National Train Day this Saturday

And what more appropriate city to celebrate National Train Day than our own Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas, given the train traffic we still get, daily, to this day?

It will be celebrated locally by the Kansas City Northern Miniature Railroad, 60th Street And Waukomis Drive here in town from 10 am to 6 pm (see 2nd link, below).

Links: http://www.nationaltrainday.com/; http://www.KCNRR.com/

Union Station boarding this morning

Notes from the video: "Union Pacific Steam Locomotive #844 picked up Civil War actors this morning at Union Station bound for the 150th Anniversary Reenactment of the Battle of Shiloh." I saw and got this from local photographer Roy Inman's Facebook page today. (Thanks, Roy!).

KANSAS CITY WON!!!

According to a release yesterday over at "Mary Anne's Kansas City, MO Blog" (see link below), Kansas City will, in fact, get to go from Kansas City, through St. Louis--for a time, anyway--down to Little Rock on a good old-fashioned steam engine train.  Check it out:

Union Pacific's Great Excursion Adventure will start in Kansas City

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

For the first time ever, Union Pacific let the people decide where their steam engine would be routed.  Pitted against three other adventures--the Tuscola Turn (through Iowa and Illinois), Baton Rouge Rambler (through Texas and Louisiana) and the Boise Limited (through Idaho and Utah)--it was announced that the Little Rock Express, which boasts Kansas City as the starting point, won the highly anticipated event with 76,217 official votes.

The Union Pacific will start in Kansas City and head across the great state of Missouri, going South after St. Louis, through Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff and ending in Little Rock.

Details of the trip have yet to be announced as of yesterday.  You can keep checking at http://www.upexcursioin.com for information.

Very cool.

Link:  http://kansascity.about.com/b/2011/01/18/union-pacifics-great-excursion-adventure-will-start-in-kansas-city.htm

Best cities in America

Okay, another media ranking of cities and this time it's for "Best Cities in America", as you can see and, again, it's interesting.

Kansas City kind of got snubbed, I think, by my way of reckoning, since Omaha got position number 3 and we're not even on the list.  Check it out:

Omaha is a great example of a city that's avoided the booms and busts, ranking high on stability.

Could its slow but steady growth be the influence of one of its most famous residents, the richest man in the world, Warren Buffett? The Oracle of Omaha, as he's known, made his money based on the motto "invest in what you know" - not getting sucked into the next big boom.

Quite possibly, Sperling said. Perhaps the bigger impact, though, is that Buffett keeps Omaha in the news, which makes it easier to attract big companies there. Today, there are five Fortune 500 companies headquartered there, including ConAgra Foods, Union Pacific Corporation, Mutual of Omaha, Peter Kiewit and Sons, and Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

Oh, and Des Moines is on the list too, at number 6.

Okay, so that's my points--we got overlooked on it, rightly or wrongly (probably likely, even though I enjoy the place) and Omaha and Des Moines beat us out

But I will make one last point here.

And that is, I think Kansas City is going to get on a cultural ranking "best of" list at least once--if not a few times next year, once our Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is open.

You watch.  The building itself, when it opens, is going to give us a great deal of attention in its own right.  Then, once open, more of these lists will have Kansas City on them.

See if I'm not right about this, next year.

Link to original post:  http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/best-cities-to-move-to-in-america.html