Wednesday morning May 5th I planned to be trackside in DeQueen by shortly after sunrise. I heard from friends in the Shreveport area that the KCS business train would not leave by 8:00 am as first predicted so I prepared for some freight action. At 7:33 am on the north side of the D&E diamond my first train of the day was a northbound Shreveport to Kansas City manifest train with two Southern Belle paint scheme units up front and a Progress Rail unit working as the rear DPU.
I visited with other railfans waiting for the passenger train to pass the time, and at 9:52 am we all caught an empty grain train also northbound.
Monitoring the radio indicated this train would meet a southbound at the DeQueen Yard behind me, so I decided to move to the grade crossing immediately south of the D&E diamond for this view of the mainifest train at 10:18 am just after it crossed the diamond.
I photographed the receding DPU as it passed the unique KCS milepost indicating 434 miles from Kansas City. Note the difference in number board fonts.
The latest intel from Shreveport indicated the train would leave sometime after 10:30 am. Knowing it would take at least two hours for the train to reach this area and not finding a scene in DeQueen that I wanted to catch it in, I decided to head north to find a good location based on where the light angles would be after noon. I checked out Gillham and Grannis before ending up north of the north switch at Wickes. The milepost here at 408 made for a great reflective photo and I decided to park here and await developments.
At 1:26 pm the stillness was broken by a southbound loaded coal train.
The dispatcher told this train it would go to the next siding south of DeQueen at Wade to meet the northbound special, so I and other fans decided to head back south to Gillham and catch this train with a 2 x 2 locomotive configuration one more time.
Several of us decided to catch the special for the first time at this spot as the light would be good, but then the dispatcher pitched us a curve ball when he told a southbound grain train it would hold the main here for the business train. This would interfere with the view I wanted to get, so I decided to move to the south siding switch and see what I could compose. When the grain train arrived I took this view just before it passed the milepost and came to a to a stop.
Several railfans set up at the curve just out of sight to the left but I decided since the grain train was here I wanted to capture it meeting the northbound special. I could not find an angle at ground level that I liked; so with the adjacent landowner’s permission I made preparations to launch the drone when I heard the business train call the approach signal. Everything worked as planned and I recorded the following sequence starting at 3:13 pm.
I quickly landed the drone and took advantage of the fact that after leaving Gillham the tracks go way out into the country before coming back to parallel the highway south of Grannis. I pulled over at a grade crossing I had scoped out earlier next to milepost 414 and prepared to first take a long telephoto shot with one lens and body and then a close up shot with another body and lens including the milepost. It took around ten minutes for the train to catch up to me and I was able to get both planned photos at 3:32 pm as it worked hard up the grade.
These mileposts are iconic to me and I was glad to be able to feature this one so prominently in my composition.
I got right back out on the highway in pursuit and beat the train to my next spot just south of Grannis by only a minute. This spot had much better lighting had the train run several hours earlier, but I decided I wanted to catch it here anyway at 3:39 pm even with high sun as I really liked the flowers and the water reflection.
The drawback to taking this photo was that I could not beat the train to the big curve photo in downtown Wickes. My next opportunity turned out to be south of Hatton when I pulled off on the shoulder for this angle taken at 3:49 pm.
Right after this location the tracks curve away from the highway to go through Vandervoort so I was able to get ahead again with time to check out Cove and not finding anything I liked to move ahead to Hatfield. The light angles were wrong in town but a few miles north at 4:12 pm I found a broadside shot across a field of flowers.
I had been warned there was a highway construction zone in Mena and a friend ahead of me confirmed the sun angles did not favor a photo of the train passing the depot. That is one I had wanted to get with the business train but I passed on it and made my way through the construction zone still a few miles ahead of the special. I stopped on the west side of the highway 59 crossing at the foot of Rich Mountain with a group of other railfans.
The afternoon light was going to be perfect for the east to west run over Rich Mountain. At 4:41 pm we were all rewarded with this great photo opportunity.
We all headed out and as the train was not moving too quickly I was able to make it to the crossing at Eagleton with time to set up for this upward view as the train passed by at 5:00 pm.
I ran back to the Explorer where I paused for these two going away views.
I easily beat the train to the summit at Rich Mountain where a large group of photographers were waiting. I inserted myself into the photo line at 5:07 pm for these two shots s the train was once again in the siding to meet a southbound holding the main behind us.
I pivoted 180 degrees for the photo of the meet as the conductor was on the ground to check the special by.
East of the north switch I pulled over on the side of the road for this view.
The train started the long downhill run from the summit and I pulled over twice more in favorable locations. At the second spot, my last photo in Arkansas, I managed to include a small running stream.
I intended to launch the drone again at Page, Oklahoma so I moved on at a rapid pace and was hovering and ready when the train filled my viewer at 5:30 pm for one of my favorite photos of the day.
I quickly landed and got back on the road following the rest of the chase crowd. I decided to pull in at Zoe where at 5:41 pm I had to run the last few yards to be in position for this scene with no time to compose anything better.
I got back on the road but did not see any other locations that appealed to me until I was passing Hodgen and stopped at the last crossing in town. I decided to compose a photo with the old crossing signal that still utilized a mechanical bell.
I turned for the going away view being sure to include the milepost.
At 6:00 pm a successful day photographically came to a close as the business train pulled into Heavener, Oklahoma for the night. I was with the crowd south of the yard to catch it one last time.
With a merger on the horizon with either CP or CN, if this was the last time I am able to photograph this beautiful train I am most pleased with the results!
