T.G.'s Photography Blog

BNSF 5504 at North Market Interlocking - St. Louis, MO BNSF 5504 leads a train northbound at TRRA's North Market Interlocking . The locomotives have just come off of the Terminal Railroad Association's (TRRA) Merchants Subdivision (which is just beyond the block signal) and onto the BNSF's Hannibal subdivision, at Branch Street , in North St. Louis, Missouri. BNSF Railway trains utilize the TRRA Merchants Subdivision for about five miles, between North Market Interlocking and Grand Interlocking. Both interlockings are controlled by the TRRA. Grand Interlocking is located a few miles west of downtown St. Louis, and is a junction of the Merchants Subdivision, BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision, and Union Pacific's Jefferson City Subdivision. Photo taken: August 22, 2006, at St. Louis, Missouri.

Tram 7192 - Prague Tram 7192, a Tatra T3M model , makes its way west across the Mánesův most (Mánes Bridge) which crosses the River Vltava between Alšovo nábřeží (Aleš Embankment) and Malá Strana (Lesser Town/Quarter) in Prague. The bridge was completed in 1914, and is named for the Czech painter Josef Mánes. On the left side of the photograph are the two steeples of The Church of Our Lady Before Týn . The single tower in the center right of the photograph is the Prague Astronomical Clock Tower at Old Town Square. This photograph was taken from the grounds of Prague Castle. Photo taken: April 29, 2015, at Prague, Czechia.

UP 8214 and SP 338 - Fountain, IL Union Pacific 8214 and Southern Pacific 338 are leading an empty coal train north across Fountain Creek, at Fountain, IL., on Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision. At the time of this photograph SP 338 was still in its Southern Pacific paint scheme, and was un-patched , even though the locomotive was owned by Union Pacific. When a locomotive is refereed to as being patched, it means the locomotive still retains the predecessor railroad's paint scheme, but its numbering has been changed by the railroad that currently owns it.  The train was on its way back to a mine in the Powder River Coal Basin , located in the Western United States. The train would travel north from here to St. Louis, then across Missouri to Kansas City. Then from Kansas City, the train would most likely travel to North Platte, NE, and then on toward a coal mine in Wyoming. Photo taken: June 19, 2004, at Fountain, Illinois.

LMX 8598, LMX 8532 and BN 5492 - McCook, NE Here we see Burlington Northern 5492, a GE built B30-7, as the third unit on a west bound train on Burlington Northern's Hastings Subdivision. The first two locomotives are lease units, LMX 8598 and LMX 8532, and both units are GE built B39-8E models. The train was passing by the McCook Amtrak station/Burlington Northern office building. At the time there was a pedestrian bridge over the tracks, which is where I took this image from. Today, looking on Google Maps, it looks like the bridge is gone. Today, this railroad line is owned by the BNSF Railway, due to the merger of the Burlington Northern Railroad and the Santa Fe Railway that was started in September 1995, and was officially completed in December 1996. This photograph is an oldie (at least for me) but a goodie in my opinion. The photograph isn't the greatest from a composition or technical standpoint, but the photograph's content is something that will not be

BNSF 4424 and BNSF 5671 - Kansas City, MO BNSF 4424 and BNSF 5671 lead an empty coal train under the interchange approaches between Interstate 35 and Interstate 70 in the West Bottoms area of Kansas City. The train is heading north and will make its way through the " Goose Neck ", which is just around the bend ahead, and then across the Hannibal Bride over the Missouri River. After crossing the river, the train will arrive at BNSF's Murray Yard in North Kansas City, Missouri.The train came up through BN Crossing at Santa Fe Junction , on BNSF's Fort Scott Subdivision. Photo taken: Kansas City, Missouri. September 26, 2005.

In this first photograph, BNSF 7824 and BNSF 7039 are seen sitting on the BNSF Hannibal Subdivision (the tracks curving in from the left side) at Grand Interlocking. The train was waiting for clearance to proceed east, through the interlocking and onto the TRRA Merchants Subdivision. The other set of tracks that curve in from the right side of the photograph are Union Pacific's Jefferson City Subdivision. After the BNSF train makes its way onto the TRRA Merchants Subdivision , it will head toward north St. Louis, where the train will get back on to the Hannibal Subdivision at North Market Interlocking. The road way in the photograph is the Chouteau Avenue overpass. This second image shows a closer view of the BNSF train as it sits waiting to proceed through the interlocking. Grand Interlocking is one of the busiest railroad junctions in the St. Louis area. Amtrak, BNSF, TRRA, and UP trains all pass through this junction. Amtrak trains that pass through the interlocking

VIA Ingersoll, ON Schedule A VIA schedule sign and an old Bell Telephone sign hang on the outside of the VIA passenger station in Ingersoll, Ontario. The station serves VIA passenger trains that run between London, Ontario and Toronto, Ontario. The train station sits along Canadian National's double-track Dundas Subdivision , which runs between Hamilton, Ontario (at Bayview Junction) and London, Ontario. Photo taken: September 18, 2015. Ingersoll, Ontario.  External links: CN Dundas Sub , from NiagaraRails.com (A Web Archive link)

NKP 765 leads train O99 south at Palmer, IL. Nickel Plate Road (NKP) 765 , Norfolk Southern (NS) 1072, and NS 1070 lead NS train O99 south on the Brooklyn District near Palmer, Illinois. The steam locomotive and its train were on the way from Decatur, Illinois, to the St. Louis, Missouri, area to run some Norfolk Southern employee appreciation excursions, over the weekend of September 8-9, 2012. Norfolk Southern 1070 and Norfolk Southern 1072 are two of Norfolk Southern's heritage locomotives. These locomotives are painted in past paint schemes of railroads that NS has merged with over the years. NS 1072 is painted in an Illinois Terminal Railroad paint scheme, while NS 1070 is painted in a Wabash Railroad paint scheme. Photo taken: September 6, 2012. Palmer, Illinois. 

A view from Mount Evans While driving down from Mount Evans, in the Rocky Mountains , I spotted this streak of light poking through the clouds. The view is looking west, from Squaw Pass Road (Rt. 103), toward a ridge line between Alpine Peak and Sugarloaf Peak. There had been a bit of rain on and off as I drove down from the summit of Mount Evans, but by the time I reached this point the clouds were starting to break up and the rain was moving away. Photo taken: September 2, 2013, west of Evergreen, CO., and southwest of Idaho Springs, Colorado.

UP 4006 - Stained Tender -Kirkwood, MO After years of exposure to the natural elements at the Museum of Transportation , the side of Union Pacific Big Boy 4006's tender is stained with streaks. Photo taken: August 16, 2012. Kirkwood, Missouri.

CP 5982 and CP 5776 - Gorham, IL Canadian Pacific (CP) 5982 and CP 5776 lead a trailer train under the old signal bridges at Gorham, IL. The train was heading north on Union Pacific's (UP) Chester Subdivision, and it would eventually make its way to the St. Louis area, via Dupo, IL. Both of these locomotives were built as EMD SD40-2 models . CP 5982 was built in January, 1981, and CP 5776 was built in February 1976. These signal bridges date from the days when this line was a former Missouri Pacific (MoPac) line, before the Union Pacific acquired the MoPac in 1982. While both of these signal bridges look to still be visible on Google Maps' satellite view, many of the old MoPac era signal bridges along this line are now gone. The signal bridge in the background (middle right of the photograph) is a cantilever type signal bridge . This train was a surprise, and quite a different sight from the standard parade of Union Pacific Amour Yellow locomotives that haul tra

NS 9947 at BN Crossing Norfolk Southern 9447 is leading a train westbound on KCT Main 4, through BN Crossing at Santa Fe Junction . The train is crossing over the diamonds that intersect with BNSF's Fort Scott Subdivision. From here the train could have either gone west over the lower deck of KCT's Highline Bridge, over the Kansas River, or it could have taken a turn to the southwest and gone toward BNSF's Argentine Yard in Kansas City, Kansas. The taller bridge is the flyover that connects KCT's tracks by KC Union Station (to the east of here) to BNSF's Argentine Yard (to the west/southwest of Santa Fe Junction). The flyover carries tracks, AC1 and AC2. Before the flyover was built, trains would use the ground level tracks, KCT Main 3 and KCT Main 4 (the one NS 9447 is on) to get between Argentine Yard and the KCT tracks by KC Union Station. The bridge in front of the flyover is the connector track between the Main 2 on the Fort Scott Subdivision

NS 6783 (ex-Conrail) nearing Hole in the Wall on the Springfield Subdivision . Here, Norfolk Southern (NS) 6783, a former Conrail (external link) locomotive, leads a manifest freight train south on the joint trackage next to the north approach. The train will take the switch just ahead of it, go to its left, and pass through Hole in the Wall. Hole in the Wall is the name given to a pass through on the joint Union Pacific (UP) and Kansas City Southern (KCS) trackage in East St. Louis that passes under the TRRA's north approach to the MacArthur Bridge. The UP and KCS share trackage between Valley Junction , located in East St. Louis, Illinois, and Godfrey, Illinois, to the north of here. The grain cars to the left of the photograph are on a track that serves a facility along the East St. Louis riverfront. NS 6783 (ex-Conrail) is exiting Hole in the Wall. NS 6783 is now coming out from under the north approach to the MacArthur Bridge, through "Hole In The Wa

UP 7347 and UP 7374 - Highline Bridge - KC Skyline With downtown Kansas City in the background, Union Pacific 7347 and Union Pacific 7374 lead a westbound manifest freight train onto the east approach of the KCT's Highline Bridge . The train will momentarily be crossing over BN Crossing , at Santa Fe Junction, before crossing over the Kansas River, at Kansas City, Kansas. Photo taken: August 27, 2005. Kansas City, Missouri.

UP 6071 at Winter Park, CO Union Pacific 6071 leads a loaded coal train east on UP's Moffat Subdivision, near Timberhouse Road in Winter Park, Colorado. This heavy coal train could be heard climbing the grade for miles, as it made its way toward the Moffat Tunnel, from the west. At this point, the train was about half a mile away from the west portal of the tunnel. From here the train will continue on toward the Denver, Colorado area, however, its final destination is unknown to me. Photo taken: August 25, 2005. Winter Park, Colorado.

End of the Line at Pikes Peak Looking down from the end of the line, of the Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway, at the summit of Pikes Peak.The top of the mountain offers some really spectacular views. It was very interesting to be able to walk up to the very end of the tracks, which hung a bit over the edge of the mountain. Photo taken: August 26, 2005. Pikes Peak, Colorado.

UP 7162 at Columbia, IL In the late afternoon light, Union Pacific 7162 is leading a loaded coal train south on Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision . The train has just left Dupo Yard to the north, and it is nearing the BB Road crossing, which is just north of Interstate 255. The red block signals in the distance are on the southern end of Dupo Yard, at what is commonly referred to as Bixby. The original image was a 35mm transparency that was converted to digital using a copy slide setup. Photo taken: Circa 2000. Columbia, Illinois.

Union Pacific 2979 (an EMD SD40-2) and an unknown Norfolk Southern unit lead a trailer train south at mile post 10 on Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision . The train is approaching the DD Road crossing, just to the south of Interstate 255. In the background, the train is passing under the Interstate 255 overpass. From here, the train will continue south on the Chester Subdivision down into southern Illinois, passing through the town of Chester, Illinois, which the rail line is named for. After, continuing south from Chester, it will pass through Gorham, Illinois, where the Union Pacific's Mount Vernon Subdivision meets up with the Chester Subdivision. Eventually, the train will cross over the Mississippi River into Missouri, from Thebes, IL. Once in Missouri, it  will travel on into Arkansas, and most likely on toward Texas. Though, it could also have headed toward the Memphis, Tennessee area. About the image The image was scanned from a Kodak Ektachrome slide, us

CSX 7371 - Springfield, TN Back in the winter of 2016, I caught CSX 7371 sitting on the point of a manifest freight train, just to the north of the crossovers at control point Courtland, on CSX's Henderson Subdivision. The train was stopped here, while it waited for a couple of other trains to pass it on their way to and from the Nashville, Tennessee area. The Henderson Subdivision runs between the Evansville, Indiana, and Madison, Tennessee. The southern end of the subdivision is at Amqui, a railroad junction in Madison. At Amqui, the Henderson Subdivision feeds into the Nashville Terminal Subdivision. Photo taken: January 25, 2016. Springfield, Tennessee.

UP's KC Metro Subdivision The view in this image is looking toward the southwest, down Union Pacific's K.C. Metro Subdivision from the old Santa Fe Avenue crossing in the West Bottoms area of Kansas City. The nearest railroad crossing in the photo is Mulberry Street, and the furthest crossing is Hickory Street. In the far distance are two railroad bridges that cross over the Kansas River. The road bridge is the James Street bridge, and it is where the Kansas-Missouri state border intersects the rail line. Photo taken: November 9, 2007. Kansas City, Missouri.

UP 6838 - KCT Highline Bridge - Santa Fe Junction - Kansas City Union Pacific 6838 is on the point of an eastbound coal train that is rolling across the upper deck of KCT's Highline Bridge. The train is crossing over the Kansas River, and is nearing the Kansas-Missouri state border, at Santa Fe Junction. The train is approximately 1,000 feet from the state line, where it will cross into Kansas City, Missouri from Kansas City, Kansas. Photo taken: November 9, 2007. Kansas City, Kansas.