Midweek Photos 11/29/2017

Some Berea, Ohio train action.

Beginning the topic with healthy Alcos always gets things off to a good start.

Swipesy posted:

Some Berea, Ohio train action.

This post illustrates a trend in current day railroading that, to me, reduces the excitement of railfanning.  It used to be a rare event to see foreign road motive power.  Now, it is sometimes difficult to remember whose railroad you are watching.  Those that live near short lines, especially Alco powered short lines, are indeed the lucky ones.

FYI, nice images and thanks for posting them.

Time for a hair cut for the holidays. This is in Issaquah, WA , photo from a friend.

Some oddballs that roll through Lake Villa occasionally on the local CN line.  I like oddballs.  They keep life interesting.  Cheers.

In Thurmont, MD., the observant railfan knows that when the Maryland Midland goes west up the mountain to Highfield, MD. (CSX connection), the train will return eastbound in around 2 hours. It is then possible to catch the eastbound on the way to do errands or out on a supermarket run.

On 11-27-2017 I was provided this opportunity to catch MMID train HFUB eastbound at the Carroll St. crossing. The train has been stopped almost 20 minutes due to a MOW crew doing tie replacement to get their machines out of the way on the siding. Today's train had 2 SD40-2s and 2 GP38-3s, and is the 1st train over this line since 11-22-2017.

Thurmont was originally on the Western Maryland Railway mainline, then Chessie System, and MMID has been here since 1983. Where I am standing was once the connection with the interurban Hagerstown & Frederick, which lasted until 1954.

Photos by Warren W. Jenkins

I've been really busy the past few weeks, running all around.  A trip to Missouri to check on the farm, another trip to Kansas City for a funeral. Plus, it's pheasant season.  I've had lots of distractions.  For Thanksgiving, my wife declared we were going back out to Seattle to visit our youngest son, now a Microsoft game programmer (Minecraft.)   I was hoping for several days along the coast or snowshoeing up in the mountains, but those hopes were dashed when I saw the weather report.  It rains EVERY DAY!  So, we stayed in downtown Seattle (rather than Redmond because the traffic is SO bad!)  It turned out that in addition to the hordes of bums there, there are also trains in some unlikely places!  I ended up with a few shots:

1. The monorail approaches its northern terminal under the Space Needle.  I had more misses than hits as I never could predict which of the two tracks it would be on.

2. A BNSF train heads south along the waterfront.  My wife was a real trooper standing with me in the steady rain waiting for the train to get a green light on come on through.  It turned out that the trains were going right behind our hotel!  (The Marriott Waterfront.)

3. The train was a grain train.  I guessed it was loaded judging from the sound of it.  There was a large grain transfer facility further down the waterfront.

Kent in SD