Western Railroad Discussion > The last BNSF Holiday Express of 2013

Today, the BNSF ran the last 2013 Holiday Express train. I managed to catch the train at MP 41 and then at the ex ATSF Topeka KS depot.
Charlie
MP 53 on the BNSF Topeka.

1) BNSF 6601 powers the Holiday Express west towards it's terminus of Topeka
2) BNSF 6382 brings up the markers of the Holiday Express
3) BNSF's 2013 Holiday Express sits at the ex ATSF Topeka, KS Depot (for those that have the ATSF historical & Modeling Society's book on ATSF coaches, turn to page 17 where you will see photo of the same location taken 80 years earlier.)

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4) 6601 sits waiting to get permission to back the train to the ex ATSF coach shops

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Nice shots Charlie! I really like that first one ad the shot from 6th St.

Here are a few more shots that I got of the train today and yesterday.

Photo 1: On Friday night, the Topeka Yard was looking quite a bit like it belongs to a passenger railroad with the O-TPLTOP 19A pulling in alongside the Christmas Special. This is looking NW off of the 6th St. overpass.

Photo 2: Moving up to 4th St. and looking back at the depot, we see the two trains, along with the local switcher waiting for further work. The switcher will go on duty in minutes, and eventually move O-TPLTOP will find it's way to the coach shops to be broken down.

Photo 3: My final shot from Friday night is of the O-TPLTOP as seen from the station platform and looking north. If you look closely, you can see an employee on the roof of the BNSF 7572 removing the wifi equipment.

- Jeff Carlson

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Moving to today's Christmas Special movement, I decided to head east to the west side of DeSoto to shoot it on it's return trip. For those familiar with the line, I'm at mp16. Say what you will about the weather or the appearance of those bilevels, but when a passenger special rolls right by the house on a weekend, I'll get out to shoot it.

- Jeff Carlson

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Thanks Jeff. You also got some good shots as well.
Charlie
MP 53 on the BNSF Topeka Sub

Jeff and Charlie:

Great photos of the BNSF Christmas train....here's one that I took of it coming back to Topeka from Holliday. I was standing on the Goodell Road bridge in Tecumseh looking west towards Topeka at the train.

bnsf100
(Mike Beem)

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BTW, Jeff, Photo 3 from last night is killer!!!!! LOVE IT!!!!!!

bnsf100

Looking good there Mike. Just one thing, you're looking west as 6382 was heading east. 6601 was used on the return trip to Topeka.
Charlie
MP 53 on the BNSF Topeka Sub



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/13 21:07 by nikon1.

I didn't know anything about it, but was on my to Lawrence this morning on old K-10 Hwy a couple of miles west of Eudora, and saw it going east. When I was still working, I did several of those when they were running them to Emporia, turning on the dog food wye, and going back.

bnsf100 Wrote:
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> BTW, Jeff, Photo 3 from last night is killer!!!!!
> LOVE IT!!!!!!
>
> bnsf100


Thanks man, it was awfully cold out, but I was pretty happy with the results. I'm just happy that I wasn't the guy who had to be climbing on the roof of the engine. Yuck!

- Jeff

ddg Wrote:
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> I didn't know anything about it, but was on my to
> Lawrence this morning on old K-10 Hwy a couple of
> miles west of Eudora, and saw it going east.

Yeah, I knew about the train running, but by Sat. morning it had slipped my mind. Nikon1 got me back on track, but I was busy getting ready to go when I caught the eb going by on http://www.lawrencetraincam.com/

Not sure if you've seen this, or even who's behind it, but I've found it to be pretty helpful to have in the background of my browser.

- Jeff Carlson