Recently I decided I want to photogragh all of the UP Heritage units. After several inquiries I found a website (http://www.drgw.com/) that traces these, daily. Unfortunately, the information in the trace is obtained from UP somehow, and is often not accurate as far as departure and arrival times. For instance, last Sunday (5/6/07) the Mopac and the Katy units, along with the UP4141 (George Bush) were supposed to arrive in Pine Bluff, AR at 2 pm. I drove up there from my home (Ft Worth) and arrived at the yard there about 2 hours early and waited for 4 hours and they did not show. I was able to talk to an employee there who was very kind and gave me the phone #'s at the control tower and the roundhouse. Those guys were very helpful and checked the computer and informed me that those units were still somewhere in Illinois. I still had a great trip, checked out a couple of museums and photographed a lot of locos. A few days later these units came to Ft Worth. Again the arrival time was inaccurate and I was not able to "catch" them coming in. The yard in Ft Worth is very large and difficult to find a good vantage point for photography. I spent the next several days trying to wait them out and get some photographs. I was able to find the Mopac unit and the George Bush units but it was very difficult to get a good photograph. I could not find the Katy unit at all (I guess it was in the shop). Yesterday afternoon I decided to drive over and check again to see if they were around. The god's must been smiling on me because, as I came past downtown Ft Worth, the Katy and the George Bush were headed out eastbound, about a 1/2 mile west of Tower 55. I was able to drive right up to tracks and get several photos and then follow along as they went past the tower and turned south for several more photos. I have been have a blast chasing these and now I am looking foward to finding the others. I am planning a trip to Denver in hopes of finding the Denver Rio Grande and Western next. I am including a link with a few of the photos I have taken in the last few days.
Joel
http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa98/jmranger56/trainsforum/
Your friendly neighborhood CNW fan.
the UPPredecessors yahoo group also has a trace they run every day. the heritage units are on it
Thanks, Joel
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.