A Visit to Chicago & North Western's South Morrill, Nebraska Yard in 1991

While staying with friends in Gering, Nebraska in the summer on 1991, I was able to visit the Chicago and North Western coal operations at South Morrill, Nebraska.  It was exciting to see their brand new Dash-8 locomotives and SD60's with coal trains from the Powder River Basin.  I was especially excited to see the Wyoming Centennial locomotive.  It was one of the first Chicago & North Western locomotives I drew.
We also got to visit Alliance and see Burlington Northern.  There I got to see Burlington Northern's SD60M's including locomotive 1991 and hand out prints of my drawings to crews.  This stop was a highlight of my 1991 trip and certainly made me want to come home and begin drawing the many trains I had seen.

Driving West Across Nebraska to California

A summer rain fell towards the I-29 interchange at Omaha.  Mom and I headed west towards California.  Railroads always seemed to pull us to the East Coast, but life always seemed to pull us back to California.  As the rain fell, I thought of Nebraska Ahead.
The southward hook of freeway towards Lincoln and the hope that the rain would clear up or at least maintain a light pace.  The clouds did not look ominous.  Beyond lay North Platte and Union Pacific's massive hub that brings trains from all corners of the West.
I thought of California, still several days away and the West that we had to cross.  The wide open prairies that roll away from I-80 and ease into distant mountains of Wyoming, leading into the salt flats and open deserts of Utah and Nevada.  Again, we headed west.