A beam of rotating light in eastern Kansas

I don't remember the actual dates. I was working as a conductor on a north/south frieght train in eastern Kansas. 
One of our locomotives had suddenly died and I went back to try to restart it.  While looking out the window I saw a bright white beam of light shining down into a farmers field about a hundred yards to the east of our north bound train.  It reminded me of a police helicopter's search light that I'd seen in the city except that it was rotating (spinning). 
I couldn't see where the light was coming from because of the window awning on the locomotive so I stepped out on the trailing end of the locomotive to get a better look.  The beam had disappeared and something shot across the night sky like a shooting star. 
The whole thing only lasted seconds. 
I restarted the engine and it ran perfect the rest of the trip.  The engineer never saw the light and thought I was crazy.