FL9

Early on Thursday June 21st approximately 150 members of the Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modelers Society rode three luxury sightseeing busses from the convention hotel to the old AT&SF depot in Oklahoma City.  Up on the platform I took this shot of Amtrak Train 821 while it was still tucked away in its stub end siding.

Soon the train was moved out to the main line, and we boarded the group before an on-time departure at 8:25am.  I sat in one of the downstairs handicapped areas (jokes encouraged) and snapped this picture of long-time friends Marc and Vikkie Montray during the Norman station stop.

The ride was fast and smooth, and we only stopped once to meet two northtbound BNSF trains at Paoli.  When we stopped at Pauls Valley, I took this picture of the conductor boarding a pair of regular passengers with the small but well designed Amtrak building in the background.

A southbound loaded grain train with a DPU on the rear was in the siding at Davis for an overtaking meet, and despite our speed I was fortunate enough to time this exposure of the side of the lead unit so as to catch the logo dead center.

A few minutes later as we approached my old hangouts in the Big Canyon area, I happened across an open dutch door and took advantage of it for this forward-looking view of the rain-swollen Washita River running near flood stage.

My attention captured by the rushing water, I almost forgot to turn around for a going-away shot.

This is the highest I can remember seeing this river in the past 30 years.  Quite a difference from its normal placid flow that allowed me to cross to the west shore on the normally exposed rocks back in the 1970’s.