This morning's sun shines bright on a sharp pair of Union Pacific four-axle EMD products as they slowly drop down the Poplar St. ramp to the yard at Lesperance on the city's southside with job LSE59 06. Following its typical switching duties west of downtown along the Jefferson City Sub, today's "Local 59" is running heavier than usual thanks to a large pick-up of interchange traffic grabbed from the BNSF off Choteau Siding before heading home, a move not commonly done. Towering directly above are the south and west approach spans to the massive MacArthur Bridge which carry trains over the Mississippi River between Illinois and Missouri such as the A&S Gateway to UP 12th St transfer job whose rear-end can be seen still hanging out on the west approach. Built new January of 1977 for Utah's Kennecott Copper mining railroad, and also having MKT heritage, recently rebuilt GP39N #1206 continues to carry out its duty "Building America" for its current owner in the greater St. Louis area.
Making its appearance known is the famous Gateway Arch, hard to avoid when photographing around downtown, it can be seen looking somewhat monolithic from this particular angle.
