On Wednesday the UP steam engine, Big Boy, came roaring across eastern Kansas headed for Oklahoma.?ÿ Mrs. Cow took these photos while I was off surveying a county away.?ÿ These pics were taken from the entrance to one of my fields.?ÿ She could have driven across the field to be within 50 feet of the tracks but she knew if she did she would have about 50 other vehicles following her there.?ÿ I was able to see about the top one-foot of it an hour later.?ÿ It had roared into the city where it was to spend the night, then unhooked the beautiful and shiny passenger cars, etc. on a side track.?ÿ It then backed up a mile or more on the main track so it could come roaring into town again.?ÿ As we drove near the tracks through a thousand or more visitors it drove by, but on the opposite side of the passenger cars.?ÿ That's why I say I saw the top one-foot of it.
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In this photo it is easier to see the black smoke trailing off to the right as the train heads to the left.
On the far left is a single pole.?ÿ That is for railroad communications keeping track of everything to do with the trains that normally use this track roughly 20 times per day.?ÿ These poles are placed roughly every two miles along the route and were installed less than five years go.
Thanks!?ÿ I have been across every one of those RR crossings in Colorado, as I went to college and worked around there, made me a little homesick for my adopted long term state. Now. I'm just a drifter.
Forgot to point out that Big Boy was working on this trip.?ÿ Note there are only about a handful of the yellow passenger cars before the rest of the standard rail cars.
