Oh, By The Way

Coming Home From The Flanger Trip

My last night on the road was in Kearney, Nebraska.  Bad weather chased me for several hours.  This is how it looked.

Then I ran inside as a Noahic rain fell and obscured everything beyond the window pane.

A Visit To Kancity

If you listen closely to residents of these twin cities of the same name, you quickly learn that the first name is pronounced without any letter S.  Further, both names are run together.  So it is not Kan-sus Cit-y, but Kancity.

Went down there for an invitational operations meet, PrairieRail.

Just a few miles from the hotel, my travelling companion, Zoo, called out, "There's at least one Alco down there being worked on!".  Something to find and explore the next morning.

We drove into the facility the next morning and thought we'd found the elephant's graveyard.  There before us was a string of old-old locomotives in various stages of repair, rehab and repaint.   Railway Service Contractors, Inc, is a shoestring operation to work on locomotives of any vintage.  Mike Roberts, the owner, gave us permission to go in and do photos to our heart's content.

It was amazing!  First, two Alco switchers, a GE 45-tonner with side rods, a Whitcomb, a tiny other GE switcher and a few mainline locos.  Then a look at the facility.  A most basic, open-sided building with all sorts of stuff inside.  It would make a perfect model for detail hounds.  Here's what we found.

 

   



Up To My A** In Snow And Steam Locomotives

Snow, Cold And 9,000 Foot Elevation

I went on a photo charter to shoot narrow gauge snow fighting equipment in action.  It was very good.  Narrow Gauge World, Published in the UK, used a few of my images:

However, they did miss a few other good ones.

OSOmaha

OSOmaha

Every two years, the Omaha operating group invites a whole big group from around the USA to gather and run their layouts.  Zoo and I went out a day early to chase trains.

I am a train repellent.  Zoo is a train magnet.  So, the hunting was good, VERY good.

First stop: Oreapolis, where the UP crosses the BNSF and two BNSF lines cross each other.

Then we moved to a place where BNSF crosses the Missouri River.  Amazingly, the road crosses the river on a toll bridge.  The lady toll-taker was full of "You can't go theres, if you do, I'll call the police".  I went there, but she didn't call the police.

(What you can't see is the 5th unit, a NS loco)

Then we went to Missouri Valley, IA, to see what we could find.  A coal train streaked by before we were on position.  Found a good spot, a stack train came into sight, and we were prepared for a fast pass-by.  Didn't happen, MO Valley can be a crew change point.  So we had plenty of time to shoot.  Love the UP and their distributed power.

All in the space of a few hours!

A Photographic Extravaganza

Who woulda' thunk, a round trip to Hot Springs, SoDak would yield so many photo opportunities?!

On the way out, I finally did the shot I had long been waiting for:

Ya gotta' love all that machinery behind a GP-30!

The line from the Powder River coal fields passes through Edgemont, SoDak.  All trains stop for a variety of reasons.  Here's what we found in the space of an hour:

(A shovel and a broom, the basic railroad snow-fighting equipment for 175 years.)

On the return trip home, we took a state highway instead of the Interstate.  That was a good idea:

(BIG sky, little train)

So many photons died to catch these events, but they died for a good cause!