A few trains I caught during the cold days of January 5, 6 and 7, 2014 at the station in Little Rock. It was as cold as 15 degrees with wind chills 3 below zero on a couple of those days with nighttime lows below 10 degrees. The winds were gusting to 35 mph on occasion, which quickly froze my hands and my Nikon D5200 's battery didn't like the cold either. Anyway, I wanted to catch some trains. As I write this on January 8 about midnight, it was still 32 degrees with light freezing rain making some roads and most bridges and overpasses slick with ice, so I won't make it to the train station to see Amtrak's Texas Eagle come in. In fact, northbound Eagle #22 wad canceled entirely today, January 8, from San Antonio because the southbound Eagle #21 didn't run out of Chicago January 7 because of ice, snow and bitterly cold weather (Chicago had wind chills of -46 degrees). They usually turn the equipment in San Antonio and didn't any trainset to run north. Also, 3 Amtrak trains were stalled west of Chicago January 6 and 7 due to bitterly cold weather, snowdrifts, frozen switches. Of course, lots of airports in the north central and northeast parts of the country were closed during the peak of the winter storms too. This has been, and continues to be, an historically record breaking cold, Arctic airmass.

Most interesting photos on this page: BNSF-Santa Fe 928 dubbed the 'Pink Bonnet' by some---an original St Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company safe still inside Union Station---AOKX 181650 long green CNW hopper---a very late Amtrak Texas Eagle 21.


UP 4814 and 4035, 12:45 p.m., Sunday January 5, 2014.


FOBX 90000 blue and white long tankcar.


UP 8533 and 5225, 12:59 p.m. Jan 5.


Passing trains at 1:00 p.m. Jan 5. UP 8533 passes the stopped light engine move with UP 9595 in the lead. Winds were gusting over 30 mph now with sub-freezing temperatures.


AOKX 181650 long green CNW hopper.


UP 9595, 1951, 2169, 1:05 p.m., still Sunday January 5.


NS 2572, 8333.


Now it's Monday, January 6 when temperature was 15 degrees and wind chill -3, but the sky was clear and blue, like my fingers. CSXT 8837 led this train at 11:10 a.m.


CSXT 7566.


Amtrak Texas Eagle southbound 21 was over 11 hours late today and instead of getting here at 3 a.m., it got here at 2:21 p.m., so the station was open.


Here's part of the waiting passengers ready to board the Eagle.


The security guard at Union Station showed me an old St Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern safe in the station.




Texas Eagle 21 arriving at 2:21 p.m.


AMTK 112 led the Eagle. It's now 2:28 p.m.


Now it's Tuesday January 7. These old oil heaters are sitting at the end of the Amtrak platform. I remember when they were used at the switches here, but no longer are.


Santa  Fe-BNSF 928, which I believe some have labeled the 'Pink Bonnet,' leads a northbound train at 3:50 p.m. January 7.




You can still see the Santa Fe but the red has really faded to pink on BNSF 928.


CSX 319.


BNSF 902. Colorful consist.


BN 46782 green hopper.


Nice clear day, but very cold. The next day we'd have light rain and freezing rain.


Sun hiding behind Union Station January 7. Today, January 8, as I write this, NOAA said this about the sun: The ongoing Moderate Solar Radiation Storm has intensified to a Strong event. Activity should stay at this level for the next few hours, then likely take another jump ahead of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that is expected to occur overnight. This increase is not expected to exceed the S3 level. The CME is forecast to set off Strong Geomagnetic Storm activity through Friday. Watch for Auroras!

I didn't take any train pictures January 8. Just stayed inside and ate and fed my cat Tigger.

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