My 9-year old daughter and I travelled on the MILW #261 steam
excursion to Galesburg RR Days last Saturday 07/22/02. We boarded at
Naperville Rt 59 station. Our coach was the 3rd car back from the
last tender; we could hear the whitsle quite nicely. I had never
ridden the rails to Galesburg before so it was a real treat to make
the trip.
Many folks out in the country and towns to watch the train pass.
Outside of Aurora, an airplane was pacing the train with video
cameras. Does anyone know of any of the RR video companies making a
tape of these excusions or of Chicago 2002 steam excursions? I
really enjoyed seeing Princeton, Buda, Neponset, and Kewanee from the
rails since I have relatives in these towns.
The refreshment car on the #261 train had hot dogs, candy, snacks,
and various hot & cold beverages (we had dogs on the train). They
also had #261 souveneers like hat pins, videos, posters, hats, etc.
The unexpected find was original CB&Q posters of the "Parade of
Progress" calendar drawing that they sold for only $10 (the catalog
from Historic Rails recently listed this item for $30).
We detrained at 1:30PM. This was also my first attendance at
Galesburg RR Days (GRRD). We had snacks and food from the vendors by
the depot (dogs, hamburgers, pork chops, barbeque, pop, ice cream,
etc were all readilly available). We toured the Galesburg RR
Museum's CB&Q #3006, waycar, RPO, and main exhibits in the MEATH
Pullman car which were staffed with former rail roaders. We picked
up some neat T-shirts with Ron Hatch drawings of the Silver Charger &
#3006, a bear in engineer bibs, and a neat pencil-sketch print of the
#5632 by Ron Hatch. My daughter was fascinated by the sketch, so I
introduced her to Ron Hatch who was in the tent with his GRRD posters
and other art-work. She spent at least 10 minutes telling her mother
about Ron & his drawings when we got home.
We also saw many of the other depot area displays from BNSF, the
trade unions, and Lionel's layout. Of course, we walked through the
Nebraska Zephyr, which is one of our favorite trains.
Due to delays with all the Amtrak and yard excursion Metra trains,
the #261 train did not leave till after 4PM. I finally broke down to
my daughter's request to buy her a pair of goggles on the train so
that she could sit in the open-air car (2nd car after the last
tender) without getting cinders in her eyes. For me, it was too hot
to sit outside of the AC. It was also fun watching the manic train
chasers in cars on US-34 trying to keep up with us and wildly passing
the non-railfan cars(I think the #261 was doing 60 mph out in the
country). Matt Phalen of Wyanet was also on the #261 with the NRHS
staff; I talked with him for a bit.
I had my doubts as to my daughter's interest in the trip over 11
hours, but we both really liked it. I wish we would have had more
time in Galesburg.
Does anyone else have other reports on the #261 trip and/or GRRD?
Does anyone have any reports on the #261 trip to Rochelle on Sunday
07/23/02 ?
Thanks,
Bill H.
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