CN Updates: August 2018

Daily whereabouts of train locations along with sightings for heads ups to other railfans.
Manistique
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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

Unread post by Manistique »

Man o' War wrote:
blueheron13 wrote:
Man o' War wrote:Q130 by North Mount at 00:15. CN/CN, 10,000'+ .

Man o' War
Was this Q130 a SB train? I'm guessing it was because Q131 is a NB intermodal train on the Mount Clemens Sub, and Q130 sounds like its counterpart.
Northbound, and was identified as Q130 by CN Desk 8 and a trackside maintainer. The SB counterpart operates as Q131 according to the railroad, although I've heard on more than one occasion a crew misidentifying a symbol. General rule of thumb on CN (with a sprinkling of anomalies), even symbols NB and EB, odds SB and WB. The Q trains on the MTC sub from their inception in 1990 and forward (Q140/Q141, Q142/Q143 and Q144/Q145, have all operated in this manner, so it's my best guess that 130/131 do this as well - but it's not beyond the railroad to try and confuse railfans!

Man o' War
If I recall, in the past age the Mount Clemens sub was EB and WB. A train from Port Huron to Detroit was considered a WB and Detroit to Port Huron EB. I get the feeling that now the former is a SB and the later is a NB? If so, that is opposite of the usual rule that NB and WB are the same and SB and EB are the same. And it sounds like the even odd train number is not the traditional way of doing so as I describe below on the Holly.

Traditionally on GTW, and still on the Holly Sub, a NB train (which formerly was a WB before CTC) had an odd number train number and a SB train (which was formerly an EB) had even numbers. So this is opposite what Man o' War is describing as the case on the Mount Clemens Sub. Holly Trains 451 and 391 are NBs to Durand. Trains 502 and 116 are SB's as would be a 280. This applied to the coal trains when they ran over it. The locals on the Holly are exceptions as they have a train number (ie 950, 515, 513) that is static no matter which way they are running on their runs up and down the Holly. Maybe same with 514 between Flint and Pontiac. There is no return train of 502 but my guess is that if there were it would be 502 even as a NB as the five hundred series trains seem to be considered locals even though 502 is really a road freight. If there was a Mount Clemens reroute on the Holly, it keeps its Mount Clemens number even if it was running in the opposite Holly Sub direction.

I know there must be some chart somewhere that shows what trains have what number and why they are that number. For a long time 451 was numbered 393 or something because of where its destination or something was. When this destination or something changed (because someone took the business or something), the number changed but it sure looks like the same train that passes my house daily, mostly Ford mustangs and F150's in autoracks bound for the westcoast.

The one thing I know about railroads is that logic, reason and consistency have nothing to do with anything.

Manistique
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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

Unread post by Manistique »

Lite locomotive, sounded like a geep, SB past MP 22.5 on the Holly. Probably a 513 working the Holly and or Moterm tonight.

MtClemensRailFan
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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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385 stopped about a half-mile north of the Mr. Clemens depot. Not sure what happened.

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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Eb by 205 at 2245. I didn't see the power and the consist looked like mostly racks.

Man o' War
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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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MtClemensRailFan wrote:385 stopped about a half-mile north of the Mr. Clemens depot. Not sure what happened.
Just past the Mount Clemens depot at 22:50. CN/CN, 99 cars. I think they lost their air at MP 24.

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

Unread post by MtClemensRailFan »

Man o' War wrote:
MtClemensRailFan wrote:385 stopped about a half-mile north of the Mr. Clemens depot. Not sure what happened.
Just past the Mount Clemens depot at 22:50. CN/CN, 99 cars. I think they lost their air at MP 24.

Man o' War
That's what I kind of figured it was. It seemed to be moving pretty good beforehand but then went into emergency all of a sudden.
Power was CN 8006 & 5653.

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

Unread post by Man o' War »

Further to Manistiques post -

EB even and WB odd symbols were always very consistent on The Mt. Clemens Sub, and I can only recall one instance where there was a deviation from that practice - that being trains 380 and 381. 380 was a WB train and 381 an EB. Former westbound trains are now considered southbound, and former eastbound trains are now considered northbound. The only exception today that I'm aware of is the E271 train on the MTC sub, which is an autorack repositioning train and carries the same symbol in any direction around the system. As you mention, the locals are static, and that is why when I report the whereabouts of a 533 or a 524 on this line, I always use an "N" or an "S" after the symbol in order to help fans who may wonder if it is coming their way. There seems to always have been operating practice differences between the Holly and the Mount Clemens subs, and one of these days I'll post some extremely interesting stories with regard to these.

Man o' War

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

Unread post by kc8bdr »

I caught 391 at Williams Lake Rd. at 11:24 PM. CN 5459 solo. I don,t normally count cars on a train but by my count 391 had 27 cars tonight.

Edit to add:

391 cleared the detector MP 59.9 at 12:08 AM, 1574 feet long, 114 axles.
Last edited by kc8bdr on Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jim

In Waterford, Michigan

Near Mile Post 32 on CN's Holly Subdivision

Man o' War
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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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L533N by Breitmeyer Hills (MTC 21.3) at 23:47. CN 5700, 147 containers.

Man o' War

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

Unread post by kc8bdr »

In listening to the Durand scanner feed, there is a train 273 lined eastbound on the Flint sub around the High Wye and south on the Holly. They will meet 391 at the south side siding. CN 2226 leading.

edit to add:

273 cleared the detector MP 59.9 at 12:48 AM. 8068 feet long, 352 axles.

Last edit to add:
I caught 273 at Williams Lake Rd at 1:27 AM. In addition to the CN 2226 they had CN 2125 trailing.
Last edited by kc8bdr on Thu Aug 30, 2018 2:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jim

In Waterford, Michigan

Near Mile Post 32 on CN's Holly Subdivision

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

Unread post by kc8bdr »

There is a CN 2011 lined up around the Chicago Wye to follow 273 south. ( As of 12:43 AM)They will also meet 391 at the south side siding.

Edit to add:

9642 feet long, 468 axles.

Last edit to add :

This was train 116, I caught them at Williams Lake Rd at 1:48 AM. CN 2011, PRLX 213.

514 (GTW 5647) was right behind 116 with a stop at Red Lava.
I did not stick around for 514, but three trains on the Holly in about an hour? :shock: :D

116 will be good to head south from Pontiac shortly (as of 3:27 AM) just waiting on Amtrak to get out of the way.
I did not get an exact number just an "over 11,000 feet"
Jim

In Waterford, Michigan

Near Mile Post 32 on CN's Holly Subdivision

Manistique
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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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This morning Train 950 had 4632 (I might have mistated this number yesterday) and was SB past MP 22.5 at 9:15 am.

At 10:28 am 4934 had Train 515 headed south past MP 22.5. Maybe IC 9571 is gone from Pontiac local duty now.

At 12:45 pm Train 451 with an 8000 unit, a 5600 and GT GP9r 4621 went NB past MP 22.5.

Returning Train 950 went NB past MP 22.5 at 3 pm right behind the Amtrak 350.

Returning Train 515 went NB past MP 22.2 at 4:10 pm on its way back to Pontiac for the day.
Last edited by Manistique on Thu Aug 30, 2018 5:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Man o' War
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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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L533S by South Mount at 16:35. CN 5700, entirely bare tables for Moterm today.

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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M384 by Mount Clemens depot at 19:15. CN 2125/CN/PRLX/CN, 93 cars.

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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M385 by North Mount at 20:18. CN/CitiRail, 98 cars.

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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X383 by Mount Clemens depot at 22:41. CN, 57 cars.

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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L533N by North Mount at 23:45. CN 5700.

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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At 7:25 am Train 116 was SB past MP 22.5 with two locomotives, the first an old 2400 series cowl CN unit and the second being a UP one. Mostly mixed freight. Very long train.

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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About 9-930 there was a pair of gtw engines EB by 205, light power. Nice to see them in original paint but strange to see a pair headed to a job.

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Re: CN Updates: August 2018

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149 by 205 at 1130, cn cowl leading, former csx then cn

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