A day in Alma, KS

[kskcsfan]

Alma, KS. A town of 832, is a sleepy community in Wabaunsee County, KS. Sleepy as it may be, it is the county seat and features a few eating establishments and a gas station, and of course, what else but a railroad track. Union Pacifics Topeka Subdivision splits the bar and Alma Cheeses' factory from the rest of the town when any of about 24 trains a day run through town. Alma is also my second home town of sorts. My great grandparents lived there until their deaths, and I have various cousins, aunts, and uncles who live there currently. All on my moms side of the family. So, any time I get the opportunity to spend a day railfanning there I'm more than glad to take it. So it was April 28th, 2012 when I found myself for the first time in a long time spending 8AM-5PM shooting various angles, good and bad, various shots, sharp, and unfortunately, out of focus but most of all, I was having fun, and isn't that what this hobby is all about?
So without further adieu, lets get to the shots!

1) After arriving in town at 8AM at the high school, where my sisters was doing some sort of BB gun shooting event (ain't that something odd, a shooting competition held at a high school) I arrived at the tracks abound 5 minutes later, I didn't even have time to breathe until train ILADU screamed eastbound behind UP 7889.

2) This particular train was made up mostly of spine cars, with a good 100 "platforms", at least 60 of them were spine cars, here's a shot of such.
3) An ACe, UP 8406 brings up the rear.

4) More to follow, a westbound has a green signal!

 

[kskcsfan]

4) Two minutes after the green signal appeared, UP 8217 came into view leading westbound train MNPFW-28, another SD90 brought up the rear. The NPFW seldom runs the Topeka Sub, it just depends on whatever cars are in the train, usually the train runs to Kansas City then heads south.

5) After this train, and another westbound whose shot doesn't want to be uploaded apparently, cleared, an eastbound showed up, an apparent meet at Volland, the start of double track between there and Dwight, took place.

 

[kskcsfan]

6) After a break in the action train KG4LB-28 showed up with a quarted of GEVOs in 3x1 fashion, UP 7383 leads...

7) With UP 7508 as DPU.

8) Now my camera decided to act up for a couple eastbounds, first up is UP 4137 on eastbound grain empties.

9) With my camera still acting up, I was forced into getting creative, here UP 4541 leads the eastbound ZTUG4.

 

[kskcsfan]

The last two, UP 7878 (catch number eh?) leads the counterpart to the first train of the day, train IDULB-28. with UP 5520 as DPU.


Thanks for viewing!
Lucas

 

[CGW101c]

Alma is one of the perfect railfan towns. It has signals in the right places and there are places to park the car, and a number of different vantage points. Great picture Lucas.

 

[kskcsfan]

Alma is one of the perfect railfan towns. It has signals in the right places and there are places to park the car, and a number of different vantage points. Great picture Lucas.

It, Paxico, Maple Hill, and Alta Vista are all favorites of mine, Paxico is my personal favorite, first place I saw a UP heritage unit (was actually 2, 1982 and 1988) and the first place I saw a working steam engine (844). Alma is, and will always be my "second home town" though. Thanks.

 

[Trainfanne54]

Nice shots kskcsfan.