T.G.'s Photography Blog

On a sunny day, a nonbreeding adult ring-billed gull flies over the southern end of Onondaga Lake.  The most populous bird at Onondaga Lake has to be the ring-billed gull, commonly just referred to as a seagull.  The birds are commonly be found on coastal beaches, near inland lakes, dumps, and parking lots. While these birds can be found along the coasts they are primarily found living inland. Ring-billed gulls swooping down and trying to pluck fish from Onondaga Lake. Top photograph taken on November 9, 2022, at Syracuse, New York. Bottom photo taken on November 3, 2022, at Syracuse, New York.

  CSX's 1st Ward Lead is a short industrial lead that now serves a single customer, Pak Technologies, in Syracuse, New York. The line ends in Syracuse's 1st Ward. The 1st Ward Lead diverges from CSX's Syracuse Terminal Subdivision just east of the Amtrak station and curves around the backside of NBT Bank Stadium. It then runs south-westerly toward Hiawatha Boulevard.  In this view looking north, CSXT 2694 leads L024-10 across 4th N. Street at Hiawatha Blvd. The tree line in the distance hides the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision.   The 1st Ward Lead then curves on a northeasterly direction and crosses 4th N. Street. After crossing 4th N. Street, the line runs parallel to Hiawatha Blvd. and even passes right in front of a few houses along Hiawatha Blvd.  L024 is ready to switch out tank cars at the only customer on the 1st Ward Lead, along Hiawatha Blvd.   The 1st Ward Lead originally continued into the Eaton Crouse-Hinds plant located at Hiawatha Blvd. and 7...

  Looking straight down at the snow-covered trees.  With a fresh coating of snow on the forest near my house , I sent the drone up to capture some photographs. This view is looking straight down at the snow-covered trees from about 200 feet above the ground. The trees are all around 100 feet tall.  Photograph taken on December 12, 2022, near Syracuse, New York.

  With snow on the ground, CSX train M364-14 is eastbound along Clinton Road at Pump Road.   With a couple of inches of snow on the ground, I caught CSX manifest train M364-14 as it came eastbound at Brutus, New York. CSXT 3256, CSXT 8842, and CSXT 6143 are leading M364 alongside Clinton Road, at Pump Road. This is milepost (MP) 309 of CSX's Rochester Subdivision. The old New York Central milepost 309 marker still stands here on the south side of the tracks, just west of the Pump Road railroad crossing (out of sight, bottom left). The train will soon pass-through Control Point (CP) 308 (MP QC 308.6) and enter Jordan, New York. This side of CP 308 is known as Jordan, as well. However, officially the train is the Town of Brutus, New York. Photograph taken on December 15, 2022, at Brutus, New York.

  With snow falling, M561-18 is westbound on Main 2 of the Rochester Subdivision at Memphis, NY. Yesterday with some mid-morning snow falling, I caught CSXT 214 leading M561-19 (manifest train, Selkirk, New York, to Cincinnati, Ohio) at Memphis, New York . The train is westbound on Track 2 of CSX's Rochester Subdivision. In the distance, obscured by the snow the train is passing through Control Point (CP) 300 at Warner's New York. M561-18 is stopped at CP 306 as a crew member works to find the train's issue.   A short time after the train passed through Memphis, it made an emergency stop at  Jordan, New York , due to a loss of the computer display screens in the cab. The problem was a loose battery knife switch on the lead locomotive that caused the unit to lose partial power. Photograph taken on December 19, 2022, at Memphis, New York. 

  Heading east, the Lake Shore Limited is rounding the curve at Oakland Rd. Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited (train symbol P04815), led by AMTK 124 and AMTK 90, is eastbound on CSX's Rochester Subdivision at Weedsport, New York. The Lake Shore Limited is coming around the curve at Oakland Road. This is milepost QC 313 of the Rochester Subdivision. CP 313 and the Centerport defect detector are about half a mile west of this location, hidden by the trees.  Photograph taken on December 15, 2022, at Weedsport, New York.

  UP 2584 and UP 7323 passes by the old Railroad "Y" (red building to the left) at East Syracuse, NY. B741-07 passed through East Syracuse, New York, last weekend, and was led by a pair of Union Pacific (UP) locomotives. UP 2585 and UP 7323 provided another primary color to the railroad landscape of Syracuse, which primarily sees CSX blue. In the above photograph, the locomotives are leading B741 through CP 286 of CSX's Syracuse Terminal Subdivision. B741 is a loaded ethanol train that runs from Proviso, Illinois, to Linden, New Jersey. The train is handed over to CSX from UP at Proviso.  Photograph taken on December 10, 2022, at East Syracuse, New York.

  Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited crosses over Onondaga Creek, at the southern end of Onondaga Lake.   AMTK 108 , Amtrak's Phase VI 50th anniversary locomotive, leads the eastbound Lake Shore Limited across Onondaga Creek . AMTK 108 is one of six locomotives painted to commemorate Amtrak's' 50th anniversary. Here, Onondaga Creek empties into Onondaga Lake on the lake's southeastern end. The view is looking northwest towards the industrial area that sits to the south of the New York State Fairgrounds on the lake's western side. Photograph taken on October 11, 2022, at Syracuse, New York.

Under an overcast sky, B725-12 is eastbound on Track 2, passing by the Jordan Industrial Lead.    On a dreary fall day in Central New York, Canadian Pacific (CP) 8000 added pop of color to the landscape. CP 8000 and Norfolk Southern (NS) 4334 are leading loaded ethanol train B725 -12 east on CSX's Rochester Subdivision. The train was handed off from CP at Bensenville, Illinois. CSX will take the train to Sewaren, New Jersey. Once the train was unloaded it came back west through Central New York as train B726-17, on November 19, 2022. Photograph taken on November 14, 2022, at Jordan, New York .