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ROAD TRIP
DAY 3

Day 3, Wednesday, 04/11/01

Ring!! Ring!! OK. OK. I'll get up. Arrrrrg. Finally get going. Bypass the coffee, ice and gas. Pick up Dave at 0630 and head for the Greasy Spoon in Wellington for some B&G. It's one of those days where I just can't get going. Finish breakfast and head for the loadouts. Nothing going on so head for Helper Yard. The scanner goes off. Hmmm. Utah coal heading for Wildcat. That must be the new MK5000C's again. They will finish loading about 1130 so have time to chase the Dirt Train.

Decide to head to Wash to set up. Dave wants to set up around the corner at the east end. We then make a command decision to go further down the road. There is a good spot ahead on top of a small mound. Drive on out and find that the old roadbed was cut through the hill there. Makes a perfect place. The only problem was a red and white post in the way. We have a lot of time so Dave decides to do a camo job on it.

Dave in process of applying camo to post.

     


Dave finally gets all set up and here it comes

All this time there was a minor melt down going on east of Mounds. The MDVRO-10 with a SD70M on the point was having computer problems and stalled out. There was a a BNSF "M" trying to get around it plus #6 was in the mess also. The wonderful world of 'puters. We still have time before the Utah coal would be loaded so head on east through Mounds and up the Sunnyside Sub to the Hwy.

Time to blast back and catch the coal train. Pull into wildcat and it is gone. Head for Martin and hear over the scanner the Utah help calling for a Warrant to head back to Helper from the Summit. What the heck is going on here. It has only been 3 1/2 hours. Come to find out later that the MT coal was not a coal train. It seems they had some loads of sand and emptys to take to Hiawatha and drop off. From there they ran light to the CV Spur to get a IPPX unit train that had been loaded the night before. Well, I quess Dave misses the MK5000C's for another day.

Time to grab a bite to eat and figure out what to do. There is nothing going on in the area so we head for the mines and loadouts south of Helper for a look see. Head back to Helper in time to catch the MDVRO head up the hill. Spent some time at Colton then decide to head down the hill. We catch a Utah coal with UP power on the point and Utah help. Back up the hill to setup. There is no light out so decide to pace it and listen to the SD40's and the F45 do their thing. Leave them at the east end of Nolan Tunnels and head to Kyune. Get just past Kyune Tunnels and the scanner goes off. They are in emergency. Burn a fast "U" and head back. They are stopped between Nolan and Kyune Tunnels with a pull apart. They finally get it fixed and now comes the fun part. Starting off on a steep grade with a loaded train. They get it rolling and into run "8" with no problem at all. I think they have done this drill before.

Head on back to Grogg's for dinner and rehash the last two days. We had both gotten to see the number one things we had set out to do. We step out of Grogg's and the detector goes off at Maxwell. Wonder what we have here. It looks like three T-2's. Wonder what is up?? They picked up an empty hopper and headed to Wash. There had been a string of loaded hoppers at Wash with dirty dirt for some time. The T-2's picked those up and headed to the dump. Too bad it was dark out and no moon. Time to call it a day.

Last Update 04/14/01

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