Last week, my wife and one daughter went to the Joyce Meyer conference in St. Louis. That left me in bachelor mode for four days. There's only one thing to do - ROAD TRIP!

On the way to visit a high school buddy in Springfield, I got off I-55 at Dwight and headed South on old US 66. The former GM&O, now UP, tracks parallel 66 for many miles. Much to my disappointment, the old constantly-illuminated GM&O color position signals are now mostly replaced with approach-lighted color signals. I feel like I've lost an old friend - in previous years, the block signals could be seen for miles, stretching over the horizon at night. Now they are mostly always dark.

The trackside wires have been unused and falling apart for years. Many poles are already toppling over. This one is typical.

I noticed that the insulators within easy reach of the ground have mostly been collected. What remains seems to be a combination of H. G. Co and Star beehives, CD 152, and CD 154 in both Hemi blue and clear, as well as CD 155.

Update: this line was wrecked out in 2007. See [id=201048941] and 5 or 6 pictures following it for details.