My wait at the old bridge west of Gibbs continued until I saw a headlight come over the ridge.
BNSF 7460 West.
A view of the old bridge.
A fire was burning and I hoped that it was not the Amish lumber company near the old bridge east of Gibbs.
A signal inspector stopped at the signal to see what was going on with them this morning.
You know you are bored when you take pictures of the clouds in the sky. Amtrak was not due into La Plata until near 1:00 PM today.
Amtrak's Southwest Chief Train 4 left La Plata at 12:47 PM and came by me about ten minutes later. I returned to the Depot Inn & Suites, stored my stuff in my room then took the golf cart out to the Chris Guenzler Million Mile Lookout Point.
Thank you, Bruce Shelton, for the nice comment on the wall of the Chris Guenzler Million Mile Lookout Point.
BNSF 6521 West. I returned to the hotel and worked on the story during the afternoon. Unfortunately I became sick to my stomach and from my rear end but did manage to relax on my last evening in La Plata before I took a sauna bath and called it a night.
4/12/2014 After a long night of not feeling well, I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day to get home. I had a light breakfast then checked out of the Depot Inn & Suites before driving south on US 63 to US 24 to Missouri 15 south, to US 24 East to Missouri 17 which took me across Mark Twain Lake twice, then east on 154 to Missouri 19 then US 54 East to Farber, my first stop of the morning.
The Chicago & Alton, later Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, station in Farber built in 1874.
I continued east on US 54 and was caught off guard by this westbound KCS train then continued east on US 54 to my next stop of Louisiana after I turned south on Missouri 79 which I would take south to O'Fallon.
The Chicago & Alton, later Gulf, Mobile and Ohio station in Louisiana, built in 1907.
The Kansas City Southern turn span bridge across the Mississippi River built in 1874.
BNSF 8843 West. I left Louisiana, heading south on Missouri 79.
A few miles further south was BNSF 5026 West in a siding.
More miles south was this unknown BNSF train in a siding. I took Missouri 79 south to Route M into O'Fallon, my next stop.
The O'Fallon Wabash station built in 1854, originally served by the North Missouri Railroad and built on land owned by Judge Krekel. He named the station O'Fallon Station in honour of John O'Fallon, President of the North Missouri Railroad. It was moved two-tenths of a mile west of its original location and about 120 feet north of the tracks and restored, now being used as O'Fallon City Parks and Recreation offices.
From here I drove to St. Charles and found the Wabash station.
Missouri-Kansas-Texas caboose 139 built by International Car in the 1960's.
The St. Charles Missouri-Kansas-Texas station built in 1880. The station also housed a telegraph station until 1958. The last passenger train serviced the station in May 1958. The station was moved to its current location from about a block north and on the west side of the tracks in November 1976. The depot was restored in 1978 and is used occasionally for model railroad displays.
Wabash caboose 2806 built by the railroad in 1949. From here I drove into Ferguson for my last photo stop of this trip.
The Ferguson Wabash station built in 1855.
Views looking at the old Wabash Railroad here. I drove back to Natural Bridge Boulevard and stopped at Arby's for some lunch, returned the rental car and took the shuttle back to the St. Louis Airport and went through security which was quick. I finished the story to this point then relaxed waiting for my flights home.
United Airlines Flight 6186 4/12/2014Everything works out if you let it would be one title for this trip or a bad Monty Python skit would sum it all up. First our plane was bad-ordered from the beginning so we were waiting for a plane from Newark. When it arrived here an hour after our flight should have left, the pilot refused to take it because the engine was leaking oil. United did keep us informed about eveything; they even tried to get me on an American Airlines flight to Los Angeles but by the time I reached their ticket counter, the flight was full. I returned to the United ticket counter and they put me on the first flight the next morning. I was happy now because I should be able to join Elizabeth in riding Santa Fe 3751 tomorrow afternoon back from San Bernardino.
I had to go through security a second time and a new plane was flown from Cleveland just for us and my wonderful flight attendant tracked its progress across the country for us. Another passenger found the Penguins/Flyers game score with the Penguins losing 4-3 in overtime. The plane arrived from Cleveland at 9:00 PM and we all boarded for the flight to Denver. Everyone connecting to other planes that they missed would be put up in hotels and everyone would fly to their destinations tomorrow.
The flight was bumpy in parts and Orion was seen pointing our way to Denver. Once we landed, we learned that United had only printed five of the passengers' hotel vouchers. If they knew this and had five hours in which to accomplish this, why was it not done? Everyone was processed one at a time using three agents. Once I had mine I headed to Door 508 at the main terminal and joined the others going to the Doubletree Hotel. We saw every other hotel's shuttles come and go and finally I called learning that it would be here at 11:45 PM. After picking us up, it took twenty minutes to reach the hotel and once I received my room, went straight to bed.
United Airlines Flight 6209 4/13/2014I woke up at 5:00 AM and decided to work on the story while I was still in Denver. I had a 6:00 AM shuttle back to the airport, went through security and took the train back to Terminal B. I used my meal vouchers then went to wait for my flight home. We had to wait for seven passengers from a flight from Chicago. but once on the move, the plane had to be de-iced before we could take off. This was a good flight and once we landed, I called Randy who picked me up and took me home, ending yet another adventure to Missouri.
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