Fall 2013 Trip - 6

Hi, This will be a shorter post as it was a challenging day. We began by calling the Iowa Northern dispatcher from our motel about two hours west of Manly, IA.  He told us the train for Manly was out of Greene and would stop at Nora Springs to switch so we headed there.

On the way we passed through Britt where we spotted this 35 ton Plymouth at a Farmer's Cooperative elevator.

When we arrived at Nora Springs we did a quick exploration and determined the IN train had not arrived so we headed south to look for it.

Soon after arriving at Rockford we heard a horn at the south edge of town and the northbound train came into view.  The sun angles were terrible but I felt the station and grain elevator were too neat to pass up.

The train moved at about 10 mph so we easily found a spot north of Rockford.

After looking around Nora Springs a bit we found a spot (above and below) where we had at least side light.

The train went north of Nora Springs to switch.  In the meantime we heard a CP train blowing to the west so we set up near the grain elevator in town.

After the train finished switching we caught it at Rock Falls and

south of Manly (above and below).

At Manly we learned from the crew that they would need to wait for two UP trains before they could enter UP trackage and cross over to their yard.  This gave us an opportunity to try different angles on the sitting train (above and below).

Eventually, a southbound UP train that had been waiting north of town got clearance and took the siding south of town.

We relocated to the south end of the siding for a final photo.

Meantime the UP dispatcher decided not to hold the Iowa Northern for a second UP train (this one northbound).  The track breaking off to the right is the UP Spine Line heading south and the switch stand is for the Iowa Northern's connection to the Spine Line.  The train will run only a few blocks on the Spine Line where it will take a switch to its left and enter the Iowa Northern's yard.

At this point we headed for dinner and our motel.  Thanks for looking.