Wednesday, May 13, 2009 and Thursday, May 14, 2009 at Little Rock, Arkansas. Most interesting are some night shots of BNSF-Santa Fe 160 (in Warbonnet scheme) as it was moving cars to Pulaski in west Little Rock (on former Rock Island, now Little Rock & Western tracks) and UP heritage units 1996 (Southern Pacific) and 1982 (Missouri Pacific) in the UP yards. Rumors have it that these two heritage units will be used on Operation Lifesaver trains in Arkansas the week of May 26-29 (Piggot-Marmaduke May 26, Paragould May 27, Jonesboro May 28, Pine Bluff May 29). I have nothing official on this yet.

Interesting sideline Wednesday night at Union Station: When I got there about 5 p.m., Little Rock & Western was just starting to go to the UP yards from it's tracks across from Union Station. Later, the BNSF local headed by SF 160 came in from Pine Bluff, crossed the Arkansas River, then backed its cars to Pulaski Siding in West Little Rock. We heard on the radio that a minor derailment in UP's yards awhile earlier had blocked one of the access tracks, so some trains were becoming backed up on the UP west of Little Rock, including the one with UP 1996 and 1982 (the train they were on, MFWNL, got to Little Rock Junction at 7:35 p.m. and didn't get to leave for the yards until almost 3 the next morning, sitting there about 7 hours. Little Rock Junction is just around the corner from Union Station.

Anyway, there were no UP trains passing the station for a while. We then heard that the Little Rock & Western train was ready to return from the yards to head back west to Perry, Arkansas. As they were preparing to leave the yards, the BNSF local called and was ready to return to UP's main-1 line, having done their switching at Pulaski.  Since the BNSF local was on the Little Rock & Western's single-line track, the LRWN train could not immediately come out of the yard. The dispatcher did some quick and smart thinking, stopping the LRWN train, then allowing the BNSF train to get onto UP's Line 1, cross the Baring Cross bridge, then backing up and crossing over from UP Main 1 to UP Main 2 at that busy switch at Union Station, backing all the way to milepost 347, which is at the west side of the station, stopping there while the LRWN train came off UP Line-1 onto their own tracks (where the BNSF train just exited) . Then the BNSF local heading forward again (north) and went on to Memphis. All in all, it was a rather interesting night of train watching, dispatching, switching, and all with non-UP power. This all occurred between 5 and 10 p.m.

Included today:
1) UP 1996, 1982, 8555,
2) BNSF 160, 4010, 4188

CLICK ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Or, to view all images in a larger format, click on:
http://thundertrain.org/trains-051309-heritage-bb.html


LEFT-On my way to Union Station during Little Rock's rush hour, about 4:50 p.m. May 13. Nothing to compare with the traffic I put up with in Fort Worth back in the 70s when I worked there. RIGHT-At Union Station, BNSF 4010 arrives at 5:24 p.m.


LEFT-BNSF 4188. RIGHT-UP 8555 in the glaring sun, 6:58 p.m.


LEFT-Union Station at twilight, May 13. RIGHT-BNSF 160 heads the BNSF local from Pine Bluff to Memphis, passing the station at 7:57 p.m. May 13.


RIGHT-The BNSF local backing on LRWN tracks to Pulaski at 8:10 p.m.


RIGHT-The BNSF local returning to UP tracks at 9:01 p.m. (Read text at top of page for more information)


Santa Fe 160. I saw this unit in Kansas City back in 1994. After backing onto UP's Line-2, the local is ready to head north to Memphis.


UP Heritage locomotives 1996 and 1982 on May 14 in UP's North Little Rock yards. (I was here by permission and took these photos from my car)





You may contact me using this CONTACT FORM  - Please be sure to type your email address correctly in the form, otherwise I can't respond. You will also be asked to enter a sequence of letters and numbers to help me try to avoid spammers. If this site doesn't work properly or you want to email me directly, you can by manually typing - -  ken (@) trainweather (.) com - - in your email address field (leaving out the ( ) and spaces).  Thanks for understanding.  If you want to view more of my train pictures, click on:
http://www.trainweather.com/sunday.html