T.G.'s Photography Blog

CSXT 5112 leads S955 west at Auto 311 on the Rochester Subdivision at Weedsport, NY.  Last week CSX ran a special movement that originated at the Portsmouth Navel Shipyard at Portsmouth, NH. The train carried spent nuclear fuel on specially designed railcars with casks. I caught the train as it came through Weedsport, NY on its slow journey west. The railcars, including the caboose, are owned by the Department of Defense (DOD). The reporting mark of the railcars is DDOX. Per its website, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard maintains the Navy's nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet, including Los Angeles and Virginia class submarines.  DDOX railcars with casks carry the spent nuclear fuel on train S955. Photographs taken on February 16, 2024, at Weedsport, NY.

  CSXT 4014, an SD40-3 rebuild, is switching a block of intermodal cars at a snow covered DeWitt Yard.   Back in January of this year, CSXT 4014 was switching blocks of intermodal cars at CSX's DeWitt Yard. CSXT 4014 is pulling a cut of cars west down the Departure Yard Lead from the Departure Yard. The Departure Yard sits east of the I-481 bridge in the background. Almost all of the intermodal trains that pass through DeWitt swap blocks of intermodal cars there. In addition, the yard itself is designated as an inland port and trailers and containers are dropped off and picked up there by customers. Below, I009-26 , one of the intermodal trains that works DeWitt Yard daily, is departing DeWitt Yard via the South Runner . I009 runs from Port Newark, New Jersey, to Bedford Park, Illinois, in the Chicago area. With fresh snow on the ground at DeWitt Yard, CSXT 4014 is pacing I009-26 west at DeWitt Yard.  Photographs taken on January 27, 2023, at East Syracuse, New York.

  CSXT 5273 leads I001-24 west on the CSX Rochester Subdivision at Pump Rd.   CSXT 5273 and CSXT 992 lead the once-a-week priority intermodal train I001 (North Bergen, New Jersey, to Bedford Park, Illinois) west at milepost QC 309 of CSX's Rochester Subdivision. I001-24 is passing through the Pump Road crossing just west of Jordan, New York. The end of the train is passing through CP 308 (MP QC 308.6), which is east of the railroad crossing. At this location, I001 is about 300 miles into its almost 1,000 mile journey.  Photograph taken on January 24, 2023, at the Town of Brutus, NY.

  With snow falling, M363-25 is stopped on Track 1 at CP 286 waiting for I009-24 to clear ahead of it.   On January 25th, on what had been, up to that point, a rare snowy day, I caught M363-25 at East Syracuse, NY. Due to priority intermodal train I009 departing as M363 passed by DeWitt yard, it had to stop at Control Point (CP) 286 of the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision. M363 got back underway after I009 had gotten enough of a head start.   Led by CSXT 3057, M363-25 is back on the move, passing under the westbound signal bridge at CP 286. Photographs taken on January 25, 2023, at East Syracuse, New York.

  This red-tailed hawk stands on the ground and takes break from eating the squirrel it just caught.    Yesterday, I turned a corner in my neighborhood and spotted a red-tailed hawk tearing at and eating a squirrel it had just caught. It was on the ground about eight feet from the road. I quickly stopped a short distance from it and snapped off a few shots before it plucked the squirrel in its claws and flew away to enjoy the catch in private. Photograph taken on March 9, 2023, at Syracuse, New York.

  I001 passes by the old NYC coaling towers between CP 285 and CP 286, near DeWitt Yard.   With snow on the ground and more still falling, I001-28 (North Bergen, NJ., to Chicago (Bedford Park), IL.) is westbound, passing by the old New York Central steam locomotive coaling towers. The coal towers sit along the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision between Control Point (CP) 285 and CP 286 . To the left is manifest train M560-27 on the North Runner heading east into DeWitt Yard. I001 is led by CSXT 7030 and CSXT 5115.  Photograph taken on February 28, 2023, at East Syracuse, New York.

  Intermodal train I017-02 is westbound, passing under the Oakland Rd. bridge and by snow-covered fields.   With a few inches of snow still on the ground from the last snowfall I headed to Weedsport, NY, to catch I017 (Worcester, MA., to Chicago (Bedford Park), IL.) as it passed by the snow-covered fields on the west side of town. Here, CSXT 3240, leads I017-02 west on the Rochester Subdivision, under the Oakland Road bridge. I017-02 is about a half of a mile east of CP 313 at Centerport.  Photograph taken on March 2, 2023, at Weedsport, New York.

  With snow falling, CSXT 846 leads I162 by CP 285 and into DeWitt Yard.   Yesterday, another round of snow fell on the Syracuse, New York, area. With snow falling, I162-27 makes its way into DeWitt Yard at Control Point (CP) 285 on the Inbound Lead . The Inbound Lead diverges from Track 1 of the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision at CP 286, a half mile to the west of CP 285, and leads into DeWitt Yard. The Inbound Lead isn't officially part of CP 285. I162 is heading to the South Runner to work the intermodal departure yard. I162 runs daily from North Baltimore, Ohio, to Port Newark, New Jersey.  Photograph taken on February 28, 2023, at East Syracuse, New York.

  AMTK 709 leads P284 through CP 285, with Bridge St. and the old NYC coaling towers in the background.   With fresh snow on the ground and more falling, AMTK 709 leads train P284-28 east through control point (CP) 285 on the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision. CP 285 is at the west end of CSX's DeWitt Yard. In the background is Bridge Street and the old New York Central (NYC) coaling towers.  Photograph taken on February 28, 2023, at East Syracuse, New York.

  M621-26 is passing the westbound CP signal bridge for the siding and Departure Lead at CP 285.   M621-26, led by CSXT 5459 and CSXT 4574, is arriving at DeWitt Yard via Control Point (CP) 285. M621 is eastbound, coming off Track 1 of the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision to the controlled siding, which runs between CP 285 and CP 283. The siding sits between Track 1 (to the south) and the Departure Lead (to the north). M621 runs south from Masenna, NY., to Syracuse, NY., before going east to Selkirk, NY. Between Masenna and Syracuse the train uses CSX's St. Lawrence Subdivision to CP 291 (west of DeWitt Yard) where it gets on the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision and comes east to DeWitt Yard. M621-26 rolls east on the south side of a snow-covered DeWitt Yard. I009 is westbound in the background. Photographs taken on January 27, 2023, at East Syracuse, New York.

  P048-24 passes the old West Shore RR bridge abutment on the south side of the Rochester Subdivision.   Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited (P048-24), led by AMTK 95 and AMTK 118 rolls east past an old West Shore bridge abutment to the west of Bonta Bridge Road . This abutment is on the south side of the tracks. The abutment on the north is also still standing but is hidden by trees from the road. The West Shore RR tracks crossed the NYC on a northeast-to-southwest alignment.  Photograph taken on January 24, 2023, at Town of Brutus, New York.

CSXT 5312 leads M364 east through a snow-covered landscape at Memphis, NY.   Back on January 23, a fresh blanket of snow covered Central New York. I took the opportunity to head out and capture M364 coming east through Memphis, New York. In addition to the snow-covered landscape, M364 featured Canadian National (CN) 3177 working as a distributed power unit. M364 is a daily manifest train that runs from CSX's Avon Yard in Avon, Indiana, to Selkirk Yard in Selkirk, New York. Avon, Indiana, is on the western edge of Indianapolis, Indiana.  Manifest train M364 is eastbound in this view from above. In the left-lower corner, through the trees, the old tow path of the Erie Canal can be seen.  In this view, CN 3177 is the mid-train distributed power unit on M364-22. Photographs taken on January 23, 2023, at Memphis, New York.

  With fresh snowfall, the Lake Shore Limited rounds the curve at Oakland Road.   With a coating of fresh snow on the ground in the Central New York area I caught Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited, led by a trio of locomotives. AMTK 108 , Amtrak's Phase VI 50th Anniversary schemed locomotive was leading the train, followed by AMTK 107, and AMTK 94. Here, the train is eastbound on CSX's Rochester Subdivision, rounding the curve at Oakland Road at Weedsport, New York. This area is referred to as Centerport by the railroad. Centerport was an old port on the Erie Canal that sits between Port Byron, New York, and Weedsport, New York. Photograph taken on January 23, 2023, at Weedsport, NY.

  Looking straight down at the snow-covered trees.  With a fresh coating of snow on the forest near my house , I sent the drone up to capture some photographs. This view is looking straight down at the snow-covered trees from about 200 feet above the ground. The trees are all around 100 feet tall.  Photograph taken on December 12, 2022, near Syracuse, New York.

  With snow on the ground, CSX train M364-14 is eastbound along Clinton Road at Pump Road.   With a couple of inches of snow on the ground, I caught CSX manifest train M364-14 as it came eastbound at Brutus, New York. CSXT 3256, CSXT 8842, and CSXT 6143 are leading M364 alongside Clinton Road, at Pump Road. This is milepost (MP) 309 of CSX's Rochester Subdivision. The old New York Central milepost 309 marker still stands here on the south side of the tracks, just west of the Pump Road railroad crossing (out of sight, bottom left). The train will soon pass-through Control Point (CP) 308 (MP QC 308.6) and enter Jordan, New York. This side of CP 308 is known as Jordan, as well. However, officially the train is the Town of Brutus, New York. Photograph taken on December 15, 2022, at Brutus, New York.

  With snow falling, M561-18 is westbound on Main 2 of the Rochester Subdivision at Memphis, NY. Yesterday with some mid-morning snow falling, I caught CSXT 214 leading M561-19 (manifest train, Selkirk, New York, to Cincinnati, Ohio) at Memphis, New York . The train is westbound on Track 2 of CSX's Rochester Subdivision. In the distance, obscured by the snow the train is passing through Control Point (CP) 300 at Warner's New York. M561-18 is stopped at CP 306 as a crew member works to find the train's issue.   A short time after the train passed through Memphis, it made an emergency stop at  Jordan, New York , due to a loss of the computer display screens in the cab. The problem was a loose battery knife switch on the lead locomotive that caused the unit to lose partial power. Photograph taken on December 19, 2022, at Memphis, New York. 

  CSXT 3150 and CSXT 944 lead manifest train M620-15 north at Henry Clay Road in Clay, NY.   CSXT  3150 and CSXT 944 lead manifest train M620-15 (Selkirk, New York, to Massena, New York) through the Morgan Road railroad crossing in Clay, New York. The train is northbound on CSX's St. Lawrence Subdivision . Much of the train's cargo is destined to be interchanged with Canadian National near Massena, which is near the US-Canada border. Photograph taken on November 16, 2022, at Clay, New York.

On December 2, 2006, St. Louis, Missouri, and much of the surrounding areas were still covered in ice and snow from a winter storm. The previous day I finished up by taking photographs along the Jefferson City Subdivision in Maplewood, Missouri, so I decided to head back there. When I arrived at Maplewood, I found the subdivision was a parking lot due to the double-track subdivision being reduced to a single-track subdivision between Webster Groves, Missouri, and Pacific, Missouri . A distance of about twenty-five miles.  UP 6066 passing a late Kansas City Mule At Maplewood, I found Amtrak's Kansas City Mule, train 311, and Union Pacific train MASNP. Both trains stopped on Track 1, with the KC Mule only a few hundred feet behind MASNP. The block signal for Track 2 at CPD007 in Maplewood was clear for an eastbound train on Track 2, so I set up to capture the train as it came east past the K.C. Mule.  UP 6606 leads a coal train east on Track 2, past a stopped KC Mule at Big Ben...

 Starting on November 30, 2006, through the early morning of December 1, 2006, St. Louis, Missouri, and surrounding areas got hit by a winter storm. St. Louis escaped the large amounts of snow that other places across Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois received, but the region got blanketed with sleet and ice. With a small layer of snow of top. On December 1st, I ventured out to capture some railroad photography.  UP 7114 under Spring Avenue at Grand Interlocking The first photograph of the day was Union Pacific (UP) 7114 sitting under the old Spring Avenue overpass at Grand Interlocking. The train and its crew were waiting to head east off a siding along the Jefferson City Subdivision and through the interlocking. The old Spring Avenue overpass at this time hadn't been used for years, and half of it had already been torn down north of the tracks. Grand Interlocking is a junction of UP's Jefferson City Subdivision, BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision, and the Terminal Railroad Associ...

Priority intermodal train I001 is a once-a-week train that runs from North Bergen, New Jersey, to Bedford Park, Illinois. I001 and its counterpart I002 are probably the highest priority trains on CSX, due to them carry high priority UPS trailers and containers. I001-29 at CP280 of the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision Last Tuesday, I was at Kirkville, New York, to see what the view of CP280 was like from Brewer Road. Shortly after arriving at where Brewer Road dead-ends at the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision, I saw the crossing lights at North Kirkville Road begin to flash. Looking to the east, beyond the crossing, I saw the headlight of CSXT 3185 peaking above the crest of the small hill near the crossing. I001-29 wasn't wasting any time as it hustled west on Track 2 of the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision, doing close to fifty miles per hour.  Looking east, from Brewer Rd., as I001-29 splits the automatic signals for Track 2 and Track 1. CP280 is a "semi" control point. The onl...