T.G.'s Photography Blog

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...

  CSXT 2345 and CSXT 6902 at Tenn. Map Plaza CSX 2345 and CSX 6902 are on the point of a switch job working on the bridge over Tennessee Map Plaza. The plaza is located on the southeastern end of Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. On the right side, under the bridge is a gift shop and information center. Out of sight on the left, and also under the bridge, are public restrooms for the park and plaza. The plaza features a 200 feet wide map of Tennessee that is made out of granite. You can see the eastern portion of the large map between the bridge and the smaller map in the foreground of the photograph. Nashville Terminal Subdivision The rail line is part of CSX's Nashville Terminal Subdivision . The subdivision runs between Madison, Tennessee, at the northern end, to Brentwood, Tennessee, on it's southern end. The subdivision is mostly double tracked, but has a few short sections of single track. Northeast of this plaza the line goes to single track for the run over the swin...

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...

WAMX 2005 - Santa Fe Junction - KC, MO In the late afternoon light of a fall day, WAMX 2005 leads a quartet of light running engines south at Santa Fe Junction. The string of engines has come down from the West Bottoms area of Kansas City, and were making their way to the lower deck of KCT’s Highline Bridge. The Highline Bridge is just out of view at the bottom, left corner of the photograph. Behind WAMX 2005, are MWLX 2017, WAMX 3855, and WAMX 3852. The locomotives are about to cross the Kansas-Missouri state line from Kansas City, Missouri, to Kansas City, Kansas. The state line is about 300 feet to the west (left) of the locomotives. WAMX 2005 - Highline Bridge - KC, KS   Above, the engines are now crossing over the Kansas River on the KCT's Highline Bridge, using KCT Main 4. The engines are nearing Adams Street Interlocking, where they will swing to the southwest and head back home to Mill Street Yard. About the engines The WAMX engines are owned by Wat...

NS 9360, NS 8699, and NS 9108 - Santa Fe Junction Norfolk Southern (NS) 9360, NS 8699, and NS 9108 are seen here making a light engine movement through Santa Fe Junction, after having come off the lower level of the Kansas City Terminal's (KCT) Highline Bridge. The train is heading north through the junction on KCT Track 330, as it makes its way toward the West Bottoms area of Kansas City. The locomotives would make their way from Track 330 to either Track 79 or Track 80 for the run north to the West Bottoms. The foreground track, next to Track 330, is Track 79. Highline Bridge approaches In the background of the photograph is the eastern approach to the upper deck of the Highline Bridge at Santa Fe Junction. The Highline Bridge crosses over the Kansas River at Kansas City, Kansas. The upper deck of the bridge allows trains making their way between Kansas City Union Station and BNSF's Fort Scott Subdivision, to the east (left) of the photograph, and Union Paci...

GOT 242 and GOT 557 GO Transit (GOT) 242, a cab control car, leads an afternoon rush hour commuter train west past two other GO Transit trains on the Union Station Rail Corridor (USRC). The two trains to the right of GOT 242, were stopped while waiting for clearance to enter the Union Station complex. The train on the far right was being operated in push mode by Go Transit (GOT) 557 . Meanwhile, the train in the middle was being operated in pull mode by an unknown Go Transit locomotive.  Union Station Rail Corridor The USRC stretches to the east and west of Union Station and has an endless parade of commuter trains. At peak times it's not unusual to see three or more trains all entering or leaving the Union Station complex at once. In the photograph above, the USRC has ten tracks between Blue Jays Way (the bridge in the distance) and Spadina Avenue (where the photograph was taken from). On the west side of Toronto Union Station, the corridor runs between Union Stati...

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.

UP 7347 and UP 7374 - Highline Bridge - KC Skyline With downtown Kansas City in the background, Union Pacific 7347 and Union Pacific 7374 lead a westbound manifest freight train onto the east approach of the KCT's Highline Bridge . The train will momentarily be crossing over BN Crossing , at Santa Fe Junction, before crossing over the Kansas River, at Kansas City, Kansas. Photo taken: August 27, 2005. Kansas City, Missouri.

UP's KC Metro Subdivision The view in this image is looking toward the southwest, down Union Pacific's K.C. Metro Subdivision from the old Santa Fe Avenue crossing in the West Bottoms area of Kansas City. The nearest railroad crossing in the photo is Mulberry Street, and the furthest crossing is Hickory Street. In the far distance are two railroad bridges that cross over the Kansas River. The road bridge is the James Street bridge, and it is where the Kansas-Missouri state border intersects the rail line. Photo taken: November 9, 2007. Kansas City, Missouri.

UP 6838 - KCT Highline Bridge - Santa Fe Junction - Kansas City Union Pacific 6838 is on the point of an eastbound coal train that is rolling across the upper deck of KCT's Highline Bridge. The train is crossing over the Kansas River, and is nearing the Kansas-Missouri state border, at Santa Fe Junction. The train is approximately 1,000 feet from the state line, where it will cross into Kansas City, Missouri from Kansas City, Kansas. Photo taken: November 9, 2007. Kansas City, Kansas.

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...

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.

BNSF 4926 leads a train east past the Grand Boulevard Metrolink station, at Grand Interlocking . The train is crossing over Union Pacific's Jefferson City Subdivision , and is coming from BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision and onto TRRA's Merchants Subdivision. BNSF uses the Merchants Subdivision between Grand Interlocking (just west of downtown St. Louis) and North Market Interlocking (in North St. Louis, between North Market and Branch Street). At North Market Interlocking BNSF's trains can get back onto the Hannibal Subdivision. Since this photograph was taken, the Grand Boulevard overpass has been replaced, and the Metrolink station has been rebuilt and reconfigured. The bridge in the background is the old Spring Avenue  overpass, which has since been torn down, but not replaced. The Spring Avenue overpass had been closed for many years prior to being demolished. October 30, 2006. St. Louis, Missouri.

BNSF 5722 and BNSF 637 - Kansas City, MO BNSF 5722 (on the point) and BNSF 637 (trailing) are leading an empty coal train north through the West Bottoms of Kansas City . The train was heading toward the Goose Neck , and after going through the Goose Neck would cross over the Missouri River on the Hannibal Bridge into North Kansas City, Missouri. BNSF 637 was a former Santa Fe locomotive, which at the time of this photograph, was still painted in the famous Santa Fe Warbonnet paint scheme. Photo taken: September 26, 2005, at Kansas City, Missouri.

Metra Electric Train 756 sits just north of the Harrison Street Pedestrian Bridge in downtown Chicago. Behind the trees, on the left side of the photo, you can see the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) reaching up toward the sky. Also, behind the trees, to the left, is the Congress Hotel. Photo taken: December 21, 2009, at Chicago, Illinois.

Block Signal - West Bottoms - Kansas City, MO The block signal controlling a connector/interchange track between the Union Pacific and BNSF near Forrester Road in the West Bottoms . The highway bridges seen here are the interchange ramps between I-70 and I-35. Photo taken: September 26, 2005. Kansas City, Missouri.

BNSF 4129 brings up the end of an empty coal train at Branch Street. BNSF 4129 is the distributed power (DP) unit on this empty hopper car train that is heading north on BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision , at Branch Street, in St. Louis, MO. The train has just crossed Branch Street and is passing alongside the old Illinois Traction System (ITS)/Illinois Terminal Railroad (ITC) approach to the McKinley Bridge. The McKinley Bridge crosses the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri and Venice, Illinois. Seen in the photo on the bridge's approach are the old catenary suspension supports for the ITS/ITC trains, which were originally electrically powered. In the past the McKinley Bridge carried both trains and automobiles over the river. These days, the bridge serves automobiles, pedestrians, and bikes. Today, the approach allows biking and pedestrian traffic to access the McKinley Bridge. If you follow this link , you can see another view of the approach while it was being...

The now unused Sheffield Interlocking Tower 8 sits beside the Kansas City Terminal's (KCT) Sheffield Flyover. Sheffield Tower was operated by the KCT but has stood unused for many years. The Sheffield flyover was built to help facilitate the movement of trains through the area, since there are multiple railroad lines that interchanged and crossed the ground level KCT main line tracks.  The flyover runs between Rock Creek Junction (on the eastern end, by I-435) and Belmont Avenue (on the western end). The KCT utilizes both the flyover and ground level tracks to facilitate the movement of trains on its rail corridor between Rock Creek Junction and Santa Fe Junction (to the west of KC Union Station).  Photo taken: September 26, 2005. Kansas City, Missouri.

A Czech Railways (České dráhy) CityElefant passenger train is arriving at Prague's main train station (Praha hlavní nádraží). The station is also know as Wilsonova Station, though this is not the station's official name anymore. Photo taken: April 30, 2015. Prague, Czechia.

CITX 3092 leads a UP manifest train east along Manchester Ave. Heading east on Union Pacific's Jefferson City Subdivision , CITX 3092 leads a freight train along Manchester Avenue. The train had been waiting at Knox Avenue , just beyond the overpass in the distance, for clearance to proceed east toward Grand Interlocking . The train is approaching the Sublette Avenue crossing. Photograph taken on February 26, 2006. St. Louis, Missouri.