Proto Photo Wednesday Feb 9 2011

[MichaelT]

So our company closed down because of the winter storm rolling through today, and on my home (which takes me over the Jenks yard in NLR, AR) I thought I spotted a caboose on the tracks, so I ventured off the snowy freeway to more snowy side streets and made my way to the UP fence and lo and behold there was an old Mopac caboose linke up with two old heavyweights. They were connected to a couple of SD40's (I think), one on both ends, so I snuck through the UP Credit Union parking lot and snapped a picture of it.

I just couldn't "NOT" get a picture of a caboose on the tracks with some heavyweight cars linked up.



I just noticed in the side mirror you can make out a -9 coming from the run through track. It passed when I got out of the yard area with some tankers and hoppers in tow.

[MichaelT]

Okay, so some of the train guys in the area here have told me that this little getup is a shuttle train between Little Rock and Pine Bluff (about 55 miles) when the weather turns the highways bad. They said usually a van service shuttles the crews between LR and PB, but when the roads are bad they pull this little getup out and use it to shuttle crews until the roads get better.

Now I'll have to contact UP and see if they would consider shuttling some railfans too!!

mdt

[wm3798]

Roads get bad?  I see plenty of asphalt there. 

What was that sneaking up behind you?  (in the rear view mirror)...

[davefoxx]

Roads get bad?  I see plenty of asphalt there. 

What was that sneaking up behind you?  (in the rear view mirror)...

Lee, go back to the original post and read the caption under the photo.

[davefoxx]

Michael,

You called it an old MoPac caboose, but that paint and lettering looks pretty fresh.  Did UP repaint it in a "heritage" scheme?

DFF

[MichaelT]

Roads get bad?  I see plenty of asphalt there. 

What was that sneaking up behind you?  (in the rear view mirror)...

Lee that was early in the day, it had only been snowing for about an hour. Little Rock ended up with just over 6" of snow yesterday; we have about 6-1/2" at the house; and the roads were covered and got slick pretty quickly. That compounded with minimal snow removal equipment here, and southern drivers that don't drive well in the snow, and it was a mess throughout the day.

This morning the roads were pretty packed from traffic, icy but passable if a person takes their time. It's only supposed to get to 29F here today, so not going to see much in the way of melting. Tomorrow though it's supposed to start warming up, and mid 60's by Sunday, so hopefully it will all melt away by then!