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.

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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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Union Pacific 3985 - Superbowl XXXVIII Special - Buffalo, KS

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Union Pacific 3985 fills the cold winter sky with smoke as the Super Bowl XXXVIII Special heads north Union Pacific's Coffeyville Subdivision, toward Kansas City, Missouri. The train would stay over night in Kansas City before moving on to its next stop on the return leg of the Super Bowl XXXVIII Special tour. Eventually UP 3985 would return home to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where Union Pacific's heritage steam locomotives are based out of. About the image This image was originally captured on Kodak Ektachrome slide film, and scanned on a Nikon CoolScan 9000 ED film scanner. Conversion was done in Adobe Photoshop, using Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro.
Photo taken: February 8, 2004, at Buffalo, Kansas.
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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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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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BNSF 4207 - Nearing Santa Fe Junction - Kansas City

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BNSF 4207 (a GE B23-7) leads a train south at Santa Fe Junction. BNSF 4207 is a patched ex-Santa Fe unit. The train was on its way from BNSF's Murray Yard in North Kansas City, Missouri, to BNSF's Argentine Yard, in Kansas City, Kansas.  The train is making its way down  KCT Track 80, and onto BNSF Main 4. The two tracks that veer off to the left side of the photograph lead to the lower deck of the KCT's Highline Bridge. The two tracks that curve under the West 23rd Street bridge to the right of the train are BNSF's Fort Scott Subdivision.

There are a number of bridges in this photograph. The closest bridge, in the background, is the West 23rd Street Trafficway overpass. Beyond that is the faded green Intestate 670 bridge, at the northern end of BNSF's 19th Street Yard. Just beyond the Interstate highway bridge is the 12th Street viaduct, which is a multi-level road bridge.

Photo taken: June 16, 2004. Kansas City, Missouri.
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