Labor Day at Osceola

Jan and I decided to have a Labor Day picnic at the small park in front of the BNSF Osceola depot. After picking up some sandwiches, we drove to the depot to find Amtrak agent J.R. Green doing some groundskeeping, "gratis", as he put it - J.R. and Pat like to keep the station looking nice for the passengers. We were joined for lunch by a large and very friendly neighborhood feline. I'd expected Labor Day to be relatively quiet on the railroad, but we saw eight trains pass between 12:30 and 3:15.

12:40 WB - BN 8137 and 7884 - 89 car manifest. (161?)
J.R. and Signal Maintainer Larry Reese visit as train passes.
12:50 EB - LMX 8556, EMD 6345 and BN 7856 - 111 car manifest.
1:00 WB - OWY 9020, 9006 and SF 8101 - 116 WFAX coal empties.
1:20 EB - BN 2295, 2710 and 5080 - 79 car manifest (492?)

During a lull in the traffic, I visited with Signal Maintainer Reese, who was deciding where to stow the gear he was moving from his old green pickup into his new white hirail-equipped one.

2:15 WB - BN 5197 and 5092 - 116 empty BN coal gons.
2:45 EB - BN 8173, 5130 and 7240 - 110 BN coal.
2:50 WB - BN 5047, 5539, SF 8150, and BN 5589 - 113 empties ACCX and UCEX.
3:13 WB - BN 2803 and 2773 - 20 car manifest.

We'd been listening on the scanner to warrants being given and released, and to trains reporting themselves out of Creston. It seemed from the radio traffic that there was nothing else nearby, so we headed back home.

That's It!