I became aware of the TrainWeb10th
anniversary party through daily visits to the TrainWeb site. I
was scheduled for jury duty the week before the party and had to call
in each night. I wound up at work Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday. On Wednesday night, TrainWeb hosted their annual
holiday party at the Rail Restaurant in Fullerton. After the
party, I made my call regarding jury duty and found I had to report the
next day, so I was uncertain if I could go to the Missouri party.
Luckily, I got to sit in the assembly room reading a book titled "The
Men Who Loved Trains" by Rush Loving Jr. and never
called into any courtroom. Once I retruned home, I made my room
and airline reservations for the next day.
On Friday, December 8, I arrived at LAX around 6:15 AM after taking the
MTA Green Line from Norwalk to the Aviation Station then transfering to
the G shuttle. After getting my boarding pass and getting through
security, I found Steve Grande and Barbara Cepinko and her parents
Irving and Shirley. At about boarding time we also found Chris
Parker. We were travelling on Midwest Airlines, in an all first
class seat Boeing 717, to Kansas City Missouri. We arrived in KC
ontime at 12:30 PM, Central Time. Steve, Barbara and her parents
were going to rent a van while Chris and I rented a Ford Taurus and
were going to take secondary roads to La Plata, the new home of
TrainWeb.com and TrainParty.com. We got our car by 1:15 PM
and planned to railfan in the KC area for several hours. The
Friday railfan tour took place in the eastern portion of KC. I
was the navigator with several AAA maps directing us down Interstate
435 to
exit at Front Street heading west to Chouteau Trafficway and over
the
tracks. Francois Gesseau Chouteau was an early French pioneer who
set up a
permanent
trading post which he called "village of kansa" in the area in 1821.
The first photo location yielded an
old ex-Milwaukee Road
F unit and an old passenger car which said Milwaukee Great Northern
with the name Alaska. The UP roundhouse was burried behind
intermodal chassis and containers.
Our next location seemed to be
a BNSF engine area where I spotted a black Illinois Central
engine. Further west was a Kansas City Southern switcher
unit.
The North Chestnut Trafficway overpass yielded the bottom left
shot. We got to ground
level on Montgall Avenue for the following five shots.
I know a guy at Union Pacific named Jerry Hardesty. The below
left photo was taken
on Independence Avenue at the intersection with Hardesty Avenue.
The photo is dedicated to
him. From Interstate 435, the bridge in the lower right photo
crosses the Missouri River.
Around 3 PM we headed south to Independence Avenue, thence
east to the interstate, thence north to highway 210. We folllowed
this highway east through all of its different numbers because it
roughly straddled and paralleled both the BNSF and NS Railways.
TrainWeb 10th
Anniversary Party Page 2
