Winter Trains & Chat from Ottumwa, IA - BNSF, Amtrak, and CPKC action | 12-12-25 Replay

In "Winter Trains & Chat" I spend about an hour watching trains live around the Ottumwa, Iowa area, and talking with those in the live chat about various railroad topics and video projects I'm working on. Unlike some of my previous livestreams where I remain stationary at one spot, a portion of these streams take place from my car, and I drive around from location to location to see as much action as possible. This program was streamed on December 12th, 2025. On this evening, Amtrak's California Zephyr was running late, so I started the stream about an hour prior to their arrival into town. The first two trains came by pretty early on - first, an eastbound BNSF coal train, and then westbound local freight 663. After a slight pause in the action, I make a short loop through part of downtown before returning to where I was before to prepare for Amtrak, and they eventually roll in. I then drive to the other side of the station to see them depart, at the Gateway Drive crossing. Once Amtrak was clear, a CPKC train I'd heard earlier on the radio got its turn to come across the diamond and head north, and I drive down to the end of Gateway Drive to see it pass. This train turned out to be CPKC 577, an empty oil train, and it ends tonight's action during the stream.

To jump to specific parts of the stream, click on the timestamps below! You can also follow along with the chat messages as they came in live by expanding the "Live chat replay" panel.

0:00 Introduction
1:10 BNSF eastbound coal train
7:28 Recap of previous livestream
13:04 BNSF westbound local train 663
18:57 Winter storm recap
29:48 Market Street Landing improvements
32:26 Quick drive through downtown
37:59 News of next trains through town
39:56 Going through the chat
47:20 Amtrak's California Zephyr, arrival
49:20 Driving to other side of station
51:11 Roll-by Amtrak in station
54:22 Warning horn
55:42 Blowing snow
59:32 Amtrak's California Zephyr, departure
1:01:16 Driving down Gateway Drive
1:06:30 CPKC train 577 approach and run-by
1:13:48 Conclusion and preview of upcoming video projects

Thanks for watching! If you want to see more livestreams and their archived videos, along with my extensive collection of feature-length railroad programs and clips filmed with my camcorder and equipment, subscribe to my channel! ‪@BobbyHarveyVideoProductions‬

Follow my Facebook page here:
  / bobbyharveyvideo  

Copyright © 2025 Bobby Harvey. All Rights Reserved.