ABOVE: Manifest train MKCSH is about to pass under the J Highway overpass on the south edge of Amsterdam, Mo., on March 16, 2009. LEFT: KCS’s pristine trio of executive F-units is on the final leg of a Kansas City tour on August 31, 2011. The engineering special operated west out of Union Station, through Santa Fe Junction, up to the NS (former Wabash) yard, then east to Birmingham and south through Air Line Junction, where this photograph was taken, and back to Union Station. All three are former Canadian National F9s. KEVIN EUDALY
Grandview, the Q-train does a backup move into a yard siding
to pick up
intermodal and automobile cars, which the train attaches behind the DP. This train then continues south to Pittsburg, Shreveport, and the Mexican border at Nuevo Laredo. The northbound counterpart, the QSHKC, which I have not seen with a DP, performs setouts and pickups of intermodal and auto racks and parts cars at IFG. It is an easy train to chase. Q-trains running in each direction
usually have Retro Belle power. Two added Pittsburg Sub trains run
just between Knoche and IFG. The IVNKC is a CSX-originated train that heads west from Marion, Ohio, and enters KCS rails in the East St. Louis area (Venice, Ill.)
for the rest of its
journey to Kansas City. Its counterpart, the IKCVN, is put together at IFG before it heads north to Knoche Yard, where it turns east toward Marion. Usually these trains use CSX or UP power, although I
caught it once with a pair of Retro Belles. These colorful intermodal trains tend to operate at night. Later in the day, a yard switcher shuffles cars around the IFG grounds, which is fenced and off limits to the public. As of July 2015, the IVNKC runs daily except Monday, while the IKCVN operates daily except Saturday. Total rail traffic on the Pittsburg Sub is modest, with a slight drop-off as one goes south. In 2014 and the first half of 2015, an average of 20 trains every 24 hours passed between Knoche yard and IFG yard, the farthest south that the two intermodal trains go. Traffic falls a little more south of the wye at Amsterdam, Mo. (milepost 61.6). Here at least one coal load per day heads to the nearby La Cygne power station, unloads, and then returns to Kansas City. From Amsterdam to Pittsburg, the average daily train count is about 16, although traffic volumes can vary.
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