Midweek Photos 8/24/2016

I caught this Westbound Amtrak out of Naperville, Illinois 8/19/16 with a colorful dome car from "Northern Sky Charter".

franktrain

I decided to go "retro" this week and dig into my archives. I came up with these views of Black River & Western's 2-8-0 60 built by ALCo in 1937 powering the railroad's tourist train between Flemington and Ringoes, NJ during July of 1983. The good news is the locomotive has again been restored to service and is operating this season.

Bob

 A game of follow-the-leader...CSX style

Last Saturday I had the privilege of volunteering at the water station for a marathon.  It was located between Winslow and Uehling Nebraska.  The BNSF comes out of Fremont and crosses the Elkhorn river, then follows a creek up to Uehling, and on north to South Sioux City.  The territory is rolling but not steep, wandering through corn fields and such. The line was surprisingly busy with 5 or 6 trains during a 4 hour window.  I only had my phone camera, but did manage to catch a couple of shots of the approach of a two engine train pulling a mixture of freight.  Finally a shot of the train as it passed me heading south.  Most of the folks were from out of state enjoying the scenery.  I did too.  Wonder if Wyhog ever was on this line.  The engineer even tooted his horn. 

Paid our first visit to Steamtown on the 12th. Arrived early to beat the heat, and was just in time to watch 26 move from the roundhouse to the turntable for a day of short excursions.

Yesterday, Norfolk Southern posted a photo on their Facebook page of the Central of Georgia heritage unit (#8101) crossing the Cumberland River Bridge along the Central Division in Burnside, Ky.

That triggered my memory to post some old pictures I have. My Grandfather had two careers. One was for Southern on the CNO&TP out of Chattanooga, first as a fireman then an engineer.  His other was bridge construction where he worked his way up to supervisor.  He worked from start to finish on that Burnside bridge.  I have his photos from the construction of that bridge. Here are a couple.

Just like the rest of the Railroads - coal traffic is down in Alaska.  The only coal trains moving are going north to Fairbanks.  With no Export Coal on the horizon, the Alaska Railroad is selling some of its hoppers.  Here's about 31 hoppers waiting for the southbound barge.

Update:

I was told these are leased hoppers being returned, but the ARR did sell 70 hoppers & they will gathering & heading south when there's space on the barges.

My contribution for this week: