2 Amtrak’s and CN E251 in the snow in Bloomfield Hills

Give us a run down of what you saw, post pictures if you'd like...any info is welcome.
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David Collins
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2 Amtrak’s and CN E251 in the snow in Bloomfield Hills

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39CZPO9G80U

Today (11/12/22), I had nothing going on, and I was trying to get over a breakup. So I decided to make my way out to the tracks and try to just relax, and see some trains.


It all started with Amtrak 353, the westbound wolverine from Pontiac bound for Chicago, I setup at a spot that I rarely setup in since the lighting is normally pretty bad, but since it was overcast, I said to myself “why the hell not?”, so I decided to setup there. Not much longer than 15 minutes later, Amtrak 353 does his horn sequence at Opdyke/Kensington and races around the curve a few moments later. Quite a nice hornshow from the crew this morning.


I then decided to move over to East Hills Middle School, since I *thought* a whole slew of trains (L515, Q116 and E251) were coming, however, a text message from GTWChris that said it was going to be a slow day put that thought down pretty quick. I then decided to move over to a spot just west of the actual crossing. I’ve never really filmed at this spot since the weeds are normally pretty tall, but I was shocked to see that they were recently trimmed, and therefore I stayed.


While I was waiting for Amtrak 350 and CN E251, I ran into Mr. Manistique again. Great seeing you as always!


It then started snowing, and CN had decided to line Amtrak 350 up nearly an hour and 30 minutes before he was due into Pontiac, but I waited it out in my car watching MasterClass.


I then heard the voice of Amtrak Engineer Levi (I’m not going to say his last name due to privacy reasons), on the scanner calling the signal at Milepost 19 (for some reason I never heard the 17.8 Detector). That obviously sent me running out of the car, and not much longer than a minute later, the gates were going down. Amtrak 350 had 1 amfleet cafe car and 4 ventures, and a horn salute.



I was told then by GTWChris that E251 would be following 350 into Pontiac, and I knew I had to stay for it, since the rails were probably very slippery, 251 had quite the train and it was snowing very hard, therefore the engines would be putting on quite the show. 15 minutes later, the sound of 2 SD70M-2’s running in Notch 8 could be heard, and just a few moments later, the sound of wheels screeching on the rail could be heard, I saw how slow he was coming around the corner and the first thought through my head was if he was going to make it without stalling. He did thankfully.


E251’s leader caught my attention however, the leader had a rare K5LLA horn that had all chimes facing forward, on all other K5LLA horns, they have one chime facing backwards. I believe this design was used only on the early SD70M-2’s (that NS had and CN has) and the CSX SD70ACe’s. It sounded really cool though, nothing wrong with it.

At this point, I was freezing my arse off and decided to head home. All in all, a successful day.
Attachments
Amtrak 353
Amtrak 353
Amtrak 350
Amtrak 350
CN E251
CN E251

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