FL9

After a BBQ supper on the evening of Thursday June 21st following our train and bus trip to southern Oklahoma, the Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society group visited the Oklahoma Railway Museum in north Oklahoma City.  Judy and I were pretty beat, so we drove instead of being dependent on the busses this time.  The museum is located on a mile or two of track remaining from the M-K-T’s line between Oklahoma City and Parsons, KS that was abandoned back in the late 1970’s.  The museum staff had a passenger train ready to go for the members, but Judy and I opted to photograph its departure rather than ride.  Power for the train came in the form of a 45-ton side-rod GE locomotive of US Army heritage.

The sun started to come out as I took this shot of one of the passenger cars.

An ex-BN, ex-Great Northern caboose brought up the rear as the train left the museum compound and was flagged over the nearby public crossing.

Now that the sun was out, we photographed some of the other motive power, starting with this ex-San Manuel Arizona Alco RS3.

Next in the lineup was ex-Rock Island RS1 743.

This EMD F9 would have been severely backlit on the nose, so I waited for a passing cloud to even things out for me.  This locomotive started life in 1954 as the Northern Pacific 7003D, and was retired as the BN 814.  The museum painted it in this early Frisco scheme in 2005.

The sun came out again for my favorite locomotive, the ex-ATSF FP45 #100, retired as the #90 prior to donation to the museum.

Now the passing thunderstorms combined with the evening light created a rainbow, and I worked the angles to make my last shot of the day a fitting tribute to the heritage of the AT&SF.

We left ahead of the others and drove back to our hotel to get some rest as Friday would be a very busy day attending clinics and presenting the slide show Friday night to the entire group.