T.G.'s Photography Blog

Back in April of 2008, I was able to photograph Union Pacific's (UP) heritage locomotive, UP 1995. UP 1995 was leading train MNLAS-22, a manifest train from North Little Rock, Arkansas, to the Alton & Southern's Gateway Yard, in East St. Louis, Illinois. The train originated at North Little Rock on April 22, 2008, and arrived at Gateway Yard on April 23, 2008. UP 1995 and UP 9419 lead train MNLAS-22, north of Fults, IL. I first caught train MNLAS-22 just to the north of Fults, Illinois, as it rolled north on UP's Chester Subdivision. At the location of the photographs above and below the train was about halfway between Fults and Chalfin Bridge, Illinois. The Chester Subdivision runs from Dexter, Missouri, to East St. Louis, Illinois. In Illinois, the line runs across the flat farmland that lies to the east of the Mississippi River. In the photographs taken north of Fults, Illinois, the distance between the spot the photographs were taken to the river bluffs in the backg...

Back in 2008, I caught Union Pacific (UP) 6720 and UP 6726, both ex-Chicago and Northwestern (CNW) locomotives, leading a loaded coal train south through Valley Junction in East St. Louis, Illinois . The train was making its way toward UP's Chester Subdivision, which starts on the southern edge of the junction . At this point the majority of the train is still coming down off of the east approach from the MacArthur Bridge . The MacArthur Bridge crosses the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois.  The junction/interlocking is controlled by the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA). UP 6720 and UP 6726 lead a loaded coal train at Valley Junction. These locomotives are painted in CNW's Operation Lifesaver (OL) paint scheme. While the two locomotives still retained their CNW OL paint scheme, they had been patched as UP locomotives. You can see under the cab's side windows the new UP markings and locomotive numbers. A patched loc...

Chicago and Northwestern 8507 (a GE C40-8) is on the point of a Union Pacific train rolling south at mile post 10 on the UP's Chester Subdivision. I am actually not sure which of the locomotives is spewing the smoke out but whichever one it is, it is doing a great job. This image was scanned from a Kodak Ektachrome slide on a Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED film scanner. I scanned the image as a 16 bit NEF file (Nikon RAW file) and then used Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop to post process the image. May 1997. Columbia, Illinois. Photo © Tom Gatermann. All rights reserved.

November 1, 2006. East St. Louis, Illinois. Union Pacific 6809 and Union Pacific 6703 lead an empty coal train west on the eastern approach of the MacArthur Bridge. The train is passing by Jackie Joyner Park. Union Pacific 6703 is ex-Chicago & Northwestern Railroad (C&NW) 8801, and was one of many locomotives that C&NW painted with the "Operation Lifesaver" logotype on the sides. Photo © Tom Gatermann.