Come along as we visit six operating steam
locomotives and an operating locomotive crane.
Locomotives vary in size from a 2-8-0 to a 4-8-8-4.
Our show starts on the Iowa Interstate as 2-10-2
#6988 makes a visit to Illinois to pull a series of trips to benefit first
responders. The weather varied from
sunny to heavy rain during her visit, and our visit concludes with the
locomotive making time on a deadhead freight run.
Our next visit is to the Monticello Railway
Museum in central Illinois. Part one of
our visit finds Southern Railway 2-8-0 #401 in operation in July and during
September’s Railroad Days. Part two of
our Monticello segment looks at Bates & Rogers locomotive crane #11442, a
1944 product of the Industrial Brownhoist Corporation. Two cameras were mounted on board in addition
to cameras on the ground.
Days after Railroad Days in Monticello, we were
in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, for vie days of filming. During the first two days, 2-10-0 #90 was
captured hauling Strasburg’s regular excursion trains. The famous Decapod has now been running on
the Strasburg Rail Road for 52 years; considerably longer than her first career
on Colorado’s Great Western Railway.
Following two days of normal operations at
Strasburg, we captured the first weekend of the “Norfolk & Western Steam
Reunion” featuring Strasburg’s own N&W 4-8-0 #475 and the visiting N&W
4-8-4 #611. #475 emerged from the shop
in fresh paint just before the event, and the pair of locomotives made for a
fun filled weekend!
The last segment looks at Union Pacific’s newest
star: Big Boy 4-8-8-4 #4014. We traveled
to North Little Rock as the locomotive was headed home to Cheyenne on a
two-month tour that took her to California and Texas. We stopped by as the locomotive was displayed
at Jenks Shop, and then filmed #4014 and train as it headed to Van Buren,
Arkansas, the next day. Along the way we
captured some priceless images of the largest engine that will ever run along
the former Missouri Pacific line.
