About the site

This site was originally started using posts from my old Google+ profile. I was able to export the Google+ posts and import them into a Blogger blog just before Google+ was shut down in early 2019. Many of the posts on this site are still in a social media format, rather than a blog format, due to the way this site was started. This is why you will see some posts that have hashtags and very short descriptions in them. Slowly, things like that will go away as I clean the posts up.

If you used to follow my photography on my old website, The Web Yard (hosted at gatermannt.homeip.net), this site is its replacement.  If you choose, you can follow me here by subscribing in a number of ways.

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All images/photographs are copyrighted © by Tom Gatermann. All rights reserved.

Popular Posts

RSM Newsprint Train - Illinois Terminal Highline Bridge

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In the spring of 2004, I came across Railroad Switching Service of Missouri's (RSM) newsprint train, which delivered boxcars of newsprint to the St. Louis Post Dispatch in downtown St. Louis. This switching operation utilized the Illinois Terminal's (ITS) former Highline Bridge in North St. Louis, as well as the former ITS subway tunnel under the northern edge of downtown. I was lucky to come across this operation and capture the few images that I did because a few months after I took these images, the delivery of newsprint to the St. Louis Post Dispatch ended in June 2004. I was able to photograph the newsprint delivery operation on a couple of different days, but the following photographs are from only one of those days.

In the first image, above, RSM 2020 (sometimes referred to as RSSM 2020) shoves a pair of empty boxcars south from Branch Street. The crew would set out the empty boxcars at the southern end of this small rail yard, and then pickup the loaded boxcars of ne…
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Stack train on the flyover at Santa Fe Junction - Kansas City

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This BNSF stack train was heading west over the flyover, also known as the Argentine Connection, at Santa Fe Junction, back in September 2005. This photo was taken from the observation deck of the Liberty Memorial. The Santa Fe Junction area is vast and complex, with three levels of distinct rail lines.
The highest level is the flyover, which now serves as the primary way that BNSF trains get from the KCT tracks at Kansas City Union Station (outside of the photograph on the right) to Argentine Yard in Kansas City, Kansas. The flyover carries KCT tracks AC1 and AC2 above the lower levels; the stack train is on track AC2.

The middle level, is the KCT Highline Bridge that passes under the flyover, and carries rail traffic over the Kansas River. Once this bridge gets to the Kansas River, it becomes a double-deck bridge. You can see the Highline Bridge as it crosses the Kansas River in the upper right corner. A pair of tracks on the ground level also cross over the Kansas River on the low…
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UP 2979 - Trailer Train - Milepost 10 - Chester Subdivision

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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, using a Nikon C…
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A Sailboat On Lake Michigan As The Sun Heads Down To The Horizon

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August 13, 2008. Chicago, Illinois.

Here's my contribution for the return of #TransportTuesday, curated by Shelly Gunderson and myself (Transport Tuesday was a weekly theme that was popular on Google+).

This image was captured while out sailing on Lake Michigan, many years ago with one of my best friends. After a day of railfanning on the south side of the Chicago area, we met up with one of his friends who took us out sailing on the lake.

Photo © Tom Gatermann.
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CSX 589 - Nashville National Cemetery - Madison, TN

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CSX 589 and CSX 7906 are leading a CSX intermodal train south on CSX's Nashville Terminal Subdivision, through Nashville National Cemetery. Below, double-stack containers in well cars, on the train led by CSX 589, cross over a short tunnel that carries a road between the two sides of Nashville National Cemetery. The Nashville Terminal Subdivision runs right through the middle of the national cemetery, on a slightly angled north-south axis. The rail line, which was here before the cemetery was founded, was originally owned by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.


Nashville Terminal Subdivision The Nashville Terminal Subdivision (NTS) is a busy, double-track rail line. Both CSX's Henderson Subdivision and CSX's Mainline Subdivision feed into the Nashville Terminal Subdivision on its northern end in Madison, Tennessee. The Nashville Terminal Subdivision starts north of the cemetery at a control point (CP) called Monfort, on the border between Madison and Hendersonvill…
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