Rail-fanning on The OGR Forum 🚂 Welcome: Pictures YOU have taken! • Hope to see you out rail-fanning.

@trainroomgary posted:

Hi Mark: Thanks for watching & hope to see you out rail-fanning!

HIi: RSJB18: This is the Wolverine Line, Train #355 leaving Pontiac Station @ 5:28 PM

🇺🇸 Gary 🇺🇦

@RSJB18 Bob, we should have known it was the Wolverine Line in Michigan!

Gary, my railfanning of late has consisted of catching a glimpse of the CN or B&P trains with the Cleveland Cliffs (formerly ARMCo) mill in the background.  I get that view from the shopping center lot I posted a while ago.  The trains are always the same 3 types.

When I went home for spring break two months ago, I took the long route through Maryland and stopped at the Bowie commuter station for two hours. I saw nothing interesting, but managed to get one photo that was decent except for the lighting. I learned that Bowie is probably not the best spot if one wants well-lit shots of motive power coming around a curve.

On the bright side, this was my first time using manual settings mode on my camera in daylight, and it seemed to work well.

Westbound at Plainview, CO HDENPVO with BNSF 4711 still in warbonnet leads  4/25/22

North of Harriman on the Cutoff. Through the granite and the diverse ancient geology of the Sherman Highlands a westbound moves quickly towards Perkins, WYO over Deadman Creek.

Dale Junction, WYO sunset

GEO train runs over the Larkspur, CO bridge 4/24/22

Posted April 26, 2022...

On April 23, 2022 rode Reading & Northern RDC cars on a Lehigh Valley NRHS Fantrip with OGR Forum members HO BOB, CNJ BILL,   Mark , Eddie from Long Island and Brett, from Port Clinton, PA to Jim Thorpe, PA covering former Reading, Lehigh Valley, Jersey Central AND Lehigh & New England trackage. All day trip with lots of photo stops. Railroad president Andy Muller rode with us out of Port Clinton with announcement about today's (4-26-2022) #2102 50 car coal Freight Train Test Run over these same tracks. R&N is expected to haul 1 MILLION tons of Anthracite Coal this year!

Had a great time and trip included lunch! If you have the opportunity to ride any R&N trip...do it.

Enjoy the photos...

Had to add this photo...A birthday present cab ride from my wife Susie

My wife returned from Oregon last night. Amtrak #14 " The Coast Starlight"arriving in the new Tacoma WA. station. Train was running late and seemed to come in a little "Hot" and overran preferred stopping point by a couple car lengths

Taken this afternoon on the way home

Just outside of Columbia, Pa

Didn't take a lot to stop this NS train

https://ogrforum.com/...ge-excursion-4-28-22

Mitch

CN Mixed Freight • Fisheye Lens • Troy Michigan

March 12, 2022 I went rail-fanning with a fisheye lens. It was a sunny spring day as I sat track side waiting for a CN freight train. The train was traveling at 60 mph as it entered the Troy Transit Station. Notice how the fisheye lens bends the horizon for some spectacular images. After the train passed the platform a small airplane flew over the north side of the station.

The video was shot in 5.6 K@ 30fps in 360 degree mode. It was formatted so it will play with the OGR Video Player. Hang onto your hat as the train passes in 360°.

The green arrow on Google Earth, shows where I was standing.

Hope to see you out rail-fanning: 🇺🇸 Gary 🇺🇦

Shot these last evening between Evaline and Centralia, WA

Mitch great pictures but they don’t have any Giraffes on that train.
Don

Just for the fun of it…. !

🇺🇸 Gary 🇺🇦

Further proof the world is round   I wonder what the effective grade is on the track?

Just for the fun of it…. ! "Tiny Planet Images"

Yes, “Tiny Planet Images” is a photographic term. Just put this term into the YouTube search engine and you will find about one-hundred how to videos. Yes planet earth is round & not flat. Lol

Hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary

Reading and Northern 4-8-4 No. 2102 passing through Hauto, PA (between Hometown and Nesquehoning). April 26, 2022. Shake-down run pulling 50 empty coal hoppers in preparation for resuming excursion service in late May.

2102 in Jim Thorpe, PA. April 26, 2022.

Last night, I caught a UP container train at Napavine, WA:

The train got caught up in Centralia, so I managed to catch it again later at Tenino, with a horn salute:

Steam Railroading Institute • Owosso Michigan

We are rail-fanning at the home of the Pere Marquette 1225. Today May 12, 2022. It is a warm sunny spring day as we check out the work being done on the 1225. The locomotive is outside on jack stands. They are rebuilding the drive wheels & assembly.

Hope to see you out rail-fanning: 🇺🇸 Gary 🇺🇦

@trainroomgary posted:

Steam Railroading Institute • Owosso Michigan

We are rail-fanning at the home of the Pere Marquette 1225. Today May 12, 2022. It is a warm sunny spring day as we check out the work being done on the 1225. The locomotive is outside on jack stands. They are rebuilding the drive wheels & assembly.

Hope to see you out rail-fanning: 🇺🇸 Gary 🇺🇦

trainroomgary, you and others might find this interesting. What happens to all those drivers?

This is link to Niles Canyon Railway and PLA currently restoring Southern Pacific #1744 steam locomotive. The drivers wheel sets are in the shop being machined and repaired for new tires.

https://ogrforum.com/...c/161912596495858205

Just took this yesterday.

@WesternPacific2217 posted:

trainroomgary, you and others might find this interesting. What happens to all those drivers?

This is link to Niles Canyon Railway and PLA currently restoring Southern Pacific #1744 steam locomotive. The drivers wheel sets are in the shop being machined and repaired for new tires.

https://ogrforum.com/...c/161912596495858205

Hi Scott: Thanks for checking out these photos.

The 1225 was put up on jack stands on February 28, and 30 tons worth of drivers, axles, and wheel assemblies were sent to FMW Solutions in northern Chattanooga, Tennessee. Their Facebook page has a picture of one of the wheel sets being worked. https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=fmw%20solutions

Their North Pole Express will start running on Thanksgiving weekend this year, so everything will be assembled by then, and likely before. If and when they are able to schedule them, fall color tours and other excursions will be announced on their website, michigansteamtrain.com, and on our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/steamrailroadinginstitute/

This is a photo from their Facebook Page, showing the 1225 being lifted up with two cranes. All this work was done in one day.

Hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary

HI,

Got out on Seneca Lake finally and watched the FLK go by headed to the Cargill salt plant.  And did catch a nice landlocked salmon and a lake trout for my train watching troubles...

Dinner and a Movie

How nice!!

Coming back from running errands caught this south bound train.

Going through old family photos and found this--my dog lying on the REA platform in Patchogue on the LIRR. Taken around 1957.

Tuscola & Saginaw Bay engines 393 & 394 taking empty sand hoppers to the sand pit in Yuma, Michigan on May 19, 2006.

Point-No-Point one month ago today.

I have some postwar Lionel steamers where you have to open the boiler front to change headlights. Maybe this is what they’re doing at Illinois Railway Museum to Frisco 1630?

Here we see the Nebraska Central track just south of Norfolk Ne. Big UP power pulling a steel train down to Columbus via Madison. Solid line of hoppers mostly empty after having delivered scrap to Nucor. The bridge over the Elkhorn river is just visible. The gondolas carried some bars and steel coils from the mill. Beans are just emerging beyond the tracks following good rains.

Yesterday:

Today, a newly restored C&O caboose was moved to its permanent home on a display track at Lee Hall Depot, a freshly restored C&O station built in 1881 in Newport News VA.

To move the caboose from its restoration home at Ft. Eustis, it was pushed by a US Army switcher to a siding on the CSX main line where it waited until a regularly scheduled coal train passed.

This first video is the head of the coal train passing Lee Hall Depot with the mobile crane already setting up for the caboose lift.

The second video is of the two unit mid-train helpers.

UP Hazmat cars seen last week.

It's been a busy month...I defended my thesis on the American Freedom Trains and the Cold War at the start of May, had my last set of final exams, then rode Amtrak out to Albuquerque to get shots of the semaphores. I got back at about 2 AM on the 19th, but woke up at 9 for a special move.

EDIT: Wow, I have been really out of it, I did not see Carl's earlier post. Great videos!

The depot museum at Lee Hall, VA (across from Fort Eustis) recently restored a caboose donated by CSX to its Chessie System C&O colors. The cabin was stored at the Army Transportation Museum, but on Friday, moved to its new home at the Lee Hall depot.

USAX 1663, a 44-tonner, brings the caboose up from Army rails onto the CSX Peninsula subdivision, and spotted the caboose at the depot.

The contracted crane crew prepares the caboose for the lift. The Army brought out the train at 10:00, it took almost 90 minutes for CSX to give them the railroad (with only one coal train southbound, at 10:40), and a further hour for the crane crew to make the lift.

The Army crew and their CSX pilots, several of them railfans, pulled a safe distance away, but stayed to watch the whole lift.

The contractors put tension on the lifting harness and check the connections. It took a few tries before everything was to the lift director's satisfaction. I shot the lift on video, and had lost my tripod adapter, so I did not get any aerial shots.

1663 comes back through the crossovers to home rails. The unit sported a (newly-added) old-cast P5 that sounded fresh and refurbished (and was quite loud).

May 21st, 2022 brought better than a foot of new snow in the Front Range high country last night. I couldn’t resist chaining up and going to play

Great shots, but rather you than me.

Charlie

@pittsburghrailfan posted:

It's been a busy month...I defended my thesis on the American Freedom Trains and the Cold War at the start of May, had my last set of final exams, then rode Amtrak out to Albuquerque to get shots of the semaphores. I got back at about 2 AM on the 19th, but woke up at 9 for a special move.

EDIT: Wow, I have been really out of it, I did not see Carl's earlier post. Great videos!

The depot museum at Lee Hall, VA (across from Fort Eustis) recently restored a caboose donated by CSX to its Chessie System C&O colors. The cabin was stored at the Army Transportation Museum, but on Friday, moved to its new home at the Lee Hall depot.

USAX 1663, a 44-tonner, brings the caboose up from Army rails onto the CSX Peninsula subdivision, and spotted the caboose at the depot.

The contracted crane crew prepares the caboose for the lift. The Army brought out the train at 10:00, it took almost 90 minutes for CSX to give them the railroad (with only one coal train southbound, at 10:40), and a further hour for the crane crew to make the lift.

The Army crew and their CSX pilots, several of them railfans, pulled a safe distance away, but stayed to watch the whole lift.

The contractors put tension on the lifting harness and check the connections. It took a few tries before everything was to the lift director's satisfaction. I shot the lift on video, and had lost my tripod adapter, so I did not get any aerial shots.

1663 comes back through the crossovers to home rails. The unit sported a (newly-added) old-cast P5 that sounded fresh and refurbished (and was quite loud).

I started a thread on the move here.

Here's my take on this year's Steam in the Valley runs. Enjoy!

Septa team waiting to finish  reprofiling catenary on the Trenton line this weekend at the new Route 1 bridge. Delayed by CSX.

While on a bicycle trip at The Great Allegheny Passage in 2006. More pictures added:

Norwood, NJ - CSX Westshore Line or The River Line on Saturday, May 21, 2022.  Auto 17, CSX B781 SB with foreign power, CN 3886, 100 CN leading CN 3859 to Bergen, then Newark on its way to the Philly refinery.

Norwood, NJ Auto 17 on the River Line or Westshore Line - Q434 NB to Selkirk, NY for a trip to Chi / Ohio