Part Fourteen

"A tale of two seasons"

I have been coming out to the Midwest since 1997. This journey makes it my 9th trip. And the one thing that I have noticed is that the weather is, well, different. Trying to say unpredictable may not even work.

Case in point: right now at 10:57am MDT as I begin this installment today in Julesburg, Colorado, it is partly cloudy, scattered sunshine, a light breeze and temperature of 67 degrees. Now some may say that is a good temp.

When I arrived at O'Fallons, Nebraska where the Powder River Basin line and the Cheyenne line meet, it is mostly sunny, distant clouds, winds at 10-15 mph and the temperature at 2:57pm CDT is now 84 degrees. In Niantic, Connecticut it is 55 degrees and overcast.

Back in Connecticut, this would be considered a heat way. The beginning of Indian Summer. But out here, it's.....different.

In Julesburg, Colorado, I have witnessed a tale of two seasons. Back in October 2008, I came back out here for the first time since October 2002. I awoke in Sidney, Nebraska to 2 inches of very crusty slush on my car and you really had to watch your footsteps. I get out on U.S. Route 30 heading east and I now have to recall my winter driving skills 2 months early. When I got to Chappelle, Nebraska, you leave Route 30 and go on U.S. Route 385 to follow the UP main line into Julesburg.

As you can tell from these shots from 2008, we got some snow. Plow able snow.

And with great timing, here came a short double stack train with one lonely locomotive on the head end running at full throttle.

I was wearing a sweatshirt and my Kaman windbreaker and the wind, that was quite blustery, was cutting right through me. But, as a railfan, these are the special pictures that you look for....but not in mid to late October.

And what it looked like from my office in Juleburg:

And just 2 years ago, I was in Centennial, Colorado visiting my ham friend Nate and his wife Karen. We went out for dinner at the Centennial (APA) Airport at the restaurant called, appropriately, Happy Landing. As we ate dinner, we would watch the Lear jets take off and land. This airport is also the base for the medical planes that service Denver's Childrens' Hospital. As the evening went on, we saw the rain change over to snow. By the time we were done with dinner and went to Nate's car, there was about 1.5 inches of slush on the car. The blacktop of the parking lot was just wet. When I woke up the next morning, there was 3 inches of snow on the cars in the Motel 6 parking lot and on all of the the grassy surfaces. The streets and the parking lot were just wet.

So as you can see, the weather has gotten quite funky. Even 2 years ago, I had to call short my trip to get back before Hurricane Sandy, a very late-in-the-season hurricane, slammed the East Coast. And then a week later, the Halloween snowstorm that affected the northern half of Connecticut. Very strange indeed.

After sleeping a little bit late, I was on my way to North Platte, about 100 miles to the east. My first stop was for fuel at Lodgepole, a small town which has a very nice park next to the tracks and the local grain elevator. There is a large gazebo with ample picnic tables nearby. And as you can see, the fall colors were out there.

Back at Chappelle, I remember the trains were slowing down due to work on the tracks at the state border. It seems that the railroad removed the center track that was only unique to this area.

Further down the line in Julesburg, it was time to get lunch at the Julesburg Family Market.

Groceries to your left; hardware to your right. And home to some very delicious grinders. And at my office, the UP kept up the action:

At about 2:30pm, we cross the time zone line and we are back in the Central Time Zone and bid ado to the Mountain Time Zone that has been our host since Monday afternoon. Soon I am back at O'Fallons, Nebraska to watch the Happy Friday traffic roll by. Break out the sunscreen!! I'm down to my t-shirt and jeans. What a day!! And a little more UP entertainment before we head out.

Coal loads going east: