T.G.'s Photography Blog

Years ago while traveling to the Quad Cities area to photograph Iowa Interstate Railway's QJ steam locomotives , my family and I came across the Keokuk and Hamilton Bridge , at Keokuk, Iowa. Originally, the bridge had both a railroad deck and a road deck. However, these days only the railroad deck is still used. Part of the old road deck has been converted to a pedestrian path, but ends at the swing span, which is open in this image to allow river boat traffic to pass. This image's view is looking eastward at the swing span and its control booth, from the Keokuk, Iowa side.I've posted other photographs of this bridge taken at the same time. You can see a few other images that I have taken of the bridge at this link . October 17, 2008. Keokuk, Iowa.

BNSF 9833 works as the distributed power unit (DPU) on an east bound coal train, while a Norfolk Southern train and another BNSF train wait their turn to roll through Birmingham Junction .  The BNSF's Brookfield Subdivision and Norfolk Southern's Kansas City District share tracks between North Kansas City, Missouri and Birmingham, Missouri. Way back when I took this image, Birmingham Junction was easily accessible. The last time I was there around 2013 or 2014, the access road, from which I took this image, was closed off and no trespassing signs were posted. This image was captured on Kodak 400 Royal Gold film and scanned on a Nikon Coolscan film scanner. The resulting scan was saved as a Nikon NEF RAW file, which was then post processed in Adobe Camera RAW and Adobe Photoshop. Photo taken: Spring 2001. Birmingham, Missouri.

Earlier today, I was on my way home from running errands when I saw the crossing signals flashing for the crossing at Winston Hills Parkway. Not knowing which way, the train was heading I made my way to the TN-386 overpass over Nashville Pike and pulled off to the side of the road. Soon, CSXT 5110 and CSXT 408 came north leading their train under the TN-386 overpass. This train was traveling to Louisville, Kentucky, on CSX's Main Line Subdivision , which runs between Nashville, Tennessee, and Louisville. Photo taken on: August 21, 2019, at Hendersonville, Tennessee.

Cedar Rapids at Birmingham, MO The Milwaukee Road Skytop lounge car, Cedar Rapids, brings up the end of Milwaukee Road 261's excursion train at Birmingham Junction . The train was returning to Minneapolis, Minnesota from Kansas City, Missouri. Photo taken: September 26, 2005. Birmingham, Missouri.

TRRA 1239 - Brooklyn, IL Terminal Railroad Association (TRRA) 1239 is on the point of a train switching on the south side of TRRA's Madison Yard. Trains that are switching on the south side of the yard will often pull down toward the crossing at Canal Street/Bend Road (where this shot was taken from) and then make a back up move into the yard. TRRA 1239 is an EMD built SW1200 series locomotive that was built in April of 1965, according to RR Picture Archives (an external link, which will open in a new browser window). MRS boxcars Behind the locomotives are three old Manufacture's Railway (MRS) boxcars. The MRS was a small local St. Louis switching railroad that was originally owned by Anheuser-Busch. When InBev bought Anheuser-Busch, it sold the MRS Railway off to Foster Townsend Rail Logistics, Incorporated. Photo taken: February 26, 2006. Brooklyn, Illinois.

The now unused Sheffield Interlocking Tower 8 sits beside the Kansas City Terminal's (KCT) Sheffield Flyover. Sheffield Tower was operated by the KCT but has stood unused for many years. The Sheffield flyover was built to help facilitate the movement of trains through the area, since there are multiple railroad lines that interchanged and crossed the ground level KCT main line tracks.  The flyover runs between Rock Creek Junction (on the eastern end, by I-435) and Belmont Avenue (on the western end). The KCT utilizes both the flyover and ground level tracks to facilitate the movement of trains on its rail corridor between Rock Creek Junction and Santa Fe Junction (to the west of KC Union Station).  Photo taken: September 26, 2005. Kansas City, Missouri.

While driving down from the summit of Mount Evans, a rainbow developed as rain was falling in the distance. The rain wasn't falling where I took this photograph, but as I drove down from the mountain , the road did snake in and out of some falling rain. Though, it never rained very hard as I was driving down from the summit. Photo taken: September 2, 2013. Mount Evans, in Colorado.

TRRA 1517 , TRRA 1503 , and TRRA 1510 are on the point of a train making a switching move, on the eastern approach to the Merchants Bridge over IL Route 3. The train was performing switching operations at TRRA's Madison Yard , which is about a half a mile east of this location. The train stopped over Route 3, and then made a back up move toward the yard. The Merchants Bridge crosses over the Mississippi River between Venice, IL. and St. Louis, MO. Photo taken: February 26, 2006. Venice, Illinois.

Seen here are the steeples of The Church of Our Lady Before Týn , standing tall above Old Town Square in Prague . Photo taken: April 30, 2015. Prague, Czechia.