UP 3985 "Challenger" in Iowa

PHOTO

NOTES

3985 first Sight

 The day started out at the Boyer River with just one rail fan awaiting the arrival of 3985.   By 9:30, there were eight cars parked along Hwy 30.  Here is the Challenger as it approaches from the west.  Note the onslaught of followers on the highway at left.

Boyer river (east)

 3985 crosses the overhead truss bridge over the Boyer River about fifteen to twenty minutes ahead of schedule.  The parade of cars was so long, it took nearly five minutes for me to cross the highway back to my car!

Denison (front)

 Here's a head on view of UP 3985 at its break in Denison near the old CNW depot.  It would depart about fifteen minutes early at 10:15.

Denison (angle)

 Droves of people were coming in, so this is the best shot I could get of the engine from the side.  All freight trains had to wait outside Denison, so railfans could cross the tracks as they pleased.

Denison overpass

  I about fell over when I arrived at the overpass on the east end of Denison and nobody was waiting there for a photo opp.   Here, the Challenger rounds the corner as it meets a westbound manifest.
pacing (behind) One thing I have to say from this experience is that railfans are idiots when it comes to driving. People were passing cars in the left lane, driving oncoming traffic into the shoulder.  Here is a shot pacing the engine the legal way, just east of Dennison
pacing (front angle) The train started to slow up again east of Vail, and we were lucky enough to catch this pace shot at twenty miles per hour.  Photo courtesy of Jennifer Greubel.
stopped along 30 A westbound stack train in front of the passenger excursion lost the top container off of one of its cars.  That forced UP 3985 to stop on the main east of Vail.  While stopped, the two idiot railfans on the right of this picture actually walked out onto the live mainline, where they were yelled at profusely by the 3985 crew to stay off the tracks.
CNW 4190 On the way back, we got ahead of the excursion and took a picture of the Chicago and NorthWestern GP7 at Ralston, IA.
3985-near Scranton 3985 and its excursion got to Scranton a little bit quicker than we expected.  Here, the passenger train is about a half-mile out of town.  Note the glowing marker lights on the top of the steam engine.
Hwy 25 overpass Here is a last shot of the engine as it ducks under the Highway 25 overpass at Scranton.  Channel 8 news joined me, as well as about eight other curious locals for this shot.