The view from the engineer's seat from Santa Fe F7A 300C as it sits on the whiskers at Redondo Junction Roundhouse in Los Angeles, California on March 10, 1973. Various Alco S2 and S4 switchers a... (more)
This shot brings back some great memories of an event that will never again happen. Even today, I'm amazed I was a part of it. This scene was taken by my friend Joe Givens. I was on board the trai... (more)
The former Bessemer and Lake Erie SD9 rests at the original Hartwell Railroad's facility at Airline, GA. A long string of storage cars lies between here and the outside world.
In a rare scene from the early days of color photography, Southern Ps-class Pacific 1244 is shown at the roundhouse at Savannah, Georgia in 1938. The 1910 Baldwin is all spiffed up in green, silve... (more)
Crane Masters is busy at work clearing the remains of NS loaded coal train Y92, which put 20 cars on the ground at Perryman, MD on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. The derailment would suspend passen... (more)
With CN 3115 - the BC Rail heritage unit - on the point, CN E251 cuts through the fog as it passes through Davisburg, MI on the Holly Subdivision.
The "Rhaetian Crocodile" stretches its brown nose out of the 450 metre long Wiesen I tunnel. The bridge over the Brückentobel stream is only 10 metres long and leads directly into the 9... (more)
DD40X, Wabash F7 and a ex HLCX SD40-2? What a combo!
Rotary OY made it to Cumbres, but that was enough for the first day and it backed away for an overnight rest. There have been a couple of questions about the"layering" of the snow. This was just... (more)
The High Iron Co. ran a couple double-headed excursions from Jersey City to Wilkes Barre via portions of the now-abandoned CNJ Pennsylvania Division - otherwise known as CRR of PA. Strasburg Railr... (more)
Early in the morning on an already hot and hazy Virginia day, three P30CH’s haul the Auto Train NB only a few miles from the destination of Lorton VA at the end of a nonstop sprint from Florida.... (more)
Wearing the classic blue and gray Eagle passenger scheme, Missouri Pacific GP7’s 186 and 221 hustle a local freight east towards Herrington on the Kansas City-Pueblo main line, MP’s westernmo... (more)
At the 1990 NRHS Convention in St. Louis, TRAINS Magazine had a special and private photo staged in the afternoon where all four participating steam locomotives would be lined up for its staffers.... (more)
Long time WW&F Ry engineer Robert Longo, pauses briefly for a photo, before climbing back up into the right-hand seat of No 10's cab. One of seven licensed engineers on the museum's railway, Bob's... (more)
With roughly just 6 months left to shoot Central Maine & Quebec Railway consists, a pure set of SD40-2Fs - 9010, 9004, and 9021 - head Job 1 westbound at Eastman, Quebec amid lightly falling snow ... (more)
As cold weather sets in the rail on the railroads will go thru some strain. As the steel cools with winter temperatures, it contracts. That means any points that are weak will break or pull apart.... (more)
Times are tough in fall 1982, and Milwaukee Road was storing some of their locomotives. Here we have 7 GP20Ms parked at Pigs Eye Yard not far from the roundhouse area. These Geeps were rebuilt fro... (more)
Two very different GM&O F-3A's are sunning themselves outside the ICG locomotive shop.
Four brand new consecutively numbered Alaska Railroad GP49's (2801-2802-2803-2804) along with a BN business car & caboose are being hostled from Interbay to South Seattle on the Burlington Norther... (more)
Not a bad place to ride around the steel mill in the summer but not so sure I would want to be on this in January with the wind whipping down Lake Michigan.
Peoria is known for Caterpillar tractor, and in the last nine years, covered wagons. The storage train is on the move towards the Illinois River crossing at Peoria. Steve Smedley photo
Happy Birthday, Norfolk Southern! Thirty years ago today, NS was formed with the merger of the Norfolk and Western and Southern Railway. Later, on June 1, 1999, the Conrail acquisition led to an ... (more)
The eastbound California Zephyr exits Byers Canyon.
TVRM's Eden Isle observation car
Milwaukee Road E70 East rounds a curve at Drexel, Montana.
Northern Pacific 4-8-4 2604 was one of twelve Class A 4-8-4s built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1926. They had 73" drivers, 28 x 30 inch cylinders, boiler pressure of 210 lbs, and could exert 57... (more)
One of the greenest seasons I've ever seen in the Tehachapi's was back in February 2016, after a ton of rainfall dropped on the mountain that January, and then in early February there was a lot of... (more)
New Arrivals Last week, four newly acquired ex-NJT P40's were delivered to New Haven, Conn to join the ranks of CDOT Shoreline East and future Hartford Commuter service. They w... (more)
The Central of Georgia heritage unit leads 90 loads of Southern Illinois coal bound for the Alabama Power plant near Wilsonville, AL. Train 74Z is seen here as it crosses the Black Warrior River ... (more)
GG-1's on freight, coming and going! The icing on the cake was the trailing motor on the right- the unique "Old Rivets" #4800.
Carrying the torch for the Rio Grande. Several generations of narrow gauge railroaders pose with two generations of D&RGW Locomotives at Silverton, Colorado in evening light. The railroad... (more)
A meet occurs just south of the Alexandria, Virginia Amtrak station as a northbound Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac pig train meets a southbound hi-rail truck.
An H1 dash 9 leads a solid train of trailers downgrade at sunset.
This veteran started out in July 1970 as C&O 7521, builder number 36750, frame number 7276-15. On this day it was the trailing unit on what will become BNSF Train U KCKHKM0 01T, seen here at KCT ... (more)
"An Uphill Battle" An unusual array of crossing protection halts traffic on the Hamburg Turnpike as the SU-99 works upgrade with three units for power. While the lead unit on t... (more)
UP 3985 meets a crewless SD60M
Two rare EMD relics from the past(and a caboose) sit silently awaiting their pick up from the Battenkill local(the run was cancelled today due to no loads delivered yet by the Pan Am) to head nor... (more)
Electric shunter Te III # 147 of the MBC with a Slmmnps-y car, loaded with a M109 self-propelled howitzer of the Swiss Army. This car will be transported to the military training area near Bière ... (more)
Utah State Railroad Museum with the temporary addition of Big Boy X4014.
How many trains you can find on this photo? The action takes place in Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, largest magnetic ore anomaly on the Earth. You can see one of the largest iron qua... (more)
The Train of Tomorrow visits CNJ's small LCL yard just east of the PRR crossing in Elizabeth NJ on its 86-city tour of the country. Behind it is the roof of the CNJ freighthouse. CKF was 12 when h... (more)
WCE train 13 approaches its final stop of the morning as it passes the yard lead for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool's Cascadia Grain Terminal
This was one of the worst fire damaged units I have ever seen. The only giveaway was the D/B and the old style trucks. In any case, later in the month CR 6480 emerged from the NLR shops in fresh... (more)
Train wrecks seem to be popular on RP. How about a train wreck of a color scheme? Amtrak was still in its relative infancy when its classic RDCs and GG1s were subjected to cruel and unusual pigm... (more)
The Mainstreeter at the fueling rack in Fargo. It looks as if TOFC cars are attached to the back end of this one ...
Three dual-service Santa Fe F7s and a blue/yellow F7B freight unit roars by, with a westbound Red Ball train in Joliet, Illinois March 10, 1970. Photo Fred Scott, R.L.collection.
View from CN Tower with 50 MM lens. For a 135 MM shot of the same scene. and a comment which describes everything you see in the image. click more)
Union Pacific brought this interesting piece of equipment to SLO. This boxcar is a classroom designed to instruct emergency responders the appropriot way to handle potential incidents involving Oi... (more)
The 3 SDP40Fs are now in California, having crossed the Colorado River from Topock, Ariz. The train is essentially ex-Santa Fe Super Chief and El Capitan cars, and it was during this winter of 19... (more)
Lehigh Valley RS-2 214 has just a double door NYC box car and caboose in tow in front of the Bethlehem station.
BN 640 heads up an interesting mixture of former Great Northern and Northern Pacific F units at the Belknap St. roundhouse in Superior, WI, September 1970, about six months after the BN merger. Th... (more)
Two Alligators await repairs.
SAL 2-10-0 #533 in the deadline at Apex, NC in May 1955. Bob Drake photo, collection of Tom Sink.
The UP 844 creeps away past a lineup of modern UP power at Armourdale Yard in Kansas City, Kansas.
UP 7400 races along the Mojave Sub with the SBKWC 12 in tow, the special includes an SSW bulkhead flatcar & CCT bay window caboose #100. The special left Bakersfield early in the morning & is boun... (more)
Ripped to pieces. This tank car has had better days but is now being scrapped after being involved in a derailment. The tank sitting beside the slain car has a similar fate as it is next in line f... (more)
Posed in basic black and imitation gold, Rio Grande's GP9 #5931 in original paint scheme. Photo taken from my slide collection, no photographer listed on slide.
Recently restored Santa Fe FP45 rests overnight in SCRM's Carbarn Seven. This locomotive was backdated to it's as delivered appearance by museum volunteers. The hard work of the restoration team r... (more)
3 LPG tankers car derail over bridge. difficult to rescue!!!
An IRR train yard in Baghdad. Trains were sparse and the air was dusty as usual. Taken from the open door of a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter while I was out on a mission in Baghdad.
When passenger trains were king: Built by Fellheimer & Wagner for the New York Central in 1929, the Buffalo Central Terminal now sits in derelict condition as another day of abandonment comes to a... (more)
D&RGW Train #2, the "Royal Gorge," led by F-7 5574 near Cotopaxi has been reduced to two cars on it's daily run back to Denver from Salida, Colo. on March 12, 1967. The continental divide domin... (more)
On SSW/MP joint line. Valmeyer was one of the towns destroyed by the 1993 Mississippi River flooding. ICG 9451 is an ex-Columbus and Greenville SD28, one of only six built. K64, Minolta SRT-101... (more)
Set the controls for Roanoke! Here we see the controls of the sole survivor of Norfolk & Western's amazing Y6 class of 2-8-8-2 freight locomotives. Right now this immaculately preserved machine... (more)
With an E9 and two E7B units, the 17 car eastbound Golden State sprints at track speed across Arizona about 62 miles east of Tucson at Tully siding.
A southbound BNSF intermodal train begins looping itself on a weather/picture perfect day in May. No haze, no clouds, light wind, 55 degrees. The plane and its pilot were chartered at the Tehach... (more)
Late in 1995, Union Pacific began a fuel tender program to expand the fuel capacity of locomotives working in Power River Basin coal train service. By 1998, the experiment was deemed a failure due... (more)
A few minutes before the sunset, the last ic on the way to Athens moving along Platanos coast.
35Q struck a grain truck at MP 13.2 at Sheaffer Rd near Dillsburg. Canon EOS 10D w/ 300mm F/4L IS lens. 1/125 sec. @ F/4. ISO 200.
Now this is a compromise joint! Having to connect vastly different sized rails on this seldom used NS house track greatly illustrates how valuable compromise joints are and what they ... (more)
This is the view on August 6, 1978 from the extremely rickety and ancient steel footbridge over the Southern Pacific's small Bull Ring Yard in downtown Los Angeles, a second-generation diesel love... (more)
The massive walking dragline at the Bear Run coal mine in Dugger Indiana towers over an Indiana Southern train that is slowly making it's way around the balloon track, getting loaded up with Indi... (more)
A CB&Q E8 leads three other E units on a very long DENVER ZEPHYR inbound to Chicago.
CN train Q19851 09 soars high above the Prairie Creek between Hinton and Entrance on the Edson Sub. CP ES44AC 9371 leads while CP ES44AC 8916 brings up the rear. CN “borrowed” these units off ... (more)
Richard Stoddard, brakeman for the Tooele Valley Railroad blows the horn along Vine Street at Highway 36 (Main Street) crossing in Tooele City on July 7, 1980. After the International smelter east... (more)
C&O 1601's cab is immaculate at the Ford Museum. Here is a fun fact, if you pull the throttle, you get steam sound effects. Cool! To keep people from tripping on the grate shakers the museum has... (more)
Staged at Ogden, AB on November 11. Photo contains CP 6644, CP 7023, CP 7022, CP 7021, CP 7020
It has been two and a half years since I visited this former Canadian National G8 and it has not moved an inch. This long nose beauty was built in 1954 and operated with the CN until somehow find... (more)
The profile is classic USRA but that fat stack says Union Pacific. Some 625 light 2-8-2’s were turned out for American railroads under control of the United States Railroad Administration during... (more)
A pair of Executive paint SD70MAC's (BNSF 9741 & 9434) are sandwiched between an ES44AC (BNSF 6212) and a SD70ACe (BNSF 8549) as the DPU's on an empty Miller coal (JHMX) passing through BNSF Tenne... (more)
Not looking any better. It had been a little while since I had checked in on 'preserved' M636 CP 4723 in Farnham and unfortunately it is not looking any better. It sits near the ex-CP stati... (more)
Three Lehigh Valley Alco C628's, (636 and 632 in "Snowbird" attire) lead an eastbound departing Coxton Yard at Pittston Junction in the late summer under threatening skies. This Allentown bound tr... (more)
This is a classic of East Texas engineering, check those weld lines. There is a prototype for almost everything.
The cabs from a Baltimore & Ohio S4 and a Conrail C630 sit among the detritus of reclaimed steel at "Scraporano." Naporano was not fan friendly, but on Sundays it was closed and there was a back g... (more)
A block freight full of cars at Assopos creek. On the head is A509 MLW class 500, 3.650hp, 126t
