Well, Its Dec 29th, 2006. I think I will go ahead and give my Review of my Railfanning activites for the year of 2006.
January- January started out slow for me. In the first few days of the New Year that was 2006, I only went out 5 Times. I was comming off a virus that I caught at a friends New Years Eve party, but when I went out, there was no stopping me. On the 12th of January, my Girlfriend actually went railfanning with me. As it turned out, she was a good luck charm. Between Mitchell and Granite City Il, a distance of 4 miles, we saw a grand total of 7 trains in a little over an hour. The best part of it was that we saw a Single GP38-2, NS, working in Notch 8 with 40 loaded coil cars. Other than that, January was a quiet month of railfanning with nothing to report.
Febuary- Febuary, the month of love. Besides seening the Texas Eagle with Amtrak #'s 1 and 500 on the point of the same train, it was pretty much the same old thing. I saw my first NS SD70M-2 and I discovered the existance of Mount Vernon, IL, when Mike and I went down there to try to tour the facility. We photographed a Pure MKT and Chessie Units sitting with Israli and Australian G12's. Also Photographed one of the 2 F69PHAC's.
March- The month that changed everything for me. March 11th, 2006 will always be engraved in my heart. It was the day that I gained my 15 minutes of fame. On a day that I was not going to to go to Kirkwood, I was glad I did. For on that day, UP 6741 came through town and blew a piston for my camera and exploded into a fireball. That night, while thunder storms passed through the area, Channel 2 and Channel 4 aired my home video on the 5 o'clok and 10 o'clock news casts. However, the incident proved to be a double edged sword, and it cost me alot of reputation after Bryan Jones of Lousiville, KY, tried to disprove. After the video was proved to loconotes, I was promptly deleted from loconotes and all threads about the video was deleted from the archives. I think someone was jelous. Other than the blown piston, March was a quiet month
April- April turned out to be a good month of railfanning. Kelly and Myself went with our friend Kieth on a run down the Chester sub. We chased an LTEX SD45T-2. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary.
May-Mike and myself returned to Mt. Vernon, IL and this is where I photographed my last editors pick , the very first shot of a rebuilt BNSF unit at NRE. This was also the first time in several months the UP 1982 and UP 1988 came back through St. Louis. Kelly and myself waited from 9 AM to 11 PM in Dupo IL for them. As luck would have it, the they appeared 2 minutes after we left. Just our luck!
June-Keith and myself went on a day trip in Mid June. We went to Kansas City to chase some trains. Man, I was really impressed with the traffic levels in Kansas City. Some of the favorite scenes that I photographed was GM 72, the infamous 72. You know, the one that was wrecked on the UP. Later that month, Kelly and I happened in on EMDX 74-76 at the Terminal in Madison IL. We took our shots of each one, and left. We had unknowingly probably took the last shots of the these three Demos in Full Demo paint, for the next week, 75 was Repainted, 74 had all lettering stripped, and 76 was being repainted. The week after that, they were repainted and renumbered to CITX 140-142.
July- A month to remember. Kieth and I took a week long road trip to Montana to chase and photograph their recently delivered SD70ACe's. Along the way, we stopped at the Former CNW yard in Council Bluffs, drove along US higway 30 in Nebraska, Got a perfect over-under meet shot in Cheyenne, WY, Went up on Sherman Hill, Drove along the Powder River Basin, saw 3 Boeing 737 bodies being shipped, and also, photographed a rare Maroon Soo Line Caboose in the Twin Cities. A sign that you are a die-hard railfan, the very next day after I got home, I went and railfanned the St. Louis Area. Two days later, I started my job for New Mei Dong, and a hiatus of Railfanning. I only went out once while working for NMD. During that trip, Kelly, John and myself photographed UP 1995, the CNW heritage unit at Metro East Industries. The unit had been released during my trip to Montana.
August- I quit NMD and started with New China. Not much to report, other than seeing the Central Midland for the First Time. In the early days of the month, I got my first cab ride, on one of my favorite Locomotives, the Alton and Southern 2001.
September- A fairly quiet month, Mike and I went to Centralia, and on the return I finally saw the UP 1982 for the first time. This was the first time Mike and I got together since our last Mt. Vernon trip back in May.
October- October, I turned 22 on the 11th, and also on the 11th, I got my 2nd cab ride, on Respondek 1800, a GP8 that was built for the Alaska Railroad. I got a Digital Camera for my Birthday and also was treated to my First former DRGW unit in nearly 3 years.
November- I got together with Kieth for the first time since out trip out West. I photographed yet another former DRGW Tunnel motor and also got job interview with UMSL the very next day, it was an Uneventfull month. I basically quit New China after new ownership took effect and they cut me back from 6 days a week to 1 day a week. I think it was because I was NOT chinese. the Department of Labor is looking into it for Discrimantion. I also made a trip over thanksgiving, to Manhatten Kansas. I spent the day after Thanksgiving railfanning the area, and came up with 3 trains. Not bad for 3 hours.
December- The Final month started out with a bang, Littearlly. We had an Ice storm on the 2nd and 3rd of the month that took our power out for 36 hours. During that time, Mike and I headed out to Litchfeild to photo location list. We caught several trains in Litchfeild, and we found a favorite site that I promised Mike to keep a secret! Sorry guys, I won't break that Promise. For Christmas, I proposed to my Girl and she accepted, and as a return, she gave me a Brand new Video camera so I could retire my 12 year old VHS-C camcorder. The very first thing I recorded with my new camera was one of the two Final Gateway Western Road switchers. Basically, it was a good month. I also managed to reopen my website, http://www.freewebs.com/kirkoodup4000, The Kirkwood station photo archive!
All in All, 2006 was a good year for railfanning. I took 1,237 pictures and shot 65 hours of video. I hope in the New Year, I can double that. I start my Job at UMSL on the 2nd of January, and Its already looking to be another GREAT YEAR for railfanning, espically since the KCS is coming out with a new Paint Scheme!
For me, the most photographed locomotives this were were.....
10.) ASFX 4-G-32, an Unrebuilt 44 Tonner (2 Times)
9.) UP 1982 (2 Times)
8.) UP 1988 (3 Times)
7.) NREX 9402 (3 Times)
6.) NS 9741 (3 Times)
5.) Amtrak 70 (4 Times)
4.) BNSF 9297 (4 Times)
3.) UP 3300 (4 Times) (Twice on the Montana Trip!)
2.) NS 5550 (7 Times)
and the Number one photographed Locomotive for this year was....
1.) NS 5056 (19 Times)
Until Next Time!
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