I checked out of my hotel in Wichita, Kansas on the morning of April 6, 2023. On the way out of town I spotted this Boeing 737 fuselage train outside their plant on the east side of the Arkansas City Sub. I have seen many photos of these trains over the years enroute to Wichita from Renton, Washington, but I had never photographed any of them before. Not an ideal view, but I managed a few photos from the shoulder of Kansas Highway 15.
I decided to head on south to Mulvane on Highway 15 before cutting back west to I35. I pulled over for the first of two eastbound trains just north of Derby. Until the Emporia Sub double track project between Emporia and Mulvane is finished, the Arkansas City Sub from Mulvane to Newton and the La Junta Sub from Newton to Emporia host a large number of fleeted eastbound trains.
I caught the second eastbound between Derby and Mulvane. Three bright green cars behind the autoracks caught my eye.
Do you think Incobrasa wanted these cars to stand out?
As this was a weekday morning, I decided to exit I35 for a side trip through Blackwell to see if anything was moving. I quickly picked them up on the radio doing some switching and soon found their ex-CNW, ex-WC GP30 north of the old ATSF depot on the line to Wellington, Kansas.
As they moved back and forth, I tried to compose several street scenes with local backgrounds.
Time was marching on and I still had many miles to go, so I headed back to I35. I traveled a long way until I heard a southbound BNSF “Z” train coming up behind me and decided to catch it at either Wynnewood or Davis. Just short of the BNSF Red Rock Sub I looked back north at the refinery where I spotted their contract switcher, Savage GP38-2 number 2139, at work switching tank cars.
There was not a spot where I could get a side view of the Savage locomotive, nor did I like the background at the Red Rock Sub crossing, so I headed south on Highway 77 to Davis. There I found a spot I liked towards the south end of town and only waited a few minutes to get this photo.
The rest of the trip home was uneventful, and I got in at a decent hour for once.
