Iowa State Railroad Club

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###### Kansas City Area ######

October 5-7, 2007

Friday, October 5^th, 2007

For our fall trip, the Iowa State Railroad club decided to travel to Kansas City where we would meet up with former student Ryan for the weekend. Having left Ames Friday afternoon, we arrived in Kansas City in time for dinner at Domino’s and afterward decided to call it a night.

Saturday, October 6^th, 2007

After grabbing our ‘free’ continental breakfast at the motel, we met Ryan and headed over to Holliday Junction. We didn’t have to wait long before a grain train led by BNSF 5274 passed by just before sunrise. After viewing another 6 trains or so, we decided that we should move on to other must-see locations in the Kansas City area with our next stop being the West Bottoms. Immediately after parking the car, we were greeted by BNSF6202 leading a coal load south. Shortly afterward, a manifest passed headed the other direction, while another manifest waited patiently on the adjacent main. Just as the end of the first manifest comes into view, a southbound autorack train with an NS ‘Top hat’ on the point passed by our location. After hearing a train blowing for a nearby crossing in the bottoms, we crossed the bridge and found this UP led autorack. Soon after the UP train passed by, a BNSF local rolls around the corner headed south, and we were all surprised to see a high-noseSD-9 as part of the consist. As the local was still passing the manifest that had been sitting here the entire time was lined to head north. After all the action had dried up, we decided to head over to Doc’s Caboose a short distance away, and then across town to J&L Trains in Buckner, where everyone thinned their wallets to buy some new toys. After grabbing lunch in Buckner, we drove back toward the city, our first stop being Santa Fe Junction. Our first train was a southbound coal load with a faded pumpkin leading. On the rear of the same train we also had 3 elephant-style DPUs The middle unit has even received a new wedgie style BNSF patch. Next up we had BNSF 5311 as the sole power on a long string of auto-max cars heading east toward downtown, passing over a UP DPU that had been parked on the middle flyover. Shortly after the auto on the upper flyover passes, Amtrak’s Ann Rutledge train pops out from around the corner, wyes, and then returns to the depot for its trip back to St. Louis. We then decided to head west of town to see what sort of action we could find on the Transcon line. While it did not yield much, we did see, this trio of Dash-9s leading a Z-train, and this UP train near the depot in Topeka, KS. After grabbing dinner, we decided it was time to head back to Kansas City. After returning to downtown, we decided to wait on the pedestrian overpass at the Kansas City Depot to see Amtrak, and do a little evening train watching. After Amtrak’s departure, and catching over a dozen passing trains, we decided to call it a night.

Sunday, October 7^th, 2007

We woke up Sunday morning to low clouds and skies threatening rain. We decided to start our day back at Holliday Junction, where we caught two BNSF DPUs pushing a stacker. On our way across town we decided to stop at the west end of Argentine to see what was going on there. One of the first trains we see is BNSF 2382 switching some well cars. Next, we had two remote control units, with a string of cars to be shoved over the nearby hump. Before moving on, we caught a westbound doublestack leaving the yard with a GP60B third in consist. Surprisingly, this is the exact GP60B the club spotted when we were in Kansas City two years ago. We took a quick spin by Knoche, where we caught this KCS SW1500 and Mid-America car before heading back to the pedestrian overpass at the depot. Unfortunately, the traffic wasn’t like it was the night before however, we did manage to catch this train before making the return trip to Ames.

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