These pictures are from the sparks show at the Old Threshers Reunion in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa during Labor Day weekend 2009. The would hook these old steam tractors up to a belted load and get them chugging up to full steam, then shovel saw dust into the fire box to produce the sparks out of the smoke stack.


The pictures of the tractors in the parade are only an example of the ones they used at night and may not be the actual tractors they used. What looks like a solid flame was how the camera took the shots. It was really more of only an accumulation of the sparks that made it look solid. Sometime in the future I want to go back and re-photograph this and play with my camera to see if I can get better pictures. I was going to go this year but was short of funds for the trip!

The Railroad Museum in Golden Colorado!

To wrap up all the pictures of my trip to Denver, here are the last of the pictures taken at the Railroad Museum in Golden Colorado! This is the third time I've been there. It is a nice place to visit if you are into railroading. Lots of nice vintage locomotives and equipment on display, a small roundhouse and manually operated turntable, a reference and research library, an outdoor garden layout, an indoor layout and displays downstairs in the main building and a nice gift shop.

The last five black and white photos are from pictures hanging inside the museum!

At Cody Park, North Platte, Nebraska

After we went to the Golden Spike Tower, we headed over to Cody Park to view the train display there!  They had one of the Challengers, a huge double diesel and a nice little depot along with a few cars.  If you are ever in North Platte and want to check these out, they are located toward the back of the park on the southeast corner.

Union Pacifics Boy Scouts Of America 100 yr Anniversary Locomotive

We were fortunate enough to get to see this locomotive.  It's a one of a kind paint scheme by the Union Pacific railroad to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America!  The locomotive road number is the same as this year '2010'. 

We found this locomotive parked on a siding between the Golden Spike Tower and Cody Park in North Platte, Nebraska!  Just had to stop and get some pictures of it. 

We only learned about this locomotive tow days before at a seminar put on by the Lionel Train Company, as they are going to produce a model of this particular locomotive in the near future!

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Union Pacific's Bailey Yard

On our way back from Denver, we routed our trip to North Platte, Nebraska to go to the Golden Spike Tower at Union Pacific's Bailey Yard.  We watched as they assembled trains and sorted cars from the hump yard.

Good Place to Eat in Denver

If you are ever in Denver around the south side in the Denver Tech Center area, I suggest you eat at the Delitech restaurant. It's located at 8101 E. Belleview Ave., Denver! We had great breakfast's there!

When you are there, ask for Emily to wait on you. She was certainly a highlight to out trip back there, causing us to make a couple of return visits to the restaurant. We gave her a hard time and she took it all in stride! Here is a picture of her with my friend Lee!

Emily and Lee

The LCCA Special, Part 2

Here are some of the pictures I took of our tour at the UP Steam Shop! They had a E9 Diesel parked inside for maintenance and the 3985 4-6-6-4 Locomotive in for repairs. The front truck was off of the 3985 and the were doing other maintenance to the boiler.

We were supposed to have the 3985 pulling our train this trip but they didn't get it finished in time. All work in this shop is done on a volunteer basis so they don't push schedules for work to be done.

A few of the pics were taken in what's left of the round house and one of the turntable. I've seen a photo of the grounds in it's hey-day and it was a huge yard and locomotive servicing facility with a complete round house. Only a few stalls remain.



After lunch and completing our tour, we boarded buses and headed back to Denver!