A Weekend With the IAIS 6988

The rumour mill had been saying it for about two years at this point that the IAIS QJ 6988 would be doing a few runs when the official announcement came that this oddity would be performing fundraising excursions for local fire departments in Iowa in August 2021. From what I gathered, 2020 excursions were supposed to have happened, but, well, the obvious. But, with extended boiler time, the QJ had a few weekends to do things in 2021 - and they used them well!

As the dates for trips for my summer and fall began to pile in and organise themselves, the QJ happened to line up really nicely. Slated at less than a week from the Big Boy 2021 trip, it would be a tight squeeze for sure - one that meant I had barely enough time to put out a few QJ shots before the Big Boy would envelope the next few weeks of my life. In trying to get the photos and words edited and put out with that big trip, paired with the next few coming up, the QJ fell by the wayside, and I never really made note of it here except for the photos that appeared in the gallery one day.

Well, I'd say it's about time to correct that!

I'll preface this by saying I'm not doing a full length trip writeup as usual, this is more so just some notes and some highlights on the whole event with a few photos. Much smaller than usual!

Speaking of the event, the event itself was to have the 6988 come to the towns of Oxford and Wilton, Iowa, and pull some excursions to raise money for the towns local fire departments. It's sort of fitting for the train fueled by fire to raise money for a fire department!

One question that might be on your mind: what is the QJ 6988 and what makes it special? Well, it's not American to start with. The 6988 and its sister, 7081, are Chinese 'QJ' type locomotives. The design is a 2-10-2, with the first of their kind being built in 1956 - yes, 1956, during the prime dieselization era of the United States. Chinese railways built over 4,700 QJs between 1956 and 1988. Yes, China was building hundreds of brand new steam engines until 1988. They ran constantly until 2002 - with a few holdouts until 2003 - when diesels and electrics took over the rest of Chinese rail operations, but the venerable QJ (which is short for 'Qián Jìn,' which in English is 'To go forward' [though they also wore the titles of HP {Peace} and FD {Anti-Imperialism}]) was the mainline motive power for freight railroading and even passenger. There are some really stunning videos of these things during their years of service available on YouTube, where you can see them running in pairs and as helpers, sometimes flying backwards in reverse - the way they ran these things there would be completely illegal anywhere in the US. I may not be a fan of China today, but they sure knew something about steam railroading we didn't.

For some insane reason, three QJs exist in America. One was acquired by RJ Corman and has since been donated to the Kentucky Steam Heritage Association (the fellas working on the C&O 2716 no less) and had a short excursion life, but the 6988 and 7081 went to the Iowa Interstate in around 2005. One of their first major runs was a triple header event which featured the Milwaukee Road 261 and its assortment of coaches - a seriously insane sight by any standard!

In 2011, the 6988 was fully Americanized - new styling and paint, removing some of the Chinese design characteristics and making it look like an American 2-10-2 with a slight Chinese flair. Later, the engine would receive yet another paint update and a rebranding as the Iowa Bolt - striking red and yellows decorated the smoke deflectors and ran all the way back to the cab and gave the engine a very fresh look. It's operated various trips over the years, and with boiler time coming to a close, a few more would make a good sendoff before the required downtime.

So, with just a few weeks to go, I got all the information sorted (a tough thing considering that the only info was in hard to find facebook events pages), hotels booked, and time off work. Thankfully, all I needed for this was the Friday afternoon off, and I had no issues there. Iowa City would be the midpoint between towns and also the location of my hotel. The plan was drive up on Friday, chase all day Saturday, all day Sunday, and drive home Sunday afternoon/evening. Then, after three days of work, I'd go off and chase the Big Boy for a week. Tight schedule, like I said.

That worked out rather nicely, all told. Had I chosen to take off all of Friday and give myself the night before, I could've caught the deadhead freight move down to South Amana, where the engine would be serviced overnight, but I was pushing it already. So, Saturday was my first viewing of the engine.

​Suffice to say, I wasn't disappointed.

After watching some switching moves, I would catch the train on its run to Oxford itself, catching it only twice as it absolutely flew down the main. The QJ is really ​fast - it's hard to keep up with the thing!

"Over The Fallen"

Arriving in Oxford gave us a neat view of the engine and a classic fire truck - the reason this whole thing is happening in the first place!

As passengers boarded, I'd also meet up with a friend of mine I'd met at the Milwaukee Road 261 chase back in 2019, Christian, as well as some friends of his (who I'd later be seeing at the SOO 1003 trip). It was great to see a familiar face in the surprisingly large crowd and meet some new folks. I'd learn some more about the route and such here, and for the first chase of the day, I'd be a passenger in Christians car as some of his friends had tickets to ride the first excursion.

The thing about the excursions was that they were short - a fast ride east for 15 minutes, then a diesel would drag them back to Oxford (and Wilton the next day) to do it over again. You could only get 1 or 2 shots per run of the train heading forwards, and maybe 1 or 2 more as the diesel led it back. This did mean you could sort of get more, if you faked the QJ leading in a sense, and I did that a few times for sure.

If you needed more proof this is not an American engine...

Throughout the day, I'd race back and forth between Oxford and Iowa City, making some good shots, some not so good shots. This was the first steam engine shoot I'd done since November of last year, and being in a crowd of chasers again was definitely good practice for what the next week would hold for me.

The day was a bit tricky, as there weren't tons of crossings and the main road to chase on was far from the tracks. Not to mention, a cloudy morning wasn't the most helpful, either. The clouds did disappear soon enough though, and by midday, the sun was out.

Getting to hear the Grand Trunk 3-chime, the original Chinese whistle, and the elusive Guatemalan whistle was a real treat. All three have very unique sounds - a deep growl from the GTW, a high pitched shrill from the Chinese whistle, and this incredibly unique, almost ghostly cry from the Guatemalan whistle. I only heard the latter once, but that's one that'll stick with me for a good long while.

I didn't find myself getting tons of successful shots on this day, partly due to lack of familiarity with the territory, partly because of just awkward territory to start with. The surprisingly large crowd of railfans also contributed a bit - I was expecting far fewer, but I was practically tripping over chasers the whole way. I did find a few shots that worked and sort of forced a few into working, but it was definitely the least successful day of the two.

"All Day Long II"

At the end of day one, the whole crew lined up for a shot - and I believe the gentleman third from right is the one responsible for acquiring the 6988 and 7081, if I heard right. Could be wrong on that, but either way, they had a great team of people out there for the weekend.

To close off a successful day of runs, the crew did one last photo runby in Oxford itself, then returned to the shops at South Amana for the night. I opted to get down on the ground for a railhead shot - because of course I would. Had to get the elevator in there, too!

"Face Up"

It was a brief chase back to South Amana, where I'd meet a fellow railfan who used to go to college in my hometown. We got to talking about the days events and those of the next day, and after traffic from the interstate started coming down the adjacent road (thanks to an accident which had blocked the highway), we decided to take off and call it a day. However, we both agreed it would be a good idea to scout out a certain bridge in Iowa City for tomorrow morning, as we both expected that spot to be crowded and we wanted to find the best places to set up and park and all.

Turns out that Maps isn't quite up to date there, and one of the buildings that it shows being near the bridge is not there, so hey, free parking! We determined a plan for the next day and called it there. A long day, and a hot one to be sure, but a good one overall.

The next morning, I was up early, and I headed out to the bridge. The option to chase the train from South Amana was there, but in the interest of a) not getting ticketed for speeding through a city, b) having a parking space, c) having my spot for my photo secured, and d) not just flat out missing the train because it way passed me, setting up there first thing was my call, and I'm fine with it. There were photo opportunities I could have had, and I realistically could have made the chase fine based on what I've seen from others, but I just didn't want to risk it.

Before the 6988 got there, an eastbound freight had the IAIS Rock Island heritage unit #513 was trailing at a DPU. Had to catch that, of course.

We watched the light come up over the buildings behind us and draw itself across the length of the bridge spans, and we had a perfect view as the 6988 trundled across it. That sight - and sound - made the long morning wait well worth it.

"Sunrise"

The second the engine was past the tree line, I grabbed my camera equipment, folded it all up, and full on sprinted back to the car. Every time I do this I think to myself how out of shape I am, but I never correct that afterwards. Maybe someday... At any rate, I made it to my car and got moving east out of the city as fast as I could (within reason) to beat the train to its destination. I had suggested an overpass shot earlier but everyone had told me I couldn't make it as the track speed increase meant the train would easily beat me - but it had to stop to flag a crossing! That little unexpected stop meant I did make it there in time.

You would not believe how close the race was from that bridge to Moscow, where I shot the train crossing the Cedar River. Though my focus decided to not like the front of the train, it did work out. I couldn't have been more than 30 seconds ahead - it was so close, I parked my car up a hill and didn't even take out the keys, just sprinting down to the water line. One wrong turn earlier had nearly cost me the shot, but I got it all the same.

"Drift Away"

Then, it was a quick jaunt into Wilton. The chaos would really begin again here as everybody crowded the engine and cars alike. Ah, the train crowds. What a strange thing when you think about it.

The whole day was spent chasing, and there were some questionable calls and shots tried, but I just tried to see what I could do. Some shots didn't work spectacularly...

...and others went better than I had expected them to.

"Out of Stock(ton)"

One of my favourite moments was between Stockton and Walcott on the very first excursion of the day - most people thought the train would go just east of the latter, but it actually stopped right in the middle. I made a last second call to hit a right off of US 6 and book it down a gravel road with a handful of others. We were not far ahead of the train, so calling it a risky move was putting it lightly - but the train was slowing, and so we were able to pull shots of it coming to a stop.

In the minute or two it sat, switching control over to the diesel, I found a fence on the other side of the tracks between the track and corn crop, and I decided to try using that as a framing element. I think it worked out rather nicely.

"Retreat"

I think day two went a lot better than day one, in part because of weather (not a cloudy morning and all), and because the route was much easier to work with. US 6 the whole way, directly paralleling the tracks, meant it was easy to scout and find places to try and shoot.

More crossings and such permitted more photo opportunities as well, and so I had more times to try things. Some worked, some didn't, like mentioned previously, but I definitely pulled a lot more success out of all this than the day prior. Some I still haven't edited or finished editing, either..

The town of Durant definitely made for a nice spot to shoot. I had to try another railhead shot there on one of the spurs, which went better than planned for sure.

"Drifting Through Durant"

The real highlight at Durant was the cemetery, though. I tried the shot earlier in the day, but I wasn't happy with it, so I did it one more time on the last return trip to Wilton. That came out much ​better, I think!

"State of the Nation"

After one last photo runby through Wilton, it was time to chase back to South Amana. I said goodbye to Christian and the others, as they had to get back home then (a long drive back to New York state!), and I followed the train west.

​I had missed the eastbound shot at West Liberty by a minute or two thanks to my bridge detour, but for the westbound shot, I made sure to get there nice and early. It's one of my favourite photos from the trip, honestly - and it doesn't even have the QJ in it!

"Not Over Til We Say So"

I had a shot I was thinking of in Iowa City, so I got well ahead of the train via interstate, but that didn't pan out and I didn't get much of anything there. Instead, I followed back to South Amana itself and watched the train pull into the shops once again.

Of course, at that point, it was basically shooting into the sun, so... you know.

All the same, that was that. A few last shots just for the sake of it, then I hopped back in my car and headed back home. About four or five hours, no trouble. Did manage to see my car get the highest mpg I've ever seen it have though, so that was fun. Despite the troubles this car has with some of the places I've taken it, it does get fantastic mileage considering it's a nearly eight year old gas car. Hard to complain there.

At any rate, that was the QJ! I enjoyed my brief weekend with the engine, it was a neat one to shoot. Definitely unique in a lot of ways and certainly makes for a hell of a chase. Speedy thing it is! They put on a good show with this engine, and I know I'll definitely have to come back out once it's back on the road again in time. Hopefully 7081 can join it - supposedly they've gotten some funding support now thanks to these trips (as in, sponsors), so we should see the QJ(s) come back with force in a couple years if we're lucky.

This trip was definitely overshadowed by the 4014 and the general insanity of the next couple months, but this weekend with the 6988 was the real kickstarter for the rest of the years trips though, and so while it was sort of under the radar, it was definitely one of the highlights of the year to be sure.

Anyway, like I said, this was going to be more of a highlights/notes thing rather than a full writeup, so that's all I've got for today. There are certainly stories and anecdotes I could tell with this, but, frankly?I think I've told enough long stories of train chases over the past few weeks. Most of them on this trip are too short anyways - you've gotten the best moments for the most part here. With that, I have actually completed the backlog of 2021 trips to talk about! So, next you see here will probably be a 2021 wrapup post, so be on the lookout for that sometime this month.


As always, thanks for reading!
​
Cheers,
SM