An eastbound runthrough freight from North Platte, NE to Chicago (Proviso Yard) slows to a stop to change from UP to CNW crews. I would join the crew with a couple others from CNW's Corporate Industrial Engineering Dept. to analyze locomotive performance from Fremont to Chicago. I thought this would be pretty exciting with the DD40AX on the point, but alas that unit and the two UP GP38-2s were pulled off and ran light engine to Omaha, leaving us with the two CNW SD40-2s and the UP U30C. It became train 252, "The Rocket", for its trip on CNW across Iowa & Illinois, taking more than 20 hours to make the run.
