The conductor on UP Train MHNTU 30 has lined his train into the hole for 3 eastbounds and is now lining the switch back to normal position for main track movement behind the rear end which has just ducked into the clear.
When I offered offer him a ride to the head end, a modest guy, he declined at first, remarking about the nice weather. However, I was able to convince him that when it's 105 in a couple months he'd have wished he took a ride. It doesn't take much to persuade Big O into saving himself a 7,000 foot walk, just ask me.
This is part of the former Rock Island "Golden State Route", which was owned for 16 years by the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, an SP Subsidiary, better known as the Cotton Belt. Another common name for this line was the "Cotton Rock", a corollary of the subsequent ownership after the CRI&P.
4-30-15
Inman, KS
