It’s midday at Arnold, Kansas on the hot summer day of July 25, 1996. The only action is a westbound Southern Pacific freight blowing for the main grade crossing in town. The cinderblock (what we called really dirty SP locomotives) is a speed-lettered rebuilt SD45. Arnold is located on the former Missouri Pacific route from Herrington, Kansas to Pueblo, Colorado. Check out the price for gas at $1.23. for unleaded and 81 cents for diesel. The average price for unleaded gas nationwide in 1996 was, believe it or not, $1.23! Sure made road trips more palatable.

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Union Pacific rotary snowplow No. 900082 is westbound out of Westkan, Kansas, and approaches a snow-clogged Sharon Springs on New Year’s day in 2007. That morning, we talked ourselves by a roadblock off of I-70 on State Road 27 leading to Sharon Springs, stating that we were railroaders. That was partially true since two of us were, only we just didn’t tell them that they were now retired. The Wallace county sheriff present at the roadblock later showed up south. He noticed us chasing and photographing the rotary and just gave us a big grin as he drove by . . .

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During a crew change at Sharon Springs, Kansas, Union Pacific’s rotary snowplow No. 900082 gets serviced and cleaned off of accumulated snow and ice. Trains have been stranded here for several days, and this plow run east from Denver on January 1, 2007 is to open up the Kansas Pacific line to Salina. High winds and 32 inches of snow buried the town during the December 29-30 storm.

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Work clearing snow continues into the night as rotary plow No. 900082 heads east out of Wallace, Kansas, on the eve of January 1, 2007.

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Just after sunset, the rotary snowplow heads east approaching Wallace, Kansas, on January 1, 2007, during that magical time during a snowy winter evening where everything turns a deep blue color.

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