The wait for 250 was worth it

The wait may have been worth it.
I made four trips down to the historic Steven J. Ireland Train Depot on Friday, missing two softball games and a baseball game, and some much-needed down time with Skol and a binge of Newsroom. The title sequence music makes me want to write a Pulitzer.
I went down to the depot at 4 p.m. and was told by Andy Andrews and the Historians, that the train was delayed until 6 p.m. So I went back home to finish up a story about another awesome and humble Bloodhound who thought she had let people down by shooting a 92 in the state golf tournament on Thursday.
Kylie Lumino took up golfing two years ago. I took up golfing 30 years ago and I’ve broken 92 once in my life. And after firing an 85 the following day and finishing as the 34^th best female golfer in Class 3A in the state, she drove home, got in a softball uniform and went 1-4 with a couple runs scored for the Bloodhounds.
I’m confident the 33 in front of her - did not do that.
Kiddo… you did way more than good. And we noticed.
I went back down to the depot again at 6 p.m. only to be told it would now be 7:45. I hit a Drive Thru for dinner because the time I had set aside for Beef Wellington, caprese salad, and lemon bars, was now a thing of the past. That’s how I like my sarcasm…around food.
I went back down at 7:45 p.m. only to be told it would be another hour before this train would pull through Fort Madison. Finally, at around 8:50 p.m., I, along with another couple hundred people who had followed the arrival timeline on social media, saw a gold reflection on the curved tracks just to the west of the depot. It was almost regal the way it lit up the iron, sort of announcing its own arrival.
The 73-foot locomotive literally came out of the Mid-America Car, Inc. facility in North Kansas City, Missouri early Friday morning and began its inaugural run to Chicago. The 250 is one of three BNSF special star-spangled locomotives, along with 2026 and 1776.
As it pulled up, an engineer blew the horn a couple times and then, in a small blessing, had to stop right in front of the depot due to the BNSF bridge still closing from a barge passing through. More than a hundred rail fans ran up and down the lawn and on the platform to snap photos and take videos. One woman brought an American flag and waved it feverishly as this powerful iron monster paused for a little Americana in a town its company helped build in the late 1800s.
“Amtrak” Amy Matheis, the lead ticket agent at the Fort Madison office, said her connections with Amtrak kept her posted on the train’s arrival, and she had to keep updating the Fort Madison Amtrak Facebook page with the delays.
The delays didn’t deter. As dusk settled in and a cobalt blue sky slipped in behind the sun, the image became almost Rockwell-ish. Rural Iowans cheering on the freshly painted 250^th anniversary locomotive with “We The People” in the exact black script font against a white backdrop identical to the opening phrase of the U.S. Constitution. After seemingly stopping to pose for pictures, the locomotive just as quickly got on its way to the cheers of the throngs of Fort Madison rail fans who had gathered for the historic moment.
And we weren’t alone. The Rail Fan camera on the corner of the Kingsley Inn, the most visited live railcam in the nation, was live streaming the event “Amtrak” Amy said.
At the moment the locomotive stopped, there were close to 2,000 visitors to the rail cam’s YouTube channel, the Turnwater Rail Cam, the Kingsley Virtual Rail Fan link, and Steel Highway’s virtual link.
One resident hustled into the Amtrak ticketing counter after the train pulled away to ask Amy if the locomotive would be back through Fort Madison, an answer she didn’t have at the moment.
Amy said the other two locomotives are pulling BNSF Executive trains and they would be moving throughout the country during this year’s 250^th birthday. Executive trains are private passenger trains used by BNSF Railway to host corporate clients, VIPs, and employees.
So battling the gnats, and the barking dogs, and the muscle cars lurching through Riverview Park was irritating at first, but the power of the few minutes of time spent with a patriotic locomotive made the night… way more than good. And we noticed.
But that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.