T.G.'s Photography Blog

  The Blue Angels performing at Spirit of St. Louis Airport. The Blue Angels perform at the St. Louis County Fair and Air Show, on September 3, 2007. These jets are F/A-18 Hornets, which the Blue Angels began flying in 1986. The F/A-18 was originally designed and built by McDonald Douglas, which was headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, before being taken over by Boeing. At the time, in 2007, the angels were flying the A/B versions of the Hornet. The A version is a single-seat aircraft, while the B version is a two-seat aircraft. Photograph taken on September 3, 2007, at Chesterfield, Missouri.

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 Big Boy X4006 - Kirkwood, MO While I have not managed to see Union Pacific Big Boy 4014, the newly restored and running Big Boy steam locomotive, I have managed to see and photograph two other Big Boy locomotives on static display. One of the two is Union Pacific Big Boy 4006, which is on display at the National Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood, Missouri. Kirkwood, is a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Front of UP Big Boy X4006 - Kirkwood, MO About Union Pacific Big Boy 4006 Union Pacific 4006 was built by the American Locomotive Company (Alco) in September 1941. In total, Alco built twenty-five Big Boys for the Union Pacific Railroad, with the first ones being delivered in 1941. The locomotives have a wheel arrangement of 4-8-8-4, and are articulated type steam locomotives. This means that the two sets of eight driving wheels move separately from each other, allowing the steam locomotives to navigate tighter radius curves. Overall, the locomotives and thei...

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...

Southwest Chief at St. Louis, MO Some time ago, on October 17, 2004, Amtrak's Southwest Chief took a detour route through St. Louis, due to a train derailment on its normal route on BNSF's Marceline Subdivision , through central and northern Missouri. The Chief is seen here sitting at the old St. Louis Amtrak Station in downtown St. Louis. This image was captured from the 18th Street bridge, which is just to the west of the station. The highway bridge in the background is Interstate 64/US 40. Today's Routing Usually, the Southwest Chief uses the Marceline Subdivision between Kanas City, Missouri, and Fort Madison, Iowa, and then from Fort Madison heads across northern Illinois to Chicago on the Chillicoth Subdivisoin. For the detour, the Southwest Chief used either Union Pacific's Sedalia Subdivision or River Subdivision , from Kansas City to Jefferson City, Missouri. Then from Jefferson City, the train traveled on Union Pacific's Jefferson City Subdivisi...

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 ...

The fronts of both Southern Pacific 4460 and New York Central 2933 are seen here, at the National Museum of Transportation, in Kirkwood, MO. At the time photograph was taken, NYC 2933 seemed to be under going a cosmetic restoration. Photo taken: September 15, 2007. Kirkwood, Missouri. Photo © Tom Gatermann

With the Gateway Arch in the background, BNSF 8016 is seen here heading west on the TRRA's Merchants Subdivision. There are actually two railroad bridges here. In the foreground is the Union Pacific's high line to Lesperance Street Yard, and the Merchants Subdivision's bridge right behind the UP bridge. Below them is Interstate 55 and Interstate 70. Photo taken: October 19, 2007. Saint Louis, Missouri. Photo © Tom Gatermann

Looking up the stand pipe inside the Compton Heights Water Tower. Once or twice a year the old water tower is opened up to the general public to tour. At the top of the water tower is an observation deck that looks out over the City of St. Louis. Photo taken: April 23, 2006. St. Louis, Missouri. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

Autorack car in motion - Kirkwood, MO I decided to play around with some of the motion filters in PhotoShop. This is an old autorack car on display at the Museum of Transportation . I just wanted to see if I could give the image the illusion of the rail car rolling along. Photo taken: August 25, 2012, at Kirkwood, Missouri.

June 22, 2005. St. Louis, Missouri. Some of the remnants of the old Chouteau Avenue overpass, at Central Industrial Avenue. The bridge was being torn down to make way for a new one. For some reason when I look at this particular photo of the bridge demolition, it makes me think of how the world might look after Judgement Day (from the Terminator movie series). Photo © Tom Gatermann.

Hi-Railer - St. Louis, MO A Terminal Railroad Association (TRRA) hi-railer rolls south on the riverfront high line bridge of the TRRA's Merchants Subdivision. The hi-railer is above Washington Avenue, between the Eads Bridge and the north tunnel under the Gateway Arch grounds. This view is looking west from the middle of the Eads Bridge, which crosses over the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois. Photo taken: July 4, 2005, at St. Louis, Missouri.

July 6, 2005. St. Louis, Missouri. The old Chouteau Avenue overpass at Vandeventer Avenue has seen its last days. The old bridge is coming down to make way for a new one. Photo © Tom Gatermann

An archway decorated by a glass sculpture by artist, Dale Chihuly, at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Photo taken: April 18, 2010. St. Louis, Missouri.

Looking up the north leg of the Gateway Arch. Photo taken: December 26, 2012. St. Louis, Missouri.

Union Pacific 5561 waits on UP's Springfield Subdivision , near S. 19th Street, with the Gateway Arch in the background. The train was waiting for clearance to proceed east to Valley Junction , where it would take an interchange track and roll onto the Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision to head south.Valley Junction is a major junction in the St. Louis area. Photo taken: November 3, 2006. East St. Louis, Illinois.

June 23, 2008 With the Mississippi River flooding, parts of Laclede's Landing on the St. Louis riverfront are under water. The two bridges in this shot are the M.L. King Bridge, which connects the states of Missouri and Illinois. The bridge in the foreground is the Terminal Railroad's high-line bridge that carries the Merchants Subdivision above the riverfront. The image was captured at the intersection of Laclede's Landing Blvd. and Leonor K. Sullivan Blvd. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

June 23, 2008. St.Louis, Missouri. Flood waters from the Mississippi River on the lower level of a parking garage at Laclede's Landing. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

St. Louis, Missouri. June 23, 2008. Flooding from the Mississippi River, at Laclede's Landing. The railroad bridge is part of the TRRA's Merchants Subdivision. The larger bridge is the MLK Bridge, which connects St. Louis, MO with East St. Louis, IL. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

MRS Second Street Trackage - St. Louis, MO Some old Manufacturers Railway street trackage is rusting away in South Second Street, at the entrance to an old chemical plant in South St. Louis, Missouri. Photo taken: January 28, 2012, at St. Louis, Missouri.