T.G.'s Photography Blog

SP 222 near Compton Ave. - December 24, 2004 Southern Pacific (SP) 222 sits along Union Pacific's (UP)  Jefferson City Subdivision  in St. Louis, Missouri. SP 222 was serving as the distributed power unit on a loaded coal train. The train is seen here sitting in a side track between South Theresa Avenue and Compton Avenue. This location is just to the east of Grand Interlocking , where the Jefferson City Subdivision interchanges with the BNSF Hannibal Subdivision and the TRRA Merchants Subdivision. SP 222 at St. Louis, MO. -  December 24, 2004 SP 222 is an AC44CW model, and was built by General Electric in 1995. The locomotive is painted in SP's speed lettering paint scheme. Since these photographs were taken in 2004, SP 222 has now been repainted and renumbered as Union Pacific (UP) 6303, due to UP's merger/take over of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1996. The locomotive was patched as UP 6303 for a while before being completely repainted into UP's color scheme. P...

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.

UP 1996 leads Union Pacific train IMAG2R-10 north on the Mount Vernon Subdivision, across the St. Joseph Road crossing, while traveling north on the Mount Vernon Subdivision. UP 1996 is Union Pacific's Southern Pacific heritage locomotive. The train was heading to Union Pacific's Global 2 inter-modal facility in the Chicago, IL. area. Photograph taken on January 14, 2012, at Benton, Illinois.

Union Pacific's Southern Pacific heritage locomotive , UP 1996 , leads intermodal train IMAG2R-10 north through the Woodland Road crossing on UP's Mount Vernon Subdivision. The train is on its way to UP's Global 2 intermodal facility in the Chicago, Illinois area.  Photograph taken on January 14, 2012, at Mount Vernon, Illinois.

May, 1997. Cahokia, Illinois. Union Pacific 9293 (a GE C40-8) and five Cotton Belt and Southern Pacific locomotives sit with their respective trains at Airflite Drive. The lead Cotton Belt locomotive is St. Louis and Southwestern (SSW) 8049 (a GE B40-8). Behind SSW 8049 are Southern Pacific 8011, Southern Pacific 5103, and two other SP engines whose numbers I can't make out. The image was originally captured on Kodak Ektachrome film. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

October 14, 2007. Dupo, Illinois. In this image an un-patched Southern Pacific unit, number 303, sits on the point of empty coal train CTSWE-12, in Union Pacific's Dupo Yard. The train was returning from a power plant near Chiles, Kentucky to West Elk Mine in Colorado to reload. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

UP Coal Train CNATV October 14, 2007. Columbia, Illinois. Coal train, CNATV, lead by Union Pacific 6647 and Union Pacific 6235 (an ex-Southern Pacific unit), is south bound on the UP's Chester Subdivision. In the background is the Jefferson Barracks Bridge, which carries I-255 over the Mississippi River between South St. Louis County, Missouri and Columbia, Illinois. The train was running from North Antelope Mine in Wyoming to a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

Southern Pacific 4460 sits under a shed at the Museum of Transportation. Photo taken on: September 29, 2006. Kirkwood, Missouri.

UP 8053 and UP 6205 (ex-SP) Valmeyer, IL Union Pacific (UP) 8053 and UP 6205 (a patched, ex-Southern Pacific locomotive) lead an empty coal train north over Moredock Lake, on UP's  Chester Subdivision . The train is just north of Valmeyer , Illinois, and is nearing Fountain, Illinois. Photograph taken: March 3, 2006, at Valmeyer, Illinois.

SP 8153 - Maplewood, MO I dug this photograph out of the old negative files. Here we see Southern Pacific 8153, along with a second Southern Pacific unit, sitting along Greenwood Blvd., at Big Bend Boulevard, in Maplewood, Missouri. The train was waiting for clearance to proceed east on Union Pacific's Sedalia Subdivision . At this time the Sedalia Subdivision ran all the way from Rock Creek Junction in Kansas City, Missouri. to Gratiot Tower (now called Gratiot Interlocking ) in St. Louis, Missouri. Today, the segment of the rail line from Jefferson City, Missouri, to St. Louis has been renamed the Jefferson City Subdivision.  I'm not sure when the name change occurred, but a Union Pacific timetable I have from 1995, still lists this segment of the line as the Sedalia Subdivision. Photo taken: April 1995, at Maplewood, Missouri.

SP 4652 - St. Louis, MO Southern Pacific 4652, a bay window caboose, brings up the tail end of a Union Pacific local on the Jefferson City Subdivision back in 2005. This caboose is still roaming the rails on Union Pacific locals in the St. Louis area. Though it doesn't look as good today as it did in 2005. This photograph was taken just to the east of Grand Interlocking between Grand Avenue and Compton Avenue. Photograph taken: March 17, 2005, at St. Louis, Missouri.

UP 7905 - St. Louis, MO Back in 2004, an old Southern Pacific (SP) tunnel motor, now under Union Pacific (UP) ownership and patched as UP 7905, is seen here on a westbound freight near Jefferson Avenue. This locomotive from what I can find online was former Southern Pacific (SP) 8566. I'm guessing the person who was doing this custom paint job got side tracked and didn't finish painting the locomotive. The train is heading west on the TRRA's Merchants Subdivision, toward Grand Interlocking. At Grand Interlocking the train will get onto Union Pacific's Jefferson City Subdivision for the run across Missouri to Kansas City. Photo taken: St. Louis, Missouri. December 11, 2004.

SP 214 and SP 8706 - Cahokia, IL Southern Pacific 214 sits in the siding, as Southern Pacific 8706 leads a manifest freight south on the Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision. This photograph was taken at Airflite Road , near Parks Airport, now called Downtown St. Louis Airport. SP 8706 and its train have just come through Valley Junction, which is about 1.5 miles north of this location, and is heading toward Union Pacific's Dupo Yard , though, Dupo Yard was not the train's final destination. This shot was taken about a year or so after the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific merger, which occurred in 1996. Both locomotives were owned by Union Pacific, but they had not been patched. This meant that the locomotives retained their full Southern Pacific paint schemes, lettering, and numbering. A patched locomotive is one that will still retain the former railroads paint scheme, but the current owning railroad's reporting marks or name has been applied to the locomo...