Railfanning the Big Boy

Wow, was it fun to see the Union Pacific Big Boy 1440, as it chugged though Missouri in July.

The “Big Boy” steam engines were built in the 1940s in order to haul incredibly heavy loads around (including across the Rocky Mountains) for the war effort. These engines weighed 1.2 million pounds. Eight of these crazy-huge locomotives still exist, and Union Pacific’s restored Big Boy 1440 is the only one that runs. So they take it around the country every so often for publicity purposes.

Its 2026 tour is over, but you can find tons of YouTubes showing it at various points on its journey. I decided to add my little video (belatedly) to the fray. I think I was the only person videoing it in Bonnots Mill.

Railfanning is a thing; I’ve blogged about it before. A lot of railfans seem to video every train they see. I’m not that nutty about it, but I couldn’t help myself once I realized the massive train would be crossing the little trestle that crosses the drive connecting Bonnots Mill’s Old Mill Road and Osage County Road 416.

At first, Sue and I were had thought of seeing it at Morrison, or Gasconade, or Chamois. But those seemed like they might be rather crowded. Also, they were farther away.

Bonnots Mill turned out to be a good choice for us. There weren’t too many people gathered to see the train go by; I think they were all more or less locals. Several of the “advanced case” railfanners were driving along with the train’s progress, stopping here and there to watch it go by again and again. But they were absent from Bonnots Bill.

But Bonnots Mill is off the beaten path. If you were a railfanner following the Big Boy along west US 50, a detour to Bonnots Mill is about 6 miles (one way) from Loose Creek, or 11 from Linn. With that detour, you’d miss the arrival of Big Boy at its majestic entrance in Jeff City!

So we opted to view it at a tiny, historic town, where it would blow past us in less than a minute.

Unbeknown to us, Big Boy was delayed from its published schedule; after departing St. Louis, it was only scheduled to stop for about 15 minutes in Hermann, then arrive at Jeff City directly after that. But it made two unscheduled stops before Hermann: one at the Transportation Museum in St. Louis (where there’s another Big Boy to see), and one in Washington, Missouri.

So we got to Bonnots Mill about fifteen minutes before we thought it could arrive. Then we waited quite a while, wondering what the holdup was. How long did it take to get from Hermann to Bonnots Mill? Should’ve been a half hour, at most, right? But there was no way to know; no cell service in Bonnots Mill.

So we, and the other folks who showed up, waited patiently. Boy was it hot! But we had fun poking around, walking along the gravel road, looking at flowers and roadside weeds, wondering if Krautman’s Korner will ever be used for anything again, wondering if the Hotel Dauphine is getting much business.

Bonnots Mill has so much potential as a quaint getaway, or a stop along a Harley poker-run trail, or maybe a place to hold business retreats. Being right on the Osage River, where it joins the Missouri, it would be a good place for a boating or fishing outfitter. There’s a public river access nearby. I’ve blogged about the Bonnots Mill fall church supper before. But unfortunately, much of the historic downtown is deteriorating. Crumbling.

Anyway, we’ve gone out of our way to see these historic trains before. Like in 2011, when we saw Union Pacific 488 come through. That’s a smaller train, but it was incredibly impressive. In 2021, we saw the Big Boy 1440 as it came through Osage City, then we visited it in Jefferson City, where it made an official stop. The next day, we watched it chug through nearby Cole Junction, where my great-grandpa Renner used to work for the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

So this year, after spending a night in the railyards near the State Capitol, on the morning of July 21, Big Boy left Jefferson City with a whole bunch of LOUD hoots of its horn. It echoed all over town. It made me think about the days when steam engine horns filled the air of this town regularly, and people rode trains all the time.

If you get a chance to see one of these vintage locomotives, go see it, even if you only see it as it chugs by. I know you’ll find it compelling.

Jar of Goodness 10.2.22: Deborah Cooper Park

. . . The weekly virtual “gratitude jar.”

This week, I’m expressing thanks (once again) for Adrian’s Island and Deborah Cooper Park.

I’ve blogged about it before, even put it in the Jar of Goodness before, but that was almost a year ago, and now we’ve had more time to enjoy the place. Hey, for starters, it’s a park within walking distance of our home.

There is nature there. And it’s a good place to get some exercise.

Also, it gives us all a chance to get near the river.

And it’s a great place for railfanning!

I’m so glad they made this park.

More about La Plata and Trains

Here are a few more little fun facts about La Plata, which is indeed pronounced “luh-PLAY-tuh.” First, it’s an easy drive north from Columbia on Highway 63, and although I was born, grew up, and went to college in Columbia, I don’t think I ever visited La Plata. Seems like we always explored south, west, or east, and not much north.



1. A famous La Plata native was Lester Dent, who wrote 159 Doc Savage pulp-fiction novels under the pen name Kenneth Robeson. He wrote loads of other novels—crimes and mysteries—as well. He was well-traveled and an adventurer.

2. The Santa Fe Espresso restaurant in downtown La Plata was pretty nice. We were there in the middle of the afternoon and were the only customers. We found it quite pleasant, and we were glad we stopped in for our lunch.



3. The town square has a nice park in the middle of it, with a children’s playground and a lovely, well-maintained community shelterhouse, with loads of picnic tables.



4. At the end of August is the Annual La Plata Soybean Festival, with one of my favorite Missouri bands, Keota. It sure looks like a fun event, including a “Hometown Hootenanny,” a Queen Soya, a baby show and kiddie parade, ice cream and homemade pie, a Soybean Festival Parade, Soybean Olympics, Cake Walk, and—always better to watch than to participate in—a hotdog eating contest. We won’t be able to go this year, but I’m putting in on my calendar for next year.

5. Did you know that the horns of different railroad lines sound slightly different chords? If you’re a musician, you can have fun testing your ears as you learn to distinguish the different tunings.

First, a basic introduction to train horns, and how they work.

A fun collection of different train horns, including many vintage ones, with plenty of sound files.

Info on the very popular “K horns,” again with plenty of sound files.

Also, using long and short blasts of the horn, locomotives can communicate with anyone in earshot in using something like Morse code. Now that they have radios, the many kinds of signals used in the past are rarely used today. But here’s one key to the various signals.

6. Finally, for fun, and to get it hopelessly stuck in your head, here are two versions of Johnny Mercer’s “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe.” One with Judy Garland, from the 1946 film “The Harvey Girls,” and the other performed by composer Johnny Mercer himself, with Jo Stafford, the Pied Pipers, and Paul Weston & His Orchestra (1944).

You Say To-MAY-tuh, We Say La PLAY-tuh

Sue and I had been working up to a day trip to La Plata, Missouri, for months—Sue longer, because she’s the one who discovered the Virtual Railfan’s La Plata webcam this spring, when it came up as a suggestion while she was watching some other video.



Just in case you haven’t heard of Virtual Railfan, here’s the deal: it’s a group of people (with a YouTube channel) who are all about watching trains: “Virtual Railfan is the premiere provider for live train cams all over the United States [plus Revelstoke, B.C., Canada] providing live views from some of the most iconic railroading spots on earth.” They have webcams in 21 locations, and La Plata is one. Here's the camera that faces east:



Here's the view west . . .



And here's the view east . . .



The VR folks work with the different railroad companies and set up live webcams at various places—usually stations or crossings where there’s a pretty large amount of train traffic each day. And the webcams let us witness things like the sounds of far-off train horns, the sight and sound of railroad crossing gates, a widening glare of headlights (if it’s night), and then the thunderous succession of engines and cars roaring by. Like this.

In many places, there are two webcams set up, so you can view both directions of the rail line. You can “rewind” the video back for 12 hours, to see what you’ve missed, or just to see a train, if you don’t want to wait for the next one to arrive. Also, live commenting is allowed, but it is moderated effectively, so it’s actually a pleasant experience. Like, you could let your kids watch it. The chitchat reveals actual camaraderie.

So why La Plata? La Plata’s a small town in northern Missouri with a population of 1,366.



You’d think there’d be a Virtual Railfan webcam set up here in Jeff City, with our attractive Amtrak station in the historic Union Hotel, at the Jefferson Landing State Historic Site, with the Missouri State Capitol in the background. Seems like we’re always hearing train horns!

But apparently, La Plata gets much more train traffic. While Jeff City is on the Union Pacific line and has the Missouri River Runner Amtrak lines, little ol’ La Plata averages between 50 and 70 BNSF trains every 24 hours, plus Amtrak’s Southwest Chief comes by twice a day. And although BNSF owns the line, Union Pacific (BNSF’s main competitor) has trackage rights and often runs about 6 of its trains through each day, too. So although at times it might seem about as interesting as watching paint dry, it’s actually rather entertaining—with the messaging, it’s sort of like waiting for a train with somebody. And at any given time in an evening, there may easily be some 500 to 1,000 people watching.



So, yes, La Plata’s history is tied with the railroad. The WPA’s Missouri: A Guide to the Show Me State (1941) offers a snapshot of 1930s Missouri. It noted that La Plata had a population of 1,421 and was positioned “at the junction of the Wabash and Santa Fe railroads.”

In the town’s early days, it carried both the Wabash line (which later became the Norfolk Southern, which today doesn’t go through the town), AND the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe (ATSF, or “Santa Fe” for short). The ATSF ran through La Plata as it made a beeline from Chicago to Kansas City (bypassing St. Louis). The ATSF later merged with the Burlington Northern to became BNSF, and that’s the line that carries so much freight (both container and bulk cargo such as grains) now.

La Plata cherishes its railroading history. A motel in town, called the Depot Inn, has indoor and outdoor displays of railroad memorabilia and amounts to a small railroad museum. It is absolutely worth seeing, even if you don’t intend to stay the night.

And of course, we spent some time at the La Plata railroad station itself—after watching La Plata vicariously through a webcam, it was fun to see it in real life. The train station is definitely a historic structure, and it’s undergoing some restoration.



The current station is Art Deco style and dates back to a major remodel after a fire in 1945. In the late 1990s, people started working to renew the station: coalitions of town boosters and preservationists, railroad clubs, railroad restoration foundations. and other nonprofits. Money has come from grants, from a U.S. Department of Transportation matching-funds program, and even some money from the Missouri legislature—plus, of course, volunteer work and private donations. The American Passenger Rail Heritage Foundation (APRHF) continues to work to find grants, organize fundraisers, and so on, to maintain the historic station.

So if you look at the La Plata webcams these days, you’ll probably see workers improving the walkways, railings, and other facilities at the station. They’re doing a nice job!



The station is closed most of the time, and although they don’t sell tickets there, a caretaker is at the station every day to open its doors and offer customer service and information during Amtrak train times. Amtrak’s Southwest Chief has thirty-two stops, including one at little ol’ La Plata, Missouri, as it runs from Chicago to Los Angeles. Judging from the live chat comments, I guess there are railfans who are especially interested in watching Amtrak trains.



So, we had a fun time snooping around the (closed) station, waiting for and seeing several trains go by, and driving around the town. We had lunch at the Santa Fe Espresso restaurant in downtown La Plata. After another visit to the station, we looked at the Depot Inn museum and then walked over the Brown Street bridge that crosses over the train tracks east of the station. No, there’s no decent sidewalk or even shoulder for pedestrians to be safe on that bridge, but on the baking hot Saturday afternoon there was hardly anyone on the roads, so we got our pictures in relative safety. Don’t tell anyone.

I also got a video of that. (You’re welcome!)

More on our La Plata excursion soon. Did I mention that Sue was really excited to see the La Plata railroad station in real life?

Another Spectacle Down by the Railyards

The evening of August 18, Sue and I were driving along West Main--and when she spied this "thing," Sue needed us to stop! We walked around it and took pictures. It was pretty doggone impressive looking, whatever it was!

It looked kind of like a side-wheeler paddle boat--only on a railroad engine!

Clearly, the wheels on each side were made for digging.

We figured it had something to do with railroad maintenance, and we were right!

This huge machine is a "ballast cleaner" that railroads use to keep the ballast (the mound of gravel the rails and ties sit on) free of dirt and mud. Railroads are built on gravel for a reason: Gravel sheds water. If mud builds up, clogs the gravel, and prevents it from shedding water, the water rots the railroad ties, or it can cause the rails to shift sideways, loosens the rail fasteners, can cause problems with frost heaving, and all kinds of other (very costly) mayhem.

After the wheel churns and picks up the filthy, dirty ballast, the stuff is moved on a conveyor belt to sifters and cleaners. The filth portion is spewed out to the side, while the now-squeaky-clean ballast is deposited back along the side of the tracks. Another gizmo then smooths the mound of clean ballast back into a slant.

Finally, some incredibly serious-looking brushes clear any stray gravel and dirt from the rails.

Between jobs, the latest model from the Loram company can travel at speeds of up to 48 miles per hour--that would be a sight, to see one of these things bustin' along the rails at nearly 50 mph, eh?!

Here's a video (from 1995, apparently before the rail companies learned about OSHA and required all workers to wear florescent jackets and all ballast-cleaner workers to wear dustmasks):



And . . . if you're interested in railroad stuff, be sure to see my post about the historic Union Pacific engine 844!

Union Pacific 844 Visits Jeff City

Well, now, you can’t not be impressed by this!




A vintage steam railroad engine, Union Pacific 844, is passing through Missouri on its way from Kansas City to Little Rock, Arkansas, reenacting the Little Rock Express—it’s one of Union Pacific’s “goodwill tours” of its historic steam locomotive.

Young folks, naturally, haven’t experienced the spectacle of a huge engine like this, with its hissing steam, enormous wheels, and the hot flame underneath. Even the rivets are huge.

This visitor was showing the train to some young fellows, who were clearly impressed! I show you the picture of this gentleman to give you an idea of the wheels’ size.





This machine is clearly something extraordinary. Yet, of course, during World War II such trains were the norm. As I reflect on that, I start to realize not just the importance trains had on the nation’s transportation industry—but also the incredible impact they made on people’s emotions; their symbolic value.

Most of us probably have at least one relative or ancestor who was connected somehow with trains. Maybe a great-uncle was a Pullman porter (at one point, that was one of the best jobs available to African American men); maybe someone in your family worked at a ticket counter, or sold concessions; if you’re Chinese American, there’s a good chance an immigrant forefather might have helped build the railroads out west.




The railroad industry was so big and so important, Americans of all categories were involved with it. Maybe your grandparents rode trains a lot, or had a farm through which the trains passed. My own great-grandpa was a Missouri Pacific line foreman west of town.

Before air transportation became the norm, trains were certainly the primary vehicle associated with joyful reunions and tearful goodbyes; or the line to opportunity—fortune, fame, education, the exotic, the unknown. To small-town folks, the cities where those unending rails led must have seemed as foreign and exciting as Nepal and Peru seem to us now.




And the blowing, hissing, chugging, million-pound locomotives must have intensified all those impressions, as they did for me this morning as we watched the train depart Jefferson City for whistle-stops at Chamois, Hermann, Washington, Pacific, Kirkwood, and then to St. Louis . . .

When something like this comes through your town, I hope you take a few moments to see it!


Special thanks to Op Op friend Jenice Taggart for cluing me in on this train’s arrival and the coolness thereof!