Kansas City 2021 Day 2

Day 2 was the reason we were in Kansas City--to ride the private railcar "Orchard Beach" from KC to St. Louis and back.  This car would be the rear car attached to Amtrak's River Runner train in both directions.  It was originally a Seaboard Line car and used on its Silver Meteor trains.

We  boarded at the beautiful refurbished KC depot.  I was here a few years ago but this time we had no time to explore the building.  Our train would be leaving shortly and we got back late at night.

This is our car today and we are greeted by co-host Kandace Tabern.  Better pictures of this car later.

We are immediately served a delicious breakfast including scrambled eggs, ham, French toast, and COFFEE!!!

 

At first, many people wanted to sit at the rear of the car and look back down the track but as the day progressed, people just relaxed and I spent a significant amount of time "looking back!"

Here a lots of pictures from that vantage point.

 

To relieve rail congestion in KC, several years ago a "fly-over" was built so trains, especially through trains, could pass over the rail yards and congestion.  On the right is the fly-over.  NOTE the yellow engine, one of two such paints for the Kaw River River Railroad. The Kaw River is run by WATCO.  I rode across KC in those engines in 2013 on a transfer move.

 Here are better pix of the two engines.  They are called "Yellow Bananas" and are GP35R models, rebuilt to GP38 specs.

If you want to experience the cab ride on these engines across KC, click on this link: 

http://arlyncolby.blogspot.com/2013/10/kaw-river-rr.html

Here are some scenes as we leave Kansas City.