This week, I had the immense privilege to witness CP 2816, the "Empress" 4-6-4 Hudson steam locomotive, make its trek south on the Final Spike Steam Tour celebrating the Canadian Pacific - Kansas City Southern merger that occurred 1 year ago. This is the locomotive's first extensive tour in over 17 years, having sat in storage until being chosen to lead this special anniversary train to Mexico City, emphasizing the new railroad's ability to link three different countries on one continent. Because of its significance, I chose to chase the train from the Twin Cities to southeastern Iowa - four different states over 10 days, by far the longest chase I have ever attempted. In this photo, the Franklin Park, IL display has concluded, but because the train faces the wrong way for the trip to Davenport, the crew needs to bring the train down to Tower A-5 (within Chicago city limits) to wye the train before the next day's journey. Because of this, photographers are treated to rare evening action for this beautiful engine. Here, the engine passes underneath the striking Elmwood Park, IL water tower as it whistles for the various grade crossings in town, on its way to A-5 for the wye move.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
