Part One

It all began back in 1959, at the age of 4½. My family and I were heading up to Cape Cod and somewhere along the way I saw this railroad bridge with these huge boxcars on top of it, wondering what they were. A few years later I was at my Nana and Nunu’s summer cottage in Niantic, Connecticut and come to find out that the New Haven Railroad was right down the street. In fact, there was this green house with a back yard that was near the tracks and it made the perfect place to watch the trains as they rolled by. From that year on, I was hooked.

Fast forward to present day and I am in the town of Columbus, Nebraska. According to the mile marker at the grade crossing near the Sleep Inn where I am staying:

We are 83 miles due west of Omaha, what was then the eastern terminus of the great Transcontinental Railroad. It was built west from Omaha by the Union Pacific and built east from San Francisco by the then Central Pacific and joined together in Promontory Point, Utah, north of Salt Lake City.

But I digress.

With that being said, welcome to my blog. To those of you who followed me on my journeys back in October of 2008 and 2010, it’s good to see you again. For those of you following me on Facebook, nice to have you back. If you are a newcomer, Welcome Aboard!!

And I have asked you all to come along with me and see what makes this railfan tick. As before, this blog will be more than just trains. I’ll be covering some new areas and planning some new side trips. We will once again visit some items from the past and we’ll visit some new destinations. There will be, as always, some great pictures. All you need is the following link:

http://ontheroad-nebraska2012.blogspot.com/

Emails and a note on Facebook will go out around 10pm EDT each day letting you know when the next chapter will be available.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

My day begins with a wake-up call at 8:45am. I gotta say that Tom Bodett has got a sweet deal being the spokesman for Motel 6. When the phone rings, you hear Tom’s illustrious voice telling you it’s time to get up and there’s free coffee in the lobby. How much you wanna bet he gets a quarter for every wake-up call at every Motel 6?? Not a bad deal.

 

Once I have dropped my car off at the valet and head to Bradley International Airport, it’s turning out to be a beautiful sunny day…provided you can get by the morning temperature of 32 degrees. Welcome to Fall, y’all!! I breeze thru Security and head for my gate. Flight 3773 of the Friendly Skies of United Airlines awaits. Takeoff is smooth and the colors of Fall are resplendent below as we head north and hang a left at Springfield, Massachusetts. My seatmate is Becca from Chicago, who just got to the airport in the nick of time. She is a wife and mother and is a wedding singer of a 15 piece band…make it an orchestra if you add the optional strings. And a good thing she made the flight. She has a wedding to sing at 8pm CDT!! May she be in fine tune tonight.

By the time we cross over Buffalo, the cloud front is moving in…FAST. Soon we are enshrouded in clouds and then come the bumps. Not too bad for bumps but hey, we have bumps. As we approach O’Hare, in Chicago, the pilot comes on the intercom and gives us 2 arrival scenarios: land on one runway, we get to the terminal in 3 minutes. Land on the other runway and it’s taxiing for 10 minutes. We pull up to the gate and my watch says 11:42am CDT. We got the right runway and have arrived on time. After a brisk 10 minute walk between Concourses B to C, I arrive to find no plane at the gate. Seems the very rainy weather is mucking things up just a bit. So we get delayed about a half hour. But no matter to me…I’m on vacation.

Onto my next flight and my seatmate, a young Japanese man, pretty much fell asleep as soon as he sat down.  An hour later, we have arrived at Eppley Field: OMA to the airline industry. Within a half hour, I have my rental car, a 2013 Hyundai Sonata with just 473 miles on it. I ask the girl behind the counter, “only 473 miles?" And she says yes. Well then; guess this car is going to get its break-in run.

As I leave Omaha, I enter the town of Elkhorn and come across the town's iconic landmark:

Pretty cool, eh??

As I come out of Fremont, west of Omaha, I meet my first train, an empty unit coal train heading west to the coal fields of the Powder River Basin in eastern Wyoming. A huge smile comes across my face. I…have…arrived. Nice to see you, Uncle Pete!! And just a bit further west in Ames:

An empty car autorack train, 73 cars long. And right after it passes by:

That empty coal train from Fremont.

An hour and half later, I arrive in Columbus. Beautiful partly cloudy skies as the sun heads into the western horizon. Not a bad start to my journey. More to come tomorrow.

So it’s on to St. Bonaventure Church for the Saturday 7pm vigil mass and then settle into the Sleep Inn. Tomorrow, we head to Kearney for a 2-day visit. Lots of trains and sun and 70 degrees.

And before I forget, this blog is dedicated to the memory of my mom, Mary Bolinsky Zocco. She always said that I took great pictures. Pure luck if you ask me. But she was a fan and I hope to make her proud.

Thanks to my kids Chris and Caty for help in setting up the blog. And thanks to my younger brother Paul for the title. I'm sure Charles Karault would approve.

I'm Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Columbus, Nebraska.