During Christmas with family in Iowa, I kept checking the UP car trace to see if 1146 moved. They picked it up while I was down there. When I got back, I spent New Year's day hunting along its route, trying to find it to see how things were going. (My brother-in-law accused me of being overly protective.) I finally found it in BNSF's Northtown yard.
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There it is! Sitting on the hump bypass track, between the hump and the diesel shop. Everything looks fine from this side. |
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UMLER has a "do not hump" code, which the computer is real good about honoring. Unfortunately, there isn't a "do not couple to top-shelf coupler" code. Tank cars are required by law to have top-shelf couplers, often carry hazmats, and are also "do not hump", so protecting the passenger car from hump damage ironically exposes it to top-shelf couplers. If that coupler happens to get hooked under the passenger car's buffer plate - the walkway between cars - it can require a crane, jacks, or a cutting torch to separate things. Happily, nothing of the sort happened this day. |
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This is a pretty good illustration of a hump. I know of two passenger cars which were damaged by a trip over the hump. In both cases the draft gear was damaged upon impact with standing cars. One sheared the rear lugs inside the center sill, which hold the spring pack in place. The other simply broke the center sill at the spring pack. |
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The railroad is observing the holiday - all the power was neatly parked, and not even a switcher was stirring. |
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Getting a look at the left side was difficult because of obstructions. Looks like all is well. |
Within a week, the BNSF local had taken 1146 up to the St Croix Valley interchange in Hinckley. The St Croix Valley then moved it to the Pine City industrial park, it's new home.
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I chose this location for security. With a busy highway on one side, and a well-lit industry on the other, I figured there would be some built-in deterrance for vandals. Added attractions were a friendly railroad, proximity of a restraunt and gas station, and that by freeway it was only an hour from my house. One of the railroaders checked with the business who owned the parking lot, to see if I could park there to work. |
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One factor I failed to notice was that the siding wasn't level anymore. The eastern rail was maybe an inch lower than the western. Combined with the inside swing hanger geometry of the trucks, and an existing lean to the right, it gave 1146 a very noticable tilt. That actually made it slightly difficult to work inside. I'll never know for sure, but I suspect it also prompted a bad first impression for people driving by. |
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Every Sunday I would come up to work, this would be my first view of 1146 as I passed the copse of trees that obscured it from the west. |
Everyone, please meet my friend, Ben Ringnalda. Ben is a big Great Northern fan, and has put together an excellent list of surviving Great Northern equipment. (http://www.greatnorthernempire.net) He and I first met exchanging info about surviving GN passenger cars, and I took a few pictures for him. This was the first time we met in person. He's from the Netherlands, and was in the states for a Great Northern Historical Society Convention. While here, he spent a few days on a road trip looking for surviving GN equipment. I spent a weekend helping him look in the Twin Cities area. (We had a blast.) Sunday we went up to Pine City, and I gave him the grand tour of 1146. He was pretty interested - later he bought his own GN passenger car to restore, St Nicholas Mountain.
I posted some want ads on RailSwap.org, for a D-22 supply reservoir and a few parts I knew I'd be needing. Got several responses on the supply reservoirs, but unfortunately most were the style where the pipe threads in, rather than the style which use a flange fitting and gasket.