Midweek Photos 10/14/2020

Grass Lake Michigan • Amtrak’s Siemens Charger Doing 72 mph.

Saturday September 26th, 2020 • 6:17 PM

We arrived trackside as the train was approaching the crossing. No time to set up my tripod or monopod. Had to use this fence to stabilize the camera. My son took this photo and I captured the rest.

As we are looking into the sun. Train number 352 from Chicago is going through downtown Grass Lake, Michigan.

The train goes behind the buildings on Main Street. At this point the engineer gives us a special rail-fanning salute on the horn. Wow - very cool.

Amtrak engine number 4627 is racing by the old stone station. The old station was rented out tonight for a wedding.

The last passenger car goes by the stone station. Next stop AnnArbor, Michigan and all points east on the Wolverine Line.

Hang onto your railroad hat. A bonus image.

This last photo was enhance using Adobe Photoshop. Just for the fun of it, using pen & ink tools. 😎

Hope to see you guys out rail-fanning and posting your photos with Tim’s - “Midweek Photos”.

Take care: Gary 🚂

A look back at one of the highlights of this summer, the not-quite-an-OCS that ran on the Pittsburgh Line and Fort Wayne Line back in July.

A cleaned (but not repainted) Penn Central heritage unit had the honors of shuttling the 2-car OCS from Altoona to Cleveland, then to points south. Here, the shorty special is passing a baseball field in Glenfield, PA.

After a 15-minute stop at Conway to recrew (the dispatcher was almost obsessive in his attention toward the relief crew to ensure the train got a clear signal), the train passed a MOW truck checking the new PTC tower.

After viewing the steam engine runs, we decided to hunt down the main freight train for the R&N, the NRFF. This stands for North Reading Fast Freight. We never found it, but we saw a coal train on the line, as we headed to the main engine facility at Port Clinton, PA. This is a few miles north of Pottsville, PA, if you are looking for it on a map.

Port Clinton is a rather new (about 25 year old) facility built at a point where two lines of the Reading Company joined from different parts of coal country to head to the Reading yards and then to Philadelphia or to Harrisburg. This location is now the corporate HQ for the Reading & Northern RR. Outside the offices is a train shed where corporate passenger cars are sheltered somewhat.

All types of motive power can be found in the yard. The F9s, an A and B unit, were bought early this year from Norfolk Southern RY. The R&N modified their Southern look a bit.

The diesel shop is always hopping, with a variety of units. In this pic, we see a GP38, MP15, and an SD40-2.

On the other side of this line-zip is a former GP30, modified to a GP39RN. This one is in maroon and yellow, instead of the traditional green and yellow.

Shortly before we left the yard, we heard a horn blowing not too far away. The coal train we passed near Tamaqua caught up with us on its way to North Reading.

That’s the end of my report this time around. I hope that some of you have done photos of the real work to share with the rest of us. Until we meet again, have a great weekend.

I was on my way to work last Thursday when a light down the tracks caught my eye.  Why would the tracks be lit up down there?  Then the crossing gates started to flash and I got excited.  It was to dark for any descent photos but I like how the glow turned out.  The tracks are coming around a curve and cross the road in the darkness to the right.  (The tracks came first, so does the road then cross the tracks?)  Pacific MO, BNSF

-Nathan Muenks