TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 20004

For more photos of 3985 on this trip, see: http://www.trainweather.com/3985.html

Today I followed the steam special from Conroe, Texas to Longview and got shots at Conroe, Trinity, Crockett, Overton and Longview.


First train at Conroe wasn't the 3985 steamer, but a freight headed by CN2576 at 910 a.m. The Challenger was about an hour late.




The Challenger arrived to a large crowd in Conroe at 1024 a.m. Feb 3.


Everywhere, like here in Conroe, people put pennies or nickles on the track, most never to find them again. The problem with this, as I was told, is that the coins could become a projectile as the locomotive's wheels run over them.


Trinity, Texas at 1132 a.m.


LEFT-Leaving Trinity. RIGHT-Being serviced in Crockett at 1213 p.m.


A huge crowd was waiting at Crockett, with lots of police cars also.




348 p.m. at Overton, Texas.


Leaving Overton. I met Chuck Harris of the Railspot Yahoo Group here, plus gave my web address card and Arkansas Railroad Club card to several people, including a man who used to work for the railroad and who  wanted to view pictures of the train through his hometown of Overton.






At 429 p.m., the train was entering Longview at the Highway 231 crossing. I never thought I could beat it to Longview from Overton since I had to go through Kilgore with a lot of road construction. As a result, I liesurely left Overton after everyone else had left, caught a few stop lights, then as I was entering Longview on Highway 31, I noticed the smoke ahead and caught up with it at this Highway 231 crossing (I parked in a cement company parking lot). Guess you could call it the turtle and the rabbit, but in this case the turtle won. OR not.


LEFT-Crossing Highway 231 in Longview. RIGHT-The Longview Amtrak station. A lot of people there thought the train would back into one of the tracks at the station, but it parked where you can see the smoke east of the depot. I finally found where it was taking on water, but they closed the gates of the private company there, so I couldn't get any more photos. (Ken Ziegenbein photos - my email: trains@trainweather.com