T.G.'s Photography Blog

  I001 crosses Onondaga Creek at the southern edge of Onondaga Lake.   While bike riding along Onondaga Lake, I heard I001-11 call clear at CP 278 (milepost (MP) QC 278.3), which is at Sullivan, New York, just east of Kirkville, New York. I was at MP QC 292.6, so I went east to the trail along Onondaga Creek, near MP QC 292.0. After an approximately ten-minute wait, I heard I001 call clear at CP 291 (MP QC 291.5). Less than a minute later, the hot-shot intermodal train was rolling west across the creek, which empties into Onondaga Lake on the lake's southern edge. Photograph taken on October 11, 2022.

Looking southeast at the Fisher Covered Railroad Bridge.   The Fisher Covered Railroad Bridge was built in 1908, and spans the Lamoille River near Walcott, Vermont. It was built by the St. Johnsbury and Lamoille County Railroad. It saw use as a railroad bridge until 1994. Today, the bridge is being converted for recreational use as part of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. The northeast side of the bridge and the Lamoille River.   The Fisher Covered Railroad Bridge is an example of Itheil Town's lattice truss design and features a double-web lattice. A lattice bridge uses small, diagonal supports that form a lattice. Town's lattice design distributed the load across all of the supports, which allowed for the use of lighter-weight wood. The bridge is one of four surviving double-web Town lattice truss bridges in the United States. The other three bridges are Pier Bridge, Wright's Bridge, Contoocook Railroad Bridge. The other three bridges are all located in the state of New Ha...

  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...

BNSF 662, BNSF 4954, and BNSF 5442 - Fort Scott Sub. BNSF 662, BNSF 4954, and BNSF 5442 lead a train north on the Fort Scott Subdivision in the Marais Des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge . This photograph was taken along Stillwell Road, about halfway between Lacygne, Kansas, and Pleasanton, Kansas, and just to the west of Trading Post, Kansas. Lacygne is milepost 62.5 and Pleasanton is milepost 74.0 on the BNSF Fort Scott Subdivision .  BNSF 662, BNSF 4954, and BNSF 5442 All three of the locomotives on this train were built by General Electric and are the same model/type, C44-9W.  BNSF 662 is a former Santa Fe Railway locomotive that at the time of the photograph was still painted in the Warbonnet paint scheme . BNSF 662 was built in September, 1994; BNSF 4954 was built in December, 1998; and BNSF 5442 was built in July, 2000. BNSF 4954 and 5442 are painted in BNSF's Heritage II paint scheme. BNSF Fort Scott Subdivision The BNSF Fort Scott Subdivision runs betwe...

UP 3985 - Chester Subdivision - Columbia, IL Back in October of 2010, Union Pacific's Challenger 3985 came to St. Louis, Missouri. On October 7, the steam locomotive took an excursion train south to Gorham, Illinois , and then back to St. Louis. The first photograph, above, is of the locomotive as it heads south on the Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision at Columbia, Illinois. This was the only photograph I managed to get of the locomotive on the outbound trip to Gorham. The train was traveling at a fast pace, and due to a road closure at Chester, Illinois, my dad and I could not keep with it. So, after lunch in Chester, we found a photographic spot to capture UP 3985 from on the return trip. UP 3985 - Kaskaskia River - Chester Subdivision After Union Pacific 3985 got to Gorham, Illinois, it was turned around on the wye tracks between the Chester Subdivision and the Mount Vernon Subdivision. It then began its journey back to St. Louis. On the return journey we c...

WAMX 2005 - Santa Fe Junction - KC, MO In the late afternoon light of a fall day, WAMX 2005 leads a quartet of light running engines south at Santa Fe Junction. The string of engines has come down from the West Bottoms area of Kansas City, and were making their way to the lower deck of KCT’s Highline Bridge. The Highline Bridge is just out of view at the bottom, left corner of the photograph. Behind WAMX 2005, are MWLX 2017, WAMX 3855, and WAMX 3852. The locomotives are about to cross the Kansas-Missouri state line from Kansas City, Missouri, to Kansas City, Kansas. The state line is about 300 feet to the west (left) of the locomotives. WAMX 2005 - Highline Bridge - KC, KS   Above, the engines are now crossing over the Kansas River on the KCT's Highline Bridge, using KCT Main 4. The engines are nearing Adams Street Interlocking, where they will swing to the southwest and head back home to Mill Street Yard. About the engines The WAMX engines are owned by Wat...

NS 9360, NS 8699, and NS 9108 - Santa Fe Junction Norfolk Southern (NS) 9360, NS 8699, and NS 9108 are seen here making a light engine movement through Santa Fe Junction, after having come off the lower level of the Kansas City Terminal's (KCT) Highline Bridge. The train is heading north through the junction on KCT Track 330, as it makes its way toward the West Bottoms area of Kansas City. The locomotives would make their way from Track 330 to either Track 79 or Track 80 for the run north to the West Bottoms. The foreground track, next to Track 330, is Track 79. Highline Bridge approaches In the background of the photograph is the eastern approach to the upper deck of the Highline Bridge at Santa Fe Junction. The Highline Bridge crosses over the Kansas River at Kansas City, Kansas. The upper deck of the bridge allows trains making their way between Kansas City Union Station and BNSF's Fort Scott Subdivision, to the east (left) of the photograph, and Union Paci...

Argentine Connection - Flyover at Santa Fe Junction BNSF 7711, BNSF 670 (an ex-Santa Fe Warbonnet), and BNSF 4308 lead a double-stack train east over the Argentine Connection flyover at Santa Fe Junction, in Kansas City. The train will soon be passing by Kansas City Union Station, as it makes its way east toward Rock Creek Junction. At Rock Creek Junction the train will get back onto BNSF rails, and travel east across the Marceline Subdivision to Fort Madison, Iowa. The Argentine Connection's tracks, as well as the tracks between the flyover and Rock Creek Junction, are owned by the Kansas City Terminal Railway (KCT). The photograph was taken from State Line Road, which is on the border between the states of Missouri and Kansas. The view of the photograph, from this perspective, is showing the portion of Santa Fe Junction located in Kansas City, Missouri. Highline Bridge The lower bridge is the eastern approach to the upper deck of KCT's Highline Bridge...

UP 8214 and SP 338 - Fountain, IL Union Pacific 8214 and Southern Pacific 338 are leading an empty coal train north across Fountain Creek, at Fountain, IL., on Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision. At the time of this photograph SP 338 was still in its Southern Pacific paint scheme, and was un-patched , even though the locomotive was owned by Union Pacific. When a locomotive is refereed to as being patched, it means the locomotive still retains the predecessor railroad's paint scheme, but its numbering has been changed by the railroad that currently owns it.  The train was on its way back to a mine in the Powder River Coal Basin , located in the Western United States. The train would travel north from here to St. Louis, then across Missouri to Kansas City. Then from Kansas City, the train would most likely travel to North Platte, NE, and then on toward a coal mine in Wyoming. Photo taken: June 19, 2004, at Fountain, Illinois.

NS 9947 at BN Crossing Norfolk Southern 9447 is leading a train westbound on KCT Main 4, through BN Crossing at Santa Fe Junction . The train is crossing over the diamonds that intersect with BNSF's Fort Scott Subdivision. From here the train could have either gone west over the lower deck of KCT's Highline Bridge, over the Kansas River, or it could have taken a turn to the southwest and gone toward BNSF's Argentine Yard in Kansas City, Kansas. The taller bridge is the flyover that connects KCT's tracks by KC Union Station (to the east of here) to BNSF's Argentine Yard (to the west/southwest of Santa Fe Junction). The flyover carries tracks, AC1 and AC2. Before the flyover was built, trains would use the ground level tracks, KCT Main 3 and KCT Main 4 (the one NS 9447 is on) to get between Argentine Yard and the KCT tracks by KC Union Station. The bridge in front of the flyover is the connector track between the Main 2 on the Fort Scott Subdivision ...

UP 6838 - KCT Highline Bridge - Santa Fe Junction - Kansas City Union Pacific 6838 is on the point of an eastbound coal train that is rolling across the upper deck of KCT's Highline Bridge. The train is crossing over the Kansas River, and is nearing the Kansas-Missouri state border, at Santa Fe Junction. The train is approximately 1,000 feet from the state line, where it will cross into Kansas City, Missouri from Kansas City, Kansas. Photo taken: November 9, 2007. Kansas City, Kansas.

In the spring of 2004, I came across Railroad Switching Service of Missouri's (RSM) newsprint train, which delivered boxcars of newsprint to the St. Louis Post Dispatch in downtown St. Louis. This switching operation utilized the Illinois Terminal's (ITS) former Highline Bridge in North St. Louis, as well as the former ITS subway tunnel under the northern edge of downtown. I was lucky to come across this operation and capture the few images that I did because a few months after I took these images, the delivery of newsprint to the St. Louis Post Dispatch ended in June 2004. I was able to photograph the newsprint delivery operation on a couple of different days, but the following photographs are from only one of those days. RSM 2020 South of Branch Street In the first image, above, RSM 2020 (sometimes referred to as RSSM 2020) shoves a pair of empty boxcars south from Branch Street. The crew would set out the empty boxcars at the southern end of this small rail yard, a...

BNSF 4129 brings up the end of an empty coal train at Branch Street. BNSF 4129 is the distributed power (DP) unit on this empty hopper car train that is heading north on BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision , at Branch Street, in St. Louis, MO. The train has just crossed Branch Street and is passing alongside the old Illinois Traction System (ITS)/Illinois Terminal Railroad (ITC) approach to the McKinley Bridge. The McKinley Bridge crosses the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri and Venice, Illinois. Seen in the photo on the bridge's approach are the old catenary suspension supports for the ITS/ITC trains, which were originally electrically powered. In the past the McKinley Bridge carried both trains and automobiles over the river. These days, the bridge serves automobiles, pedestrians, and bikes. Today, the approach allows biking and pedestrian traffic to access the McKinley Bridge. If you follow this link , you can see another view of the approach while it was being...

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.

The now unused Sheffield Interlocking Tower 8 sits beside the Kansas City Terminal's (KCT) Sheffield Flyover. Sheffield Tower was operated by the KCT but has stood unused for many years. The Sheffield flyover was built to help facilitate the movement of trains through the area, since there are multiple railroad lines that interchanged and crossed the ground level KCT main line tracks.  The flyover runs between Rock Creek Junction (on the eastern end, by I-435) and Belmont Avenue (on the western end). The KCT utilizes both the flyover and ground level tracks to facilitate the movement of trains on its rail corridor between Rock Creek Junction and Santa Fe Junction (to the west of KC Union Station).  Photo taken: September 26, 2005. Kansas City, Missouri.

TRRA 1517 , TRRA 1503 , and TRRA 1510 are on the point of a train making a switching move, on the eastern approach to the Merchants Bridge over IL Route 3. The train was performing switching operations at TRRA's Madison Yard , which is about a half a mile east of this location. The train stopped over Route 3, and then made a back up move toward the yard. The Merchants Bridge crosses over the Mississippi River between Venice, IL. and St. Louis, MO. Photo taken: February 26, 2006. Venice, Illinois.

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 ...

Union Pacific 5976 is working as the DPU on this south bound load coal train, which is crossing over the Kaskaskia River on UP's Chester Subdivision. March 3, 2006. South of Modoc, Illinois.

Little Rock skyline - Junction Bridge Looking out at the Little Rock, Arkansas, skyline from Junction Bridge. Junction Bridge is an old railroad bridge that has been converted to a pedestrian bridge. The bridge features a lift span that is now permanently raised, to allow river traffic to pass underneath. The bridge has stairs and elevators at each end of the lift span, so that people can get from the ground up to the lift span's pathway and back down to the ground. Junction Bridge offers pedestrians a unique and easy easy way to get back and forth between Little Rock and North Little Rock. October 13, 2016. North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Tank cars on a northbound Union Pacific freight train roll across the bridge over the Kaskaskia River, just south of Modoc, Illinois. I took this photograph from a boat ramp that is down river of the bridge. March 3, 2006. South of Modoc, Illinois.