With a road trip/move coming up, I've got a long trip ahead and hope to sneak in some pictures. With that in mind, can anyone point me to some good spots along this route: I-64, Louisville (KY) to St Louis I-70, St Louis to Denver I'm hoping to get a couple of ideas close to the highways, as these will hopefully just be quick jaunts off the main road.
Ahh, but retirement is upon me and Uncle Sugar can no longer send me hither and yon! The move to KY was a last hurrah, as it were, and owing to the school schedule was done sans familia, which hopefully explains why I only want quick detours off of the road to home.
Two words- Kansas City! There's a spot overlooking State Line Junction that looks down on the BNSF/UP mains. Used to go down to the tracks, but RR cops are getting nasty. It's off Southwest Highway near the state line. Another place is the old Santa Fe Argentine Yard in KAnsas- find a place to park the vehicle and walk out on the 18th St. Expressway bridge at the east end where the diesel shops are. In Missouri, you have KCS's Knoche (pronounced ku-nokee) Yard, UP's ex-MP Neff, and the ex-N&W (now NS ) yard north of the Missouri River. South of downtown, KC Union Station is still standing, and is the stop for the Southwest Chief, Ann Rutledge, and the KC-St. Louis Mules. May find a consist parked on a siding..... Forsake I-70 west of KC, and follow US40 for a while theu Bonner Springs and west to Topeka- you'll follow the Union Pacific main, two-track all the way. I think KS State 32 is also parallel- may want to check out a road atlas. Anyway, great chance to shoot UP in action, and get a shot of the UP depot in Lawrence. In Topeka, on the north side of the KAnsas River, UP has its yard and restored depot. Trains from the east round a curve between two grain elevators headed west- west of the depot, the former Rock Island Golden State line (became Cotton Belt in 1981, now a UP line) curves left- a 10 MPH curve, and lotsa screeching wheels on the long cars as trains head over the river and turn right for the trip to Herrington, Pratt, Liberal, and eventually Tucumcari and down to the Sunset Line. The rest head on west, and will either go northwest up the Marysville Sub to Gibbon Jct. and the Overland main, or west along the former Kansas PAcific (a favored route for empty coal trains) to Denver. Now if you want shortline action, Kyle Railroad operates the former Rock Island from east of Phillipsburg to Limon, CO. Motive power is whatever RailAmerica sends up that way, including ex-SP SD45t-2s (still in SP paint, but sublettered CEFX). Not too much traffic, but it parallels I-70 from around Colby to Limon. Hope this helps a bit- for the KC action, check out the Oddballs Decals website run by Tom Stolte- he does a lot of railfanning in the area, and has more up-to-date info on how to get to State Line Jct. Safe travels, and good hunting.
uh..bob..dude.. YOU'RE THE MAN!!!! I've lived here 3 years, and haven't found anything that's better than the areas you've mentioned
The action is non-stop in KC....if ya know where to look. The "Haunted House" area downtown has an amazing amount of traffic. the trains pass by, 4 tracks, within yards of the street. I've NEVER been bothered there.
