The La Plata Rail Lookout

Located just a short walk from the Depot Inn & Suites, the La Plata Rail Lookout is built atop a piece of abandoned ex-Wabash Railroad right-of-way and overlooks the BNSF Marceline Sub at Milepost 312.67. This line is a former Santa Fe mainline and is known today as the "Transcon" as it has trains that run from as far east as Chicago, all the way to Los Angeles! The Rail Lookout is operated and maintained by the American Passenger Railroad Heritage Foundation and features an open deck on the outside with chairs and an enclosed, heated building with chairs and tables inside. The building is also equipped with cameras that broadcast train movements from here on closed-circuit television at the Depot Inn. I spent a little time here in the morning on October 21st to photograph the Amtrak Southwest Chief though this is the place to be if you want to do some serious railfanning on the Transcon! Included here are photos of the lookout point and of course, of Amtrak's Southwest Chief! Enjoy...

The access road to the Rail Lookout starts here, behind the La Pachanga 2 Mexican Restaurant in La Plata which is located next to the Depot Inn.

At the end of this road, you'll see cross bucks and the lookout building! It's a very calm and relaxing walk!

The Rail Lookout also features "porta-jonnys", labeled "Maw" and "Paw" and the lookout building itself is heated.

The back side of the rail lookout building, complete with an information board about the area.

A view on the deck with the rail lookout building. Behind me is a guardrail and the Transcon!

TrainParty.com's world headquarters located across the tracks from the lookout.

Thanks to an 18-250mm zoom lens zoomed all the way in at 250mm, we have this view of the La Plata Amtrak Station from the Rail Lookout.
As an added bonus, the Loram Rail Grinder was parked just to the west of the station today.

And now arriving, Amtrak Train #4 - The Southwest Chief from Los Angeles, bound for Chicago, IL. Today's train had GE P42DC #15 leading.

The Southwest Chief passing by TrainParty.com!

Rounding the bend, heading out of La Plata towards Chicago, we see the Southwest Chief, having just departed the station.
The road overpass is N. Brown Street. Speaking of Amtrak, let's go check out a great collection of everything-Amtrak!