The Joliet Rocket! T-3 Days!

It’s a hybrid. The A-Tank is full of batteries.  

Hmmm...Rich, you never mentioned that during our conversation at the FWRHS Picnic in Fort Wayne last month, must be a trade secret...

Anyway...I too rode the Superdome on Saturday afternoon...met some nice peeps and had a great time...here are a few photos and a couple of videos. Also spoke with Brody while loading in Joliet...he stayed busy the whole trip!

Of interest to some...I stopped on the trip home, at the National New York Central Railroad Museum in Elkhart...and was pleasantly surprised...tons of railroad memorabilia...a very nice 3 rail O Gauge layout with a large collection of engines and rolling stock...and an assortment of about 20 actual locomotives and cars as static displays outside. Glad that I stopped...have more photos of that visit too.

PDDMI posted:

Hmmm...Rich, you never mentioned that during our conversation at the FWRHS Picnic in Fort Wayne last month, must be a trade secret...

Anyway...I too rode the Superdome on Saturday afternoon...met some nice peeps and had a great time...here are a few photos and a couple of videos. Also spoke with Brody while loading in Joliet...he stayed busy the whole trip!

 

Paul;

Great shots/videos... thanks for sharing. But that first pic is absolutely spectacular  

I just heard her “blow” through the Tinley Park station about 10 minutes ago.  Did not rush out to see it. I am wondering if it is just the 765 and here support cars returning to Ft Wayne or if some passenger cars were in tow.

BTW can anybody supply a list of the cars that were in this years excursion?

Thanks.

I have more pics from today’s runs.  Will post tomorrow.

Very nice photos!! I too ran into Brody on the return trip while walking through the stampede pass. Nice kid and chatted with him very briefly as I didn't want to distract him too much from his job.

SantaFeJim posted:

I just heard her “blow” through the Tinley Park station about 10 minutes ago.  Did not rush out to see it. I am wondering if it is just the 765 and here support cars returning to Ft Wayne or if some passenger cars were in tow.

BTW can anybody supply a list of the cars that were in this years excursion?

Thanks.

I have more pics from today’s runs.  Will post tomorrow.

I believe it has the NS equipment and the Zephyr set as they're going to the CVSRR now along with the two coal gondolas.

Apples55 posted:

PDDMI posted:

Hmmm...Rich, you never mentioned that during our conversation at the FWRHS Picnic in Fort Wayne last month, must be a trade secret...

Anyway...I too rode the Superdome on Saturday afternoon...met some nice peeps and had a great time...here are a few photos and a couple of videos. Also spoke with Brody while loading in Joliet...he stayed busy the whole trip!

 

Paul;

Great shots/videos... thanks for sharing. But that first pic is absolutely spectacular  

Thanks Paul...that one jumped out at me too...

An additional treat was seeing the California Zephyr cars on the train and the Pennsylvania blunt end observation car.  A sincere thank you to the Fort Wayne group and Metra for bringing back long absent steam to the "Second City".

I took the excursion on Saturday AM in the Frank Thompson:

It was the second car after the auxiliary tender, so the locomotive sounds were very audible during the run to Chicago.

During the layover in Chicago, I took a pic while the crew was servicing the 765:

And more when the train was backed up and then came back  for a photo run:

I had done a map recon of the route, and, during the run to and from Chicago, confirmed that chasing the train was impractical (train speed and the road network wold not be conducive).  It would be select one point, and take pictures there.  So, Saturday afternoon, I grabbed some images just past the Joliet Station.  I had planned to do the same thing Sunday morning (expecting a better lighting with the sun more to the East), but I failed to realize that the train left an hour earlier on Sunday.  So, my next, and last, photo session took place Sunday afternoon.  I was able to get closer to the train as the security personnel unlocked a gate near the station.  I took some shots prior to and then during departure:

There are more images, and (to avoid cluttering up the thread) they are in a Dropbox file which can be accessed with the following link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rup...Q2-dZAbKgDysc4a?dl=0

marsrover posted:

I took the excursion on Saturday AM in the Frank Thompson:

It was the second car after the auxiliary tender, so the locomotive sounds were very audible during the run to Chicago.

During the layover in Chicago, I took a pic while the crew was servicing the 765:

And more when the train was backed up and then came back  for a photo run:

I had done a map recon of the route, and, during the run to and from Chicago, confirmed that chasing the train was impractical (train speed and the road network wold not be conducive).  It would be select one point, and take pictures there.  So, Saturday afternoon, I grabbed some images just past the Joliet Station.  I had planned to do the same thing Sunday morning (expecting a better lighting with the sun more to the East), but I failed to realize that the train left an hour earlier on Sunday.  So, my next, and last, photo session took place Sunday afternoon.  I was able to get closer to the train as the security personnel unlocked a gate near the station.  I took some shots prior to and then during departure:

There are more images, and (to avoid cluttering up the thread) they are in a Dropbox file which can be accessed with the following link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rup...Q2-dZAbKgDysc4a?dl=0

 

marsrover posted:

I took the excursion on Saturday AM in the Frank Thompson:

It was the second car after the auxiliary tender, so the locomotive sounds were very audible during the run to Chicago.

During the layover in Chicago, I took a pic while the crew was servicing the 765:

And more when the train was backed up and then came back  for a photo run:

I had done a map recon of the route, and, during the run to and from Chicago, confirmed that chasing the train was impractical (train speed and the road network wold not be conducive).  It would be select one point, and take pictures there.  So, Saturday afternoon, I grabbed some images just past the Joliet Station.  I had planned to do the same thing Sunday morning (expecting a better lighting with the sun more to the East), but I failed to realize that the train left an hour earlier on Sunday.  So, my next, and last, photo session took place Sunday afternoon.  I was able to get closer to the train as the security personnel unlocked a gate near the station.  I took some shots prior to and then during departure:

There are more images, and (to avoid cluttering up the thread) they are in a Dropbox file which can be accessed with the following link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rup...Q2-dZAbKgDysc4a?dl=0

 

Was fun riding with you! 

MarsRover,

Thanks for posting your excellent photos! I too had photographed the Lima plaque while at the FWRHS Members Day in August and realized that I’m actually about a month older that the 765...time fly’s when you’re having fun...

Here is a link to the article I wrote for the Pinball News website on seeing the 765 steam engine pass through Blue Island. It was a number 10 day for me,seeing the 765 run by at a decent speed and then hours of playing fun pinball machines at the nearby Rock Island Public House.

I took the morning train on Saturday the 15th.  This is at Lasalle Street Station. 

I lost track of which route this was crossing over us.  But the afternoon view was better than the morning view. 

The comings and goings of the steam train at a parking lot outside Joliet.