Amtrak Southwest Chief (#4)East of Topeka, Ks

Southwest Chief headed Eastbound between Topeka and Lawrence Ks. at dawn. As I drove up to the crossing shown in the video, a young coyote crossed the road in front of me. As the train was blowing the crossing a mile West of me, the coyote sounded off just to the left of my position when I was filming. You can hear him! Beautiful morning!

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Amtrak
• Southwest
• Chief

[Imputa]

i'm assuming this must have been taken early in the morning as the train was heading east?

i've road it about 8 times from here in Topeka to Garden City. Its a really nice ride xD you meet a lot of interesting people.

[docnelsontrain]

Yep; this is train #4. Eastbound, LA to Chicago.

I shot this just after dawn....Thanks!...Doc

[docnelsontrain]

The other train that you heard was on the UP tracks, approx. 2 miles North of my position here. Just prior to the "SWC" showing up; there was a freight up on the UP line with the "automatic horn" stuck on. For about 20 minutes, I heard: "HOOOONK, HOOOONK, HONK, HOOOOONK" with about a 1 second break between series'.

Thankfully, he finally got out of hearing range about 5 minutes before I had to begin filming. ...Doc

[cphayes2]

It's so cool to see trains actually going at relative high speeds. I rode the SW Chief at on point, and boy does it move. The Empire Builder isn't bad either, especially from Minneapolis to Whitefish

[pennyjean53]

There are a lot of crossings near the metro Topeka area that give 3 seconds of lead time...or less!....THANKS!...Doc

[firefightn32]

I wish Amtrak could get all of the west coast trains doing atleast 90. The Chief is the best no doubt. The Zephyr is good from Chicago to Denver but then it is more like a scenic train than actual transportation.

[SF3751]

lol.

[TrainDr101]

That's amazing. #4 is the fastest train west of the Mississippi. The trigger for the gates is supposed to set back based on an equation that would it a lot farther back in Newberry Springs. You should have 20sec. from when the the arms are down to when thw train enters the crossing. Sounds like someone might've screwed up in Newberry Springs.

[likestallwomen]

Yep, I remember 2 occasions when I saw No. 4 doing 90, once at Newberry Springs where he hit the 1/4 mark to cause the gates to go down and by the time they were completley down he was already on top of it, another occasion I was at the Lake Havasu off ramp (exit 9 off of I-40) and saw 2 freights slowly working into Needles, well, here comes No. 4 racin' across the feild at 90 and the conductor on one freight giving him the roll by was speechless from what I picked up on my scanner!

[TrainDr101]

...& get the Hell out of the WAY!

[TrainDr101]

I think it's even more amazing that about 85% of that route from Albaquereque to KC still has jointed rail on tangent track & semaphores!

[dejohnLK]

the best trip accress the country "Amtrak Style". I love it!