Daily Uploads

[SD80MAC]

Malden by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

IBCX SDM #813 arrives in Malden with four tanks, on the west end of the former C&O of Indiana. Chesapeake & Indiana RR. 8/27/2020

Penn Central Box by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

This old Penn Central X77 boxcar was nearing the end of its life when I found it parked in Lake Odessa, MI. At the time this old box was hauling cotton seed for the Co-Op in town. It was scrapped a few years later, still wearing its original PC green! 9/23/2006

[AARR]

Penn Central Box by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

This old Penn Central X77 boxcar was nearing the end of its life when I found it parked in Lake Odessa, MI. At the time this old box was hauling cotton seed for the Co-Op in town. It was scrapped a few years later, still wearing its original PC green! 9/23/2006

Back in the days when cottonseed was shipped in boxcars (which is not all that long ago) they usually used older heavily weathered ones and I enjoyed seeing them still in service

[SD80MAC]

Y106 @ Beacon by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

GP40-2 #6244 prepares to shove some empty gons into Beacon Recycling for loading in Grand Rapids. 7/21/2021

Thornapple Overpass by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

With the local power from Lansing tucked in behind the road power, Q327 powers up the Thornapple grade west-bound into Grand Rapids. The Norfolk Southern boxcars on the head end are all empty from the GM plant in Oshawa, ON. The cars are heading back to GM's Fisher Body stamping plant in Grand Rapids on the NS, where they will be loaded again. The cars will then be handed off to CSX and added to CP train X500, who will take them back to Oshawa. This was a neat little conveyor belt for some hot traffic that was a great source of pride for the local CSX and NS employees. 3/14/2008

[SD80MAC]

Clinchfield Leader by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

Clinchfield's original SD40 leads Q335 west into Grand Rapids back in April of 2008. Built as CRR #3000, the locomotive was rebuilt to SD40-2 specs in the 1990s by VMV. Tucked behind #8335 is another SD40-2, CSX #8027. 4/26/2008

MQT SD40-2 #3389 by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

Formerly the world famous GLLX #3001, this former Canadian Pacific SD40-2 is now just another orange unit in G&W's sea of EMDs. Taken at the west end of CSX's Wyoming Yard as Z151 yarded their inbound train. 1/28/2021

Barr Sub Freight by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

An eastbound CSX freight is approaching Clarke Rd on the Barr Sub behind a dog's breakfast of power that includes 3 different EMDs (a CEFX SD40M-2, HLCX SD40-2, and an IC SD40-2R) and an ex Conrail B40-8. 5/27/2006

UP DDA40X #6930 by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

Of the 47 EMD DDA40X "Centennials" built, 13 survive today. One of these is at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL. While the locomotive does not run under its own power, it has been used as a "cab car" over the years MU'd to other locomotives. Like much of IRM's collection, #6930 is patiently waiting for a bit of TLC. This is certainly not a knock against IRM, they have a massive collection that they have their hands full with! 7/13/2008

[AARR]

Is this a relatively new spur?

Y106 @ Beacon by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

GP40-2 #6244 prepares to shove some empty gons into Beacon Recycling for loading in Grand Rapids. 7/21/2021

[SD80MAC]

Yes, built in 2019.

[SD80MAC]

Ivanrest by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

SD40-3 #4050 has 2 cars for the West Michigan RR and 5 for Arlington Metals as D700 leaves Grand Rapids westbound. 3/31/2020

Working the GRE by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

Grand Elk's 120 job has just dropped off a cut of cars on the Grand Rapids Eastern interchange and is now lining the switches so they can head back south. GP38-3 #3829 was 1 of the original 10 Grand Elk units. These days I believe it's on the WSOR. 2/25/2010

[SD80MAC]

Conrail Quality by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

A pair of MOW-assigned SD50-2s approach Breton Ave in Grand Rapids with empty ballast train W078. The 2400 series SD50-2s were CSX's second attempt at maintaining a fleet of locomotives specifically assigned to the MOW department. More often than not, they were stolen by the operating department and used on regular trains, much to the MOW people's chagrin. 7/1/2008

Turbo Lover by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

Far from being the most 80s-sounding Judas Priest song ever, the last remaining French RTG "Turboliner", one of the first pieces of new equipment purchased by Amtrak, sits forlorn and derelict in a southern Indiana scrap yard. 4/3/2022

[SD80MAC]

D700 Power by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

GP38-2 #2567 and GP40-2 #4411 sit at the west end of 35 track in Wyoming yard after having worked the previous night's D700. Both units were in Grand Rapids for most of that summer/fall. 10/12/2008

Fox by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

Q326 is running through the siding at Fox as G010 sits on the main. The grain train power (an SD60 and a CW44AH) apparently developed some kind of problem and ended up heading back to the yard here. A former L&N SD40-2 leads a C40-8W on Q326. 1/2/2009

[SD80MAC]

Foreigners in East Lansing by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

A BNSF SD40-2 and SD70MAC lead a westbound CN train past the old East Lansing Amtrak depot on a brilliant spring day in 2007. I always thought SD40-2s looked really good in BNSF's Heritage I scheme. 4/21/2007

F*ckingham by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

GTW #5930 and its GP38-2 mate take headroom across the CSX diamond in Effingham, IL, as they switch a cut of intermodal. 5/5/2019

[SD80MAC]

Durand Yard by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

A cab ride on Great Lakes Central's OSTN in May of 2008 finds us setting out Minnesota Northern GP9 #1471 at the Huron & Eastern's yard in Durand. The Rail America painted Geep had been in Owosso at GLC's shops for some wheel work that was beyond the capabilities of the HESR's own shop and was being returned to "home rails". 5/23/2008

Y103 by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

CSX's 1st shift west end switcher, the Y103, is busy kicking cars on the west end of Wyoming Yard on a sunny fall day with Grand Rapids-regular MP15AC #1139. 10/15/2005

Slugger by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

CSX #2239 and #6470, a mother and slug set, rest for the night with the local caboose at CSX's Waverly Yard. 7/16/2022

Poho by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

This image is pretty fuzzy, but when was the last time you saw an IC SD70 and a BC Rail Dash 9 together? A westbound heads up and out of the tunnel at Port Huron on New Year's Eve 2011. 12/31/2011

[AARR]

I like how you captured the scrap gondola

Durand Yard by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

A cab ride on Great Lakes Central's OSTN in May of 2008 finds us setting out Minnesota Northern GP9 #1471 at the Huron & Eastern's yard in Durand. The Rail America painted Geep had been in Owosso at GLC's shops for some wheel work that was beyond the capabilities of the HESR's own shop and was being returned to "home rails". 5/23/2008

[Dan Cluley]

Is that available light for the Waverly shot, or a flash setup? Either way, nicely done.

[SD80MAC]

Is that available light for the Waverly shot, or a flash setup? Either way, nicely done.

Ambient light.

[NS3322]

GP38-3 #3829 was 1 of the original 10 Grand Elk units. These days I believe it's on the WSOR. 2/25/2010

It's in storage on the K&O in Wichita:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjkltz/52 ... iTw-6879pr

[SD80MAC]

Hoosier State by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

One of Amtrak's long distance trains is about to be shoved through the car washer as Iowa Pacific's Hoosier State backs into CUS after turning on the wye. The short-lived venture seemed like it was too good to last, and unfortunately it was. Thanks, IPH management! 2/21/2016

CN SD40-2W #5346 by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

A sunny spring day finds a clean (recently repainted?) SD40-2W holding down the Kalamazoo local at Kilgore yard. Less than half of CN's SD40-2W fleet was built with dynamic brakes, oddly enough. 5/5/2016

Detroit Edison Empties by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

An SD70ACe and an SD70MAC have 130 empties in tow as they descend Otis Hill. Holmesville, IN 7/7/2019

First ACe by Jonathon Leese, on Flickr

CSXT #4836, the first SD70ACe I would ever shoot, leads an eastern coal train into Grand Rapids in the spring of 2006. 3/18/2006