Midweek Photos 11/25/2015 Thanksgiving Edition

Happy Thanksgiving from the Land of Plenty! One thing we have plenty of is interesting railroading. Not bragging, but during the railroading era of US history, some of the most remarkable structures, bridges, and other engineering marvels were developed to help open up and connect this great land.  I know other parts of the world have their unique and dramatic elements, too, so let's get started in showing off the plenty of things the railroads made for us.

Now, back to my visit to Milwaukee a couple weeks back.  It was a beautiful weekend, with temperatures in the mid 50s, so I took a bit of a walk around town before taking the train back home.  This is the Harley -Davidson Museum, which is just outside of the downtown of Milwaukee.  It is on the opposite side of the tracks from the Amtrak station.

Here is a view of one of the Hiawatha Service trains sitting inside the train shed of the station.

Lone Star concrete still gets sand cars along this portion of the Menomenee River.  

A few steps away, I caught this Canadian Pacific train pulling away from me while it was switching in the yard.

This old building by the tracks is now the Iron Horse Hotel.  There are a lot of warehouses in this part of town, and many are being converted to housing.  

This bridge was in the photo two above.  It is a very scenic element of town, but to get this photo, you almost have to be in the river.

After taking a long walk and trying to find a better shot or access near the yard, I came back to find another freight train has joined the CP unit, which was still switching.

This CSX unit and an NS unit were in charge of the manifest freight.  Since I don't know the railroads of Milwaukee, I could not tell if this train was CP, CSX or NS due to the mix of power.  

Over by 2nd Street, I waited for the train to pull into the sun, crossing this low bridge.

With standard or perhaps even outdated markings, you could call this train a Heritage freight in its own right.

Good mix of cars, from well cars with double stack containers

Tank cars

covered hoppers, some boxcars, too.

And it ended up with auto racks. Have a great holiday, to those who celebrate.  

Now for your turn to add some shots of railroading in the real world.  If you are traveling for Thanksgiving, take along your camera.  You never know what you'll catch!