Western Railroad Discussion > 18-car U.P. officer special in Eastern Kansas

An 18-car Union Pacific Railroad officer special passed through Osawatomie, Kan., on the Coffeyville Subdivision shortly after 1 p.m. today, Tuesday, March 21, 2017. 

The train reportedly left McAlester, Okla., early today and was returning to Council Bluffs, Iowa.

My video shows the train passing a U.P. office building in Osawatomie that formerly served as a Missouri Pacific Railroad division general offices. It was built in the early 1950s. 

(Video by Larry Byers) 

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

Never noticed the flashing red lights on the rear of theater car before.  This new?

JBOmaha

If those lights are LED, it could be the camera's frame rate that makes it appear to be flashing. Same thing happens with traffic signals.

Question for JB

When UP runs trains like this are there lots of people on the train? Is there a full staff working the cars? Any way to get a dinner menu from one of these trains?

Posted from iPhone

There can be all size groups of individuals on such a train. There might only be one rider if it is a "deadhead" move. I doubt if there are ever any souvenir menus distributed.

 Each officer special has a certain mission to accomplish. Sometimes, it comes down to good public relations.

Most special trips are business related for company personnel and sometimes for shipping customers. Some shorter trains are used for Operation Lifesaver education and crossing safety enforcement involving law officers.

It is just good public relations for the U.P. to have such clean passenger equipment roaming its vast system of rails. In a sense, these trains are rolling billboards.

Thank you

Posted from iPhone

F40PHR231 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If those lights are LED, it could be the camera's
> frame rate that makes it appear to be flashing.
> Same thing happens with traffic signals.

The two flashing red lights seen on the rear window is a reflection from the crossing signal on the opposite side of track.  
As the Fox River's rear window approaches the crossing, I did several quick "start" & "stops" of the video and caught the image of the signals reflection and of each red flasher activating.  Might take a few times to catch it but it's for real.

I'm  sorry to differ with you on the possible red light reflections on the theater car. Those are actual flashing lights. I confirmed it with some other video I shot at Paola, Kan.  The footage is too long to post and I don't have editing capability.  Hopefully, someone else can shoot a video clip of the same theater car in the near future to substantiate what I saw. 

Thank you.

L.B. 

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/17 21:16 by JoCoLB.

The marker lights do not flash to the human eye.  It is the cycle rate of the LED's playing with your digital video camera.

Sorry Larry, I still differ here.  This truely is A REFLECTION of the crossing signal on the theatre window.  Again, I repeated my quick start/stop procedure and captured this reflection, so I took a screen shot of it and am posting it here.  

Only the one activated red signal is showing (the one nearest the sidewalk crossing) while the adjacent signal (nearest the street) had not activated before the window was long gone from your camera angle.

If you look close at the reflection on the window, the signal, its mast, etc., is sandwiched between the car window and the white end of the quonset shaped First Baptist Church across the street.  A split second before this scene this same signal light showed being backed by the end of the church, its roof, and trees in the background beyond the roof.

No hard feelings here, just wanting to confirm the truth.  As always, enjoy your great shots, whether of older days or current.  Keep them coming!!

JoCoLB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm  sorry to differ with you on the possible red
> light reflections on the theater car. Those are
> actual flashing lights. I confirmed it with some
> other video I shot at Paola, Kan.  The footage
> is too long to post and I don't have editing
> capability.  Hopefully, someone else can shoot a
> video clip of the same theater car in the near
> future to substantiate what I saw. 
>
> Thank you.
>
> L.B. 
>
>  



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/17 20:25 by rrman6.

---

I think you all are comparing oranges and apples.  I think JB and LB are talking about the lights above the window while rrman6 is pointing out the crossing light being reflected in the window.  If you get on the same page everyone will be correct!
               Mark

My apologies here to JB and LB and thanks to you, Mark, for pointing out the flashers on the top of the car end.  They are definitely visible just as a FRED.  Some how I flat missed those throughout my viewing and was concentrated on the crossing signal.  Maybe if they put a ringing bell on the end of the theatre car I'd have noticed.  Ha!  Good thing I wasn't at the controls of a train following this one!!