The Ballast Scorcher

Yesterday's Zephyr Excursion was a great success and a very memorable experience.  There were a few unavoidable delays, but most of the rest of the time we were moving at track speed.  The train rides very smoothly at high speed, noticeably better than newer cars on this line, I'd say.

I started the day by taking the morning Amtrak train west at Naperville.  I met three other members on the train, and we proceeded to Galesburg to do early checkins for those passengers boarding the train there.

Here's our setup in the depot, with Colton Verzi, Kyle Merkel, and Dave Phillips ready to serve you.

We were there an hour ahead of the Zephyr, so I had a few minutes to take some quick pictures of the equipment displayed at the Galesburg Railroad Museum.  They were very helpful and cooperative, and our excursion probably brought in a number of extra visitors.  Sometime I will have to do an actual trip report.

 This museum is, of course, entirely Q-oriented.  And how could I possibly find fault with that?

A crowd of people gathered on the platform in anticipation of the Zephyr's arrival.  Many of these are freeloaders, there to take pictures, and maybe less than half are passengers. But the train was nearly full on all segments.

 Since I had work to do, I didn't take any exterior shots of the train, but there will be a million and one pictures posted in various places, I'm sure.  And watch for an article in Rail & Wire.

Here's part of the merchandise display set up in the power car Venus.  Bookstore manager Tom Blodgett (far left) handles sales, and we helped with selling and miscellaneous tasks as needed.

Here's the front of the passenger section.  This was originally a rounded bar, and you can see the curved part of the ceiling above it, sort of.  Rats, I should have taken a better picture.  Anyhow, it was later rebuilt into a baggage rack and conductor's desk, as seen here. Forward of this is access to the head end generator room, which is crowded, noisy, and almost scary when the train is running at full speed.

As I say, I didn't take many pictures.  Here we are crossing the Mississippi at Quincy, going over to West Quincy,. Mo. 

 The trip back was delayed, but once we got going, we hardly slowed down, except as required.  I think the trip back in on the racetrack was the fastest I've ever been on.  And we just managed to connect with the dinky I wanted to take home by a matter of minutes.  Overall, what a great experience!  I can't thank enough the many people, both IRM members and Amtrak personnel, who made this all possible.  Wow!

Note: As of Sunday at 11:30 AM, today's trip seems to be proceeding well.  Frank is aboard, and we'll get a complete update from him soon.