The final run of Amtrak engineer Larry Pharris on Thursday morning, June 30, 2011 at 3:44 a.m. on Amtrak No. 21, the southbound Texas Eagle from St Louis to Little Rock, AR. His family was on board and many well wishers were trackside. Here are some photos and a Youtube video of his final train arriving. Mr. Pharris began working for the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1978 and worked for them for 10 years, then starting his tenure at Amtrak November 2, 1988 for 23 years. (All the following photos were taken by me, Ken Ziegenbein)


Union Station's clock at 2:55 a.m.


This is the sign that was made for Mr. Pharris' final run. The train left St Louis the evening of June 29, but it arrived in Little Rock before dawn on June 30.


Texas Eagle Amtrak No. 21 arriving at 3:44 a.m. Look at a video from this point on by clicking the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCJQxNCPuUo

The video at the link above shows No. 21 arriving at Little Rock, AR with Larry as engineer, his final arrival. I tried to embed this video into the webpage directly, but Youtube kept giving me an error, so I had to put the direct link on instead.




Final exit.








Larry's family had been on board.


















Cake and cards inside.






Final sign-out, 3:56 a.m.


Friends and co-workers of Larry.




Here's a photo of Larry and his family on Tuesday night, June 28, when he was engineer of northbound Amtrak No. 22 to St Louis. They all stayed in St Louis June 29, returning on his final run that arrived in Little Rock June 30.


Here's a picture of a bat that fell to the ground at the Amtrak station on Tuesday June 28, which was put in a container and released by members of Larry's family. I'll have more pictures from this night on another web page.

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