Winter Trains & Chat from Ottumwa, IA - Amtrak and CPKC action | 12-19-25 Replay

Описание: In "Winter Trains & Chat" I spend about an hour watching trains live around the Ottumwa, Iowa area, and talking with those in the live chat about various railroad topics and video projects I'm working on. Unlike some of my previous livestreams where I remain stationary at one spot, a portion of these streams take place from my car, and I drive around from location to location to see as much action as possible. This program was streamed on December 19th, 2025. This evening proved to be very busy with several trains in the Ottumwa area during the time I was recording, and the livestream features 4 of those trains. Beginning from the Market Street parking lot, we see Amtrak's California Zephyr pulling into the station. Then I jump ahead to see the train doing its station work, before driving down to the Clay Street crossing to watch it depart. Once Amtrak clears town, I make the short drive over to the Gateway Drive crossing on CPKC, for a pair of freight trains. First up is northbound freight 655, an empty sand train. Both locomotives on this train were running long-hood forward, a somewhat unusual sight on mainline trains today! From the radio chatter, I learned that at least the lead unit would be wyed later on when this train reached Fruitland, IA so it would be running in the forward position for the rest of its trip. Shortly after 655 passed, a loaded coal train came off the BNSF, running through the interchange track to CPKC as viewed from the same location. I didn't stay for this entire train, however, because I learned that CPKC's local freight K82 was about ready to depart the Ottumwa yards, and I would have to drive a little ways to get there in time to see it depart, so we leave Gateway Drive, and head across the Des Moines River, and down Highway 34 towards the edge of Ottumwa yard limits at milepost 305, where K82 would pass just a few minutes later. Even though it was only two cars in length, the train was powered by a classic SD40-2 diesel! And while there were many other trains that would be coming later in the evening, I had been streaming for over an hour at this point, so once I drove back into Ottumwa I wrapped up for the evening. It was a good night to be out along the railroad!

To jump to specific parts of the stream, click on the timestamps below! You can also follow along with the chat messages as they came in live by expanding the "Live chat replay" panel.

0:00 Introduction
4:35 Amtrak's California Zephyr, arrival
6:10 Driving over to water plant
8:25 Amtrak in station roll-by
12:25 Warning horn
15:55 Amtrak's California Zephyr, departure at Clay Street
18:50 Going through the chat
27:08 Driving to Gateway Drive (CPKC)
36:05 CPKC train 655 at Gateway Drive - 2 units long-hood forward!
39:03 News of more action on CPKC
41:44 Long-hood forward diesel operation discussion
46:38 Getting ready for CPKC freight
49:54 Discussion about trains doubling Rutledge Hill
52:59 Kitty kitty!
55:23 BNSF coal train arriving on interchange with CPKC, Gateway Drive
59:13 Driving towards CPKC yard
1:07:48 Arriving at MP 305
1:13:43 CPKC local train K82 at MP 305
1:16:32 Driving back into Ottumwa
1:20:23 Preview of my upcoming video projects
1:23:28 Conclusion

Thanks for watching! If you want to see more livestreams and their archived videos, along with my extensive collection of feature-length railroad programs and clips filmed with my camcorder and equipment, subscribe to my channel! ‪@BobbyHarveyVideoProductions‬

Follow my Facebook page here:
  / bobbyharveyvideo  

Copyright © 2025 Bobby Harvey. All Rights Reserved.