T.G.'s Photography Blog

While out and about today, I heard a CSX "K" train call out over the radio feed. A  "K" train  on CSX is a bulk commodity train, such as a  tank car  train carrying oil or ethanol. When the crew called out for a clear signal, they called out BNSF 5192 as the train's leader. Foreign power (another railroad's locomotive) is fairly rare these days on the CSX Rochester Subdivision due to CSX trying to limit foreign power on the railroad, so I decided to try and catch it. BNSF 5192 leading CSX train K636-12 The youngest and I headed over to Warners, New York, and wound up getting to the Herman Road crossing just as the headlight of BNSF 5192 was just beyond the bridge in the background. Within a few minutes, K636-12 rolled east on Track 2 of the Rochester Subdivision. This stretch of track is between milepost (MP) QC299 and MP QC300. K636 is a loaded ethanol train that runs from Bensenville, Illinois, to Linden, New Jersey. The train is handed off to CSX from Ca...

UP 8404 at Chalfin Bridge, IL UP 8404 (an EMD SD70ACe) leads a grain train north on Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision at Milepost 26, in the flat farm lands of the Mississippi River valley in Southern Illinois. The train is between Chalfin Bridge, Illinois, to the south, and Valmeyer, Illinois, to the north. Chester Subdivision The Chester Subdivision runs between Valley Junction (Milepost 0) in East. St. Louis, Illinois, to Charleston Junction (Milepost 171.9) in Dexter, Missouri. Much of the rail line in Illinois runs through a wide open and flat landscape, which often allows for showing the entirety of the trains running on the line. For a point of reference in regards to distance in this photograph, the white tower to the left of the train is about two miles (3.2 km) away.  Photo taken: August 13, 2006, just north of Chalfin Bridge, Illinois.

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.

BNSF 4424 and BNSF 5671 - Kansas City, MO BNSF 4424 and BNSF 5671 lead an empty coal train under the interchange approaches between Interstate 35 and Interstate 70 in the West Bottoms area of Kansas City. The train is heading north and will make its way through the " Goose Neck ", which is just around the bend ahead, and then across the Hannibal Bride over the Missouri River. After crossing the river, the train will arrive at BNSF's Murray Yard in North Kansas City, Missouri.The train came up through BN Crossing at Santa Fe Junction , on BNSF's Fort Scott Subdivision. Photo taken: Kansas City, Missouri. September 26, 2005.

In this first photograph, BNSF 7824 and BNSF 7039 are seen sitting on the BNSF Hannibal Subdivision (the tracks curving in from the left side) at Grand Interlocking. The train was waiting for clearance to proceed east, through the interlocking and onto the TRRA Merchants Subdivision. The other set of tracks that curve in from the right side of the photograph are Union Pacific's Jefferson City Subdivision. After the BNSF train makes its way onto the TRRA Merchants Subdivision , it will head toward north St. Louis, where the train will get back on to the Hannibal Subdivision at North Market Interlocking. The road way in the photograph is the Chouteau Avenue overpass. This second image shows a closer view of the BNSF train as it sits waiting to proceed through the interlocking. Grand Interlocking is one of the busiest railroad junctions in the St. Louis area. Amtrak, BNSF, TRRA, and UP trains all pass through this junction. Amtrak trains that pass through the interlocking ...

UP 7162 at Columbia, IL In the late afternoon light, Union Pacific 7162 is leading a loaded coal train south on Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision . The train has just left Dupo Yard to the north, and it is nearing the BB Road crossing, which is just north of Interstate 255. The red block signals in the distance are on the southern end of Dupo Yard, at what is commonly referred to as Bixby. The original image was a 35mm transparency that was converted to digital using a copy slide setup. Photo taken: Circa 2000. Columbia, Illinois.

Union Pacific 2979 (an EMD SD40-2) and an unknown Norfolk Southern unit lead a trailer train south at mile post 10 on Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision . The train is approaching the DD Road crossing, just to the south of Interstate 255. In the background, the train is passing under the Interstate 255 overpass. From here, the train will continue south on the Chester Subdivision down into southern Illinois, passing through the town of Chester, Illinois, which the rail line is named for. After, continuing south from Chester, it will pass through Gorham, Illinois, where the Union Pacific's Mount Vernon Subdivision meets up with the Chester Subdivision. Eventually, the train will cross over the Mississippi River into Missouri, from Thebes, IL. Once in Missouri, it  will travel on into Arkansas, and most likely on toward Texas. Though, it could also have headed toward the Memphis, Tennessee area. About the image The image was scanned from a Kodak Ektachrome slide, us...

BNSF 7826 is on the point of a parked grain train sitting next to State Street, on which a tumbleweed is slowly rolling down. These tracks are owned by the Terminal Railroad Association (TRRA), and are just north of the TRRA's Madison Yard. Behind BNSF 7826 is an ex-Santa Fe Warbonnet painted locomotive. Here is another image of this same train a bit more from the side showing the ex-Santa Fe locomotive. Photo taken on: November 25, 2011, at Madison, Illinois.

Union Pacific (UP) 6826 works as the distributed power unit (DPU) on this loaded coal train that is rolling east on the UP's Jefferson City Subdivision. The train is passing through the Knox Avenue Crossing, and passing under the Hampton Avenue Overpass. February 26, 2006. St. Louis, Missouri.

Back in February of 2008, I caught BNSF 7704 is leading a trio of locomotives and their empty coal train east on the TRRA's Merchants Subdivision, at Jefferson Avenue. Back in 2008, when this photograph was taken, the Jefferson Avenue overpass was being replaced. You can see one of the new bridge piers to the right of the train. BNSF 7704 leads a trio of locomotives on the point of an empty coal train.   The tracks to the left and in the foreground are part of Union Pacific's Jefferson City Subdivision. The Jefferson City Subdivision and the Merchants Subdivision run side-by-side between Gratiot Interlocking (to the east) and Grand Avenue Interlocking to the west. Between Jefferson Avenue and Gratiot Interlocking, Union Pacific's 12th Street Yard sits between the two subdivisions.  BNSF trains use about five miles of the TRRA Merchants Subdivision between Grand Interlocking  (sometimes referred to as Grand Avenue Interlocking) and North Market Interlocking , located ...

BNSF 7826 - Madison, IL A grain train, lead by BNSF 7826 and an unknown BNSF unit (in a rapidly fading Santa Fe Warbonnet paint scheme), is seen here sitting along State Street. The train is sitting on TRRA tracks, just north of TRRA's Madison Yard. Here is another image of this same train, taken from a an almost-straight-on perspective. Photo taken on: November 25, 2011, at Madison, Illinois.

May 26, 2005. Clarksville, MO. BNSF 9637 sits on the Hannibal Sub with an empty coal train, while waiting for rail traffic ahead to clear. There were about three or four trains parked back-to-back on the main line, all waiting to go north. Here's a link to another one of the trains that day that was waiting to head north . BNSF 9637, at this time, was still painted in Burlington Northern's executive paint scheme. Photo © Tom Gatermann

With the light of another fall day coming to a close, an empty BNSF iron ore train sits on Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision, near Chalfin Bridge, IL . The Chester Subdivision is double-tracked, but this northbound train had to wait for three or four other northbound trains to clear the line ahead of it, while a parade of southbound trains passed it on the other track. Once the rail line was cleared ahead this train then proceeded north into the St. Louis railroad gateway. Photo taken: November 6, 2005, near Chalfin Bridge, Illinois.

November 12, 2005. Chalfin Bridge, Illinois. A tanker train hauling chemicals rolls north on the Union Pacific's Chester Subdivision, while the headlight of a southbound double-stack train can be seen in the distance. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

August 21, 2005. Hershey, Nebraska. Union Pacific 6489 and Union Pacific 6766 lead their respective trains east near Hershey, NE. The next stop for both trains is Union Pacific's Bailey Yard, in North Platte, NE. The mainline from just west of Hershey to Bailey Yard is quadrupedal tracked, for about 9 miles. Photo © Tom Gatermann

August 20, 2005. Elm Creek, Nebraska. Three Union Pacific trains are seen here rolling across the Kearny Subdivision.Two trains are heading west, while another, a loaded coal train, rolls east. The Kearny Subdivision is a triple track main line from Gibbon, Nebraska to North Platte, Nebraksa. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

April 28, 2012. Diggins, Missouri. BNSF 6201 leads an empty coal train north on the BNSF's Thayer North Subdivision, at Box School Loop Road. The train is about 20 miles from Springfield, MO. From there it will continue on to Kansas City, and then on to the Powder River Coal Basin for another load of coal. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

August 23, 2005. Powder River Coal Basin, Wyoming. BNSF 8816 is the distributed power unit pushing on a north bound empty coal train on the BNSF's Orin Subdivision. At this time the section of track was double tracked, but within a short amount of time it would be triple tracked. This image was taken between Hwy 450, to the north, and Edwards/Reno Road, to the south. Photo © Tom Gatermann.

August 23, 2005. East of Wright, Wyoming. A BNSF work train is seen here on BNSF's Orin Subdivision, near Wyoming Highway 450. BNSF 6840 and BNSF 6958 are on the point of this ballast train, which is waiting to proceed south. At this time there was a lot of track work occuring adding a third and fourth mainline to much of the Orin Subdivision. This portion of the line was triple tracked at this time. Photo © Tom Gatermann

December 11, 2011. St. Louis, Missouri. BNSF 9298 leads an empty hopper train east at South Kingshighway Blvd., on BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision. Photo © Tom Gatermann.