Here's a few trains on a dark, cloudy day in Little Rock, AR, Sunday July 24, 2011. An interesting day to say the least.  I called in a smoking axle on a tankcar to the UP Emergency number, a friendly UP Special Agent came by to chat, and a group of modern-day hobos headed by a purple-haired nice lady with nose rings came by and talked about their hobby.

Included today:
1) UP 4486, 3981, 3925, 3861, 5386, 2344, 7436
2) NS 6758, 9065
3) New Richardson tankcars
4) DOWX 6646 white tankcar with smoking axle
5) MKT 502 green hopper
6) NOKL 3209 Golden Connection gondola
7) ALM 9895 Ashley Drew & Northern boxcar
8) UP Special Agent
9) Purple-haired hobo with nose rings (really)


Sunrise clouds, 6:33 a.m.


UP 4486, 7:18 a.m.


UP 3981.


7:50a.m., a northbound approaches.


UP 3925, 7:51 a.m.


A passing train approaches on Main 2 at 7:54 a.m.


UP 3861 reflecting lights off the freightcars on the next track.


Three yellow CNW hoppers.


UP 3861, 7:54 a.m.


New Richardson tankcars.


NS 6758, an SD60I (not SD60E). Also NS 9065.


UP 5386, 9:25 a.m.


UP 5386, 9:26 a.m. southbound.


UP 5386.


UP 2344.


Note the white smoke from tankcar DOWX 6646. This smoke came from the front trucks and I heard a scrapping sound, so I called the Union Pacific Emergency number, 800-892-1283 and reported it. I gave the car number, milepost (which is CP-X346) and street name and told him I saw smoke from the axle. For some reason, he didn't have milepost CP-X346 in his system, but he called the dispatcher. We heard the report relayed to the dispatcher on the scanner, so I knew they had gotten the report. The car was  bad ordered because of a faulty hand brake at Biddle Yard (in south Little Rock) about an hour after I took this photo and called it in, so I guess they used the report. I received a call from UP from a 402 area code (Omaha) about 11:20 confirming that I was the one who made the call. If anyone calls this UP emergency number, they will ask for street names, but you get a live person on the first ring.


I got this report from a friend who is a customer of UP.


Here's the milepost sign where the tankcar was.


MKT 502 green hopper.


UP 7436, 9:48 a.m.


NOKL 320297 Golden Connection gondola.


Ashley Drew & Northern boxcar ALM 9895.


Friendly Union Pacific Special Agent showed up at 10:06 a.m. Unless a new Agent comes to the area, all the Special Agents here know us quite well.


This lady with the purple hair and nose rings and her companions showed up to chat and we talked about trains and hitching rides on freight trains. Yes, that group was part of the modern hobo movement and apparently they ride train all over the country. She seemed smart enough to know that she shouldn't ride freights, but does anyway. It was explained to her that it's illegal to do this as is trespassing on railroad property. I explained that a main reason railroads don't like people doing this is liability due to injury of  trespassers on railroad property (i.e., the railroads would get sued). Anyway, there  was some interesting conversations about the hobo 'industry'. No, they didn't board a freight here since they were moving too fast, but I suspect by the time you read this, this group of hobos will be a thousand miles away. Oh....and she showed us how she can push the nose rings up in her nose when she applies for jobs.

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