Off topic, but ..... last evening my wife and I stopped in Kirkwood at the top of Kirkwood Hill to get an ice cream at the little stand there just west of the MP Kirkwood depot. It's also a very good train watching spot - the SLSF should have had a good viewing spot like this complete with an ice cream stand! Any way, as we are enjoying our treats, along comes a UP eastbound grinding up the hill. Two of those big yellow GE somethings were leading, working very hard on the climb, followed by a MP15 as the third unit, making all kinds of noise but probably not contributing much, and looking very small compared to its two huge mates on the point. The train was very long, lots of older, crummy looking graffiti-laced covered hoppers, mixed in with some box cars, gons and flats, and a few brand new looking tank cars (probably not for crude oil, some had a chemical in them). Lots of flange squeal, mostly from the older cars. At the end was the usual pusher helper, another GE yellow something (remember the curse of James P Kirkwood!). By this time on the hill, the bulk of the train was rolling down grade towards St Louis, so the helper was not doing much and was very quiet. I just felt like telling the story. The ice cream was very good, and the UP train put on a good show. Ken
You tell it well. I can taste the ice cream, feel the heat and savor my own railroad memories evoked by your tale. Thanks.
Awesome! My house is right across the road from a UP mainline and siding and I never tire of watching those trains go past. Lots of diverse traffic.
Ken, That at is a good story. Felt like I was there again just as I was a few weeks ago taking Amtrak to watch the Royals' game on a beautiful Thursday evening!
I was in that neighborhood last weekend, saw a little action going by. Wanted to say that if you haven't seen his work, Bill Herbert has albums on the mopac yahoo group of his scratchbuilt stations along the old MP, including Kirkwood. I assume the albums will get transferred to the mopac bulleting board site being developed as part of the society's website.
WOW, great story .. for a moment I thought I could feel the locomotives shaking the ground, but then I realized it was just another earth quake.
Another off topic, but while driving back from Chicago, noticed miles and miles of new track- roadbed, concrete ties , new rail and signals. Looks like the high speed rail project? Or just an " about time" upgrade?
