FL9

Today on Monday the 19th the UP public safety special made a round trip from Odessa to Big Spring and return.  After our 6:45am job briefing, members of the operating department along with officers of the UPRR police department and I assembled coolers of iced down water and soft drinks along with sandwich boxes to be loaded on the train.  Before the special could pull up for loading, we had to wait for the UP 5181 West to pass by the yard office and our assembled refreshments.

 The train had been switched overnight so that the UP 4141 was on the west end and the UP 8406 was on the east end with power car 208, business car “Feather River”, chair car ”Portland Rose”; dome car “Columbine”, and chair car ”Katy Flyer” in between.  Invited local officials representing government and law enforcement were loaded, and we got under way eastbound towards Big Spring around 10:00am.  Jim Beach of the UPRR police department addressed the occupants of the “Columbine’s dome shortly after our departure.

I set to my task of individually photographing all the passengers so that UP could send them complimentary photos after the trip.  We made stops to board and discharge passengers in Midland and Stanton before pulling into Big Spring after meeting one freight.  The UP mechanical department checked out the George Bush 4141 during our lay over.

On the way back before we arrived in Stanton the George Bush shut down, and we stopped for a few minutes while its computer was rebooted.  I was in the dome car as we came back west through Midland with the skyline in full view.

After we arrived back in Odessa and unloaded our passengers, the train was serviced on the mainline.

We then cleaned up the train and held a debriefing meeting in the Columbine after it was put away again at Solo.  Dinner tonight was at the Barn Door restaurant in Odessa whose owner purchased the old AT&SF depot from Pecos, TX after is closed in 1972 and moved it to this site.

Tomorrow’s plan is a round trip from Odessa to Monahans.