CN 8894 West, Six Engines and a Double Ethanol Train on 1-24-2012

A six engine lashup with an EMD SD70M-2 in the lead pulls what appears to be two separate empty ethanol trains west on the Canadian National's Freeport subdivision.

In addition to the leader, the lineup of power:

CN 2108 C40-8
CN 8911 SD70M-2
CN 2697 C44-9W
CN 2432 C40-8M
GTW 5847 GP38-2

I'm sure that most railfans have seen something like this, but I have not. Using the unedited video, I counted 178 cars including the four buffer cars. So the longest ethanol train that I've ever witnessed.

I like the light in the going away clips, so edited in a bit more time for that view.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• rail
• train
• trains
• railroad
• engine
• locomotive
• railfan
• Illinois
• Canon
• HF S200
• HF S100
• HD
• Sony Vegas Studio
• basicbill1
• www.basicbill.com

[AppleSouffle]

Holy cats! What an amazingly long ethanol train! I see what you mean, it must be two trains put together because there are two buffer boxcars in the middle.

Thank you for your excellent camera work and editing and uploading! :)

[basicbill1]

@AppleSouffle That was a unique train. Thanks for the kind words.

Bill

[supertouring]

CN is insane, but they do fly. Bill how many trains CN run on that line?

[basicbill1]

@supertouring As far as I know, there are two scheduled daily trains. The M338 eastbound and M337 westbound. Others run as necessary.

Bill

[jt4136]

Long trains seem to be the norm for the CN lately. It's not unusual to see 10,000 FT plus trains up on the Waukesha Sub also. A CN friend says that it's standard procedure on the CN is to put two buffer cars in on a Ethanol train over 6000 FT. Seems like kind of a moot point doesn't it?

[basicbill1]

@jt4136 They all seem to be long. Thanks for watching, JT.

Bill

[nbtrainlvr94]

@basicbill1 Alright thanks

[basicbill1]

@MP36er Things can go wrong and in an urban area it can create a mess.

Thanks.

Bill

[MP36er]

With trains like these, I'm starting to think those NIMBYs in Barrington might not be so crazy after all. I wouldn't want 2-mile-long trains going by on a regular basis. The UP 1982 video illustrates what a bad idea trains like that are.

[basicbill1]

@schmidtw900 Hey thanks!

Bill