Yellow-over-Green. Another five minutes passed before I heard the familiar sound of a K3H Airhorn in the distance. At first I thought this this train was X747, but it turned out to be the CSX Welded Rail Train! I still don't understand why they had CP 9542 on the front though.
Sorry about the crappy image. The A85 was giving me some trouble.

Going away shot showing the 9542, and the first few cars. The machines on these cars are for unloading the rail:

Another view of the train:

The end of the train. Looks like they've already unloaded some of the rail.

After watching the rail train, I went back to the Amtrak station. It was getting close to 364's scheduled arrival, and a good sized crowd had gathered at the Station. I was only there for about a minute before the signals at Trowbridge came on again.
About three minutes later, the train finally appeared around the curve east of the station. I was happily surprised to see that it was a coal train with BN/BNSF power! The "Creame" paint scheme on the BN SD70s is one of my favorites!
BN 9532 and BNSF 5376 lead the coal train west:

After the coal train, I started to head home, but as I was walking away, I heard the signals at the CSX crossing activating, so I ran back there as fast as I could, and just barely got this shot of Q327 heading through the crossing:

They were moving very slowly, and took about five minutes to cross. I went back to the Amtrak Station to find that the crowd of passengers had doubled in size, and that Amtrak had just passed CP Mill near Lansing. So I waited an extra five minutes to watch 364 arrive. They arrived @ 8:20 PM, just 12 minutes off schedule!
#28 leads the Blue Water into the Station:

90219 has returned to the train.

A good shot of #28 with passengers boarding in the background:

#28 with the Sun setting in the background:

The train departs for Durand, and, ultimatley, Port Huron:

After this I went home. Five trains in under an hour. Not too bad! I hope everyone enjoyed!