I had an engine part to pick up in Beatrice, NE before returning home. Rather than just make a mad dash up and back from Kansas City, we took the scenic route and chased trains on the UP's busy Kansas Sub between Delia and Marysville, KS. Using a fair map and a lot of good railfan intuition (you know: sniff the wind, squint knowingly at the rustling leaves etc.) we had a successful day with lots of trains and decent pictures. We also toured every road, lane and cow path in the process. It was a nice sunny day, temps in the low 50's and no crowds. Can't ask for much more than that.
The stack train approacheth - near Delia, KS
Rolling across the barren fields and over a nice concrete crossing on a gravel road.
Dashing along found us on a minor detour to see a historic stone arch bridge. We turned west on Aikens Switch road (gee what's on this road? Duh.) and found this loaded eastbound coal train sitting at Jeffries Siding. Jeffries is named for a large generating station near here and the spur to the plant branches off here. As far as pictures go this one stinks, but it's a train and that's what counts!
A few hundred yards down the road, across the tracks and we found this westbound stack train sitting on the second of three tracks at Jeffries. This is a long shot across a field sprouting winter wheat. Quite a log jam for a busy RR, something must be getting ready to happen.