Nostalgia & History > Vac 78 Rawlins to Sidney Part 1

Continuing with Vacation 1978 this segment will be from Rawlins Wyoming to Sidney Nebraska.

July 12, 1978

#1 After spending the night at Rawlins we again headed east to see what we could see. Of course on the UP you saw a lot, even in 1978. We didn’t get far before we caught our first train of the day. At Sinclair Wyoming, home of Sinclair Oil, we shot the 6910 heading east.

#2 and 3 Not far from Hanna we encountered the 3034 west. The power this train was the UP 3034, NW 8469, NW 1597.

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#4 Just east of Hanna US30 crosses over the UP, which down on shot of the UP 8067. Assisting the 8067 that day was the SP 8862 and 8863. Hanna is a coal mining town, and can be seen in the background.

#5 Seeing a headlight off in the distance, we stopped at Wilcox to shoot the 8052 west.

#6 The 8062 was followed closely by the 3488, also west bound.

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#7 We didn’t have to wait long before a couple of east bounds came along. The first train was the 8058 with another fast forty and two DD40’s on a pig train.

#8 Right behind that was the 8046.

#9 At Rock River we found (rather it found us) the 3485 heading west.

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#10 We decided to do a little rock climbing while we were there. After a short wait along came the 2862 west.

#11 Then from the west came the 3368 with a train off the WP.

#12 At Otto near Cheyenne, we caught the 6928 heading up Sherman Hill on the original line.

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#1 We were loosing light fast around Cheyenne so we decided to continue east and see if we could find sunlight again. Of course that didn’t stop us from shooting the 8046 heading west our of town.

#2 Almost but not quite. At Brownson Nebraska we caught the 2940 west on a solid empty reefer train headed west.

#3 At Sidney we found the local tied up for the night, with the 252 and
another GP9 for power.

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#4 After getting a motel for the night we headed east of town and hopefully a train or two. Our first encounter was the 8069 east.

#5 Just after the 8069 passed we heard “west bound” on the radio and almost at the same time saw the headlight in the distance. Finding our spot (lets face it, for the most part on the UP in Nebraska you find a open crossing and shoot) we catch the 6912 west heading into the setting sun.

#6 Then from the west we shoot the 2829 heading for North Platte.

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#7 Soon it’s the 8060 west with a UP and three SP’s.

#8 & 9 Then it’s the UP 2886 east with seven units including the WP1976 NW 1758, and BN 6614, which we had seen in Green River the previous day.

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#10 and finally it’s the 6945 west.

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Love those GP9's, and I notice no GP30's showed up. . . Joe S.

Wait tell tomorrow.

is a railfans wet dream.

Many, many thank yous for helping me explain to my wife why I need all those different engines on the layout!! Keep them coming, PLEASE!

Great pics, thanks so much.

Joel

A good example of "Unlimited Power". Thanks for posting.

 the UP we loved