Filmed in 2017 on my last great road trip around the eastern USA with my mate Lloyd Cross, this production is one of my favourites - not just because of the variety in rail action, but more so the places visited during this trip and the memories each scene invokes - good times.
We kick off at Birmingham Junction on the outskirts of Kansas City where only one train was seen over a period of two hours, so we shifted across the Missouri River to Sugar Creek, where it was all on. So many trains.
Staying in the KC area, we had a cheeky look at the Harry S Truman bridge, which I believe there is no longer any access to. We then hit the road and headed east, swinging by Mt Vernon IL, where the Union Pacific's SP Heritage unit was parked up and in full view, until a CN manifest rolled through and blocked the view. I wasn't complaining. Further east we explored south of Evansville IN to check out the approaches to the Henderson Bridge across the Ohio River - luckily a CSX coalie turned up right on time. We then shot across the river to Henderson to catch a bit of action from the other side of the bridge. This is one massive structure.
Back at Evansville we got a few more CSX shots from Howell Yard before calling it a night.
On the way to Indianapolis, we stopped off at the Wabash Valley Railroad Museum at Terre Haute where I caught a couple of CSX manifests passing through. The rest of the day was spent exploring Indy. The next day we got a couple of shots from on top of a car park building beside the Amtrak Station, but due to the cold weather, that was it.
The next day we continued north east and stopped off at Muncie IN - bright sunny skies and big blue locos - loved it, ending the day at Fort Wayne where Norfolk Southern rules the rails.
The next day we rose early and headed east and spent the entire morning at Deshler OH - well worth every minute. The old Depot has since been demolished. The afternoon and evening was spent at Fostoria in the Iron Triangle. Can't say enough about this place.
A slight detour north to Bellevue OH saw us spend most of the day there - lots of NS action, with the day ending at Marion. The next day was a big drive to Alliance OH, with no effort made to film trains until our arrival. Alliance turned out to be a bit hot for us Kiwis so we rested up and waited for the sun to go down a bit before heading to the Amtrak stop to capture a lot of NS action - which we did until dark o'clock.
The above description is highly abridged and only the best shots were saved for this production.