Jun 8, 2013

Railfanning...despite BNSF's jack-boot security policy

I found out recently that BNSF is cracking down on railfans and I am no exception. So the following photos were shot without putting a foot down on their sacred land. I am standing on the road 2 feet from the yellow line at Barker Road. I saw this guy coming and made it to the crossing before he did.
 
This comparison on an old SW1500 and a ex Santa Fe B unit seemed to say the newer stuff is just that much bigger. Still on a road near to a parking lot.
 
My 200 mm lens came in handy for this long shot of BN units sandwiching 4 of those ex-Santa Fe B units. They were not moving while I was there with one
eye on them and one eye on any vehicle traffic heading my way.
 
Heading home this afternoon I saw a headlight coming out of the UP/SI connection near the old Playfair property and I knew it was not BNSF but UP or
perhaps lease power so I set up on friendly territory above the tracks for this shot. The second unit was a lease unit that runs from Canada to the ocean.
 
The CP unit is not in a race with the BNSF train but is the pusher from the prior shot. Nobody is in the unit as it is controlled by the engineer in the front unit.
This BNSF train is a returning empty oil train heading back to the Balkin Oil Fields in North Dakota. That's a safety spacer car between the tank cars and the locos.
In 2011 BNSF made 1 billion dollars hauling oil. In 2015 it will be hauling 5 billion dollars of oil for us Americans.
All from private investment, not government!  Finally something to be happy about!

No comments:

Post a Comment