T.G.'s Photography Blog

UP 7135 is eastbound, rounding the curve at Sutton Blvd. and Greenwood Blvd. Union Pacific (UP) 7135 leads a loaded coal train east on UP's Jefferson City Subdivision. The train is rounding the curve along Greenwood Blvd., at the Sutton Blvd. crossing. The train is on Track 2, just west of Control Point (CP) D007 . The Jefferson City Subdivision runs between its namesake town of Jefferson City, Missouri , the state capital, and St. Louis, Missouri. Photograph taken on July 22, 2006, at Maplewood, Missouri.

BNSF 9293 leads a manifest train west at S. Kingshighway Blvd.   BNSF 9293 is a SD60M , which was delivered to the Burlington Northern (BN) Railroad in 1991. When this photograph was taken the locomotive had been "patched" with BNSF on the sides of the locomotive's cab. According to the Friends of the Burlington Northern, the order of locomotives numbered 9200 to 9298 are the only new units delivered to the BN in this paint scheme. Other locomotive classes were repainted in this scheme.    I caught BNSF 9293 as it was leading a manifest freight train east on BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision near the South Kingshighway Blvd. overpass in St. Louis, Missouri. The train had recently left BNSF's Lindenwood Yard, located a few miles to the west of this location. In a few miles it would pass through Grand Interlocking , where it would get onto the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis' tracks to continue east and north before getting back onto the Hannibal Subdivi...

TRRA 1508 leads a transfer run under the Hampton Avenue Bridge. Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) 1508 leads a transfer job west on BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision. The train is passing under the Hampton Avenue bridge, just to the east of Knox Avenue. The train is about to enter BNSF's Lindenwood Yard .  TRRA 1508 is an EMD SW1500 model locomotive. It was built 1969 for the TRRA. In 2010 TRRA sold its SW1500s and replaced them with higher horsepower locomotives. The SW1500s were sold, I believe, to Progress Rail and shipped down to Georgia. Photograph taken on July 22, 2006, at St. Louis, Missouri.

UP 1988 leads a manifest train east on the Jefferson City Subdivision at Chouteau Avenue.   Union Pacific (UP) 1988 is one of six heritage locomotives painted to commemorate the railroads that UP acquired over the years to create its present-day railroad. UP 1988 commemorates the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad (MKT), nicknamed The Katy. The Katy heritage locomotive's number, 1988, represents the year The Katy merged with the UP railroad. Another shot of UP 1988 passing under Chouteau Avenue in St. Louis, MO.  Per UP's website, The Katy Railroad served six states and had 3,377 miles of track. The railroad was formed in 1865 and was a major connection between the Midwest and Texas.  UP 1988 sits west of Grand Interlocking at Spring Ave., as a crewmember does a roll by inspection.   According to the Katy Railroad Historical Society, there were four eras of diesel locomotive paint schemes. The two middle era paint schemes used two distinct shades of red, which UP...

In December 2006, at the east end of BNSF's Lindenwood Yard, I found a trio of locomotives that piqued my interest. The trio featured BNSF 643 (an ex-Santa Fe Warbonnet), BNSF 6934 (an SD40-2), and Wisconsin Central (WC) 3026, the heritage map anniversary locomotive. BNSF 643 is the lead locomotive on an eastbound/northbound manifest train at Lindenwood Yard. BNSF 643 (a C44-9W) was built in 1994 for the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) as ATSF 643. The locomotive was patched sometime after the Burlington Northern (BN) and Santa Fe merger. As of November 2019, BNSF 643 was still wearing its Warbonnet paint scheme , even though it was considerably more worn and faded. BNSF 643, BNSF 6934, and WC 3026 are eastbound along the River des Peres, at Sublette Ave. Built as ATSF 5191 in 1981 by Electromotive Division, BNSF 6943 was renumbered and repainted sometime after the BNSF-SF merger. The locomotive is an SD40-2, which is one of EMD's most popular freight locomotives ...

In the winter of 2004, I caught a Union Pacific local train heading south on the UP Lesperance Industrial Lead and the UP Desoto Subdivision. The train came south out of UP's Lesperance Street Yard in St. Louis, Missouri , and was destined for DeSoto, MO. UP 321 in South St. Louis I spotted the train coming south on the Lesperance Industrial Lead (LIL) along 1st Street, near Potomac Street in South St. Louis. With the train moving slowly I had enough time to turn around and head to Bellerive Park, where the LIL runs between the park's river bluffs and the Mississippi River. Bellerive Park sits up on the bluffs, while the lower level where the tracks are is Sister Marie Charles Park now. UP 321 leads its train south at Bellerive Park and Sr. Marie Charles Park, near Elwood Street. With the train moving slowly, I was able to get to East Steins Street (milepost (MP) 6.3), at Vulcan Street, to catch it coming around the curve there. In the background are some of the old brick build...

On February 10, 2007, I was railfanning along TRRA's Merchants Subdivision in North St. Louis. While near North Market Street and North 1st Street, I spotted a train to the north coming south off the Merchants Bridge near Bremen Avenue. The green color of the locomotive in the far distance indicated to me that a former Burlington Northern locomotive was leading the train. Southbound at North Market Street The train came south approaching North Market Interlocking featuring a colorful lash up featuring FURX 7227 (ex-BN), BNSF 159 (ex-Santa Fe), and BNSF 7129. The train is a transfer run from TRRA's Madison Yard in Venice, Illinois, to BNSF's Lindenwood Yard in southwestern St. Louis, Missouri. FURX 7227 (ex-BN), BNSF 159 (ex-ATSF), and BNSF 7129 pass Grossman Iron & Steel. First Union Rail (FURX) 7227 is an SD40-2, built by Electro-Motive Division (EMD) for Burlington Northern (BN) in 1980. After working for BN, the locomotive became FURX 7227 before being sold to Norf...

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...

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...

Back in 2008, I caught Union Pacific (UP) 6720 and UP 6726, both ex-Chicago and Northwestern (CNW) locomotives, leading a loaded coal train south through Valley Junction in East St. Louis, Illinois . The train was making its way toward UP's Chester Subdivision, which starts on the southern edge of the junction . At this point the majority of the train is still coming down off of the east approach from the MacArthur Bridge . The MacArthur Bridge crosses the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois.  The junction/interlocking is controlled by the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA). UP 6720 and UP 6726 lead a loaded coal train at Valley Junction. These locomotives are painted in CNW's Operation Lifesaver (OL) paint scheme. While the two locomotives still retained their CNW OL paint scheme, they had been patched as UP locomotives. You can see under the cab's side windows the new UP markings and locomotive numbers. A patched loc...

With snow on the ground, BNSF 6385 (still in Burlington Northern Cascade Green), BNSF 518, BNSF 101 (still in the Warbonnet scheme, but re-lettered to BNSF), & FURX 1161 roll east on BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision, at South Kingshighway Blvd., in St. Louis, Missouri. BNSF 6385 leads a quartet of locomotives east on the Hannibal Subdivision.  The train is about two miles to the east of BNSF's Lindenwood Yard, where it departed from, and is heading toward Grand Avenue Interlocking . Grand Avenue Interlocking is about two miles further east of this location. Lines from BNSF, Union Pacific, and the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis all meet there. At Grand Avenue Interlocking the train will get onto TRRA's Merchants Subdivision for a roughly five-mile run, until it reaches North market Interlocking in North St. Louis , where the train will get back onto BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision.  BNSF 6385 is an EMD built SD40-2 . It was built for the Burlington Northern Rai...

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...

BNSF 8724 - crossing Hall Street toward Luther Yard On a few days in June 2007, I headed up to North St. Louis to see if there was any railroading action going on around Norfolk Southern's Luther Yard. On one of those days I was driving north on Hall Street when I saw the RR crossing lights start to flash for the transfer track between the BNSF's North St. Louis Yard and Norfolk Southern's Luther Yard. I pulled the car over quickly to the side of the road and was able to grab a couple of photographs as BNSF 8724 crossed Hall Street leading a transfer train to Luther Yard. This is one of the few images I have ever gotten of a train using this transfer track. The track is not a long one, as the two yards are only about three tenths of a mile (approximately half a kilometer) apart. At Luther Yard Next I headed over to Carrie Avenue on the south end of Norfolk Southern's Luther Yard in North St. Louis. Not much was going on at the time but I was able to captu...

Norfolk Southern (NS) 9599, Norfolk Southern 8450, and two other unknown locomotives, lead a train east along Switzer Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri. The train is rounding the curve at milepost 8 on the Norfolk Southern's St. Louis District. Soon, the train will be entering  Luther Yard  after having made the trek from Moberly, Missouri, where the St. Louis District meets up with the Norfolk Southern's Hannibal District and  Kansas City District . NS 9599 and NS 8450 - St. Louis, MO NS 9599 and NS 8450 NS 9599 is a model C44-9W (Dash 9-44CW), and was built by General Electric.  NS 8450 is ex-Conrail locomotive CR 757, according to RR Picture Archives. It is a model C40-8W, and was built by General Electric for Conrail in 1994. Since the time that this photograph was taken, NS 8450 has been repainted into Norfolk Southern's Thoroughbred paint scheme, which is the paint scheme that NS 8450 is painted in. NS St. Louis District The St. Louis District runs betwe...

BNSF 972 at S. Kinghighway Blvd. On a hot summer day, in August 2006, I caught BNSF 972 leading a train eastbound on BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision, at South Kingshighway Boulevard . in St. Louis, Missouri. The train had just left BNSF's Lindenwood Yard, a few miles to the west of here, and was making its way toward Grand Interlocking . BNSF 972 BNSF 972 was built for the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe in August of 1996, and it is a General Electric C44-9W model. At the time when the locomotive was built, the Burlington Northern and the Santa Fe railroads had been merged into the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Corporation, which happened in September 1995. The official merging of the two railroads did not occur until December 1996, at which time the railroad was named the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. In 2005, the railroad was renamed to the BNSF Railway, however, many people prior to this official name change referred to the railway and the BNSF. ...

LLPX 2285 and UP 2531 - Dupo, IL Locomotive Leasing Partners (LLPX) 2285 and Union Pacific (UP) 2531 sit nose-to-nose in Union Pacific's Dupo Yard , along the Chester Subdivision. The locomotives were idle while awaiting their next switching duty in the yard. The tracks in the foreground, one of which is only partially show, are the two mainline tracks of the Chester Subdivision. LLPX 2285 and UP 2531 LLPX 2285 has been owned by a number of railroad companies. It was originally built for the Penn Central Railroad as, PC 7963. It was also owned and operated by Conrail, as CR 7963, when Conrail took over the failed Penn Central Railroad. It has also served as EMDX 763 (an EMD demonstrator unit), and was at one time owned by Union Pacific, as UP 1920. Both LLPX 2285 and UP 2531 are EMD built GP38-2 models. LLPX 2285 was built in June 1972, while UP 2531 was built in January 1966, according to information at RR Picture Archives. Dupo Yard Dupo Yard was originally a Miss...

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.