Private Varnish & Heritage Units: Canadian Pacific Railway Watertown Subdivison June 5-15, 2021

A few interesting catches on the Canadian Pacific Watertown Subdivision over three days in the first half of June five years ago. On the 5th, we see Amtrak No. 8, the eastbound Empire Builder , making its station stop at Columbus with two Patrick Henry Creative Promotions private cars, the "Evelyn A. Henry" and the "Warren R. Henry" bringing up the rear. The cars were being chartered as a retirement special for longtime ABC13 (Houston, TX) TV anchor Tom Koch. We snag one more runby at O'Connor Road east of town, although I botched the pan shot to get the observation car going away. Returning to the same spot on the 10th, we see four westbound trains in less than two hours. The second is Amtrak No. 7, the westbound Empire Builder, with replacement (for No. 66 which was wrecked and retired) 40th Anniversary Phase II heritage unit 130 leading and two more pieces of private varnish, this time directly behind the power. After relocating a few miles to the east, the fourth train is westbound manifest 287 with CP 7011, one of the SD70ACus in the "Script lettering" heritage scheme in the lead. Finally on the 15th we see No. 7 with 130 leading again.