At approximately 7:40 AM this morning, only 10 minutes late, the US’s longest steam-powered revenue freight in the 21st century left Iowa City bound for Rock Island, IL. Here are a few shots of the event- sorry about the not-so-great quality, not enough light yet and plenty of fog around here.
The last three were taken at a grade crossing a couple of miles east of Iowa City- almost didn’t get there, as one of Iowa City’s finest and some gal in a minivan had the access road blocked while he gave her directions…
Very nice shots Brian, it’s always neat seeing a doubleheader. I don’t think that was fog though, I think it was just an inversion layer from all the foam given off by the railfans…[;)]
I’d have to take a SWAG at somewhere between 50 - 75 cars- could’ve been longer. I didn’t think to count the cars on that second run-by, should have. I’ve been monitoring the Yahoo IAIS list, hoping that someone would post that, but so far no dice.
They were supposed to split up this afternoon and run separate excursions in both directions, but I don’t think they were going that far away from Rock Island. Tomorrow they’re supposed to combine the passenger consists and head back to Iowa City, arriving about Noon.
BTW, Posner was riding in the lead engine this morning.
I saw a video of them starting at Iowa City. They were having some traction problems. I wonder if that was wet rail, inheritently slippery engines, or the weight they were attempting?
I think it was the combination of all three. BTW, I found the answer to your question about train length, Carl- 66 cars. The local paper has the whole story here:
