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.