Truckee, Tornado's and tired!!

G'day all from beautiful Truckee,

                                                      The last four days have been spent in the ski town of Truckee,which receives the most snow (usually) in the US, and sits on the Eastern side of the Sierra Mountains and the famous "Donner Pass". Truckee was a depot of sorts during the building of the Transcontinental railroad in the 1860's , and supplies were shipped by horse and cart to help the Central Pacific cut it's way over and through the pass. The Union Pacific still uses most of that original route today, but the famous snow sheds at the summit are now a fantastic walking trail. To give my fellow Aussie's an idea of how high Truckee is, at 5817 ft it is 1000 ft more than the highest town in Australia and about 5500 ft more than my home town of Brisbane!! At this altitude ,  hard physical work is very difficult, and even walking up a slight grade leaves the lowland person like me, gasping for breath! But I do admit, since I have been at high altitude for a while now( Denver is at 4600 ft) , I am a bit better , so I decided to hire a bike and do some exploring and rail fanning!

Now, I have a tip, if you haven't been on a pushbike for about 25 yrs, taking one up Donner Pass road to the Summit is not a good idea..LOL. The ride past Donner Lake is beautiful and level, then , the 6km climb starts, with a steep grade towards the Summit at 7056 ft, thats a rise of about 1200 feet, a big climb for anyone , let alone someone who hasn't cycled for 2 decades!! After about 8 breaks and taking nearly 3 hrs, with a few photo stops included, I finally crawled my way up and over the pass.
Having run out of water, I decided to push on down the East side and find a shop..........well, most things are closed because it's summer and up there, it's all ski resorts, so I had to go down to the small town of Soda Springs, which meant another climb back towards the summit. The reward was a nail biting ride back down the pass towards Donner Lake and home to Truckee. Now , the ride up took 3hrs, and the ride down was done in 10 minutes..LOL..what a ride. I saw many pro cyclists pass me on the way up, even a lady who did it twice in a row!!, and she advised me to go easy on the brakes, as riders have blown tires due to heat build up! After making it home safely, I rested my legs and bum, and decided to do some more sedate riding today!

The old part of Truckee has some original buildings still in use and is a very busy tourist town, even in summer thanks to spectacular trails to hike and bike. It is also the headquarters for snow fighting on the railroad, and an old Rotary snow plough sits on a siding in the yard, there is usually a modern one here as well, but recent mild winters have not need it's use, and normal ploughs are used.

It appears I'm leaving some nasty weather in my wake, my train from Denver to Truckee was 14hrs late, due to a Tornado blowing trees onto the track and hitting a freight train in Iowa, and then two days ago, Denver was hit with a Tornado with major flooding .  The weather in Truckee is fine and hot ....for now! Not many trains during the day, more track work can you believe it, and the good spots require a car and some hiking, a great excuse to come back!! Tomorrow I head for Sacramento and one of the best Railroad museums in the country.

Hooroo for now.
                          Cheers Gregg

Omaha and Denver.

G'day Trendsetters!
                             
                                Next stop on the tour was Omaha, home of the Union Pacific Railroad! Bob, another very generous You-Tube friend and railfan, took some days off to show me around his home town, and drive us 4hrs to UP's "Bailey Yard", the largest rail yard in the world! Omaha's once bustling Union Station is now a Museum, with a good collection of trains and local history, and a magnificent hall restored to how it was in the golden age of rail travel. The city is also home to a pair of railroad legends, the "Big Boy" and the DD-40-x, both being the largest steam and diesel locomotives ever built!. They are both on static display on the hill next to the Botanical gardens.and to stand next to a 4000 class steam loco is an awe inspiring experience, and the DD40-x is no baby either! Bob then took us both to North Platte and Bailey yard, to view the enormous facility from the "Golden Spike" tower. Here's a few facts about Bailey Yard....2850 Acres, 13km long and 3.2 km wide, it features 2 humps and sees over 14000 freight cars and 130 trains a day!

We spent the last day visiting some local rail fanning spots to shoot some video before I left for Denver. A huge thank you to Bob and his wife Kim for sharing their home with me , thanks heaps you two!.

The last 3 days have been in Colorado's capital of Denver, and another very generous You Tube friend, Bill "the track planer" picked me up and took me to the incredible HO Scale layout at the Colorado Model Railroad Museum. This layout was designed and built by a local business
 man who did very well in the town of Greeley, and to give back to the community , he built , with lots of help, this huge and very well detailed layout. Bill then surprised me with a special treat, a private tour of one of my favourite , and I say one of the best , HO  Scale layouts around! BNSF "Fall River" is something special to say the least, and to be invited into the owners home to see this incredible feat of modelling was very special. Thank you very much Bill for your hospitality and for the bonus visit!! I had a great day and thank JP again for me.

Today I rode the light rail  (which is great and easy and cheap to use) around Denver and the suburbs , out to "Caboose Hobbies", the largest model railroad shop in the US, lots to see and I had a long chat to one of the guys and we shared a few modelling stories. Tempting as it was, I left empty handed as space is limited in my bags and I have a long way to go yet!! Denver is a nice city and a good size and lots of rail action which I will have to catch up on next time.
I leave Denver tomorrow aboard the California Zephyr, and head to Truckee, on the east side of Donner Pass.
Hooroo for now!

Gregg.:-)

Sweet home, Chicago !!

G'day trendsetters,

                                I have just spent 3 days in the windy city, and though it looked a bit scary on the way in on the Empire Builder, after 2 days walking and riding on the Metra trains, it's not that bad at all!!  I walked from Union station down to the Metra electric line, about 10 blocks I think, and it was a nice walk and I saw the elevated rail that the city is known for. Remember the scene from the Blues Bros as the race down under the girders that support the tracks over the streets, well, I was there and I couldn't stop thinking of Jake and Elwood screaming past..LOL

The guys and girls who work on the Metra were fantastic, the conductors are friendly, helpful and have loads of personality and made the trips so easy, especially for an "alien" from down under! I didn't make it out to the train watching platform at Rochelle, too far without a car , so maybe next time? Spent yesterday at the Science and Industry Museum, a wonderful place that really needs more than a day to see properly, but I saw their massive HO scale layout with some impressive scenery and a great model of Chicago city! 

 Off to Omaha today on the "California Zephyr" to meet up with another you-tuber to show me around and take me to Bailey yard in North Platte! 

Hooroo for now Groovers!

                                           Gregg.

More of Montana!

 

G'day all from Chicago, the windy and rainy city today!
                                                                                         Had a great time with Scott (the Scot) at the Isaac Walton Inn , even with daytime track closures..can you believe it!, we managed to get some great video of BNSF trains running through spectacular scenery! I'll be going back there for sure! Scott then drove us all the way to Helena, to visit his favourite location of Mulan's Pass, a 2.2 percent mountain grade of the BNSF with helper service by the Montana Rail Link (MRL) Fantastic scenery and big trains with four SD70 Aces pushing hard to get tonnage over the Pass. Loco's are in Notch 8 and down to 10 mph grinding their way up the hill, sounds unreal and the ground literally shakes as they go by. We spent 3 days there and guess what, more daytime track work!!! Scott was disappointed as there is usually many more trains , but it was still a great visit and I thank him so much for taking the time to drive half way across the state to show me around..thank you Sir!

Then it was back on the "Empire Builder" to visit  "Railman Fuzz" in Staples , Minasota, another great You-tube friend who took time out to show me around, along with his train loving nephew, 8 yr old (going on 28) Mr "D" Dylan. What a great pair , they know the Staples sub inside out and while the scenery is not as dramatic as in Montana, the trains and curves were more than enough fun and we got some top footage and some good horn blasts too! Normally there is plenty of older power on the Sub, but with traffic down a bit , and a lot of new locos arrived, it was mainly newer power but we did see a few Geeps and SD60M's in yards, so pretty cool just the same! Fuzz put me up at his place and picked me up and dropped me off at the station, a 40 min trip each way, so thanks again mate for all your help! See you again!

A rest day for me today, it's a bit hectic planning a trip as you go, so with the weather being lousy . I will do some planning for the week ahead! Going to the Science and Industry Museum tomorrow, a must see in Chicago and full of machines and technical stuff and recommended by everyone!! Trying to get out to the train viewing park at Rochelle, a bit of a distance from here so will  see what happens? Beautiful scenery coming into Chicago by the lakes and Mississippi river, saw barges and locks at dams, I kept thinking it's the ocean, but we're a long way from that..LOL

Next stop is Omaha, were I will travel to North Platte, Nebraska, to visit Union Pacific's "Bailey Yard", the largest rail yard in the world, so stay tuned for that!!  Trying to upload a few short videos, but free WI-FI is too slow for even the shortest clip, but I will keep trying! Thanks for watching and bye for now!
Cheers Gregg.

Izaak Walton Inn, Essex Montana.

G'Day everyone,
                           I'm now at the famous Izaak Walton Inn, built by the Great Northern Railroad in 1939 for rail workers and later passengers. The Inn is in the heart of the Glacier National Park and in winter is a mecca for cross country skiing . It's also right on the BNSF transcon mainline between Chicago and Seattle, so plenty of trains round the clock. Scott, a friend from you-tube has driven all the way from Seattle to show me his favourite filming locations!. Unfortunately, my dream run with the weather has come to an end, so we are sitting in the Inn watching trains from the balcony and from inside by the fire :-).We have spent 2 nights in a beautifully fitted out BN (Burlington Northern) Caboose....how cool is that!! , and the next 2 nights in a trackside room at the Inn. The upsides there has been track work traffic is very low so we're not missing many trains, but we managed to fim a few on our first day here.

          I caught the "Empire Builder" from Seattle to the Inn and it was a great trip in one of Amtrak's huge Superliner sleeper cars. From here Scott is taking me to his favourite locations in Mullan Pass, not too far from here.

Hooroo for now ,
                           Cheers Gregg.