Neat catch. I stumbled across a slightly less prisitine iteration of that back about 2000 out in California, nice to see even if it is UP.
The Columbine has special meaning for me. A few months before my dad passed away, I took him on an excursion from Houston to San Antonio aboard that car. In all his train travels, he had never ridden in a short dome car. Our seats were at the very front of the dome so we had a great view. He was thrilled. Here is the car at a later time when it was in the consist of a UP Safety Awareness Special where I rode on it again from Sugar Land to Eagle Lake and back.
Thats why we were TRAIN chasing! I am a professional storm chaser for Nexstar Media Group. In the plains, there are trains and far more rail fans among the storm chasers than you would think. On a high pressure day when the sky is blue, the sun is hot, theres only one thing to do out there. Rail traffic is so heavy now on the mainlines that places see freights every 20 minutes.
Man, what a perfect vocation. A train every 20 minutes, and a storm every 7-14 days. I'm sorry you have to suffer from s-o-o-o much boredom.
Marshall - I hope to never see you around here, too! Well, unless you are just chasing trains! If that happens, get a hold of me! (Ooops1 This pic was meant to go elsewhere...!)
Aw you guys are doing just exactly what I would like to be doing. Nothing but good times, trains, weather and fun to be had. Keep the reports coming.
You just have to get out and crawl around on that Big Boy in Omaha! The sheer massiveness of it makes any other loco feel small!
That's a lot of iron sitting there. You need binoculars to see someone standing on the front end of that beast!
That's where the SP Cab Forward ACs had such an advantage....visibility. Then EMD copied that visibility with the FTs.
