An eastbound train begins to climb the hill out of the Elkhorn River valley at Arlington, NE. Over 20 years ago, when I spent a lot of time along the Blair Sub during my time as a college in student in Fremont, it was relatively rare to find much eastbound traffic on this line. It was mostly directional running between Missouri Valley and Fremont, with westbounds using the former CNW Blair Sub and eastbounds taking the line through Omaha and Council Bluffs. With fewer trains (mostly due to the decline in coal traffic) and the siding at Kennard lengthened, Uncle Pete doesn't seem to have any qualms about sending nearly all of its transcontinental traffic along here in both directions these days. Also of note, I guess, is I tend to like the look of these locomotives with the gray on the angled portion of the nose rather than yellow.
