KCS Retro Belles brighten up a dreary day in Tulsa, OK

Tulsa, OK is a decent spot to railfan with a public road that parallels almost the entire length of the BNSF Cherokee yard. The receiving tracks are adjacent this road & with trimmer engines putting trains together, Tulsa trains arriving & departing & the changing of crews for intermodals, coal trains & unit trains usually means it can be active many days out of the week.
That turned out to be the case on the cloudy & damp Sunday.

The best catch of the day was a pair of KCS ES44AC Retro Belles leading the loaded coal train Caballo Mine, WY-Texas Utilities Big Brown Power Plant Kirvin, TX (C-CAMKBB). This train had all KCS power as the next picture after this one will show,


A pair of KCS EC44AC's in gray scheme were the DPU's on the C-CAMKBB


The KCS C44AC DPU's on the C-CAMKBB pass the head-end of the E-KBBCAM in the yard after crew change,


The C-CAMKBB passes under the 41st Street Viaduct that is adjacent the famous Ollie's Railroad Theme Restaurant off of old Route 66 in west Tulsa,


ES44AC's as they pass just south of Ollie's,


Going away shots of the Retro Belles,


As the C-CAMKBB was waiting for a crew change, the Kirvin, Big Brown power plant-Caballo Mine, WY empty (E-KBBCAM) was entering the yard for their crew change & trip back north,

SD70ACe in the consist of the E-KBBCAM,

The Eagle Butte Mine, WY-Madill, OK (C-EBMMAH) arrived for a crew change at Cherokee Yard. This train will continue south on the BNSF Creek-sub & will handed off to the Kiamichi RR for the trip to the Western Farmers Company power plant in SE Oklahoma near Fort Towson, OK.


DPU's on the C-EBMMAH were this KCS C44AC & SD70MAC with wedge logo,


BNSF SD70MAC with wedge logo,


Looking down into the Cherokee yard & at DPU's of C-EBMMAH,


High Priority freight Tulsa, OK-Galesburg, IL (H-TULGAL1 03) departs BNSF Cherokee Yard & a black/yellow GP35 is in the consist,


A Grand Elk Railroad/Watco GP35 was tucked in behind the power on the M-TULGAL,


Going away shot of the Grand Elk RR GP35 on the M-TULGAL,

The Manifest Tulsa, OK-Lincoln, NE (M-TULLIN1 03) departed right after the H-TULGAL,

M-TULLIN1 03 power as it departs.

The intermodal Q train Atlanta, GA-Los Angeles, CA (Q-ATGLAC) departing Tulsa after crew change.

Though it was not a very nice weather day, it turned out to be a good railfanning day with 13 trains being observed in a little under 6 hours

Enjoy, have a great week & as always

GOOD HUNTING!