Just got back after 320 miles and 12 hours. Thought I’d toss one up quickly to get the “Tripleheader Show” started. Add your own if you have any.
Enjoy! And let’s see yours!
Pop Z
Thats a nice shot Poppa Z where exactly was that taken?
It was beautiful day for chasing a triple headed steam train. I put on about 150 miles and took 200 pictures and I got 4-5 nice shots (go figure)
Heres one in Rock Island.
more Later
Bill
County Road 975 East – about 3.5 miles east of Sheffield. I spent four hours scouting locations right after dawn. That location was where I knew I could get all three in a non-distracting, “looks like Illinois” setting with the proper lighting – and with absolutely no possibility of people getting in the picture.
Dang, I sure hope they do this a few more times. The chance of seeing a doubleheader in this day & age time is thin. The chance of seeing one in Illinois is almost nil.
I had heard yesterday they were going to triple the engines. We may never see that again.
Then again, the IAIS has an option on four more. Wow! Six huge black elephants!
PZ
Heres a few more from the Triple Header.
Eastbound from Hwy 61 west of Colona, IL
WEstbound east of Atkinson, IL
Westbound east of Geneseo, IL
Stopped at Silvis, IL
Keith Schmidt
I wonder what the horse power and tractive effort equivelant of that group is?
Gabe
Bill. Poppa, and Keith;
Really nice job, Guys! I’m Jealous! Congratulations!
Who would have thought that in 2006 or even 6 or 7 years ago a sight like this would have been possible in the United States?
[yeah][wow]
Did anyone happen to get any videos of this event?
Of course, they put the “Made in China” Locomotives First, regulating the “Made in America” product to trailing position!
OH THE HUMANITY!
hehe.
No, but seriously, its nice to see some new faces in the North American Steam Programs other than the 844, 3985, 261, etc. I wish I was not working that week so I could have gone to chase them.
Greetings,
Thanks for the nice comments about the photos, there are many more where those came from. Hopefully I can post some more soon. Just got back from the trip, shot the Doubleheader QJ’s down to Muscatine, IL.
As far as #261 taking a back seat. It seems like these runs were pretty much a “For Sale” trip for the QJ’s. Apparently Monday they will be pulling a freight westbound on the IAIS and then they will run light to there new home in Newton awaiting sale to a shortline or excursion group.
I did shoot video of the entire weekend. I hope to get some video up on youtube.com in a week or two,
Keith Schmidt
Nice shots as always, guys. I’ll get my Kodachrome back in 2 or 3 weeks so I’ll know then how much fun I had. As far as 261 being third in line, I have great shots of 261 and this might be our one chance at the Chinese steam.
For those of us lucky enough to be there, all we can do is be thankful that things fell into place the way they did. And some of those towns along the old Rock Island line offer photogenic opportunities all their own, even w/o trains. But a steam triple header … even in the glory days that had to be rare …
Dave Nelson
Are those really 2-8-2s, or do I not know how to count driving wheels?
Ol’ Ed
Are those really 2-8-2s, or do I not know how to count driving wheels?
Ol’ Ed
Whoops! Nice catch. Sleep deprivation-induced typo. I edited my subject lines to read 2-10-2, but everybody else is on their own.
I got one shot up so far:
http://www.fuzzyworld3.com/3um/viewtopic.php?t=331
But I’ve got a pile more to go through! I shot plenty of pictures of “other trains” on the way down as well…
Nice to see you again Keith…
Keith Schmidt said:
As far as #261 taking a back seat. It seems like these runs were pretty much a “For Sale” trip for the QJ’s. Apparently Monday they will be pulling a freight westbound on the IAIS and then they will run light to there new home in Newton awaiting sale to a shortline or excursion group.
As it has been stated from the beginning, they were brought to this country to sell…Lets hope they ARE sold, and then the other four are brought over here…It would be wonderful to see these big steamers running in all parts of this countrry! Personally, I just like to see steam engines working, anybody’s!
[:)][:)][:)][:)] Read as big Cheesy grin!
(I figured my topic title should balance out some of those other ones!!! [swg][:-,])
Dave Nelson, I spotted you while chasing the triple header… somewhere… Can’t remember where though! I was already well on my way to somewhere else, and I figured I’d meet up with you somewhere else along the line… oh well! I’m sure we’ll meet up again somewhere closer to home!
[(-D]
Wow! What a show! Thanks everyone for sharing some extraordinary shots!
Mark,
Good to see you also, too bad the weather wasn’t better. Did you guys hang around Muscatine after the rain started ? We headed up to the Mark Twain overlook. Not a bad shot, but it started to rain “HARD” and some lightning so we got into the car. We did wait to see the QJ’s leave. Too bad the dispatcher kept them in the wye for almost two hours.
Keith
Just an update. The excursion was a great SUCCESS!!! Every day was a sell out and over 3500 people rode.
Also from a crewmember on the tripleheader I heard that the ole 261 widened out on the throttle and wound up shoving the QJ’s along.
Also all the communities were tickled at the ammount of people that showed up,however I guess one community wanted to charge for water ( needless to say they didnt water there) but all in all it was a great event for my neck of the woods. Hopefully IAIS will be having a steam event now and then as they were very happy with the PR they got.
For all of you that dropped by and acted like responsible railfans I salute you ( no reports of people being stupid and at every photo line I was at people were very courteous and friendly)you guys are what helped make the event . I noticed people would stop when seeing a line of railfans and when they found out what was coming they would stop to watch as well. Good job guys!
Most people did act responsibly in the areas I visited. However, these type of events attract a wide range of onlookers – including the worst type of drooling foamers.
There were reports of idiotic and aggressive driving along Route 6 between Atkinson and Sheffield, where the IAIS tracks parallel the two-lane highway for a long stretch. Seemed like everyone with a videocamera decided to try to pace the locomotives at the same time – causing dangerous passing moves, attempts to cut into the line of vehicles, vehicles in line blocking cutters from entering the line with oncoming traffic coming, near-accidents and road rage. Thankfully, tickets were issued by the Illinois State Police, who apparently had troopers with portable radios riding the train relaying the license numbers/vehicle descriptions of violators to troopers in cars [Y