T.G.'s Photography Blog

Years ago while traveling to the Quad Cities area to photograph Iowa Interstate Railway's QJ steam locomotives , my family and I came across the Keokuk and Hamilton Bridge , at Keokuk, Iowa. Originally, the bridge had both a railroad deck and a road deck. However, these days only the railroad deck is still used. Part of the old road deck has been converted to a pedestrian path, but ends at the swing span, which is open in this image to allow river boat traffic to pass. This image's view is looking eastward at the swing span and its control booth, from the Keokuk, Iowa side.I've posted other photographs of this bridge taken at the same time. You can see a few other images that I have taken of the bridge at this link . October 17, 2008. Keokuk, Iowa.

October 19, 2008. Durant, Iowa. Iowa Interstate 6988 and Iowa Interstate 7081, lead a double-header steam excursion west at Durant, Iowa. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

October 19, 2008. Mount Pleasant, Iowa. A five-locomotive consist, lead by BNSF 5986, rolls through Mount Pleasant, Iowa. The train is westbound, on BNSF's Ottumwa Subdivision. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

October 17, 2008. Fort Madison, Iowa. A Union Pacific trackage rights train is about to pass under the old Santa Fe style signal bridge at Fort Madison. The train is heading westward on BNSF's Chillicoth Subdivision. The signal on the right is indicating that another train has been lined west on the right-hand main. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

The swing span control booth on the Keokuk and Hamilton Bridge that crosses the Mississippi River at Keokuk, Iowa. The bridge has two decks. The lower deck of the bridge is used for rail traffic, while the upper deck originally was used for automobile traffic. Today, the upper deck is used as a pedestrian walkway. You can see a few other images that I have taken of the bridge by following this link . Photo taken: October 17, 2008. Keokuk, Iowa.

October 19, 2008. Wilton, Iowa. Iowa Interstate Railway's two Chinese built QJ class steam locomotives, numbers 6988 and 7081, roll west at Wilton, Iowa. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

October 17, 2008. Keokuk, Iowa. BNSF 2940 works the Keokuk Union Depot yard alongside BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision, next to the. The locomotive was on the BNSF Hannibal Subdivision at the time the photo was taken. The locomotive moved north, and then backed south into the yard. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

October 17, 2008. Keokuk, Iowa. Awaiting its next assignment, Pioneer Rail Equipment (PREX) 2047 sits in the yard near the Mississippi River. The bridge in the background is the US 136 highway bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River and connects the states of Iowa and Illinois. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

October 17, 2008. Keokuk, Iowa. Pioneer Rail Equipment (PREX) 2047 sits in the rail yard near the Mississippi River in Keokuk, IA. Photo © Tom Gatermann. #shortline #railroad #railway #railroadphotography #emdGP20u

October 18, 2008. Davenport, Iowa. Iowa, Chicago & Eastern (ICE) 4204 (City of Cordova) leads a special passenger train under the approach to Centennial Bridge, at Centennial Park. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

October 18, 2008. Davenport, Iowa. Iowa Interstate 7081 leads an excursion train down West 5th Street, at the Brown Street crossing. IAIS 7081 is a QJ class steam locomotive that was built in China. Unfortunately, this locomotive and its sister locomotive IAIS 6988 are currently not operating. The IAIS shut down its steam program back around 2013. In 2014, a group of volunteers formed the Central States Steam Preservation Association in an effort to take ownership of the two locomotives and keep them in operating order. However, as of the most recent post on the groups Facebook page, the locomotives are still in storage and are not running. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

BNSF 614 - Ottumwa Subdivision - Lockridge, IA BNSF 614 (a GE C44-9W), still in its Santa Fe Warbonnet paint scheme , and BNSF 1018 (a GE C44-9W) lead a train of corn syrup tank cars east on the BNSF Ottumwa Subdivision. The train is round a curve alongside Highway US 34, on the east side of Lockridge, Iowa. BNSF 614 BNSF 614 was built in 1994, for the Santa Fe Railway by General Electric, and is a C44-9W. The locomotive was built just a year or so before the Burlington Northern Railroad and the Santa Fe Railway began their merger, which was officially finalized in late 1996. The locomotive still has Santa Fe lettering on the sides, but the front of the cab has been re-lettered with BNSF. About the image The original image was capture on a 35mm transparency, which was then copied and converted to digital using a Canon DSLR combined with a Sigma macro lens. Lighting for the copy slide setup was provided by a single flash connected to the camera via an off-shoe cord.  ...

BNSF 614 and BNSF 1018 - Mount Pleasant, IA BNSF 614 (GE C44-9W), in the Santa Fe Warbonnet paint scheme, and BNSF 1018 (GE C44-9W) lead a train of corn syrup tank cars east at the Goodyear Road overpass. BNSF 614 BNSF 614 was built in 1994, for the Santa Fe Railway by General Electric, and is a C44-9W model. The locomotive was built about a year or so before the Burlington Northern Railroad and the Santa Fe Railway began their merger, which was officially finalized in late 1996. The locomotive still has Santa Fe lettering on both of its sides, but the front of the cab has been re-lettered with BNSF. At the time of the photograph, the BNSF was officially named the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, but is now officially named the BNSF Railway. About the image The original image was captured on a 35mm transparency (Kodak Ektachrome) using a Canon A2E film camera and a 70-200mm Canon lens. The image was converted to digital using a copy-slide set up. I took...