WHERE ARE YOU HEADED, BIG BOY?

Last week Tuesday offered fine weather for setting a lawn chair under a tree and watching trains.  Big Boy was expected out of Rochelle around 3.15.  The vagaries of railroading.  Union Pacific dispatchers threaded the special through freight traffic in both directions, including a Bird, loaded and empty hoppers, and Dead Freight.

Over the weekend, Union Pacific allowed Norfolk Southern pilots into the cab, and an expanded train with Norfolk Southern's America 250 diesel and several additional office cars set off for Philadelphia.

At Fostoria, there is a Railroad Park, that, as is the case in Rochelle, allows serious train watchers and daisy pickers alike an opportunity to observe train movements on multiple railroads.  Alas, Fostoria might be even more a shadow of its former self than Rochelle is.  But I digress.

The serious train watchers and daisy pickers turned out to look, and it appears as though everyone present to see the train arrive was also present to see it leave.

The train is taking a scenic route toward Philadelphia, including a public event at a railway museum in Erie, a subscription photo shoot at Letchworth Park in New York, and interactions with other steam trains onward toward Philadelphia.