Grapevine Vintage RR

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grande man

grande man

Bonafied Grande Nut
Hi everyone. Here are a few shots from yesterday's ride on the Grapevine Vintage RR. It was fun, but the weather was less than optimal for photos.

HDR enhanced shot of "Puffy", an 1896 Cooke Tenwheeler, rolling by SP 771 (unrestored Mike).
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It was dark when the train got back to Grapevine and I didn't have my tripod with me. I managed this shot of the Mikado handheld and braced on a nearby fence. Lighting was the combo of a street light and flash bounced off the fence. I knew that 1600 ISO setting would come in handy some day...:D
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Our power for the trip to the Ft Worth Stockyards wasn't quite as interesting as the 4-6-0... FWWR 2GS14B. Here it is being turned on the Stock Yards turntable to access the runaround track. We actually caught a few short lived rays of sunshine for this first shot!
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Hey, that was you passing by my house!

I live right along the old Cotton Belt line that stretches from Fort Worth to Grapevine. The girls and I love to take that ride.

It looks like you had a good time. The GVRR should hire you to do their photography!
 
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RCH said:
Hey, that was you passing by my house!

I live right along the old Cotton Belt line that stretches from Fort Worth to Grapevine. The girls and I love to take that ride.

It looks like you had a good time. The GVRR should hire you to do their photography!
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Hey Ryan.

Do you know anything about access to the FWWR yard? I got a few shots from the train, but would love to get some "sunny day" shots (and the camera angles I'm after ;) ). I may check into that this week. Also, are there any plans to restore the Mike?
 
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Nice shots as usual, Eric. That shot of the 771 came out especialy good. It's sure a nice looking engine. I guess it's at least been partially cosmetically restored. What model is that engine at the stockyards? I'm just not keeping up very well on new prototypes, I guess. Almost looks like someone has tried the old Alco C-415 design again.
 
UP2CSX said:
What model is that engine at the stockyards? I'm just not keeping up very well on new prototypes, I guess. Almost looks like someone has tried the old Alco C-415 design again.
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Hi Jim.

The loco is a 2GS14B. My understanding is that it's a "green" loco made on an old geep chassis. Apparently, the units have two or more "gensets" powered by separate, small diesel engines that can be shut down or started depending on load requirements. They are made by National Railway Equipment company. http://www.nationalrailway.com/nviro.asp
 
Thanks for that link, Eric. I can't say they are the most handsome engines I've ever seen but I guess they are filling a need. The 1GS-7B picture looks almost exactly a C-415. The SP crews hated that design when they had C-415's since the hoods were so long that they couldn't really see the cars much better than they could from a Geep. I'm surprised that they are producing a design like that again but I guess each generation makes the same mistakes as the last generation.

I wonder what makes these 700 hp gensets different than any other 700 hp diesels? I can see with the higher horsepower engines that sharing the load and idling a genset that's not needed for the load would reduce emissions compared to a single 1400 or 2100 hp engine but the single engine unit seems like it would have all the same characteristics for emissions as any other 700 hp diesels. I wonder what the numbers look like for something like an SW-8 and their 1GS-7B?
 
grande man said:
Hey Ryan.

Do you know anything about access to the FWWR yard? I got a few shots from the train, but would love to get some "sunny day" shots (and the camera angles I'm after ;) ). I may check into that this week. Also, are there any plans to restore the Mike?
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Good luck on the "sunny day" thing this week!

I assume you mean Hodge Yard (at least that's what SSW called it), which is partially under IH35W. You can reach that location by exiting IH35W at Long Ave., which runs parallel to the yard on its south side. Under the bridge the access is very good, but you're generally going to see parked freight cars only there. The yard entrance is just west of the bridge. You might want to call before going on the property or at least checking in as you arrive.

I don't know anything about restoring the Mike. Consider yourself lucky Puffy was even operating at the time you were here. It's been down for quite a while.

You might also want to make your way over to the BNSF/UP diamond in Saginaw. It's not far from Hodge Yard and a trip to that location should yield some pretty good photo opportunities. If you look at this map, you can see that following Long Ave to Deen Rd will take you to the southwest side of BN's North Yard. Follow Deen to Terminal, Terminal to Main and head north on Main to McLeroy in Saginaw. Just before McLeroy is a "depot" style building, a BN baggage car and an ATSF caboose. That's your railfanning spot and they have public bathrooms (a must when railfanning with my daughters!).

Besides modeling Bottineau, North Dakota, I model this area from Hodge Yard south to Bird's Siding (SSW and Frisco) in Fort Worth. There is so much to see, so much to model, it's just information overload the whole way. Make sure you have a very large memory card in your camera. Have fun!
 
Thanks Ryan. I haven't checked the weather forecast, but you're right, from the looks of today it could present a problem. :rolleyes:

Is Hodge Yard the one the GVRR goes thru on it's way to the Stock Yards? It looked like home to the FWWR to me... I wonder if things at the FWWR might be a little more "relaxed" than the typical suspicion that's common for an outsider at a class one yard. I'd LOVE to shoot that place! I've seen many doors open in the past by just asking politely. These aren't really "web worthy" shots, but I snapped them from the moving train yesterday. Is this Hodge Yard?
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You're right about Saginaw. I've railfanned it in the past as the service center we used on one of our aircraft is a Meacham airport, just down the road. I've gotten a few photos this trip. They can be seen here...
http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21177
 
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Yes, that photo is of Hodge Yard. But I'm not sure how they'd react to visitors. When I worked at BNSF Alliance Intermodal at the north end of town, they were pretty focused on people trespassing because of the value of the cargo (there are many defense contractors and tech businesses here). I suspect it's probably the same at FWWR since they handle cargo from BNSF. In all liklihood, the worst thing they would do is ask you to leave.

Now that you have a frame of reference for where this is, here's a photo I took of the girls down at the stockyards last year when we rode the train:

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Eric, that FWWR engine in your last photo - what is that thing? It looks like a GP-35 that's had some rebuilding. And what's the deal with that single airhorn mounted on the rear exhaust stack? That's the oddest place I've seen for mounting a horn and I don't see any horns to the front. Sure is a colorful engine though. :)
 
UP2CSX said:
Eric, that FWWR engine in your last photo - what is that thing? It looks like a GP-35 that's had some rebuilding. And what's the deal with that single airhorn mounted on the rear exhaust stack? That's the oddest place I've seen for mounting a horn and I don't see any horns to the front. Sure is a colorful engine though. :)
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Hey Jim. It's a GP38-3. I'm seeing two horns... We gotta get you a new monitor for Christmas. :D

Ryan, That's a cool shot!

Paul, Thanks!
 
As Ryan mentioned the possibility of earlier in the thread, the weather here in Texas has been lousy. This afternoon was the first sunshine we've seen since last Saturday afternoon. Being my last full day here (this trip), I took a few more shots of the GVRR...

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And two tone mapped images...

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