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| Rossville, KS |
TUESDAY AUGUST 14, 2012
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| Rossville, KS |
This was about the luckiest day in our group of lucky days. We'd had perfect weather up to this point, not the broiling temperatures we were expecting. But somehow we planned to stay with my college buddy (and railfan) Jim Grimwood in Manhattan on the very day UP 844 would be coming through town. What - a - deal! Too bad we were heading east that day, so our time was limited.
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| Rossville, KS |
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| Rossville, KS |
We headed east on US 24 a few miles to the town of Rossville, following the old KP line. At the west end of town there is a signal mast marked for mile post 84.4 or 844. Jim wanted the train going by that spot. Charles and I staked out our places too. Cars with erratic behaviors began to show up a few minutes ahead of 844 so we knew we were in the right place. It was rainy but who cares when you are chasing steam. We just needed to keep the gear functional. We also had our eye on a serious dip in the tracks on our side of the bridge.
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| Manhattan, KS |
As the train passed, we collected our gear and headed for Manhattan. Jim showed us a side road out to I-70 so we could avoid the riff-raff following the train. It would get us there ahead of time with any luck too. It worked. We even had a chance to drive through the Manhattan park where the stop was planned. There was almost no photo access there.
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| Manhattan, KS |
We chose a spot with a nice curve and relatively open area, and best of all, few spectators. We didn't have to wait long. The spot was a business so we were careful leave room and leave as soon as we were done.
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| Manhattan, KS |
Jim was going to chase the train to Salina, so we raced to his house and dropped him off. It was a short but fun visit. Charles and I used his wifi to reserve that nights motel and packed our stuff to leave. We planned to follow the KP line east at least until the line to Gibbon Jct. joined up at Menoken, outside Topeka.
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| St. Marys, KS |
Enroute to Menoken, we enountered a couple of trains but didn't see much to photograph. I did pull over in St. Marys to get one shot though. It was one of those Colorado/Utah coal trains with all the old hoppers from many fallen flags. It was sitting in the siding.
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| Menoken (Topeka), KS |
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| Menoken (Topeka), KS |
Down US 24 a bit farther we saw the KP and Marysville lines converge and we pulled in to the nearest grade crossing at Menoken St. I'd been here before. We had some waiting to do but we did see some traffic on both lines once it started moving.
The traffic was mainly coming out of Topeka. We could hear stuff on the old Rock/Cotton Belt line too.
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| Menoken (Topeka), KS |
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| Menoken (Topeka), KS |
The Powder River coal was seemingly endless out here. This spot seemed to see its share.
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| Menoken (Topeka), KS |
The last thing we saw was a western coal train coming off the KP heading east. This was the last train we stopped for that day. We passed through Kansas City and passed by a few rail yards. We were anxious to make it to the environs of St. Louis before it got ridiculously late. Missouri is a wide state.
At that point, we had no idea that we were going to have another encounter with good luck in the morning. For now we enjoyed a successful day.
BC
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