Photo ID: 108125 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 31, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Crawford Hill Horseshoe Curves Dawes County, NE 789 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Butte (BNSF) BNSF In order to conquer the climb up Crawford Hill, there are two horseshoe curves. The first is 180° wrapping one direction and the second is 180° wrapping the other way, allowing the tracks to climb the grade. Here, an eastbound coal load is in the first horseshoe curve on the climb up the hill. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108124 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 31, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed MP 416 Dawes County, NE 769 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Butte (BNSF) BNSF This eastbound BNSF coal load is slowly grinding its way up the west slope of Crawford Hill. Although most people tend to think of Nebraska as being flat, there are some nice hills and a decent grade just southeast of Crawford, NE. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108123 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 31, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed MP 468 Fall River County, SD 755 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Butte (BNSF) BNSF There are long, open stretches of track on BNSF's Butte Subdivision in South Dakota. The tracks just cut across the southwest corner of the states, covering a distance of just under 50 miles on the journey between Wyoming and Nebraska. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108122 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 31, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed MP 466 Provo Township, SD 814 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Butte (BNSF) BNSF An eastbound BNSF coal load passes through the small township of Provo, SD on the Butte Subdivision. This stretch of the subdivision is two main tracks. In addition to coal trains, it sees a fair amount of both intermodal and manifest traffic. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108121 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 31, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Edgemont Yard Edgemont, SD 949 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF If you've ever heard the term "Pink-bonnet" to describe a Warbonnet-painted engine, here is a good example! It has been so long since these units were painted, many of them have faded to the point that the red is definitely now a pink color. BNSF 699 is one such unit, stored in the middle of Edgemont Yard in South Dakota. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108120 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 31, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Edgemont Yard Edgemont, SD 914 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF Three strings of stored units extend to the far end of the yard in Edgemont, SD. A downturn in the economy, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic started, has resulted a major decrease in power needs for Class 1 railroads. Hopefully the economy will have a swift recovery and many, if not all, of these units can be placed back in service. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108119 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 31, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Edgemont Yard Edgemont, SD 977 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF This Warbonnet looks to be in mighty fine shape as it sits in the yard in Edgemont, SD in storage. Note that the exhaust stack has been "capped", indicating a long term storage. This is a C44-9W, although these units are often referred to as Dash 9-44CWs. You can even note this designation painted on the frame! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108118 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 31, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Edgemont Yard Edgemont, SD 1016 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF After discovering around 500 units stored in Donkey Creek Yard in Gillette, WY, I discovered that another 200 or so units are being stored in the yard in Edgemont, SD! Whereas a lot of the stored units in Gillette were SD70MACs, a majority of the ones in Edgemont are C44-9Ws. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108117 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Donkey Creek Jct Gillette, WY 834 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF This BNSF rail train, while on Main 1 of the Orin Sub at the north end of the Powder River Basin, looks to be heading south in to the basin, it actually is not. It was working on the BNSF Black Hills Sub to the west. It is now going to park in Donkey Creek Yard to the east, but is first being wyed (turned around) to face west. You can see the train has an approach signal in the distance. Soon, it will back off the Orin Sub and in to a yard track in the yard. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108116 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Donkey Creek Jct Gillette, WY 861 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF At the far west (geographic north) end of the Powder River Basin, we find a rail train on Main 1. You are only going to find BNSF trains on this part of the Orin Sub as UP's ownership stops about 14 miles to the south at Caballo Jct, location of the northern most mine. The north end of Powder River connects in to BNSF's Black Hills Sub. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108115 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Donkey Creek Yard Gillette, WY 890 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF To help illustrate how (relatively) slow things are for the railroads right now, only of these yard tracks has something on it that is actually being used at the moment! The cars to the left are all in storage. The engines to the right are also all in storage. The hoppers to the left of the power are actually part of a current train that is waiting for a recrew to depart the yard for the Powder River Basin to load. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108114 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Donkey Creek Yard Gillette, WY 1036 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF While SD70MACs and C44-9Ws dominate the stored power in Donkey Creek yard, there are a few other units that can be found here. Such is the case for BNSF 2324, a GP38-2, buried in the middle of a string of units. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108113 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Donkey Creek Yard Gillette, WY 960 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF This telephoto shot helps bring in to perspective just how many units BNSF currently has stored in Donkey Creek Yard. There are about 100 units on each of five different yard tracks. You can clearly see the vast numbers of Grinstein SD70MACs in storage here. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108112 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Donkey Creek Yard Gillette, WY 936 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF There were quite a few C44-9Ws in storage in Donkey Creek Yard in Gillette, WY at the time of this photo. Those included a smattering of Warbonnets, or "Pink-bonnets", as some refer to the now-faded classic ATSF scheme. BNSF 649 is one such example, sitting at the head of a string of 100+ units stored on one of the yard tracks. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108111 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Donkey Creek Yard Gillette, WY 1031 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF Got Power? With the decline in coal and downturn in the economy thanks to COVID-19, a lot of power is now in storage on Class 1 railroads. Case-in-point is Donkey Creek Yard. BNSF has roughly 500 units stored here. Mostly SD70MACs and C44-9Ws, but some others thrown in to the mix as well. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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