KCS trip - 6

Hi, We began the day by driving about 30 miles back south to Stilwell, OK.  Even though the day had dawned cloudy we wanted a photo of a train passing the station.  It is worth noting that there is a nice motel just south of town.  If we had stayed there we could have avoided a 60 mile roundtrip.

We weren't in Stilwell long when we heard a northbound approaching on the radio.  However, it seemed to be taking a long time to get to us.  Dale thought he was laying back south of town so as not to block grade crossings while waiting in the siding here for a meet.  This proved to be the case as we found the train sitting just south of the last grade crossing. This was the first of numerous opportunities to photograph this train.

When the southbound got close the northbound empty coal train came into town.

As soon as the southbound passed the north end switch the northbound got moving and a shot of the southbound UP coal train and the north bound's DPU was set up.

The southbound cleared soon enough to shoot the north bound passing the depot.

We now headed north.  As we approached Decatur, AR we heard a southbound approaching.  We set up on the north end of town and got a grain train.

We gave chase and got shots south of town of the head end and

DPU, and at

CP North Gentry.

The southbound grain train met the northbound coal empties here.

As we continued north the weather began to clear.  We got another southbound grain train at Anderson, MO.

Moving on north we explored Tipton Ford until the empty coal train showed up.

We then went to Oskaloosa, MO where we had seen a pond shot that I wanted.  First up was the north bound coal train.  The DPUs are shown here.

About and hour later a loaded coal train came south.

After this train we called it a day and headed to our motel in PIttsburg, KS