It's been a bad day. The conductor on loaded UP coal train CNATS rides back to the 100+ hopper cars that he lost just a few moments ago. This former SP unit was the trailing unit on the head end, but with the summit of the 5 mile long Kirkwood Hill within sight, CNATS suffered from a broken knuckle on the first car of the train, causing the engines to drift a few hundred feet ahead of their load. To make matters worse, the snow started to fall heavily as the crew shoved back to their train. All of this happened conveniently in front of the historic Kirkwood depot. After a couple of hours, the train finally resumed its journey into St. Louis.
