UP U30C 2897, SD45s 922 and 900 and U30B 858 Kansas City, KS in May 1980.

Location is Kansas City, Kansas.

Train is eastbound on the Union Pacific (UP) Railroad just west of Kaw Junction, mile post 5.2 (MP 5.2). This is on their First Subdivision of the Kansas Division. It is just before entering the west end of UP’s 18th Street Yard. This yard adjoins UP’s Armstrong Yard to the east. Both yards are located just south of and parallel to Interstate 70 (I-70), between Interstate 635 (I-635) on the west and the UP’s crossing of the Kansas River on the east.

The train will soon be transferred over Kansas City Terminal (KCT) Railway trackage to the Frisco’s Rosedale Yard. Frisco will expedite the train southeast over its system through Fort Scott, KS, Springfield, MO and Memphis, TN to Birmingham, Alabama. At that point it will be transferred to the Seaboard Coast Line for points further east and southeast.

The train on the left is on the west end of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific’s Armourdale Yard. Armourdale Yard is south of and parallel to the UP yards. Further to the west is West Yard Junction, MP 5.2, near the 4900 block (49th Street) of Kaw Drive, where the Rock Island joins the UP’s double track main lines. The RI operated on trackage rights from this junction to the west over the UP to Topeka, Kansas, MP 68.0. At the later point they got back on RI track for points west and south.

The photographer is positioned just south of the I-70 (MP 418A) and I-635 (MP 4A) interchange, over the Kaw Drive underpass.

View is looking west.

Special thanks to Mark Davidson.