It will be fun to meet you in person

Eivind:

It will be fun to meet you in person - your friend Peer is a real kick, and it will be great to see how well you are able to keep up with him! Peer is coming too, right?

It will be fun to meet you

It will be fun to meet you too Joe. Peer landed yesterday. So he will be there and greet us when we land.

July 1st

The time for departure as come. This morning at 09.00 I was picked up by car by the two fellows I am traveling from Trondheim, Norway. Our flight a Dash 8 – Q 400 left Trondheim Airport Værnes at 12.10 and a little after 14.00 we arrived at Copenhagen Airport Kastrup and meet up with the two other traveling from Oslo, Norway.

We arrived in Chicago at 17.00 and after clearing customs and getting our luggage we met up with the last guy (He left a day early). Upon Arrival at Rochelle we checked in to our hotel before getting something to eat. Afterwords we went to Rochelle Railroad park, where we catched an eastbound UP freight with an engine in front and one trailing. It was a short train consisting of around 30 cars for different use.

Now I am at Super 8 in Rochelle, Il relaxing a little bit after the trip.

Tomorrow we will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska. We will drive on US-30. Tips for great railfanning spots are very welcomed. It includes layouts as well.

For me the travel went smooth with a lot of reading and a movie on the transatlantic flight. I also did some writing on the plane.

July 2nd: Rochelle Railroad Park

Today the day started at Rochelle Railroad Park. We were there for a couple of hours watching trains. There was some trains passing on both lines. But mostly on the BNSF line. A local BNSF train come passing trough the crossing on its way west. A couple of hours later it returned and switched the interchange with UP before heading back east.

We then headed for Clinton, IA where we stooped at an old depot where a local UP trained rolled by and a newly painted BNSF engine stood on a track a little further away from us. We then headed up to UP's yard in Clinton where we watched a little bit before heading for Norway, IA. For me as a baseball-fan it was amusing to see that their welcoming sings welcomed you to a baseball-town.

We managed to see a UP intermodal when we were there to. Just when we were about to start the long drive to Lincoln, Ne. During this drive I just most of the time reading The Hobbit. I also managed to get an hour of sleep. I still haven't adjusted to the American time zone. As of writing the time in Norway is around 6.30AM and in Lincoln it is around 11.30PM.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Bailey yard in North Platte.

Great post! More, more!

Eivind ... love to see blog posts that chronical railfanning and vacation travels ... keep it up! Post a summary of each day, feels like we're "there" with you.

July 3rd: North Platte

We started out from Lincoln where we drove almost directly to North Platte, but with a little stop at BNSF Hobson Yard. At the Tower we had our lunch while watching the action in the yard. After being there for a couple of hours we headed down to the souvenir shop.

Before driving on US-30 alongside the UP's main line to Grand Island, NE. We saw a lot of mixed trains, unit coal trains and intermodal trains.

UP 7144 leading a mixed train (I belive) in front of a former SP unit.

UP4941 leading a train of autoracks.

For me as a civil engineer student watching building and bridges is as fun as watching trains. There was particulary bridge that we saw pass over the UP line that I think was interesting. I think I might model it.

In Grand Island we managed to see a UP train and a BNSF train cross at the flyover.

We ended the day with a great dinner at a local restaurant.

4th of July

We then continued on US-30 to Omaha, NE. Still following the UP main. In Omaha we visited the downtown passenger depots before heading out to Kenefick Park to see the DD – 40 Centenniel and Big Boy.

Me in front of the BigBoy

Afterward we had a rainful journey to Kansas City, KS. Here we ate at Applebees. There was to much rain for us to stay out and watch the fireworks.

July 5th: Kansas City

Not much to say about today. I took a day of from railfanning, just relaxing at the hotel. In the evening we all went for some shopping at the mall.

Golden Spike Tower

Did you go up in the tower - is there a charge to do so?

Golden Spike Tower

Yeah, we went up in the tower it's a $7,00 charge to get up there. You had a good view. But a lot of the action happened in the distance, so to bring a pair of binoculars would be a smart thing to do.

July 7th: Triple Flyover and Gateway Arch

In Kansas we went to the triple flyover. We saw some trains. There were one train waiting just beneath the bridge we were standing at. When that started to move I took a lot of pictures of the roofs to use as reference for weathering.

From Kansas we tried to drive a long say the joint NS and BNSF main to Chicago. We saw some train but not much.

After arriving in St. Louis and checked in to the motel we went to Gateway Arch and visited it.

To bad the St. Louis Cardinals were playing away tonight since the stadium was only a couple of blocks away. I would gladly have watched it.

July 8th: St. Louis to Galesburg

Today we started the day by driving past the yards in East St. Louis before heading North East to Galesburg. We drove a littte on the Old Route 66.

In Galesburg we checked in at our hotel before heading down to Amtrak's Galesburg Station. There we saw the Westbound California Zephyr and the South West Chief. We also got to see some freight trains. To of us decided that we would take the train in to Chicago tomorrow and then visit Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. So tomorrow I will take the train in to Chicago Union Station.

Fantastic!

Great post Elvind!  It's not as good as being there with you but it's very interesting.  I would guess that neat bridge is a handicapped accessible pedestrian overpass.  It would be an interesting detail on a layout for sure!

Keep going with this great chronicle of your travels!

July 9th: Chicago

Kevin: That is correct. The overpass is made some every pedestrian can pass it.

Today the trainride in to Chicago went well. But the trains can't compare to does we have back in Norway. The ride was for our part bumby. When arriving in Chicago the plan was too go directly to the Van Buren Station and take the Metra Electric down to the Museum of Science and Industry. Instead we ended up in Willis Tower (former called Sears Tower) first. That was an incredibly tour. After being there we went over to Van Buren Station and took the Metra down to the Museum. There we didn't have time to see everything.

After being there we took the Metra Union Pacific/West Line to Elmhurst where we met up with the rest at Al's Hobby. There I got some books from Kalbach that I think will be intersting reading.

Tomorrow will be the last day before the NMRA convention. Some of us will go to the planetarium and aquarium and then head into downtown Chicago. We will probably take the Metra tomorrow also.

July 10th

Today we took the Metra BN line in to town and went to visit museums so not much railfanning today either.

Tomorrow we head for Milwaukee with a stop on way to visit a layout. It will be great to arrive in Milwaukee for the convention.

I hope to see some of you there.

Marine Binoculars

This allows for a large field-of-view and an Marine Binoculars ample objective to collect a lot of light. Another feature of many marine type binoculars is a built in compass, perfect for navigation.