QUOTE: Originally posted by eolafan Well, now that I have had a somewhat restful night of sleep, here is my full report on our trip to Nebraska. We flew to Omaha on Friday and visited the U.P. corporate museum in Council Bluffs that afternoon. The museum is a really neat place and the exhibits concentrate on the history of builing the transcontinental road along with the Central Pacific RR. I would estmate that about 25% of the museum has anything to do with the current U.P. RR at all. There are a few really cool exhibits of U.P. cab interiors, etc. and we were happy to have been there, but I was hoping for more on contemporary operations, etc. (By the way, WE refers to me and my sould mate wife, who is really cool in going along with me on my "foamer" trips). On Saturday we went out Rt. 80 to the Strategic Air Command Museum and that was WAY COOL! They had just about every plane that SAC inventoried while in existence, including the B36 Peacemaker (the largest mass produced plane in the world), B47, B52 (including a cockpit trainer mockup for you to sit in), U2, SR71 (this one was hanging in the lobby, a really big plane for just two crewmen...and those engines!!!!), the B1, etc., just plain too many planes to list here. The SAC museum was a really interesting place and one I would very much encourage you all to go to while in the Omaha area (about twenty to thirty minutes west of Omaha right off of Rt. 80). On Saturday afternoon we drove up to Freemont and rode on the Freemont & Elkhorn Valley RR. They had about six cars pulled by an aging EMD switcher (a SW I think) lettered for the tourist road, but looked like it might have been of SOO heritage, but not sure). Cars were mostly of Milwaukee Road heritage, and quite worn out. This is the old C&NW "Cowboy Line" and the trip lasts about three hours. We rode out about fifteen miles and back, seeign lots of corn and paralelled the BNSF mail a ways and saw one BNSF train going eastbound. We turned in the little burg of Nickerson. The trip used to go to Hooper but bad pilings on some of the bridges past Nickerson caused them to cut the trip back to Nickerson. We stopped in Nickerson for about half hour so riders could get greasy French Fries and Burgers at the local Bar & Grill (we chose to pass on these). Before we left Freemont we saw a bunch of guys and some kids getting ready to pull their "track speeders" off of trailers and put them on the track. They followed our train all the way to Nickerson and passed us while we were turning the power. These guys were really friendly and were U.P. engineers from Chicago metro. They offered my wife and I a ride on their two speeders (of CN heritage) and we took them up on the offer and rode about a mile west while the other riders were getting their food. The railroad workers who regularly rode these speeders must have had cast iron keesters as they are REALLY hard on the butt, and VERY loud!. We left these guys (BY THE WAY, THANKS TO YOU GUYS, WE REALLY APPRECIATE THE RIDE!), and made our way back to Freemont. My wife and I then made our way to the east side of Freemont where U.P. Challenger 3985 had come in at about 1:30 p.m. and was sitting on a siding near the old U.P. passenger station. I had seen 3985 in West Chicago a few years ago, but this time the sun was out and I got to see her up close. U.P. does a really nice job of displaying the 3985 and train, even having a ramp for folks to get up to cab level and their crew was there to answer a few questions. The rest of the crew was very busy maintaining the engine and cars. There were about ten cars, mostly crew cars, tool cars and also a souvinier car and track inspection car on the rear (with the full glass on the rear). We stayed a while eating our dinner (Burger King) in a parking lot between the U.P. main line and the BNSF main (the BNSF had a couple of old ATSF GP units and a caboose next to the station but the units were turned off). We saw one BNSF coal train come through eastbound while we were there, but the real action was on U.P.! The U.P. must run about one train every ten minutes or less through Freemont, as we saw virtually non-stop action, but mostely in a Eastbound direction. U.P. had two SD90AC units switching a train in the station area (some switchers, hey!). We also saw an old GP30 in really good condition, dark blue paint with while stripes, #5001 as I recall, but no road name or I.D. of any other kind, sitting near a grain elevator just east of the station (anybody know who the owner is?). Well, we stayed until the sun began to go down and then drove back to Omaha for the night. I was very impressed with Freemont and want to get back there for a railfan trip some day. HEY MOOKIE, SORRY I DID NOT KNOW YOU WERE GOING TO BE IN FREEMONT OR WE COULD HAVE MET AND EXCHANGED STORIES! Sunday was spent at the Doorley Zoo in Omaha (this is the one thing my wife insisted on doing that SHE wanted, so I felt it was the least I could do for her). The zoo was really nice and we spent about four hours there (they have a neat little zoo railroad with a steamer that I believe came from Pakistan or India...definetly not a US made engine). All in all a very nice weekend for both of us and one that any railfan would love to make, I highly recommend it to all of you.
QUOTE: Originally posted by eolafan Mookie, I saw two people with tripods filming trains just a bit South of the UP station, they were right next to the main line and standing next to each other...are these the folks you spoke of? Great spot, Freemont, too bad it is so far from Aurora (about a seven hour drive).
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.