| A very highly anticipated day had arrived, as today was the day that marked first run of the Union Pacifics "Big Boy" first run down the Villa Grove Subdivision to Saint Louis. With the Villa Grove Subdivision being the closest the locomotive would come to the state of Indiana, and being a fairly easy day trip, I met up with a friend and we made the trek out to Illinois along with the thousands of others who would be doing the same thing today. We started our day early to cram in all the other train action we could before the big arrival. Amtraks Cardinal was getting a warrant north out of Lafayette when we passed through Monticello, so we found a nice field shot south of Reynolds to document the train heading north on the ex-Monon as the sun began to rise. One of the newer long distance Chargers leads todays AMTK 51, the first I have ever caught leading a train. |