Pouring it on at Bloomburg. Charging through the little town of Bloomburg, Texas, we catch CPKC's big Hudson #2816 "Empress" pouring out a little smoke for my camera as she takes her "Final Spike Steam Tour" consist south toward Shreveport, LA in a light rain shower. As a well-fired, oil-burner, this engine does not smoke much, even when she's working hard. In steady-state running, she's almost always clean stack. A briefly dark plume such as this one, captured near Milepost 507 on the Shreveport Sub, typically indicates some sort of power change, where the fireman hasn't quite gotten his mixture adjusted for a clean burn. This was the last image that I managed to capture on the run from Heavener, OK to Shreveport, LA, as the train was running at 50 mph and with local traffic, it literally became impossible to keep up with it while observing posted speed limits.
