We're in the cab of UP 6190 West, the ZCSOA, and about to meet an eastbound as we approach a low green and head-in from No.2 to No.2 track at (East) Hermosa. Straight-railing takes you onto No.3 track, which is the original transcontinental railroad alignment down a much steeper grade toward Red Buttes and Laramie. Going "over the road" was a necessary part of being qualified upon one's territory - at least until centralized dispatching reduced these occasions. I had to be in Cheyenne for meetings with the service unit as dispatching center representative and since my son had just graduated from UW, I secured permission for him to accompany me on a trip over the road, thus this pleasant episode. The Z train was a good way to get over the road; crews often thought one should ride the "dogs" so as to get a better idea "what it was like" on the road - as if we didn't already know, from a different perspective. What they really meant was that you should have to eyeball a red signal for hours. But we would get enough of that on the return trip on a railroad that was generally cluttered with traffic at that date - 90-100 trains on the corridor between North Platte and Green River at a given time.
