Chasing the 844
Oh man. Some times things WORK. After all the worry and stress about the 844's schedule and our trip...when it happened...it was utterly perfect.
Friday night I barely slept and dreamt about trains and crowds. I was somewhere between a 5 year old on Christmas Eve and a college student before a huge test...and of course, in reality, I was a mother praying that this would work out for her boy. The train was supposed to leave Council Bluffs at 8 am. We got up at 6, or least they did, and I did after a few ten-more-minutes-please. We stopped and got doughnuts for Leo, because, you know...holiday. As we turned down the street that took us to the rail yard Leo yelled....and we could see the smoke. It was there and it was running. Leo had everything mapped out perfectly. We pulled into a graveled area by the yard...and there she was....the Union Pacific 844. She vibrated with energy, sniffing and snorting steam. Oh good God...I didn't expect to be so moved. She was gorgeous.
A couple of others were there watching, and as Leo set up the tripod and readied himself, more people pulled up. There was such an air of excitement. Semis would run behind us periodically, up to the grain elevator we were standing near. Some of them would stop and look as well.
Leo had such an air of happiness...I can't begin to describe it.
Slowly, with the whistle blowing, and the sound of the steam, those wheels began to roll with that storybook chug-chug sound, and off she went. As soon as she was out of sight, everyone leapt in their cars and headed north. Even when we were separated by trees we could track her by the white steam.
We were heading towards the next pass through in Missouri Valley, but we managed to catch her at a couple of other crossings as well. Each time as soon as she passed, we jumped in our car and headed toward the next place we could see her. Some times we couldn't see her and we wouldn't know if we were ahead or behind. She had to stop a couple of times, once for something they adjusted on the tender, and if she hadn't we might have missed her. She can MOVE! We got to see her at about 4 passings, and then headed to her first official stop in Fremont, Nebraska. We hadn't expected the huge crowd there. There we were, on a sunny, beautiful day in Nebraska, surrounded by a seemingly bustling town with crowds there, kids on the shoulder of their dads, older folks, grain elevators around us...it was truly moving. The train pulled in with her whistle blowing. People cheered. As she came to a stop the engineer leaned out the window, waving like a rockstar. People reached up to shake the hands of some of the other workers. A row of workers stood in front of her like bodyguards. I just wanted to cry. Leo busily changed tripod locations and focused on his video and photographs, chatting to Ernie (and directing him...we all had our tasks) the whole time.
Then we had to wave goodbye as she headed further west. She was stopping in North Platte overnight and then home to Cheyenne. At this point we were hot and somewhat exhausted from the constant state of adrenalin.
More to follow, but for now, it was a very, very good morning.