Chinese QJ's Pull Record Freight for Flood Relief

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Greetings,

Had the chance to be down in the Quad Cities area for the QJ’s weekend of flood relief steam trains. Saturday was the “record setting” freight train from Iowa City, IA to Rock Island, IL on the Iowa Interstate. The freight weighed in at 6252 tons and the QJ’s handled it quite well. Unfortunately for the railfans there was heavy morning fog that made pictures not always the greatest, but there were some neat results. Then Saturday afternoon the QJ’s were separated for the first time (kind of like conjoined twins after surgery)and pulled passenger excursions to both Walcott, IA and Silvis, IL. Then a dinner train ran from Rock Island to Walcott and back.

Then Sunday the pair of QJ’s were reunited and pulled an excursion westbound from Rock Island to Iowa City. Then it would be back to Newton and storage for the QJ’s. There has been some new additions to the QJ’s as far as lettering. Below are some shots from the weekend.

The headlight of #6988 pierces the fog and steam at Iowa City just prior to departure.

#6988 starts east with the freight at Iow City

The fog lifted at West Liberty with the depot nicely lit in the low sun.

The fog hadn’t lifted at Wilton, IA Kind of an eerie feel

No more fog arriving in Davenport and rolling through the street running.

2

Great shots Kieth !!! Thanks for shareing [8D]

3

Really like the one with the depot…looks like they are pulling hard!

4

…Absolutely great photos of rare {anymore}, RR scenes.

5

Great shots! I particularly like the West Liberty depot one.

6

Nice shots. Much improved over what was running on the Iowa Interstate on my latest visit to the West Liberty station:

http://penncentral2002.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1172361

http://penncentral2002.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1174383

http://penncentral2002.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1174382

I wish that they would run them sometime when I’m out there, but I only make it back to Iowa once every couple of years, so the odds of them running when I’m out there are pretty low.

7

Thanks for the nice comments. I hope the event raised a good share of money for the Salvation Army. I got a chance to see Cedar Rapids and the flooded area. Kind of ghost town like.

Seeing the photos of the track work at West Liberty makes the point of how the track on the IAIS has been greatly improved. It might be better now that when the Rock Island had it.

Thanks again,

Keith

8

Just realized it…I took the first photos of the 6988 and her sister 7081 when they hit the rails here in the US…they was on a flat cars, but still…good to see her back at work.

9

Those pictures are wonderful! They just made my day and maybe my week.

AgentKid

10

Beautiful photos. Love the fog. Gives an erie feel to them ( the photos and the locomotives).