The Great RAILROAD.NET Cross-Country Railfan Race!

SATURDAY, JULY 8, 2006 - continued
4:30pm CDT From Dave: "As you drive over the Misouri River into Nebraska, you find the UP Big Boy and UP DD40X on display!"

From steamlocomotive.com: "The city of Omaha recently decided to re-design the riverfront area including the old UP shops, local industries, and Kenefick park into a new convention center. 4023 was to be placed on display at the convention center site after construction was completed. However, a change in the convention center plans no longer include the display of 4023 and the DDA40X. The locomotives had been temporarily moved to the Durham Western Heritage Museum in downtown Omaha. In March of 2005, 4023 was moved to a location near the Lauritzen Gardens. 4023 is in good shape. The paint looks great and all the missing parts (headlight etc.) have been replaced."

The abandoned CB&Q station in Omaha, NE

6:00pm CDT From Chris: "We stopped at the Durham Western Heritage Museum in the old UP Union Station , and check it out. It was near closing time, so we looked around quickly, saw the train exhibit with the O-scale two rail layout. The gift shop featured some train related material too, which was nice. So when we were done we headed back out, and we saw a train coming over the bridge from Iowa, and we went across the tracks to the old Burlington station. The station is closed, but there is an Amshack on one of the old platforms. We photographed a westbound BNSF mixed freight that featured an old BN caboose on the rear. It was great to see the conductor give us a friendly wave -- since most of the time, FRED's don't wave back. The train then shoved back into a yard under I-80. After that, we headed over to the headquarters for Werner Enterprises, a trucking company that shares the same name as our good friend Joe Werner. Now we're on our way west towards North Platte and Bailey Yard."

Durham Western Heritage Museum:
http://www.dwhm.org/

Lincoln, NE station from www.route56.com

7:00pm CDT From Dave: "We're in Lincoln, Nebraska, on a pedestrian bridge over the main that leads to a stadium just east of the station... there's an BNSF MP15 switching in the yard in front of the station, and then an eastbound van train came through with three locomotives led by a unit still in BN-green. It looks like there is another train to the west, but we can't tell if its coming towards us or not. We're finally losing our cloud cover, and now the sun is actually getting low enough to provide good light. Of course, the sun is setting, too. We're looking forward to better weather tomorrow, and we found out there is a vistor's center at Bailey Yard in North Platte, so we're hoping to check that out tomorrow."

ON TO NORTH PLATTE

LONG TERM ITINERARY: North Platte on Saturday night, Colorado and Denver by Sunday night, Georgetown Loop and Utah on Monday, Las Vegas by Tuesday, and Los Angeles by Wednesday.

Tell us where you'll be! http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=266258

SUNDAY JULY 9, 2006
11:46am MDT From Dave: "We started out in North Platte, NE this morning, and headed over to Bailey Yard's visitor's center. We found out the visitor's center was no more, but there was a viewing platform overlooking the engine facility and one of the humps. We stayed for ten or fifteen minutes, shot a few trains departing at the east end. We actually saw one or two CSX and NS units in a sea of UP Armour Yellow. The weather wasn't that great, so we didn't stick around long."


underwesternskies.net

"We headed west on I-80 to I-76 to get to Colorado. We pulled off at Sterling, not knowing if we would find anything. Apparently we stumbled onto the crossroads of the prarie, as trains are flying towards us from every direction! We just drove into town, found the tracks, and started taking pictures. We watched a BNSF coal train do some work, then we saw some light power movements, then we caught a Dash-8 and a former ATSF GP60 warbonnet ready to go west. We've seen a variety of Santa Fe and BN paint schemes while we're here.- "swoosh" units "pumpkins" and "executives.""

Chris got on the phone and said they are going to do a bit more exploring and see what they can find, and would call back with an update.

UP's Bailey Yard:
http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/history/bailey

-otto-

www.fhwa.dot.gov

5:00pm MDT Chris and Dave made it to Golden, Colorado, where they checked out the Colorado State Railroad Museum (and saw the Coors Brewery across the way), and also made it into downtown Denver, where they are checking out Union Station, the new light rail, the BNSF shops, and anything else that comes their way. More details soon.

Colorado Railroad Museum: http://www.crrm.org/

Denver RTD Light Rail: http://www.rtd-denver.com/LightRail

Denver Union Station: http://www.denverunionstation.org

www.crrm.org

8:30p, MDT From Dave: "The Colorado Railroad Museum at Golden was interesting, they had a large collection of equipment. There is also an HO scale layout on display representative of Colorado that features a train hauled by a Conrail U-boat. They have a restoration shop that is in a roundhouse and turntable built new on the location. They were working on a tank car that had been used as a culvert- they were putting the ends back on and turning it back into a tank car again! They had a couple of steam engines, a research library that was closed, and more stuff. They had a Coors switcher on display, and they also had the only narrow guage diesel owned by the DRGW. They also had a pair of GE switchers that were painted black and yellow and letted for GBL that looked pretty cool, as well as the oldest operating narrow guage steam locomotive in the west (1881)."


Denver RTD

From Chris: "After the we left the museum, we found a hotel in Golden and then headed down into Denver to explore. One we arrived in Denver we found the BNSF engine shop, where we saw an awesome high-hood SD9 still in full BN green as part of a wreck train. We even saw a couple of CSX and NS engines in the BNSF terminal. Then we wandered over to Union Station, where we saw the light rail in action. Inside the station looked pretty cool, and it appears the station is in the middle of a large scale renovation. We left Union Station to go explore the Green Line light rail over by the convention center. We found the light rail shop over by 10th and Osage station. The UP's shop was right next door, we saw various UP locomotives lounging about. We found the Ski Train, the old DRGW wreck train, and some other random stuff."


Ski Train

From Dave: "Now we've left the shop and now we're just driving around the city, and trains are finding us. Massive trains with mid-train helpers. That's how to run a railroad!"

MONDAY'S ITINERARY: Georgetown Loop, Grand Junction, and Las Vegas by Tuesday night.

Tell us where you'll be! http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=266258

MONDAY JULY 10, 2006

Today the guys will be exploring the Georgetown Loop Railroad...

http://www.georgetownlooprr.com/

The company that originally ran the Georgetown Loop now operates the Royal Gorge Scenic Railroad:
http://www.georgetownloop.com/

Confused yet? More details to come.

-otto-

12:25pm MDT From Chris: "We're here in Glenwood Springs, CO... we visited the Georgetown Loop Railroad this morning... now we've been following the old DRGW main, and we're looking to catch a train here sometime soon. We're waiting for an Amtrak train to photograph, and we'll probably follow him down the line a piece after that."

1:00pm MDT From Dave: "We're in Glenwood Springs, CO... we saw a UP coal train go through town... we're at the Amtrak station right now. There's a museum at the station operated by the local NRHS chapter that is supposed to be open today, but it's closed. Also as a sidenote, none of the museums that we have visited even know what the NRHS is around here. The depot looks pretty nice though. There is a wye located here, there is a branch that ran up to Aspen, and sitting on the wye is a freshly-painted DRGW Fairmount track car along with a GE 45-tonner side-rod switcher lettered for Public Service Company of Colorado. We also found a Rusell plow and a wreck train parked in a small yard near the station."

"We're going to make our way west toward Richfield, Utah, where we will be staying tonight. From there we'll probably take 15 south to Vegas."

STAY TUNED

2:56pm MDT The guys are stopping off in Grand Junction, CO to do a little exploring.

-otto-

5:00pm MDT From Chris: "We pulled into town, scouted out a UP yard we found that had Rio Grande power sitting around. So we took a bunch of pictures of that. After that, we went down to to the station. First we found the DRGW station, then we found another station right next to it that we couldn't indentify. The old Rio Grande station was nice, had some great stained glass detail all around. It looks like the local tranist authority uses the station as an office. The other station looked like it was being renovated, and was the Amtrak station at one time."

From Dave: "So we found a tank train parked there, maybe more than 20 cars, and had a lone CSX widecab for power. That pulled out, and on the next track over was an ex-ATSF GP60 with a BN caboose, which was pretty cool. While we were there a UP train came in with a DRGW unit and a ex-Cotton Belt unit that someone spraypainted SCRAP on it. We poked around a bit after that, and then left town. We followed the mainline until Greenleaf, but we didnt see any other trains. We saw plenty of coal hoppers not doing anything, but no trains."

9:00pmMDT From Chris: "We passed through Crescent Jct. in Utah, though we didn't see anything going on. We are staying in Richfield for the night. Tomorrow we're heading south and going to Vegas."

-otto-

Have you seen these men? Chris Stilson and Dave Scheiderich

TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2006
12:26pm MDT The guys just crossed into Nevada after a brief visit through Arizona. Haven't seen many trains today. Travelling through Nevada, so far it's been pretty uneventful. The plan is to head for Vegas, and spend the rest of the afternoon and night.

The Great RAILROAD.NET Cross-Country Railfan Race will end tomorrow when the guys arrive in California. Stay tuned!

WEDS. JULY 12, 2006
11:30am PDT From Dave: "We're on I-15 heading for California. It's been an uneventuful trip so far. Although we did photograph the monorail in Las Vegas. Of course, I can't tell you more because what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. I think we're going to go scout out Tehachapi Loop today, and then into LA to drop me off at the airport."

The great Race is almost to an end... stay tuned, folks.

3:10pm PDT From Dave: "We went to Barstow, because Tehachapi was too far for our schedule. There is a sizable BNSF classification yard here with a hump. We saw some intermodal trains, and in the yard we saw two sets of ex-ATSF SD40-2 with a slug working the hump. We saw some stack trains going east and west. Currently were at the Amtrak station (ex-ATSF), there's a railroad museum in there that's closed. The Route 66 museum is also closed. Well anyway, we saw and old ex-ATSF baggage car, an old UP SD40-2, a ex-ATSF F45, a really old ATSF trailer, two BNSF hi-rail trucks that looked brand new and were also on display... some interesting stuff."

Western American Railroad Museum: www.barstowrailmuseum.org


From Chris: "Those slugs we saw at Barstow looked like old SD9's cut down, we're not sure. Anyway, we're heading west to Los Angeles. The GREAT RAILROAD.NET CROSS-COUNTRY RAILFAN RACE is coming to an end. We're dropping Dave off at LAX and I'll be picking up my wife Joanna. It was a lot of fun, glad we did it. Wouldn't mind doing it again- maybe with a little more research beofrehand! Overall, I would consider it a huge success!"

Thank you to Chris and Dave! Sounds like it was a lot of fun. Hopefully everyone enjoyed reading about your adventures!

Tell us what you think: http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=266258