So the "football special" finally arrived, unfortunately the light was not good, there is a dirty mark on the bottom right corner of the lens and an autorack train was passing on the other track!!

Anyway lead by #152 and #202



Caritas was first, which will be the rear on the return journey.



Followed by two full length domes,Prairie View and Scenic View



Then I assume SLRG 448 and the Baltimore and Ohio one I pictured at CHI earlier.

[/img]

Two I didn't know



Then the four from the Friends of the 261



The "Baggage Car" (actually converted for use as a bar/concession car) then

The Wisconsin Valley and ex army medical car now converted to a lounge.



Then the "Superdome"



And finally the car I was waiting to see, and really couldn't!!

The only running Skytop Lounge "Cedar Rapids" from the Milwaukee Roads Hiawatha Streamliners.



Unfortunately it was pointing the wrong way.

So here is a pic from the web site.



And inside.



That last pic from the original 1948 advertising material.

Quite a collection of Private Varnish, not often you see that many together.

---

I have uploaded the video to youtube, not edited just as it cam from the camera, sound drop outs and all :-)

If you view it full screen the reaction of the couple who have just arrived is interesting when they see the rear of the Cedar Rapids, she also seem to wave at the camera!!

https://youtu.be/NZP3zPmqHOc

---

And here is how the Chinese pay for all that potash: a string of containers, full of TVs and cellphones and other gadgets, heads eastbound in the same valley. Photo taken on July 20th.

---

Meanwhile, the low grades on the prairies, plus the low density of dry grain, means that this little local freight in Alberta only needs one engine. Photo taken on 20 June in Glenbow Park, near Calgary, so these are probably empties to be spotted at elevators across the prairies for the coming harvest.

---

This showed up in my Facebook feed. Lots of Steam Engines. Czech Republic, I think.

---

Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

This showed up in my Facebook feed. Lots of Steam Engines. Czech Republic, I think.

That is the most Steam Locos I have ever seen at one time. Thanks.

---

[/quote]

Old James

This showed up in my Facebook feed. Lots of Steam Engines. Czech Republic, I think.

Wow!

---

And here is how the Chinese pay for all that potash: a string of containers, full of TVs and cellphones and other gadgets, heads eastbound in the same valley. Photo taken on July 20th.

So I'm curious as to where this is? Pretty scenery, might be fun to take a drive though that canyon!

Especially if I can satisfy my insatiable need to consume hydrocarbons at the same time:)

---

You couldn't make it up could you. All looks like big boys playing trains to me.

@Jimbocous - now you are talking - real trains - lovely!

Looks like eastern BC or perhaps Alberta, and that would be pretty doable from Colorado:) Haven't done a road trip yet this year ...

---

And here is how the Chinese pay for all that potash: a string of containers, full of TVs and cellphones and other gadgets, heads eastbound in the same valley. Photo taken on July 20th.

So I'm curious as to where this is? Pretty scenery, might be fun to take a drive though that canyon!

Especially if I can satisfy my insatiable need to consume hydrocarbons at the same time:)

Both are in the Thompson River valley. First one (the potash train) is Black Canyon, near Ashcroft. BC. This is just off the Trans Canada Highway, just west of Kamloops. There are several classic train spotting locations around Ashcroft, with public roads high up the valley, looking down on one or both main lines.

The second one (containers) is also the Thompson River, between Lytton and Spences Bridge, BC. This is another hour or so drive west on the Trans Canada, which follows the Thompson valley from Kamloops to Lytton, where the Thompson empties into the Fraser. Don't know this stretch as well, but it does look nice.

---

Both are in the Thompson River valley.

Thanks, Bill.

---

A slight detour from North American Railways :-)

Railway opens as longest route in century

Both are in the Thompson River valley.

Thanks, Bill.

I think I found the first one on Google Earth. The bridge is at 50°39'55.37"N, 121°18'42.05"W. That's about 5 klicks south of Ashcroft, as the crow flies.

---

Once again it seems IPH are busy.

These went out on the California Zephyr yesterday.



The camera lens seems to need a clean as things are no longer quite as sharp as they used to be.



Also for all those reading this thread who will have noticed David or myself makes mention of how late the California Zephyr or Southwest Chief often are, it is not always that way.

Yesterday, note the bottom right hand number.



Not one but two



I wonder if the Labor Day weekend had anyhting to do with it, less freight moving perhaps?

---

Also for all those reading this thread who will have noticed David or myself makes mention of how late the California Zephyr or Southwest Chief often are, it is not always that way.

Yesterday, note the bottom right hand number.



Not one but two



I wonder if the Labor Day weekend had anyhting to do with it, less freight moving perhaps?

Could well be. Just about all freight railroads in the US have unions.

---

Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

Are you telling me that the front of the train is round the bend at the middle top of the picture and that we can't even see the back end of it?? Absolutely ridiculous.

The insatiable need to burn carbon can not be better illustrated than with this train.

Actually, it is delivering potash to China. The insatiable need to eat, you see. They are moving the stuff from the prairies to China with a minimum of fuel expended per ton of potash delivered. Far from ridiculous, it is good common sense.

There are two trains, on two different tracks. That's a west bound CN train crossing the bridge, coming through the tunnel, with the back end disappearing out of the top left of the image. There is an east bound CP train just entering the picture from the right, on a separate track that doesn't cross the big river that the CN train is crossing. This is one of several areas in BC where the two lines run up either side of a river.

I was going to guess grain, but I believe potash.

I forgot to mention the other train in my earlier comment.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

So the "football special" finally arrived, unfortunately the light was not good, there is a dirty mark on the bottom right corner of the lens and an autorack train was passing on the other track!!

Anyway lead by #152 and #202



Caritas was first, which will be the rear on the return journey.



Followed by two full length domes,Prairie View and Scenic View


Then I assume SLRG 448 and the Baltimore and Ohio one I pictured at CHI earlier.

[/img]

Yes, 448. I've been in all four of these IPH cars, ridden in the latter two. Never been in Moonlight Dome.

Two I didn't know

New York Central 38 and Braddock Inn (from the same series of cars IPH is using for the Hoosier State). I rode in the latter about three years ago, when the NRHS national convention was in Iowa. I may have walked through 38 on the same trip, but I can't say for sure.

Then the four from the Friends of the 261



The "Baggage Car" (actually converted for use as a bar/concession car) then

The Wisconsin Valley and ex army medical car now converted to a lounge.



Then the "Superdome"



And finally the car I was waiting to see, and really couldn't!!

The only running Skytop Lounge "Cedar Rapids" from the Milwaukee Roads Hiawatha Streamliners.

I've been in the Superdome and Cedar Rapids, but I don't think they were moving at the time (I may have visited CR while it was moving to the yard during a steam trip I worked). I'm thinking I've also been in Wisconsin Valley, but before it was transformed into the party space it is now. I believe the baggage car is a different one than the one they used to use for concessions, so I probably have not been in it.

Unfortunately it was pointing the wrong way.

So here is a pic from the web site.



And inside.



That last pic from the original 1948 advertising material.

Quite a collection of Private Varnish, not often you see that many together.

Some day, I want to ride an AAPRCO convention train. I would especially like to ride the last leg of this year's trip, up the CB&Q from St. Louis to Burlington, IA (and east to Chicago, which is the CZ route). Well, maybe I can at least go out and chase it.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

And here is how the Chinese pay for all that potash: a string of containers, full of TVs and cellphones and other gadgets, heads eastbound in the same valley. Photo taken on July 20th.

And on the other track are empty well cars, no doubt headed back to the Pacific port to be loaded with more double stacked containers.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

That observation car is something else - very much of its time, but what a vehicle to see the Rockies (or almost anywhere else) from.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Also for all those reading this thread who will have noticed David or myself makes mention of how late the California Zephyr or Southwest Chief often are, it is not always that way.

Yesterday, note the bottom right hand number.



Not one but two



I wonder if the Labor Day weekend had anyhting to do with it, less freight moving perhaps?

Could well be. Just about all freight railroads in the US have unions.

The difference wouldn't be that the train crews want the weekend off (although many do), it would be with their customers being shut down. Or, more likely in the case of trains that travel more than 40 hours, the railroads probably curtailed their track maintenance projects for the weekend.

BTW, my friend Mike was again the employee in charge of those cars leaving town yesterday. Even he posted on Facebook about how well they were keeping time. It's the same trip he's done the last few times: drop people in Colorado, pick up more in Salt Lake City, take them to Oakland. Wait a day and go to Seattle, stay for five days. Drop off the people out of Seattle at Whitefish and pick up the original bunch at West Glacier. Home to Chicago on 8, arriving the 19th.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.