Yesterday, after a long day and a long week, Gatermann called me up and asked if I wanted to go to the east side.

So we met up before lunch and paid a visit to one of the east side's finer establishments, and I brought my camera. Sometimes the things you see over there are pretty dirty, but this time we saw real beauty, and I brought back a picture... from the Kansas City Southern railyard.

This is KCSM 4679, a General Electric ES44AC diesel-electric "GEVO" (General Electric Evolution) locomotive painted up in the Kansas City Southern's new old paint scheme. Some 50 years ago, KCS used a colorful paint scheme, called the Southern Belle, much like this one. Retro paint schemes are in these days--the Union Pacific started the trend by painting up some locomotives in schemes honoring the railroads they've taken over through the years, and judging from the current appearance of UP 1982, the unit painted for the Missouri Pacific, they don't ever wash those locomotives either (I told you some of the stuff on the east side is dirty)--and the KCS dug out its best paint scheme from the past, updated it a little, and I think the results are striking.

KCSM 4679 is supposed to be painted up for the KCS' Mexican subsidiary (hence the "de Mexico" on the side) but the front of the locomotive and the herald on the front side says plain old KCS.

There's some talk that this one's headed back to the paint shop to replace the herald. The locomotive has been sitting in the yard for the last four days, so this could be the reason.

This is probably stating the obvious, but I'm going to say it. Never actually set foot in a railyard unless you have permission from the railroad. It's trespassing, and can be dangerous. Stay on public property (the road, shoulder of the road, or sidewalk if there is one) and photograph from there.

I would have liked to have gotten a picture of the UP's Mopac heritage unit, UP 1982, but when it was sitting in the UP's Dupo yard there was another train parked in front of it. We were in a decent position to catch the train after it left on its way to Chicago, but it was stuck behind a ballast train doing track maintenance. Unfortunately the last two cars on the ballast train derailed, so UP 1982 stayed parked where we could see it with the naked eye but couldn't get any good shots of it.

If you'd like to see some shots from the day from the camera of a real, professional photographer, visit Gatermann's place.