Here are some miscellaneous photos of trains, streetcars and scenes around Little Rock, Arkansas, January 7-10, 2009.
Included are:
1) 'Experimental' glider
2) Baring Cross UP bridge with train taken from the Main Street highway bridge
3) River Rail Streetcar 412 on Main Street Bridge taken from the bridge
4) Little Rock skyline with 12 jet contrails in blue sky
5) Former Missouri Pacific grade on river line, now a biking trail
6) Streetcar as seen from my car while I was parked in the River Market District of Little Rock
7) UP 2741, 3958, 5029, 7225, 9623
8) LRWN-HLCX 3636, LRWN 7736
9) Rock Island blue hopper
10) Loads of ties
11) Big Blue string of boxcars
12) SP unpatched 319, SP unpatched 9755
13) Model auto next to Union Station dumpster
LEFT-"Experimental"
glider plane over my house, January 7. RIGHT-UP's former MoPac Baring
Cross bridge over the Arkansas River taken from the Main Street highway
bridge on January 7. There is a southbound on the bridge. Amtrak's
Texas Eagle also crosses this bridge northbound about midnight and
southbound about 3:30 a.m. Union Station is to the left around a curve,
out of sight.
LEFT-River
Rail Streetcar No. 412 northbound across the Main Street Bridge heading
into North Little Rock. RIGHT-Another billboard.
LEFT-Little
Rock's skyline from the Main Street bridge. There's a wide sidewalk on
the bridge. I counted 12 contrails in the blue sky. Although the Little
Rock airport has many flights a day (American, Delta, Southwest
Airlines, etc), most cross-country flights don't land here, giving us a
contrail show on most days. If there were no jets flying, the sky would
be almost perfectly clear. These 'artificial clouds' tend to keep
temperatures down a fraction of a degree during the day but act like a
blanket at night and keep temperatures fractionally warmer. RIGHT-The
abandoned MoPac railroad grade below the Main Street bridge. This ran
from Union Station eastward along the Arkansas River to the Junction
Bridge, then south to Pine Bluff. It was abandoned many years ago. It's
a hiking/biking trail now.
LEFT-I'm
parked in the River Market District next to the streetcar line. You can
see 412 approaching from the west. Notice how close they run to the
parked cars. You must park behind a white line or be towed.
RIGHT-Streetcar 412 passing me. So far, only a handful of mishaps have
occurred since the line opened in November 2004. Drivers have gotten
used to the streetcars, but if you're a visitor, you need to take
precautions and have patience.
LEFT-January
9, 2009 at Union Station. UP/SP 2741 southbound at 3:16 p.m. It was
dark and dreary. RIGHT-January 9 - UP 3958 with a light engine move at
3:31 p.m.
January
9, Little Rock & Western HLCX 3636 heads their eastbound train to
the UP yards. Here's it's seen curving around in front of Union Station
at 3:32 p.m.
RIGHT-Route
Rock-Rock Island blue hopper, CNW753794 on the LRWN train. Since the
LRWN uses the former Rock Island tracks west of Little Rock, this
hopper must have felt right at home.
LEFT-UP
5029, 3:56 p.m. RIGHT-Lots of ties for track work south of Little Rock.
Like I've said before, it was very dark, so I had the lens open quite a
bit.
LEFT-String
of Big Blue boxcars. RIGHT-UP 7225, 4:15 p.m. January 9, heading a
loaded coal train. The LRWN train continues to wait at the left.
RIGHT-DPU/SP 319, unpatched.
LEFT-Multi-colored
signals. L-R: Red on northbound UP Main 1 (second track from left), Red
on northbound UP Main 1 Baring Cross Bridge (second track from
left), Red on LRWN northbound track (far left) accesss to UP Main 1,
Yellow on UP Main 2 Baring Cross Bridge, Green dwarf signal on UP Main
2 (meaning it won't cross over to Main 1 at MP X346), Red on Amtrak
siding track northbound. RIGHT-SP unpatched 9755, light engine move,
4:57 p.m. It on on UP Main 2. The sun officially sets in a few minutes.
LEFT-UP
9673 on the light engine move. RIGHT-January 10, first photo with my
new camera of a bird. This bird was sitting on an old water facility at
Union Station.
You
know me, I take photos of anything unusual. This model car was next to
a dumpster at Union Station. It wasn't there the next day. It look
pretty realistic to me.
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