Midweek Photos 12/11/2013

Tim, I love the photo of that D-L shanty!  Nice to see a railroad taking good care of their MOW structures.

Reading & Northern 425 headed three Santa Claus Specials last Saturday. They departed from the historic Philadelphia & Reading Railway station in Tamaqua, PA (opened in 1874). Her Reading passenger chime whistle brought back fond memories of the renowned Iron Horse Rambles.

Great pictures!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing.

It's been cold out here on the Northern Plains.  Almost too cold to even snow, almost. One night it hit 28 below, and for several days it did not get above zero around my place.  The steel in the CWR tracks out here becomes brittle and gives the MoW crews fits.  The D&I didn't even want to run their heavy rock trains on their tracks once the temps went below zero.  I guess I can't blame them.   There is snow on the ground--about 6-8 inches.  Most of this is from last week though.  It doesn't melt this time of year once it's down.

I have been out at night, chasing trains,  but the conditions have been so nasty cold that there just hasn't been that much running at night.  There was one big exception though:  the CPRR Holiday Train.  It came out for a visit during the depth of the temperature plunge.  Even the Canadians were whining about the weather!    I got a few decent shots, nothing great I suppose.   I did run into my ol' buddy Andy Cummings on the run.  He used to be with TRAINS Magazine but now works for CPRR as a media relations person in The Cities.  He was running around all over but did have some time to stop and talk foamer "business" with me for a bit.  The really harsh cold had moderated and the temps had warmed to about zero (F) by the time the train showed up.  It warmed up enough that light fluffy flakes began to fall.  The band played on anyway, and the very small children danced in the snow in front of the stage.  The turn out was OK in Brookings, SD but much better in Huron SD.  Brookings was one of the "whiney" towns that opposed the DME extension into the PRB a few years ago, while Huron has roundhouse shops and has always been a big railroad town.  The crowd was large in Huron despite the temps, falling snow, and the late hour (10 PM.)   Huron rarely disappoints when it comes to trains.

I stayed until about 11 PM and then began the two hour trip back home.  I heard on my radio that there would be an e/b and a w/b on the tracks I was following.  Hmmm.  I decided to set up about a dozen flash at Iroquois, SD and wait for them.  The w/b didn't come until 3 AM, and it was snowing harder.  I was close to US 14 highway and there wasn't anybody moving on it for the past hour.  I decided to pack it in and go home, while that was still possible.  I called my wife and told her I'd be home by dawn.......


Kent in SD

1. Holiday train passes dad & young son at Ellkton, SD
2. The band plays at Brookings, SD
3. I'm not the only foamer that showed up at Brookings!
4. Holiday train passes the elevator at Arlington, SD.  My flash were waiting.
5. The observation car settling in for the night at Huron, SD

And I'm betting everyone's thinking this is probably enough.

Good photos, everybody.  I tip my hat to you.

Agreed, great photos everyone.  Love the CP decked out, looks very cool.

I got a new scanner which seems to do a nice job, so here is one from awhile back, August 3 1989. UP train OPRSL nearing St. Louis.

The CSXT 8339 was captured for a few weeks by the UP and used on this iron ore train and Labadie coal trains. Nice looking unit!

Dan