At the west end of the Kate Shelley High Bridge, we were allowed to detrain for pictures and here you see the "Feather River" still out on the bridge.
The Kate Shelley High Bridge.
An eastbound Union Pacific coal train crossed, after which we were allowed to go onto the new bridge.
Passenger cars of the magnificent Union Pacific Passenger Fleet reversed onto the Kate Shelley High Bridge.
Chicago and North Western 8701 reversing.
The High Bridge "400" out on the bridge.
I then walked out onto the new bridge for these pictures.
Members of our group on the new bridge.
Then a view from the west end, after which I changed locations to a hill to enable getting both the old and new bridges in the same picture during the photo runby.
The photo runby at the Kate Shelley High Bridge.
The rear of our train. We reboarded and now from my seat in the "Missouri River Eagle", we would look at the new bridge under construction which started in 2007 and is 90 feet north of the old one. It will be a double track bridge ballast deck on a reinforced concrete tower. It is designed for 70 MPH operations and two trains can be operated at that speed across the bridge at the same time. Its length is 2,813 feet with a height of 190 feet and the cost is estimated at $42 million.
We will now look at this bridge as our train reversed across the old bridge.
We reached the east end of our crossing of the Kate Shelley High Bridge and would continue reversing into Boone.
Cars of the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad.
In downtown Boone is Rock Island caboose 17022, built by International Car in 1958 and painted as Chicago and North Western 12566 is in front of this mural painted by Boone High School students in 1984. The train reversed into the Fair Ground spur, where this wonderful train trip ended. Special thanks to the Chicago and North Western convention staff for making this possible, as well as the Union Pacific Railroad for running this trip for us to enjoy. I had the opportunity to ride across the Kate Shelley High Bridge twice in one day and detrained a happy train rider.
Our group detraining in Boone.
Our train was now ready to head back to Council Bluffs.
Chicago and North Western C44-9W 8701.
Chicago and North Western C44-9W 8646. We all had a really good boxed lunch and after the Special left for Council Bluffs at 12:30 PM, the bus I was on proceeded west out of Boone, then south through Minburn, which has a Minneapolis & St. Louis station still standing. However, we did not stop there but went onto Dallas Center where GIT Insurance runs their business out of a Minneapolis & St. Louis station, so we stopped there.
Views of the Minneapolis & St Louis Station in Dallas Center, built in 1913. The Minneapolis & St. Louis was merged into the Chicago and North Western.
The station sign bears the town's name.
Where the trains once stopped.
Looking southeast where the tracks of the Minneapolis & St Louis Railroad used to be.
Looking northwest where the tracks of the Minneapolis & St Louis Railroad used to be.
Our group gave this ice cream store plenty of business during our stop here before the bus then returned us to the Holiday Inn in Des Moines, ending a most wonderful trip of the convention. I returned to the Best Western and wrote this story into the early evening then had dinner at Bennigan's and relaxed the rest of the evening. Tomorrow, a trip to Atlantic on the Iowa Interstate, former Rock Island, mainline.
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