Saturday, November 22, 2008 was a cold, blustery day in Arkansas, including Brinkley (eastern Arkansas on the Jonesboro and Brinkley subs of U.P.). The day started out with brilliant, clear blue skies, but it was a cold 22 degrees (17 degrees below the normal low of 39) and only reached a high of 43 (16 degrees below the normal high of 59). The
wind was strong too. Fittingly, it was the annual Christmas Open House
at the Brinkley Depot Museum, where I volunteer weekly. There was
punch, cookies, cheese trays, fruit, cinnamon rolls, chips and lots of
dip - I had a good time!!
There were nine trains today
passing through Brinkley, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. I've
included most of them. Included today:
1) NS 9194, 9258
2) CONRAIL 6758
3) UP 4229, 7840, 4303
4) Unknown load
5) Radio Display sign 14-14-16
Or, to view all photos in a larger size, click on:
http://www.thundertrain.org/112208brinkley-bb.html
Today
was the first day of duck hunting season in Arkansas. Brinkley is close
to Stuttgart, the duck hunting capitol of the world. There supposedly
were over 100,000 hunters in the swamps and woods today. Vice President
Dick Cheney is rumored to come here most years to hunt. Here's a
flock of geese flying ove the depot.
Notice
the nice blue skies. This was soon to change. RIGHT-This
sign is on the Brinkley Sub on the curve that goes from the north-south
Jonesboro Sub to the Brinkley (former Rock Island) Sub. That's a sign
that tells the train crews which frequency to change their radio to for
that particular stretch of track. 14 14 is the AAR transmit and recieve
frequencies for the Brinkley Sub. In other words, it means set the
radio to 160.320 Mhz, which is the dispatcher frequency for the Sub.
The *16 is the dial up tone used to tone up the dispatcher in Omaha. On
the Van Buren Sub, they use 24 24 or 160.470 Mhz and the dial up tones
are *28. The crew dials this into the handset and hears a tone when
dispatch has been alerted. The dispatcher will see this on his or her
display and when able to, will answer the crew. (Thanks to Damon Poole and Eric Grissom)
LEFT-NS 9194 coming off the Brinkley Sub from Marion/West Memphis at 8:30 a.m. RIGHT-I
thought I'd include a Christmas decoration on a light pole as NS
9194 gets ready to cross U.S. Highway 70 southbound. Notice the clouds
just above the buildings. They will move quickly toward us.
This was a loaded, mostly autorack train. At least someone is still making cars (for future reference, the economy was in a downturn at this time with the Big-Three automakers asking for federal assistance).
LEFT-I
usually don't show much graffiti, but this tree looked almost like
'normal' art. RIGHT-A speeding southbound on the Jonesboro Sub, looking
north at 8:51 a.m.
LEFT-Backlit UP 4229, 8:52 a.m. RIGHT-Here's the same train as seen from the station's restroom (no,
I just went in there to get this photo, but this type of scene would be
much better than reading an old Sears Catalog, wouldn't it?).
LEFT-So
much for the sunshine. By 9 a.m. these clouds had moved in. It was
still in the upper 20s. RIGHT-A well-fed cat, probably eats lots of
mice.
RIGHT-Conrail 6758, 10:35 a.m.
To see a brief Quicktime (.MOV) movie of this train, click on:
http://www.thundertrain.org/112208BrinkleyMOV-1035am-33.mov
LEFT-A four-unit UP train at 12:17 p.m. Note the machine on the first flatcar. RIGHT-NS 9258, 1:01 p.m.
LEFT-What was this load? I barely caught it. RIGHT-UP 7840, 1:31 p.m. off the Brinkley Sub.
This train was a LONG train of empty container cars.
LEFT-2:36 p.m. RIGHT-UP 4303, 2:37 p.m. passing at track speed.
To view a short Quicktime (.MOV) movie of this train, click on:
http://www.thundertrain.org/112208BrinkleyMovie-237pm-58.mov
Christmas decoratons in front of the depot.
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