Midweek Photos 3/11/2015

A friend of mine took these photos (posted with his permission) on Sunday, March 8 of the Cuyahoga Valley Railroad making its way through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John

Hello every one. Hear are the photos I took Yesterday. When I discovered my camera would not take any shots for me, I changed lenses but I was to close for any good shots. 

Appears that CVSR has made of few changes since I took this picture of B&O 800 way back on June 15, 2008 after the last excursion for that Sunday was completed.  Back then, the CVSR made several round trips on the weekends and parked the train at the station in Canton, Ohio.  Now, almost never hear the train passing near the Akron/Canton airport.  I see new paint and different horn at least.

 

 

 

Went over to Alliance again last Sunday.  There was a lot of train action, but these two photos were rather special.  An approaching westbound train stopped, I didn't get the train number, and a rider got off the train.  It is unusual to see one freight train stop at CP Alliance, let alone two.  About twenty minutes after the rider got off the westbound, caught something like "20R eastbound to the rider at Alliance" on the scanner.  After hearing a similar message a second time got ready to photograph the eastbound train.

 

Here are photos of the rider getting off the westbound and back on the eastbound train.  First one has a time stamp of 1:39 PM  and the second has a time stamp of 2:06 PM.

 

 

 

There is a side note to these photos.  I took a number of pictures of both trains as they slowed down and stopped and then started back up on their journeys.  This all occurred only a short time after a couple other rail fans including one that got out of their car with their camera left.  I would have called them if I had known their cell numbers. 

Allentown, Pa.:

 

 

 

Bethlehem, Pa., near the old Bethlehem Steel Mill:

 

 

Macungie, Pa., a little bit west of Allentown and north of Reading, Pa.:

No snow pics from me today. I was just out in the Sandhills by Alliance.  Here are a few photos from there. Nick   Their was 3 cars that are waiting the scrapers torch.  They where once RI and CNW cars.

The sandhills are so beautiful this time of year.  The drive up highway 2 is a privilege.  Thanks for posting.

I took these in February outside the Trolley Museum at Steamtown. These are active locomotives, and were idleing nearby. I wanted to get some closer shots, but the walkway was closed.

Don

I have been pretty busy running back and forth between Dupo/St. Louis and Dexter Mo. But I was able to get out and do some railfanning while down Dexter way. Dan

 

First over in Missouri, near Ironton on the Desoto Sub, an empty ballast train heads for the pit at Gads Hill, MO. There would be about 10 inches of new snow before the train was shoved in the plant.  

 

 

UP 5645,a southbound sand train from Wisconsin to Texas rolls the curve at Avert, MO with the flags flying. 3/7/15

 

 

Not what it seems! I passed this train on the way down to Dexter earlier in the day. I went to the Avert, MO area to catch it and waited and shot a number of trains that afternoon. It was only later that I realized that I had an image of this train and didn't know it. This is NS 7287 South, UP train MPRPB which often has NS power. The ex UP SD90MAC was one of many NS bought off the UP last year.  3/7/15

 

I also knew that two north bounds were called at Dexter with CN power in the lead, again after a number of trains went by I thought the sun would set before they showed up. Well at least one did, here CN 2591 leads UP train ZMXDT into the siding at Avert, MO. The sun set and I went to the hotel! 3/7/15

Vicki Gemmill took this photo in December, 2013. No. 17 rolled out of [David] Kloke Locomotive Works, Elgin, IL, in May, 2013. The Reader Railroad in Arkansas built wooden passenger car for her that summer. They run on the historic Northern Central Railway between New Freedom and Hanover Junction south of York, PA, under the auspices of Steam into History

I have recently been spending part of my time in Alpine,TX (on the Sunset Rt.), and catching the arrival of the tri-weekly (try weakly) Amtrak Sunset Limited.  Last Sunday's westbound featured a private car from American Railway Explorer.  The man on the platform gave me this glossy trifold brochure:

Some pics from Switzerland for a change.

 

This past week, a special steam train "The Gotthard Express" was organized by a German Steam tour operator. The trip started in Munich (Germany) on March 4, 2015 to reach Locarno, (in the south part of Switzerland)  on March 5, 2015, travelling trough the Gotthard line and a return trip over the week-end.

 

Had the chance to follow the trip on Thursday on the north side of the Gotthard line.

 

A ride to remember.

 

Starting in Wohlen, (near Zurich) were the 1936 built BR 01 #202 (Swiss class A 3/6) is waiting for our German friends. This coal fired engine is owned by the Swiss Pacific society in Lyss.

 

 

The German consist arrive, with the superb 1955 Ae 6/6 #11407 in the lead.

 

 

And behind the Ae 6/6, the 1940 built BR 01.10 #66, this is an oil fired engine. It's owned by the Ulm railways society.

 

 

 Now we have a serious consist to tackle the Gotthard line.

 

 

 

Arriving a bit ahead in Goschenen, the northern portal of the Gotthard tunnel. Took a couple of regular trains pics.

 

A Re 4/4 II (Re 420) with an Inter Regio Express, roaring out of the tunnel.

 

 

Double headed Bombardier Traxx awaiting the green light to enter the tunnel.

 

 

Goschenen is also the start of the narrow gauge Schollenen line, operated by the Matterhorn Gotthard Railways. With incline of up to 18 %, it's another engineering marvel.

 

 

But back to the "Gotthard Express".

 

Always something magic about snow and steam.

 

 

 

 

Not fair the conductor of this Re 6/6 got the best spot to take picture

 

 

 

 

 Also a short video of the trip

 

 

For the return trip on Saturday (could not attempt), BR 50 #3673, owned by the Italian society Verbano, was added to the fun.

 

Either in parallel ride (not my picture)

 

 

Or a memorable triple header. (not my picture)

 

 

Sincerely,

Patrick Weiss

 

Wow Patrick, you had a good day!!!

Patrick,

 

Its beautiful photos like that that make me want to get out my Marklin and Piko HO and start running them!  Fantastic!

Cool video and photos, Patrick!

Nice work and great video patrick. Nick

Great photos everyone.

 

Patrick...A+, what a great collection of pics and video.

This was taken back in 2010.  It is a preview of the photos that I will be taking this weekend. 

 

This is the 765 when she visited Owosso but the star of the show will be the 1225 this weekend as she pulls her train from Owosso to Clare, MI.  

 

Friday night I will be shooting shots like this of the 1225 under the lights.  

 

 

 

 

Saturday I will be doing a "semi chase" of the 1225 as she travels to Clare.   The reason of the semi chase is that I will have my 4 year old son with me.  It will be his 1st time seeing the 1225 in person.  We will be meeting the train just south of Clare.  We will watch her go by then meet her in Clare so he can see her up close and in person.  I can not wait to see the look on his face when she goes by.  This will be a total surprise to him and he has no idea we are doing this.  

 

Here are some shots of her last year on her trip to Clare.  It was cut short last year due to a cooper rating on a bridge but she is cleared this year to go all the way to Clare.

 

 

1225 is a great engine!  I've ridden behind it and chased it several times.  I hope it will again come up to Cadillac in the Fall.  That's not too far from me.  I bet your son will be amazed!  I know that I was when I was little.  

John

 

It will be in Cadillac in June!   

 

I know he will be so excited!

Tim, thanks for sustaining this thread; and, to all who regularly contribute to it.

 

Unless I can find my photos from the 50th Anniversary of the EMD FT celebration in La Grange, IL in 1989, this will be my last contribution for the foreseeable futures.  And like my other two, it's from a 1993 N&W 611 excursion out of Atlanta.

 

 

Nice photos. I'm not much of a streamline guy, but this N&W design is appealing.

Don

Thanks.  Also, my previous post has been edited to add a link to the two previous posts with photos of the 611 excursion.

Ahhh yes the N&W's J's were/are a thing of beauty.

Wow, steam season already!  I don't have much this week.  I drove up the BNSF Marshall Sub with an off duty engineer last Saturday night.  The trains were running thick!  We saw an oil train going up the miles long grade near Russell MN.  It was fully notched out but only doing about 5 mph.  The sound at night was spectacular!  Unfortunately, I had NO memory card for my camera that night!  I came home only with memories.  I did manage to get out last night and get a few shots of the Dakota & Iowa RR.  

 

This is not my favorite time of year.  Last week it was below zero, yesterday it hit 75 degrees!  The wonderful snow is gone, as is the ice on the rivers.  The ice on the lakes is mostly too treacherous to even walk on.  The land is brown with deep mud.  At least there aren't any bugs out yet.  I have lost an hour of prime night time, of course.

 

1. D&I s/b at Hudson, SD.

2. D&I making its way south past Caliope Village in Hawarden, IA

3. Engineer trainee, stopped while conductor stopped for coffee at the Caseys in Harwaden, IA.  I plan to reshoot this with lighting that's better for portraits.  She was very nice to me.

 

 

Kent in SD

Last Thursday a pair of Grafton & Upton (MA) light engines derailed in N. Grafton, MA, just south of the MA Turnpike overpass.  The engines were traveling northward back to the North Grafton yard from Upton when they went on the ground after "spreading the rails". 

 

All traffic came to a halt on the single-track short-line railroad until the track was re-gauged and re-spiked and the two engines lifted off the ground and placed back onto the tracks.

 

I took the following photos last Sunday, March 8th, as crews were working on re-laying the tracks.  Before any track work could be started, an excavator and propane "torches" had to be brought in to remove and melt over a month's worth of very solid, frozen snow pack from between and alongside the rails.

 

Kent, thanks for going out at night into the mud.  Your night photos bring back lots of memories of the days when I worked as an Engineer.

A quick Thank You all for the positive comments.

 

Greatly appreciated.

 

Until next time,

 

Sincerely

Patrick Weiss