T.G.'s Photography Blog

Along Bonta Bridge Road, in Brutus, New York, are remnants of the old West Shore Railroad (WS). The WS tracks crossed over Bonta Bridge Road and the New York Central Railroad tracks which the WS paralleled in the area. Today, the ex-NYC tracks are part of CSX's Rochester Subdivision. The NYC and the WS competed directly with each other between the New York City area and Buffalo, New York. When the WS fell on hard financial times it was taken over by the NYC, eventually making much of the WS' route unneeded. Bonta Bridge Road bridge abutment According to an old map of the WS that I found, on the east-west segment of the two railroads' routes across New York, the WS ran just to the south of the NYC from the Schenectady, New York, and Albany, New York areas to Syracuse, New York. At Syracuse, the WS tracks crossed over and ran to the north of the NYC tracks, before crossing back over to the south side of the NYC tracks at Brutus, New York. Looking north, the eastern abutment s...

ITS McKinley Bridge Approach - St. Louis, MO This view is looking north up the old Illinois Terminal (IT/ITS) approach to the McKinley Bridge from Branch Street, in North St. Louis, MO. The former railway bridge approach is now a hiking and biking trail. The Illinois Terminal was originally an electrified railway, and the old catenary wire supports are still standing above the pathway. Up until June 2004, this approach was still used for railroad operations , though the trains that used it only went up the approach a little ways. Railroad Switching Services of Missouri (RSM/RSSM) operated a train on the old Illinois Terminal Highline Bridge over North St. Louis that delivered newsprint to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. RSM trains would back out of a small rail yard to the south of Branch Street (behind where this photograph was taken from) and move up the approach a short distance, then switch to the track that accessed the Highline Bridge. The McKinley Bridge crosses the ...

Abandoned DART Tracks - Dallas, TX Looking northwest down an abandoned DART right of way, near Bryan Street and Fairmount Street. The tracks were re-routed at some point, and the new route is just behind where I took this photo, along Bryan Street. These tracks are near the DART Pearl/Arts District Station . Photo take: May 2, 2017. Dallas, Texas.

MRS Second Street Trackage - St. Louis, MO Some old Manufacturers Railway street trackage is rusting away in South Second Street, at the entrance to an old chemical plant in South St. Louis, Missouri. Photo taken: January 28, 2012, at St. Louis, Missouri.

Pana Railroad Tower Once the at the crossroads of four railroad lines, this old tower now stands unused. Of the four railroad lines that used to pass through and cross at Pana, only the Union Pacific's (UP) Pana Subdivision is still used. The Pana Subdivision was acquired by UP via a merger with the Missouri Pacific Railroad (MoPac). The old MoPac acquired the line from Conrail, when Conrail sold the line in the 1970s. Photo taken: November 25, 2011. Pana, Illinois.

Illinois Terminal Highline Bridge - St. Louis, MO An old railroad signal still stands on the former Illinois Traction System (ITS)/Illinois Terminal System (ITC) bridge in North St. Louis, at Chambers Street and North 10th Street. The railroad bridge originally carried electric interurban passenger trains from the McKinley Bridge's railroad approach at Branch Street to the Illinois Terminal train station (the former Globe Democrat newspaper building) in downtown St. Louis. At the time this photograph was taken, the bridge had been unused for many years. However, up until the June of 2004, the bridge was used to bring in newsprint by boxcars for delivery to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, St. Louis' biggest daily newspaper. I was able to capture some photographs of the newsprint delivery in the spring of 2004 , just a few months before the operation ended. The final railroad move over the bridge occurred a few years later in the winter of 2006 when the switching locomotiv...

MoPac Caboose 13848 rusts away in the weeds near St. Genevieve, MO. One day while out railfanning south of the St. Louis area, I came across an old Missouri Pacific (MoPac) platform caboose that was just sitting, rusting away in the weeds at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. These old MoPac platform cabooses have always struck me as being an interesting design. One would look great in my backyard so that I could setup a grill on one of the caboose's decks. Photo taken on February 18, 2012, at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.