Cornfield Color. It isn't common for Union Pacific to put a GP60 on the point of a manifest train, let alone one still wearing Saint Louis Southwestern colors. Someone in North Little Rock must have been a Cotton Belt fan, as manifest freight MNLASB 08 came north with former SSW 9691, now UP 1963, leading. The rest of the colorful consist was also interesting. Behind the two CSX GEs are a UP GP38-2 and a Railserve Leaf switcher. The latter started life with the C&O as an SW7. This train is sitting crewless at Steppig Road, where it will wait for at least 12 hours for a crew to take it north to the congested Alton & Southern's Gateway Yard, located 13 miles north. This was one of two northbounds waiting to get into the yard; the second, resting a few hundred feet from the rear of this train, was empty oil train ONUEU with NS 1069 leading.
