Ride Like the Wind

The West Wind, that is!  I was able to tag along for much of the Sunday Nebraska Zephyr excursion, and it was an experience I definitely won't forget.  Flying through the Illinois countryside with the speedometer pegged at 79mph is not something I had ever expected to do on our Zephyr, but the hardworking IRM volunteers and officials from BNSF and Amtrak made it happen.

I didn't take too many photos, and the ones I did take didn't turn out very well, but here you go anyway.  In the morning I arrived at Union Station early to help check in passengers for the trip.  The indefatigable Harold Krewer was running the check-in show with help from myself, Frank Nero, Mike Ramunno and Charlie Strong.  Following an authentic CB&Q announcement from Harold over the station's PA system we helped board the passengers and then clambered aboard the power car for our ride to Galesburg.  Though the trip through the western suburbs was slowed by track work that had removed two of the three tracks from service at Lisle, the train got up to track speed at Naperville and we never looked back!

At Galesburg I disembarked along with Frank and Mike so that we could check people in who were boarding for the eastbound leg to Chicago, and the Zephyr headed off for its trip to Quincy and back.  The train was on time until about half an hour before its scheduled return, when it started to get held up by traffic moving through Galesburg.  Some of it was pretty interesting, including the BNSF business train (below left) and a different Zephyr, Amtrak's California Zephyr, heading west to the Pacific (below right).












The Nebraska Zephyr finally pulled into the station at about 5pm and we got back on the train for the return trip to Chicago, which was every bit as fast and enjoyable as the outbound trip.  The customers and crew, made up almost entirely of IRM volunteers except for the Amtrak engineer and conductor, all seemed to be having a great time and it was nice to see how many people turned out trackside to watch the train pass through.  We returned to Chicago only slightly behind schedule; I headed home but the UP road switcher was already there at the station ready to couple up and tow the Zephyr back to West Chicago from whence it would return to IRM.  What an outstanding trip - and many thanks to all of the IRM people who made it happen!