T.G.'s Photography Blog

  UP 2584 and UP 7323 passes by the old Railroad "Y" (red building to the left) at East Syracuse, NY. B741-07 passed through East Syracuse, New York, last weekend, and was led by a pair of Union Pacific (UP) locomotives. UP 2585 and UP 7323 provided another primary color to the railroad landscape of Syracuse, which primarily sees CSX blue. In the above photograph, the locomotives are leading B741 through CP 286 of CSX's Syracuse Terminal Subdivision. B741 is a loaded ethanol train that runs from Proviso, Illinois, to Linden, New Jersey. The train is handed over to CSX from UP at Proviso.  Photograph taken on December 10, 2022, at East Syracuse, New York.

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.

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...

 After a nine-hour chase from Claremore, Oklahoma, to Kansas City, Missouri, Union Pacific's (UP) steam locomotive 844 arrived at Kansas City in the late afternoon of May 28, 2006. The train arrived at Union Station by way of Kansas City Terminal's (KCT) trackage from Sheffield Tower to Union Station. UP 844's arrival at Union Station UP 844 is westbound on KCT Main 4 between Main St. and Broadway Blvd. Sheffield Tower (also known as Sheffield Junction or Control Point (CP) Sheffield) is where UP's KC Metro Subdivision interchanges with and crosses over the Kansas City Terminal's tracks. As well as some trackage belonging to Kansas City Southern and BNSF. UP's Coffeyville Subdivision ends/begins a few miles to the south of Sheffield, and the KC Metro Subdivision connects it with the KCT tracks. UP 844 and the SCEHT are west bound at KCT milepost 7.0, next to Union Station. The famous Western Auto sign is in the background. From Sheffield Tower, UP 844 pulled th...

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 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 in June of 2008, Union Pacific's (UP) Desoto carshop had an open house, so my dad and I headed down to DeSoto, Missouri, to take a tour of the facility. De Soto carshop The settlement of the De Soto area dates back to 1803, and the town of De Soto was later incorporated in 1869. The town's website says that the St. Louis & Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad (StLIM&S) came to the De Soto area in 1859 and built a depot for the town. However, Union Pacific's (UP) website states the railroad came to De Soto in 1857. Perhaps the two-year difference is due to when the railroad was first being built at De Soto and when it was completed. The first carshop was built by the StLIM&S Railway in 1865.  Later the StLIM&S was merged into the Missouri Pacific Railroad , which continued to expand and use the carshop. A tool chest at the UP carshop in Desoto, MO.  Today, the carshop and De Soto Subdivision, which the carshop sits along, are part of UP, which merged w...

Foreign locomotive power on CSX trains seems to have increased recently. For a short period of time last year CSX was removing as much foreign power as it could to save on repaying horsepower hours to other railroads. Over the past couple of months CSX trains on the Rochester Subdivision have had foreign power from other railroads, including BC Rail (a Candian National operated railroad), BNSF , Canadian National (CN), Canadian Pacific, Illinois Central (IC, and CN owned), Kansas City Southern , and Union Pacific (UP). Previously, for a few months CSX was pulling foreign power and replacing it with its own locomotives. X626-18 at Memphis, NY. UP 6024 is on the point of CSX train X626-18 at Memphis, NY. This past Saturday I was lucky and caught CSX train X626-18 being led by UP 6024 and UP 7834. I caught X626 as it rolled east at 40MPH on Track 2 of the CSX Rochester Subdivision, at Memphis, New York. The "X" designation means this is an extra section of train Q626 . I got th...

Back in April of 2008, I was able to photograph Union Pacific's (UP) heritage locomotive, UP 1995. UP 1995 was leading train MNLAS-22, a manifest train from North Little Rock, Arkansas, to the Alton & Southern's Gateway Yard, in East St. Louis, Illinois. The train originated at North Little Rock on April 22, 2008, and arrived at Gateway Yard on April 23, 2008. UP 1995 and UP 9419 lead train MNLAS-22, north of Fults, IL. I first caught train MNLAS-22 just to the north of Fults, Illinois, as it rolled north on UP's Chester Subdivision. At the location of the photographs above and below the train was about halfway between Fults and Chalfin Bridge, Illinois. The Chester Subdivision runs from Dexter, Missouri, to East St. Louis, Illinois. In Illinois, the line runs across the flat farmland that lies to the east of the Mississippi River. In the photographs taken north of Fults, Illinois, the distance between the spot the photographs were taken to the river bluffs in the backg...

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...