T.G.'s Photography Blog

With a fresh coating of snow on the ground, from an overnight snowfall, my youngest and I headed out to see if we could find any trains on CSX's Rochester Subdivision . We heard train I017-23 call out that it had a clear signal at control point (CP) 290, which is in Syracuse, New York, on the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision . We were at Warners, New York, about ten miles ahead of I017-23 , so I decided to go to Memphis, New York, to catch the train. CSXT 3325 leads I017-23 west at MP QC302 of the Rochester Subdivision. We arrived  at the Bennett's Corner Road crossing (MP QC 302.54), in Memphis, New York , and s oon saw the headlight of CSXT 3325 on the point of I017-23 in the far distance. I017 is a daily priority intermodal train that runs from Worchester, Massachusetts to Bedford Park, Illinois.  I017-23 disappears into a cloud of snow to the west of Bennett's Corner Road. Moving at a speed of 56MPH (per the defect detector at MP QC 302.6) I017-23 came roaring through th...

CSXT 426 & CSXT 43 sit at MP 126 on the Garrett Subdivision.  Back in September of 2015, I was on a road trip and passed through Garrett, Indiana. During my brief visit to the town, I was able to photograph a parked coal train sitting to the east of town, at the Country Road 19 crossing. There I found CSXT 426 and CSXT 43 sitting parked with a loaded coal train at milepost (MP) 126 of CSX's Garrett Subdivision. The train did not have a crew at the time. The Garrett Subdivision runs from Deshler, Ohio, (on the east end) to the neighborhood of Willow Creek, in Portage, Indiana (on the west end).  It is part of CSX's Chicago Division and was formerly a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) line. At Deshler, the Garrett Subdivision meets the Willard Subdivision. At Willow Creek it meets the Barr Subdivision, and there is a junction with CSX's Porter Branch line. Photograph taken on September 19, 2015, at Garrett, Indiana.

 Earlier this week I was over at the western end of CSX's DeWitt Yard. I noticed that the signal for the northern most departure lead track was green for a westbound train, so I parked near CP285 and waited. Soon I saw the headlight of CSXT 3010 to the east of the Interstate 481 overpass, about a half of a mile east of CP285. While slowly pacing a CSX work truck, CSXT 3010 and CSXT 7868 lead train I009-01 through CP285. CSXT 3010 (YN3b scheme) & CSXT 7868 (YN2 scheme) lead I009-01 west at CP285. Train I009-01 was on its way to Bedford Park, Illinois, from Port Newark, New Jersey. I009 (formerly Q009) is a daily intermodal train , and always stops to work DeWitt Yard . When I took this photograph I009-01 wasn't ready to depart yet, but due to the train's length, it needed to pull west past the signals at CP285 in order to push back into the intermodal yard.  Photograph taken on November 2, 2021, at East Syracuse, New York.

Back on October 22, I headed over to CP286 on the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision. As I arrived train Q364-21 was already rolling east through the control point.  Q364-21 at CP286 and CP285 CSX train Q364 is a daily manifest that runs from Avon, Indiana, to Selkirk, New York. Today's train, Q364-21, originated at Avon, Indiana on October 21, 2021. The "-21" suffix, in the train ID, indicates the date of the train's origination. Freight cars on Q364-21 are rolling under the signal on the western edge of CP286. Above, 364-21 is rolling east (toward the camera) on Track 2 of the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision (STS), under the signal bridge that is on the western edge of CP286. At the signal bridge, to the left of the train, is the eastern end of Track 7, which Amtrak trains use to access Syracuse's passenger station. Track 7 runs between CP286 and CP291 . Q364-21 is rolling under the cantilever signal bridge at CP286. The light was changing fast, and I took the above p...

Last month I came across intermodal train I115-21, as the train was being switched at DeWitt Yard by CSXT 920 and CSXT 280. Train I115 ( formerly Q115 ) is a daily intermodal train that originates in Worcester, MA., and terminates at DeWitt Yard in East Syracuse, NY.  CSX train I115 at DeWitt Yard CSXT 920 sits near an intermodal container crane at DeWitt Yard. I115-21 was working on one of the two departure lead tracks that connect to main Track 1 of the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision (STS), at CP285 . The train, above, is just to the east of CP285, and the control point sits on the western edge of DeWitt Yard. In the background one of the large intermodal gantry cranes at the yard can be seen. CSXT 920 and CSXT 280 switch train I115-21 at DeWitt Yard. Three minutes later a bit of sun peeked out as CSXT 920 and CSXT 280 were waiting to shove I115-21 back into the intermodal yard. I115-21 was a long train. It was at least a mile and a half in length. The locomotives were near CP285...

 Back on October 10th, I headed over to Pottery Road, near Warners, New York, to see if I could catch a train or two on CSX's Rochester Subdivision. After waiting for half an hour or so, I heard a westbound train set off the defect detector at milepost (MP) 291.9, of the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision. The detector reported no defects, so I knew a train would be approaching from the east soon. Q003-10, led by CSXT 3448 and CSXT 3034 Soon I heard the roar of the train's locomotives in the distance, and then a short time later the crossing gates at Pottery Road came on and the gates came down. Around the curve came CSXT 3448 and CSXT 3034 leading priority intermodal train Q003-10. Q003 is a daily intermodal train that runs from South Kearny, New Jersey, to Bedford Park, Illinois (near Chicago).  Q003-10 rounds the curve, east of Pottery Road. Q003 carries priority domestic intermodal cargo. Today, Q003-10 wasn't losing any time, and was moving fast at Pottery Road (MP 297.76...

  While driving along Onondaga Lake, I spotted a stopped train sitting on CSX's St. Lawrence Subdivision. After confirming that the train to be heading southbound, I headed down to Destiny USA Mall, where the St. Lawrence Subdivision connects with the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision. Train Q621 at CP291   Below, Q621, with CSXT 3115 on the point, is on the St. Lawrence Subdivision (SLS), just north of the wye at CP291. The wye connects the SLS (commonly called the Massena Line) with the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision (STS). The SLS starts here at milepost (MP) QM2.0 and runs north to Massena, New York. CP291 sits at MP 291.5 of the STS. CSXT 3115 with Q621, waiting just north of CP291   From this vantage point the train is about 1,400 ft. (426 m.) away. This location worked out well because there is a railroad service road that runs mostly straight from my vantage point, helping to prevent any obstacles that might have interfered with the composition.    Below, th...

Today I traveled west to Brutus, New York, along CSX's Rochester Subdivision. Brutus is the largest town in Cayuga County. On its east side, it borders Jordan, New York, in Onondaga County. The town of Weedsport, New York, is the largest village within the town of Brutus. Q162-13, with CSXT 3453 The first, and only, train I photographed today was train Q162-13, which was sitting just to the west of the Bonta Bridge Road crossing. Q162-13 had CSXT 3453 (a General Electric built ET44AH) as the only locomotive on the front of the train. The train did have CSXT 3283 serving as the distributed power (DP) unit  on the rear of the train. CSXT 3453 on the point of Q162-13 Q162-13 had been stopped to the west of CP308 (milepost QC308.7) to allow a number of trains to pass by it on Track 1, before it would cross over to Track 1 from Track 2 to proceed east. I believe Track 2 had a maintenance worker checking something near milepost 297.76 (Pottery Road) further east of here. A tighter shot o...

  CSXT 482 leads manifest train Q364-31 east through Auto 280, next to CP280. CSXT 482 leads train Q364-31 east on Track 1 of the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision. Q364-31 is passing between the block signals of Auto 280. Auto 280 sits next to CP280 (milepost (MP) QC280.5), along Saintsville Road. The train is approaching the North Kirkville Road crossing. Train Q364 is a daily manifest freight train that runs from Avon, Indiana, to Selkirk, New York. Today the train had an axle count of 630, giving it a car count of 153, plus the three locomotives. The train was running with its locomotive power in a 3x0x0 configuration. Q364-31passed through Fairport, NY., very early on the morning of September 1, 2021, at 2:50AM. It spent quite a bit of time in Syracuse before departing today because Fairport is just over an hour away from the Syracuse area. Syracuse Terminal Subdivision The Syracuse Terminal Subdivision (STS) is three main tracks here. The closest track is Track 4, which leads in...

  CSXT 2345 and CSXT 6902 at Tenn. Map Plaza CSX 2345 and CSX 6902 are on the point of a switch job working on the bridge over Tennessee Map Plaza. The plaza is located on the southeastern end of Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. On the right side, under the bridge is a gift shop and information center. Out of sight on the left, and also under the bridge, are public restrooms for the park and plaza. The plaza features a 200 feet wide map of Tennessee that is made out of granite. You can see the eastern portion of the large map between the bridge and the smaller map in the foreground of the photograph. Nashville Terminal Subdivision The rail line is part of CSX's Nashville Terminal Subdivision . The subdivision runs between Madison, Tennessee, at the northern end, to Brentwood, Tennessee, on it's southern end. The subdivision is mostly double tracked, but has a few short sections of single track. Northeast of this plaza the line goes to single track for the run over the swin...

  A trio of Union Pacific locomotives, led by 8909, lead a grain train through the cemetery. Union Pacific (UP) 8909, UP 8125, and an unknown UP locomotive are on the point of a northbound CSX grain train at Nashville Nation Cemetery. The train is passing under the Walton Lane overpass , which is on the southern edge of the cemetery.  The rail line here is CSX's Nashville Terminal Subdivision, and it runs through the middle of the national cemetery, on a slightly tilted north-south axis. The cemetery is located in the city of Madison, Tennessee, on the northern edge of Nashville. The subdivision connects to CSX's Henderson Subdivision and CSX's Main Line Subdivision a few miles north of the cemetery. Trains to and from the Chicago area use the Henderson Subdivision, while trains heading to or coming from Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio use the Main Line subdivision. Photograph taken on April 1, 2016 at Madison, TN.

CSX 2708 - Red River Road - Gallatin, TN CSX 2708 gets ready to lead a local train down the former Louisville and Nashville Railroad's (L&N) Scottsville Branch Line. The train is seen here sitting at the Red River Road railroad crossing. Behind the train and out of site is the CSX Main Line Subdivision , which was also a L&N rail line. These days, according to an old CSX timetable from 2005, the branch line is known as the C&N Branch. CSX 2708 - Steam Plant Road - Gallatin, TN In the second photograph CSX 2708 is nearing the Steam Plant Road crossing on the branch line. Just behind the train and out of site, is a spur line that diverges from the C&N Branch and runs down to the TVA's Gallatin Steam Plant. Scottsville Branch Line The Scottsville Branch line was built in the 1880s, and it ran between Gallatin, Tennessee, and Scottsville, Kentucky. Initially, the line was started by the Cumberland and Ohio Railroad, but it was finished by th...

CSXT 589 leads a train through the middle of Nashville National Cemetery.      CSXT 589 and CSXT 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 CSXT 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. Double stack cars at Madison, TN 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...

BNSF 972 at S. Kinghighway Blvd. On a hot summer day, in August 2006, I caught BNSF 972 leading a train eastbound on BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision, at South Kingshighway Boulevard . in St. Louis, Missouri. The train had just left BNSF's Lindenwood Yard, a few miles to the west of here, and was making its way toward Grand Interlocking . BNSF 972 BNSF 972 was built for the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe in August of 1996, and it is a General Electric C44-9W model. At the time when the locomotive was built, the Burlington Northern and the Santa Fe railroads had been merged into the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Corporation, which happened in September 1995. The official merging of the two railroads did not occur until December 1996, at which time the railroad was named the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. In 2005, the railroad was renamed to the BNSF Railway, however, many people prior to this official name change referred to the railway and the BNSF. ...

UP 8404 at Chalfin Bridge, IL UP 8404 (an EMD SD70ACe) leads a grain train north on Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision at Milepost 26, in the flat farm lands of the Mississippi River valley in Southern Illinois. The train is between Chalfin Bridge, Illinois, to the south, and Valmeyer, Illinois, to the north. Chester Subdivision The Chester Subdivision runs between Valley Junction (Milepost 0) in East. St. Louis, Illinois, to Charleston Junction (Milepost 171.9) in Dexter, Missouri. Much of the rail line in Illinois runs through a wide open and flat landscape, which often allows for showing the entirety of the trains running on the line. For a point of reference in regards to distance in this photograph, the white tower to the left of the train is about two miles (3.2 km) away.  Photo taken: August 13, 2006, just north of Chalfin Bridge, Illinois.

BNSF 5504 at North Market Interlocking - St. Louis, MO BNSF 5504 leads a train northbound at TRRA's North Market Interlocking . The locomotives have just come off of the Terminal Railroad Association's (TRRA) Merchants Subdivision (which is just beyond the block signal) and onto the BNSF's Hannibal subdivision, at Branch Street , in North St. Louis, Missouri. BNSF Railway trains utilize the TRRA Merchants Subdivision for about five miles, between North Market Interlocking and Grand Interlocking. Both interlockings are controlled by the TRRA. Grand Interlocking is located a few miles west of downtown St. Louis, and is a junction of the Merchants Subdivision, BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision, and Union Pacific's Jefferson City Subdivision. Photo taken: August 22, 2006, at St. Louis, Missouri.

LMX 8598, LMX 8532 and BN 5492 - McCook, NE Here we see Burlington Northern 5492, a GE built B30-7, as the third unit on a west bound train on Burlington Northern's Hastings Subdivision. The first two locomotives are lease units, LMX 8598 and LMX 8532, and both units are GE built B39-8E models. The train was passing by the McCook Amtrak station/Burlington Northern office building. At the time there was a pedestrian bridge over the tracks, which is where I took this image from. Today, looking on Google Maps, it looks like the bridge is gone. Today, this railroad line is owned by the BNSF Railway, due to the merger of the Burlington Northern Railroad and the Santa Fe Railway that was started in September 1995, and was officially completed in December 1996. This photograph is an oldie (at least for me) but a goodie in my opinion. The photograph isn't the greatest from a composition or technical standpoint, but the photograph's content is something that will not be ...

BNSF 4424 and BNSF 5671 - Kansas City, MO BNSF 4424 and BNSF 5671 lead an empty coal train under the interchange approaches between Interstate 35 and Interstate 70 in the West Bottoms area of Kansas City. The train is heading north and will make its way through the " Goose Neck ", which is just around the bend ahead, and then across the Hannibal Bride over the Missouri River. After crossing the river, the train will arrive at BNSF's Murray Yard in North Kansas City, Missouri.The train came up through BN Crossing at Santa Fe Junction , on BNSF's Fort Scott Subdivision. Photo taken: Kansas City, Missouri. September 26, 2005.

NKP 765 leads train O99 south at Palmer, IL. Nickel Plate Road (NKP) 765 , Norfolk Southern (NS) 1072, and NS 1070 lead NS train O99 south on the Brooklyn District near Palmer, Illinois. The steam locomotive and its train were on the way from Decatur, Illinois, to the St. Louis, Missouri, area to run some Norfolk Southern employee appreciation excursions, over the weekend of September 8-9, 2012. Norfolk Southern 1070 and Norfolk Southern 1072 are two of Norfolk Southern's heritage locomotives. These locomotives are painted in past paint schemes of railroads that NS has merged with over the years. NS 1072 is painted in an Illinois Terminal Railroad paint scheme, while NS 1070 is painted in a Wabash Railroad paint scheme. Photo taken: September 6, 2012. Palmer, Illinois. 

CP 5982 and CP 5776 - Gorham, IL Canadian Pacific (CP) 5982 and CP 5776 lead a trailer train under the old signal bridges at Gorham, IL. The train was heading north on Union Pacific's (UP) Chester Subdivision, and it would eventually make its way to the St. Louis area, via Dupo, IL. Both of these locomotives were built as EMD SD40-2 models . CP 5982 was built in January, 1981, and CP 5776 was built in February 1976. These signal bridges date from the days when this line was a former Missouri Pacific (MoPac) line, before the Union Pacific acquired the MoPac in 1982. While both of these signal bridges look to still be visible on Google Maps' satellite view, many of the old MoPac era signal bridges along this line are now gone. The signal bridge in the background (middle right of the photograph) is a cantilever type signal bridge . This train was a surprise, and quite a different sight from the standard parade of Union Pacific Amour Yellow locomotives that haul tra...