As many of you know, I participated in a contest that the Union Pacific Railroad held earlier this year and thanks in part to the great folks here, I won first place. As the person with the most votes, I won the opportunity to be the honorary engineer on one of UP's steam excursions. Well, next week is my time!! I will be riding the train from Kansas City, MO, to Jefferson City, MO, then on to St. Louis, MO. I can't tell you how excited I am for this trip. I can't get to sleep tonight because I can't stop thinking about it.... So here are the details that I know so far:
I'll be in the cab of UP 844 for part of the trip. I don't know yet which leg... I'm figuring it will probably be the first leg out of Kansas City..
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When I'm not in the cab, I'll be riding in style in the business car "Feather River".
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I'm not sure what the rest of the consist will be, but I know there will be at least 1 dome car. From the sound of the schedule, I'll be on the train for 6 hours on Tuesday, and again 6 hours on Thursday. With the exception of maybe an hour or two on each day, we'll have the whole train to ourselves. Melony and I and two other winners and their guests.. We've been told we can explore the train at our leisure after the people who won tickets on the excursion get off.
The folks from UP have been great in getting our travel arrangements all set up. We can't wait...
So, here's where I want to hear from you.. I already have a few questions in mind to ask the crew of the train, but what do you want me to ask? What are you dying to know? It could be about the loco, the cars, the steam program, whatever...
With my bonus from work this year, I bought a nice new camera.. I've got spare SD cards and batteries at the ready.. I also bought a GPS unit for the camera so it will log where the shot was taken and what direction the camera was pointed. Cool stuff! I plan on taking as much video and photos as possible. I'd also like to hear what you'd like to see.. I've been running through my head what some of the shots I have to get are and am planning on making a 5 to 10 minute video or two.. But I need your ideas about what would some cool shots to see... I already have a request for the interior of the "Feather River".
If you'd like to follow the progress of the train, UP has a really cool feature that uploads the GPS coordinates of the train every few minutes to their website and to twitter. The website with map and twitter feed can be found here:
http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_t.../trace.cfm and http://twitter.com/#!/up_steam
I will try to post a small update each evening if I have time, but the majority of my photos and video won't make it online till I've been home a few weeks.
Also, I need your advice.. I have a day and a half to kill in Jefferson City.. What is there to do in Jefferson City? From what I've gathered so far, not a whole lot. Anyone have any suggestions? If I just end up sitting in the hotel most of the day, that's fine too.. We'll take some time to relax.. After we arrive in St. Louis, we'll have an afternoon and evening there. What should we do in St. Louis? I've never been there.. The next morning we're renting a car and driving down to Branson.. One of my best friends growing up owns a theater with his family and performs daily. I haven't seen him in years, so I'm pretty excited to see their show and visit with him and his family again. We'll spend a couple days there before heading home.
If you live anywhere near one of the stops on this leg of the trip, please come to the stop and look for me. I'd love to meet you! You can sen me an email if you're planning on coming down so I know to look for you. Send it to the webmaster at mylargescale email address. Here's a link to the full schedule:
http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_t...ails.shtml
Thanks again to everyone who voted for me. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm determined to share it with everyone who helped me get there..
I'll be in the cab of UP 844 for part of the trip. I don't know yet which leg... I'm figuring it will probably be the first leg out of Kansas City..
When I'm not in the cab, I'll be riding in style in the business car "Feather River".
I'm not sure what the rest of the consist will be, but I know there will be at least 1 dome car. From the sound of the schedule, I'll be on the train for 6 hours on Tuesday, and again 6 hours on Thursday. With the exception of maybe an hour or two on each day, we'll have the whole train to ourselves. Melony and I and two other winners and their guests.. We've been told we can explore the train at our leisure after the people who won tickets on the excursion get off.
The folks from UP have been great in getting our travel arrangements all set up. We can't wait...
So, here's where I want to hear from you.. I already have a few questions in mind to ask the crew of the train, but what do you want me to ask? What are you dying to know? It could be about the loco, the cars, the steam program, whatever...
With my bonus from work this year, I bought a nice new camera.. I've got spare SD cards and batteries at the ready.. I also bought a GPS unit for the camera so it will log where the shot was taken and what direction the camera was pointed. Cool stuff! I plan on taking as much video and photos as possible. I'd also like to hear what you'd like to see.. I've been running through my head what some of the shots I have to get are and am planning on making a 5 to 10 minute video or two.. But I need your ideas about what would some cool shots to see... I already have a request for the interior of the "Feather River".
If you'd like to follow the progress of the train, UP has a really cool feature that uploads the GPS coordinates of the train every few minutes to their website and to twitter. The website with map and twitter feed can be found here:
http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_t.../trace.cfm and http://twitter.com/#!/up_steam
I will try to post a small update each evening if I have time, but the majority of my photos and video won't make it online till I've been home a few weeks.
Also, I need your advice.. I have a day and a half to kill in Jefferson City.. What is there to do in Jefferson City? From what I've gathered so far, not a whole lot. Anyone have any suggestions? If I just end up sitting in the hotel most of the day, that's fine too.. We'll take some time to relax.. After we arrive in St. Louis, we'll have an afternoon and evening there. What should we do in St. Louis? I've never been there.. The next morning we're renting a car and driving down to Branson.. One of my best friends growing up owns a theater with his family and performs daily. I haven't seen him in years, so I'm pretty excited to see their show and visit with him and his family again. We'll spend a couple days there before heading home.
If you live anywhere near one of the stops on this leg of the trip, please come to the stop and look for me. I'd love to meet you! You can sen me an email if you're planning on coming down so I know to look for you. Send it to the webmaster at mylargescale email address. Here's a link to the full schedule:
http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_t...ails.shtml
Thanks again to everyone who voted for me. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm determined to share it with everyone who helped me get there..
