Since my girlfriend passed and now my grandma passing two days ago, I've been grinding flickr posts to keep myself busy...bear with me, some of them have long captions:
Pops of color by
aloneinbigrapids, on Flickr
A UP SD70AH and BNSF ES44 lead a westbound van train by Vickers Junction just outside of Toledo on a gloomy National Train Day 2023.
Always shoot what’s in front of you by
aloneinbigrapids, on Flickr
…was a phrase that was taught to me by the great Jim Fetchero, who I met while I lived in North Carolina.
Allow me to tell a story.
That phrase Jim said was his response to a 12 year old me asking “why do you have so many photos?”. Jim has THOUSANDS of pictures dating back to the 1970’s and newer of southern railway operations down south and railroads all over, and he said, “I always shoot what’s in front of me, because it WILL, not might, WILL be gone one day”.
Soon enough that day, a pair of NS SD70M-2’s showed up on an intermodal train. The M-2’s would soon be retired or put into long term storage, eventually making a short return, only to be put back into storage.
I started following that philosophy, and I still do to this day. Back in 2023, I shot this already rare baretable train on the chicagoline at Vickers during NTD2023. Making it noteworthy too was this thoroughbred Dash 9 leader having at it solo.
As mentioned in my “stranded” post, these Dash 9’s (particularly thoroughbreds) are becoming rarer and rarer by the day, but at the time, people weren’t giving too much of a care in the world shooting them, nowadays, most railfans go out of their way to shoot these old GE’s.
A lot of railfans I know are sort of scrambling to get their shots of these relics before they’re gone, since they originally tossed it since “it’s just a Trash 9”, but I’ve shot so many of them that it’s not a big deal, and I’m always adding more shots to my collection…why? Because I’m always shooting what’s in front of me, because one day it WILL, not might, WILL be gone.
Up the belt by
aloneinbigrapids, on Flickr
CN job L513 with Ex Grand Trunk GP38-2 #5853 is pictured pulling their pickup from Ferrous Processing back to Pontiac Yard on a beautiful June evening back in 2023 on CN’s Pontiac Beltline. In a matter of seconds, the train will take the connection track pictured back to Pontiac Yard and cross over the sizable Walton Blvd crossing
The trackage the 513 is running on is the former Grand Trunk Western Cass City subdivision. Nowadays known by the local foam as the “Lake Orion branch”, since the line continued north to the General Motors Orion plant in Lake Orion. Most of my friends at CN refer to it at as “the beltline” or “the belt”.
The line north of Ferrous was cut and placed OOS in 2017, since the only user of the line (since GM Orion stopped shipping by rail in 2007) was the Ringling Brothers circus train, and that ceased to exist in 2017.
Two customers still see rail traffic on the beltline, Ferrous Processing (where L513 is returning from), and Bolyard Lumber transload, about 200 yards north of where I shot this photo. CN runs the beltline up to three times weekly over to Ferrous and Bolyard.
However, GM Orion is expected to start shipping out by rail sometime in the next few years, and a complete rehab of the line from Collier Road (just north of where Ferrous is) all the way up to GM Orion is currently underway.
Off the beaten path by
aloneinbigrapids, on Flickr
CSX B631 is pictured heading east through Cumberland, Maryland. 631 is a Chicago-Tampa unit tank train for Tampa’s Hookers point fuel terminal. Normally this train turns south at Deshler, Ohio and heads south via Cincinnati, but for some reason, it ran clear across the CSX system to the A-line, and took it all the way down to Florida.
Of note is the cab mounted bell attachment on the CSX AC44 leading, my autism and ADHD did NOT like the fact it was off center. Not sure how it got on the engine given that CSX doesn’t use cab mounted bells.
HOT on the brakes by
aloneinbigrapids, on Flickr
Loaded NS coal train 594 is smoking up a storm as it heads into downtown Altoona with a whopping 8 units. Two units leading, two units serving as Mid DP, and four SD70ACU’s serving as helpers on the bottom.
Even with all of the dynamic braking available with the 8 units, the crew was still giving the brakes on the whole train a workout as they descended into town.
The lighting unfortunately was not to my advantage as it was extremely hazy and backlit, but I felt that the effect of the smoke coming off the cars made up for it.
A much more complicated time by
aloneinbigrapids, on Flickr
During Covid lockdowns (before I had my drivers license), my dad and I would “run for the border” and make a once weekly trip down to Millbury, Ohio on the Chicagoline. Gas was quite cheap back in the spring and summer of 2020, and we took advantage of it.
I was not very serious about photography back then, so my photos were absolutely horrendous. This was one of the lucky shots that were somewhat salvageable with lightroom’s help.
Hotshot intermodal train 206 is seen blitzing past Millbury on a brutally hot and humid August afternoon in Millbury. 206 used to be one of the hottest trains on the chicagoline, it now runs as 28B.
The hidden gem of the motor city by
aloneinbigrapids, on Flickr
There aren’t very many places you could go on the NS system to shoot these former Norfolk and Western high hood SD40-2’s. As most have either been sold off, rebuilt with an admiral cab and then sold, or scrapped.
In Detroit, however, we are very lucky to have a yard (NS’ Oakwood Yard) that operates with the majority of the remaining high hood SD40’s left on the thoroughbred of transportation. They are mainly assigned to captive RCO service and yard switching at Oakwood. However some will occasionally venture out onto the boat line in Detroit on the BD-27 job.
Of course, whenever I try to shoot the ‘27, they’re running it with road power in order to spin the power for outbound trains, or a high hood GP38 borrowed from the CSAO, which I won’t complain about.
NS 1629 (pictured) is not one of those units that runs the boat line as it’s been pretty much always kept in captive RCO yard service, it only leaves the yard for repairs and/or it’s 92 day inspections. I can’t say I’ve seen a photo of the 1629 doing something other than kicking cars in the yard and MAYBE picking up cars at Oakwood Junction from the CN, which is not much more than a mile away and still pretty much in the Oakwood yard limits.
Oakwood used to be the N&W’s expansive yard in Detroit, and to me, it’s likely that the 1629 and it’s fellow SD40 high hood comrades have ran through these yard limits before on merchandise trains for points all over the N&W system.
With that being said, here’s NS 1629 shuffling some cars at Oakwood yard in Detroit. Pictures don’t do this photo justice with the heavenly 645 prime mover sounds the 1629 was making as it passed us about 20 times switching cars around Oakwood.
Transcon Turbine by
aloneinbigrapids, on Flickr
During spring break 2021 and my four state rampage with my dad, we ended up in La Plata, Missouri. One of the trains we saw was this empty eastbound wind turbine train. I can’t say I’ve seen one of these empties before until I shot this, I’ve seen plenty of loads though.
Zippy Z by
aloneinbigrapids, on Flickr
BNSF’s LA to Chicago platinum priority intermodal, Z-LACNYC, is seen racing east by La Plata at 70mph with a quartet of gevo’s and a SD70ACe leading the way. I’ve heard AC powered GEVO’s and the roaring noise they make, but these units at 70mph weren’t roaring, they were screaming. I could hear them from almost a mile away as they flew through the Missouri country side.
Wrong track running by
aloneinbigrapids, on Flickr
Westbound NS train W7V (extra 17V) is seen heading west by Chesterton, Indiana with a pair of C6M’s leading.
Normally westbounds run on track one, this one and the other trains before it running both directions were running on track 2 due to MoW work on M1 at Porter Junction.
I'll add some more tomorrow.