During my advance planning for this trip I was making a list of “wow” photo locations to catch the Big Boy 4014. One on the list was crossing the Verdigris River north of Muskogee. The railroad bridge here is higher than it would be otherwise due to the river at this location being part of the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System allowing for barge traffic between the MIssissippi River and the Port of Catoosa near Tulsa.
Troy and I headed there from McAlester while scouting a few more locations along the way. We arrived in the area around 10:00 with plenty of time for me to scout out a reasonable location to launch the drone for an aerial shot. While I was working for UP and had permission to launch from railroad property there was no good spot on the right of way south of the river where I could get within 1500 feet of the bridge. I was about to launch a test flight from the closest county road when a local farmer stopped by and gave us permission to drive into his field which cut the distance down to a more respectable 500 foot horizontal flight.
Troy in his youthful enthusiasm chose to hoof it through the brush down to the river bank while the old man stayed at the edge of the field with the drone. With about an hour to go I read some magazines while watching the train’s progress on the UP app and listening to the radio. I launched at the appropriate time to catch my first view of the UP 4014 since 2019 in this photo taken at 1:37 PM. As photographing with a drone introduces a slight shutter lag after you press the button creating a challenge with moving trains, I was very happy with the results!
I packed up and waited for Troy to return from his hike so we could catch up to the train. This was no problem since the special made a stop in Muskogee and we avoided that crowd and moved on ahead to the small town of Oktaha. We joined a photo line with local residents and other railfans including friends Marc and Vikkie Montray for this action shot at 2:58 pm.
As I first indicated I was more interested in quality this day than quantity of catches. The next spot I had in mind was between Crowder and McAlester where I knew I could use the drone to take advantage of the afternoon light and catch the train with Lake Eufaula on both sides of the bridge at that location. Skipping potential shots in the town of Eufaula resulted in my having more than adequate time to launch the frone for these coming and going views at 4:10 pm.
In the second photo you can just barely see my yellow vest on the right side of the intersection to the left of the bridge over the track. I am much happier with my drone view than what I would have gotten from the bridge with the visible crowd.
Since we were now approaching the train’s overnight stop in McAlester the crowd of locals and chasers started to multiply as we got closer to the depot. In the end I used my UP credentials to get Troy and myself past the police line and find a parking spot. I took crowd photos and videos for awhile and this turned out to be my favorite and final photograph for the day as the 4014 is serviced on the main line.
There was a large crowd present and the police and fire personnel were busy with four people who had collapsed in the over 100 degree heat. Troy and I headed out for dinner and met up with Mike Pritchett and Clay Arthur who would be the pilot conductor and engineer respectively for the next day’s run from McAlester to Fort Worth.
