T.G.'s Photography Blog

BNSF 8724 - crossing Hall Street toward Luther Yard On a few days in June 2007, I headed up to North St. Louis to see if there was any railroading action going on around Norfolk Southern's Luther Yard. On one of those days I was driving north on Hall Street when I saw the RR crossing lights start to flash for the transfer track between the BNSF's North St. Louis Yard and Norfolk Southern's Luther Yard. I pulled the car over quickly to the side of the road and was able to grab a couple of photographs as BNSF 8724 crossed Hall Street leading a transfer train to Luther Yard. This is one of the few images I have ever gotten of a train using this transfer track. The track is not a long one, as the two yards are only about three tenths of a mile (approximately half a kilometer) apart. At Luther Yard Next I headed over to Carrie Avenue on the south end of Norfolk Southern's Luther Yard in North St. Louis. Not much was going on at the time but I was able to captu...

Norfolk Southern (NS) 9599, Norfolk Southern 8450, and two other unknown locomotives, lead a train east along Switzer Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri. The train is rounding the curve at milepost 8 on the Norfolk Southern's St. Louis District. Soon, the train will be entering  Luther Yard  after having made the trek from Moberly, Missouri, where the St. Louis District meets up with the Norfolk Southern's Hannibal District and  Kansas City District . NS 9599 and NS 8450 - St. Louis, MO NS 9599 and NS 8450 NS 9599 is a model C44-9W (Dash 9-44CW), and was built by General Electric.  NS 8450 is ex-Conrail locomotive CR 757, according to RR Picture Archives. It is a model C40-8W, and was built by General Electric for Conrail in 1994. Since the time that this photograph was taken, NS 8450 has been repainted into Norfolk Southern's Thoroughbred paint scheme, which is the paint scheme that NS 8450 is painted in. NS St. Louis District The St. Louis District runs betwe...

CSX 2708 - Red River Road - Gallatin, TN CSX 2708 gets ready to lead a local train down the former Louisville and Nashville Railroad's (L&N) Scottsville Branch Line. The train is seen here sitting at the Red River Road railroad crossing. Behind the train and out of site is the CSX Main Line Subdivision , which was also a L&N rail line. These days, according to an old CSX timetable from 2005, the branch line is known as the C&N Branch. CSX 2708 - Steam Plant Road - Gallatin, TN In the second photograph CSX 2708 is nearing the Steam Plant Road crossing on the branch line. Just behind the train and out of site, is a spur line that diverges from the C&N Branch and runs down to the TVA's Gallatin Steam Plant. Scottsville Branch Line The Scottsville Branch line was built in the 1880s, and it ran between Gallatin, Tennessee, and Scottsville, Kentucky. Initially, the line was started by the Cumberland and Ohio Railroad, but it was finished by th...

BNSF 662, BNSF 4954, and BNSF 5442 - Fort Scott Sub. BNSF 662, BNSF 4954, and BNSF 5442 lead a train north on the Fort Scott Subdivision in the Marais Des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge . This photograph was taken along Stillwell Road, about halfway between Lacygne, Kansas, and Pleasanton, Kansas, and just to the west of Trading Post, Kansas. Lacygne is milepost 62.5 and Pleasanton is milepost 74.0 on the BNSF Fort Scott Subdivision .  BNSF 662, BNSF 4954, and BNSF 5442 All three of the locomotives on this train were built by General Electric and are the same model/type, C44-9W.  BNSF 662 is a former Santa Fe Railway locomotive that at the time of the photograph was still painted in the Warbonnet paint scheme . BNSF 662 was built in September, 1994; BNSF 4954 was built in December, 1998; and BNSF 5442 was built in July, 2000. BNSF 4954 and 5442 are painted in BNSF's Heritage II paint scheme. BNSF Fort Scott Subdivision The BNSF Fort Scott Subdivision runs betwe...

UP 3985 - Chester Subdivision - Columbia, IL Back in October of 2010, Union Pacific's Challenger 3985 came to St. Louis, Missouri. On October 7, the steam locomotive took an excursion train south to Gorham, Illinois , and then back to St. Louis. The first photograph, above, is of the locomotive as it heads south on the Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision at Columbia, Illinois. This was the only photograph I managed to get of the locomotive on the outbound trip to Gorham. The train was traveling at a fast pace, and due to a road closure at Chester, Illinois, my dad and I could not keep with it. So, after lunch in Chester, we found a photographic spot to capture UP 3985 from on the return trip. UP 3985 - Kaskaskia River - Chester Subdivision After Union Pacific 3985 got to Gorham, Illinois, it was turned around on the wye tracks between the Chester Subdivision and the Mount Vernon Subdivision. It then began its journey back to St. Louis. On the return journey we c...