KCS trip - 2

Hi,  On our second day we headed south out of Pittsburg.  As we crossed the track just south of the yard we saw a train moving south.  Fortunately, we were able to catch up, and actually get ahead of it at Webb City, MO, just north of Joplin.  We were pleased to have a train to chase south with a retro Belle on the point.

By the way, the tornado destruction in Joplin is still quite evident and is awesome.

We just beat the train to Neosho where we shot the head end, and

the DPU.  Neosho is the foot of the southbound grade for the climb over McElhaney Hill.  At one time Neosho was a helper base for this climb.

At McElhaney siding, near the top of the hill an unmanned grain train was sitting on a spur leading to a feed mill.  We hoped it would head south later in the day, but it did not..

We did, however, get a photo of our train passing the sitting one.  At this point we let the moving train go as we were on the side of the track away from our car and we assumed there would be plenty of trains to shoot.  This turned out to be a bad assumption as it was the last southbound of the day.  Also, this early in the trip we were unaware of how slow the track was south of here.  We could have easily caught this train.

Here is the DPU at the same location.

We continued south to Sulfur Springs, Arkansas where Dale learned from a track crew there would be a northbound in about 20 minutes.  We ran back north to Anderson, MO to get this shot of the depot there with an empty coal train.  We waited almost about 45 minutes for the train to cover the 15 miles from Sulfur Springs.  Note that KCS units were not common on coal trains.

Here is the DPU.

Continuing south into Arkansas we heard a north bound calling signals as we approached Gentry so we turned around and set up at CP North Gentry.

From Gentry we passed through Siloam Springs, AR, stopped to get a room and continued on west and south into Oklahoma.  At Watts, about 8 miles south of Siloam Springs, we encountered a work train in the clear.  Dale talked to the engine crew and found out a north bound was close.  We head back north and shot this light power move of 6 locomotives crossing the Illinois River.

At this point the railroad dried up so Dale suggested we head over to Springdale, AR to see if anything was happening on the Arkansas and Missouri.  As all was quiet all we got were a couple of static shots.

We headed back to Siloam Springs and called it a day. I hope you are enjoying the photos.