Nomad of Mid-America
Ice-Z UP
Union Pacific's familiar armor yellow colors pierce the flocked snow and fog blanketing the central Illinois landscape so achromatic, consequences of an early year winter storm that dropped several inches of snow onto trees already primed with a layer of ice. As per the convention of modern class I operating practices, UP runs 'em long--this City of Industry to Global 4 hotshot (ZCIG4 02) has 13,253 feet-worth of intermodal boxes trailing out behind the five forward facing widecabs guiding the journey down Edelstein Hill towards Chicagoland, utilizing trackage rights over the Transcon east of Kansas City granted in the BNSF merger. This Z faces a quagmire less than 20 miles ahead, where prolonged signal problems have the Chillicothe Subdivision plagued with disruption and delay. Track indications on both mains have dispatchers flagging trains between Wilbern and Toluca and a signal maintainer troubleshooting on Track 1 in the same limits, creating a single-track bottleneck that will hamper operations until the maintainers have the problem rectified, relief that will ultimately come well after darkness falls.
Ice-Z UP
Union Pacific's familiar armor yellow colors pierce the flocked snow and fog blanketing the central Illinois landscape so achromatic, consequences of an early year winter storm that dropped several inches of snow onto trees already primed with a layer of ice. As per the convention of modern class I operating practices, UP runs 'em long--this City of Industry to Global 4 hotshot (ZCIG4 02) has 13,253 feet-worth of intermodal boxes trailing out behind the five forward facing widecabs guiding the journey down Edelstein Hill towards Chicagoland, utilizing trackage rights over the Transcon east of Kansas City granted in the BNSF merger. This Z faces a quagmire less than 20 miles ahead, where prolonged signal problems have the Chillicothe Subdivision plagued with disruption and delay. Track indications on both mains have dispatchers flagging trains between Wilbern and Toluca and a signal maintainer troubleshooting on Track 1 in the same limits, creating a single-track bottleneck that will hamper operations until the maintainers have the problem rectified, relief that will ultimately come well after darkness falls.