Western Railroad Discussion > Wedding Wanderings II: Iowa

Destination weddings in Des Moines aren't the kind of things photographers lay awake at night dreaming of, but what a Caribbean evening wedding may have in scenery, it does not have in trains!  We play the cards we are dealt and have a super time in the process.  Phyllis and I went up a day early in a decidedly indirect routing through Missouri Valley that permitted us to follow the UP's old CNW main across central Iowa. This enabled me to be trackside in Ames at dawn and have a few hours before other photographic priorities replaced trains with people.

Pic 1. When I was a conductor on the Joint Line in the 80's I occasionally worked with an engineer that was a refugee from the CNW.  Jim King.  He had the ex-CNW sarcasm in throttle-8 every time we worked together.  He used to refer to their hotshot intermodal trains as Chicken Trains, rather than the officially accepted Falcons.  This is dawn at East Ames at the double x-over.
Pic 2.  Having never shot the UP's transcon, I had no idea how many trains they ran.  It was pretty cool to cross the street and see a headlight pop around the corner.  Watching this meet facing west from the previous pic, I was impressed with how the layer of humid air caused the distortion in the headlight of the approaching coal load.
Pic 3.  A few miles east of Ames this early morning eastbound Z roared by.  I'm guessing the horsepower-ton ratio was about a thousand to one.

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Pic 4.  Switching in Des Moines.  This was my first encounter ever with the Iowa Interstate.
Pic 5.  The engineer gave me a big wave when he spotted me making this picture, and in an act of hospitality I'm no longer used to, he turned the ditch lights on for me.

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All great but that first shot with glint on the rails is killer!
Nicely done!

Grafvonb49

IAIS 720 has been leased by ADM in Des Moines for several years now, the plant is served by UP exclusively.