On a beautiful spring day---April 27, 2000---a northbound CSX empty hopper train is framed by a nice patch of Red Bud. The trees on the north side of Clinch Mountain are sprouting their new green ... (more)

I wonder how many trains and how many locomotives and cars the L.G.Osborne & Son store just north of Dungannon, VA, on the former Clinchfield Railroad, has witnessed. This is milepost 56.1 (from E... (more)

July 9, 1999: I could remember shooting a horizontal version of a train at this spot, but I only discovered that particular box of slides this morning. This is a southbound unit coal train between... (more)

Nineteen days into 1987 at Big Stone Gap, VA: As the light of the day fades into the nocturne, two NS SD40-2s idle in the old passing track awaiting the next pusher assignment to Watkins, VA. The ... (more)

With film, sometimes you just did whatever you could and hoped for the best. Case in point is this shot shortly after daybreak of a northbound CSX hotshot intermodal train about a mile or so south... (more)

A westbound (railroad direction) CSX pusher set is emerging from the north (compass direction) end of Natural Tunnel, on the NS Appalachia District. When the South Atlantic & Ohio Railroad elected... (more)

I've had a lot of cab rides in my life, but this one ranks up there as one of the very best. I'm in the second unit on a westbound Southern Railway train from Asheville to Bulls Gap in September 1... (more)

August 29, 1977: After a stop for servicing in Asheville, Southern's leased ex-Texas Pacific 2-10-4 number 610 stomps upgrade out of Biltmore with an eastbound ferry trip. It was raining fairly ha... (more)

On September 25, 1984, Seaboard System Extra 7091 South attains the top of the switchback at Hagans, VA. Behind the three six-motor units on the point are 90 cars of coal loaded at Merna, KY, then... (more)

Five days before Christmas 1985, a northbound (by railroad direction--southbound by compass direction) Seaboard System train emerges from Callahan's Nose Tunnel at Roaring Branch, just outside Big... (more)

"The Dark Side" Too many railroad photographers are obsessed with the "sunny day" wedge shot---a brightly lit nose and low sun to illuminate the trucks (wheel sets) and othe... (more)

In the rain, the 611 powers up the 1.1 percent grade by the Meadows Golf Club near Christiansburg. The steam the engine is crossing is Crab Creek.

On March 10, 1985, the Interstate Railroad's Second Hill crew crosses the Powell River at Blackwood, VA. My vantage point was a long-abandoned highway bridge hidden in the woods that once carried ... (more)

A fearsome-looking Southern SD45 leads a westbound train at Jasper, VA on June 17, 1985. The small bridge crosses the North Fork of the Clinch River, which is just a small stream this far up in th... (more)

Andover, VA, May 27, 1985: Few diesel locomotives were more fearsome looking than a Southern SD45. The company had them set-up to operate long hood forward, as noted by the signature high-mounted ... (more)