August 6, 1999 railfanning
| Being the first day of the trip it was a full blown travel day and any trains were a bonus since I left nearly 4 hours late. However, there were plenty of bonuses this day until the sun dropped below the Snowy Range in southern Wyoming. |
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I missed catching this Georgetown Loop
train passing over the high bridge by about 5 minutes. The
sight, sound, and SMELL of a steam locomotive was still good even if it
was filtered by the trees.
Before this image I took a few seconds of MPEG video which is available here. The file is a little over 500k so it may take a while to download. |
| I got to Cheyenne with just a few minutes
of sunlight and tried to make the best of it.
This is the Union Pacific depot in Cheyenne, WY. It is currently being restored for use as a museum. It may already be in use but I didn't see any signs indicating its use or displays. Then again, I was watching for the train below to leave and where to capture a few shots of it. |
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This UP westbound stack train has a high green as it pulls out of Cheyenne after changing crews. The sun ducked behind the clouds as the train passed by me, but it is still one of my favorite shots from the whole trip. It was only the first day though. |
| The sun did come back out though just in time as the westbound accelerated towards Sherman Hill. |
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UP 3985 and 844's home roundhouse basks in the setting sun. |
| That had to hurt. This BN SD40-2 was involved in a wreck about 8 miles northwest of Cheyenne in March. This is the same wreck that spilled a couple tank cars of molasses. I don't know if this unit is to be repaired or scrapped but it has been in Cheyenne all summer. |
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The setting sun made getting a good shot of the BNSF yard in Cheyenne nearly impossible so this will have to do. The fourth unit of this manifest freight is a CP SD40-2. To the left of the image is a unique MOW articulated gondola. I didn't even notice it until looking at the image just now. |
| A typical Wyoming sunset. Actually,
I think most of them are better than this. Railfanning was pretty
much done for the day but I still had 300 miles to go.
Hope you enjoyed the evening. |
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