I've heard the bit about the 4449 not being able to
go in via the north end of Union Station too. I can't say I know the track
layout around the area, but if it can't come North to South through Union
Station, how is it supposed to get from South to North on August 2nd? Maybe
there's a way, I really don't know. Like I said, my gut makes me think it will
probably go down the BNSF as advertise. But there's still the possibility out
there.
Anyway, I have pictures to share. Not the LS&I
yet, but I'll get there. On Sunday I went after the UP's Operation Life Saver
special at Adams, and there are less of those photos, so I edited them
first.
They ran trains every two hours west out of Adams,
with a round trip that took about an hour. We arrived in time to catch the 1100
train returning at Dellwood. The WP heritage unit was supposed to be on this
end of the train, but it had a failure and was cut off a couple of weeks ago, so
we were stuck with a dirty UP unit on the east end of the train:
Passing a part of the CNW's old telegraph line.
It's neat to see the line still in place, but runs along the railroad like this
for a loooong ways. It tends to get in the way of good photos an awful
lot:
The Katy unit was on the other end, but I have
better shots of it that shall come later.
We had picked up tickets for the 1pm on train on
the way over, so we went back to await boarding and take a good upclose look at
the train. The view from inside the first coach behind the 1988, the City of
Salina:
The UP has raised track speed to 50MPH from Adams
to Wyeville, and it made for a wondefully smooth ride. The train made it a
little ways west of Necedah before they had to turn around. While I've
photographed the OLI specials before I've never ridden behind one, so it was
nice to get the chance.
After arrival back at Adams, we staked out photo
locations and waited for the 1988 to run west with the 3pm (and last) train.
Right on time he backed out of the siding and headed for Necedah, seen here at
the west end of the yard:
We attempted to chase, but chasing on the Adams
line has always been hard. The roads run due North-South and East-West, while
the railroad cuts diagonally through the countryside. With track speeds having
been raised to 50mph, it was hopeless. We ended up settling for shots as the
train arrived back at Adams. The E9B 963 was in the consist providing
HEP:
Following it was the business car Feather
River, Coach Sunshine Special, Dome Columbine, coach
City of Salina, and the 1988. The Katy unit isn't my favorite Heritage
unit (I would have rather had the CNW unit myself, or the Rio Grande unit), but
it's better than a regular UP unit. After lining the switch into the yard, the
train proceeded ahead to drop off it's final load of passengers:
We knew they would be making a deadhead move
towards the Twin Cities in an hour or so, but the clouds were thickening, and as
we'd just found out, chasing would be pretty much impossible anyway, so we
decided to head home. It was a good day though, and it was nice to take a train
ride over track that one seldom gets a chance to be on.
LS&I photos coming sooner rather than later,
and I also took a few photos of the WSOR local last night making a rare (for the
last few months anyway) daylight run.
Noah