Midweek Photos 3/27/2013

Tim, looks like that little steamer has very small driving wheels.  That makes me wonder if it came from a logging railroad?  Some of the last steam still operating in CA were the logging operations, and they needed small wheels for more torque.

Winter is still holding on here, with overnight temps sometimes dipping down into single digits.  And, it has snowed a couple more times.  I've been exploring to my south, something I haven't done in the past very much.  My highest volume line is the BNSF Marshall Sub.  It goes from Willmar MN to Sioux City IA.  It continues on south from Sioux City though, into Nebraska where it becomes the Sioux City Sub.  It goes through two Indian reservations before ending up in Fremont.  It's a pretty bleak landscape but I found a few opportunities.

First shot, BNSF Marshall Sub, near Doon IA.  A heavy rain broke up the ice on a small river before it froze back over again.  Note the wooden guards around the trestle pilings to fend off these sorts of ice sheets.   Second shot, BNSF Sioux City Sub, south of Walthill NE. An old tractor sits through another winter and a n/b grain train rumbles overhead through a light snow.  Third shot, Marshall Sub, Struble IA.  Another fading prairie town with yet another old wooden abandoned elevator.  S/b BNSF ethanol train blasts through a moderate snow storm.  Temperature has fallen to 12 degrees as the northwest wind picks up.


Kent in SD

My son and I went to Omaha on Monday to check out the Big Boy and DD40x at the gardens.  Here are a few shots,  It was very cold so we didn't stay long.  From the view you can watch trains run up and down the Missouri river. 

Great photos guys...A few from the IRM last summer.

Chris

My latest rail adventures had me in Roanoke for the 630 trips. Here are a few shots....

Excellent photos everyone - much appreciated!

From this past Friday, when I visited the Strasburg Rail Road, and got to see/railfan their LO&S car long the line to Leaman Place...

http://youtu.be/4Rptui8-XO0

Leviathan at IRM in August,2011. It ran there during the 2012 season also. I don't know if it will be back this year; they hope to have the Frisco Decapod under steam this season.

Some pix from 2008 @ the National transportation Museum in St. Louis....

Here is a grain train taken at Lamberton, MN, my wife's hometown.

This was taken outside Sleepy Eye, MN

Fantastic photos, everyone!  All kinds of interesting and colorful power on display.

As promised, here are some more scenes of the Orange Empire.

The steam and diesel trips ran approximately a mile or two on an alternating schedule.  

On the trolley loop was this PCC car.

Many of the cars operate.  These were on a side track, and would roll by later on in a pageant of sorts at the main road crossing.

Of course the major attraction of the cars are the interesting color combinations that take you back instantly to the time they ran.  This looks like a 1950s color.

As the owner of a Mustang and an Explorer, I agree

A partially open car.  This would not work very well in Pennsylvania.

Funeral car.  Beautiful restoration in the trolley barn.

And some other cars needing more attention.

A few more shots before I end.  There are so many attractions at the Orange Empire that a day is not enough to do the place justice.  After Disney animator Ward Kimball passed away, his collection of narrow gauge trains, known as the Grizzly Flats RR, was given to Orange Empire.  These items sit in their own barn on the property.  Little no. 1 is called Chloe.

His Big girl is no. 2, Emma Nevada.

Beautiful artistry on the headlight.  Can you imagine the days when they were all so ornately painted?

Since I have both CSX and UP big diesels on my home layout, I was excited to see both on freight trains running on CSX at the Folkston Funnel, GA. I visited the viewing platform on Saturday, 3/16.

I'm proud to finally be making a contribution to this thread!  I got some pics of a nicely-painted locomotive in a yard next to a parking lot for the main business area in Lansdale, PA:

Some shots I took of CSX action at Cumberland Yard in Cumberland, MD.

The hump yard:

Ah, railfanning.  Good shooting guys.  I've spent some of my free time scanning my slides from the 1970's & 1980's. 

Santa Fe was still using Alco switch engines in 1974 in California.

WP borrowed a BN GP35 for a local out of Stockton CA in 1979. 

Railfanning was really interesting in those yrs, and after the smaller class one railroads got swallowed up I lost interest.  I'll probably regret not doing more but the old complaint of all diesels look alike is more true now than it was 30 yrs ago.

Greg