Drew Mitchem had contacted me on my birthday via private message on Trainorders.com that he and his friends Jeff Morhaus and Rick Wangelin were going to come up here from the St. Louis area and asked if I wanted to join them on this train photography trip. I said "Yes" and was told to be ready at the Depot Inn & Suites at 7:30 AM. I arose, showered, dressed and had a quick breakfast before checking things on the Internet then at 7:32 AM, they arrived and after a quick drive through town, we ended up west of the La Plata depot in view of the crossover signals. I crossed the tracks and was out of the photographers' line-of-sight when we heard the eastbound approaching.
BNSF 7609 East at the La Plata Crossovers west of the Depot with DPU's on the rear.
Next, BNSF 4008 West came by, after which we drove east to the bridge on Route E.
BNSF 7301 West at Route E. From here we took Banner Road north to State Highway F, turned right and took that east onto State Highway V, turned left onto Grade Lane, which we took north then turned onto Missouri Highway 6 and stopped at the bridge over the BNSF mainline.
BNSF 5451 West at the Missouri Highway 6 bridge.
Next came Union Pacific 7667 West which met BNSF 4178 East.
BNSF 4178 East.
Two more views of Union Pacific 7667 West with DPU 7813. Back on the move, we continued east on MO Highway 6 to Hurdland, took County Road 8, which became Route J and took that to Road 132. We made a mistake turning right onto Road 110 before we reversed and took Road 110 north to Road 129, which we took to Road 112 into Kenwood. With no trains here, we reversed and drove Road 129 into Route P, then went east on Missouri State Highway 11 before turning on State Highway 15 to a bridge over the tracks at Baring. That yielded no trains either, so we proceeded back north to Road K east to Road M, which we took north.
The strangest moment of the day was passing this church where every car was black. We then made our way to Rutledge and parked next to the grade crossing.
BNSF 5218 East.
Union Pacific 7683 East at Rutledge with DPU 7772. From here we went east on Route A, but just south of Gorin, noticed a westbound on Drew's ATCS screen on his phone, so reversed to the bridge over the BNSF on Route A where we set up for a few trains.
BNSF 5218 West came by our photo location.
Next BNSF 4392 East came under the Route A bridge.
Drew's truck which took us around northeast Missouri today.
Union Pacific 7836 East with mid-train DPU 8410 came by next.
BNSF 7230 West.
BNSF 7230 West met BNSF 7819 East just to the west of the bridge.
BNSF 7819 East, the final train here. We then took Road Y north, then east to the grade crossing where Drew made a phone call and we learned that there would be no more westbounds until after dark. Knowing we had a late-running Amtrak, we returned west the way we came, but took Road EE south to Missouri Highway 15, which we took into Edina and a needed bathroom and food stop at the Casey's there. Amtrak left La Plata at 1:25 PM, and a goof by all of us made us miss that train by about eight minutes when Drew dropped the three of us off at the Route 15 bridge over the BNSF mainline while he went to Baring for his videotaping. The wind was blowing strong and cold as we waited for the next eastbound train movement. At times like this, I sometimes wonder what I am doing, here but once the train is spotted, that feeling always goes away.
BNSF 5372 East at Baring.
Right behind him was BNSF 7841 East. From here we drove back to Kenwood.
The new BNSF signal bridge at Kenwood which replaced the older signal bridges on this line. After awhile, we continued our way back but made turned right on Clemson Way and found the former Chicago, Burlington and Quincy grade here.
Most interesting was Southern Railway trailer 206873 in a yard on the old grade. From here we took Clemson Lane south to what would be a great picture of a BNSF cut then continued south to Knox Lane, turned left on Salt River Lane to State Highway V, another left on State Highway E and returned to our former route at Banner Lane, but stayed on Route E to Mockingbird Lane, which we took to Archer Lane. I wanted to show the others the unique crossbuck.
The unique crossbuck with bell ringer attached.
The bell ringer.
The author and the unique crossing protection.
We finally had green signals to the east as we heard the horn from the next train passing through La Plata.
BNSF 5311 East at Archer Road.
Sunset on a great day of train photography. We swung by the Depot Inn & Suites so I could pick up my computer before driving to the Chris Guenzler Million Mile Lookout Point so that Jeff and Rick could experience it. There were two more eastbounds then I showed them my La Plata and Winterail programs while we waited. After that, the four of us had dinner at the Red Rooster before I was dropped off at the Depot Inn & Suites where I worked on about half of the story and finished it the next morning out at the Chris Guenzler Million Mile Lookout Point. It had been a great day of train photography and I called it a night.
