T.G.'s Photography Blog

Back on a hot summer evening in June of 2008, I was up chasing trains in North St. Louis. While hanging out on Branch Street I heard a train coming north on the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) Merchants Subdivision. It turned out I was lucky enough to catch a BNSF manifest freight train being led by an ex-Santa Fe (SF) Warbonnet locomotive and a Canadian National (CN) cowl unit.  North Market Interlocking I first photograph the train as it rolled north through the TRRA's North Market Interlocking. The interlocking is listed as being at milepost 5.0 of the Merchants Subdivision, per a TRRA timetable. It is located between Branch Street, to the north, and North Market Street, to the south. North Market Interlocking is a junction where BNSF Hannibal Subdivision and a short NS line (now unused) interchange with the TRRA's Merchants Subdivision. The NS line connects on the west side of the interlocking, while the Hannibal Subdivision connects on the east side of th...

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.

TRRA 1517 is on the point of a local doing some switching at TRRA's North Market Interlocking, on the TRRA's Merchants Subdivision, south of Branch Street. North Market Interlocking is where BNSF Hannibal Subdivision joins the Merchants Subdivision, in north St. Louis. The track on the left side of the image, behind the yellow hopper, is the BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision.  In the background is the old Illinois Terminal Highline Bridge . The Highline Bridge is an almost mile long bridge that snakes its way across north St. Louis between Branch Street, on the north end, and Hadley Street, on the southern end. The bridge's northern approach comes down to grade level at Branch Street, about a block or two to the left of where this photograph was taken. BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision also crosses Branch Street , next to the Highline Bridges north approach. Photo taken: December 11, 2004. St. Louis, Missouri.