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

BR&W 60 was the first steam engine I ever rode in the cab. Did volunteer work there back in 1982ish.

Here are some photos I took on Friday, May 19th in Worcester, Massachusetts at the Providence and Worcester Railroad’s engine terminal and yard complex.

A couple two-unit power sets are idling outside the diesel shop while a single unit is being serviced inside.  3910 appears to be in a very fresh coat of parent company Genesee and Wyoming “corporate” paint…

This view is taken coming down the road that leads up to the engine terminal.  Another two-unit power set is idling on the P&W Connecticut main.  The P&W yard office is the brick building at the right of the photo, with the radio tower in the middle.  The train pictured above and behind the locomotives is on the CSX Boston-Albany mainline.  There’s a connection between the two railroads out of view to the right.

Beautiful day for the beginning of the end of N&W 611's tenure at Strasburg - here are some stills, be sure to watch and subscribe to my YouTube channel for drone and ground video!!

https://www.youtube.com/@Phillyrail/videos

Great looking photographs of the 611 and Strasburg!

My wife & I took a break from house stuff and explored our new home state of WV.  First was a restored station at Phillipi, WV on an active CSX line, cool covered bridge on Rt 250 too.  Then on to Grafton, WV and a CSX locomotive “corral” right in town.  Lots to see down here !

Rich in WV

Great photographs, Rich!  Isn't the covered bridge cool?  I first saw it in the mid to late '70s.

This evening:

On a short work visit (and last for work) to Champaign Il, had dinner with relatives at a quaint Mexican Restaurant Maize located in the old Train Station.  The Saluki is headed north into Chicago another 2 1/2 hours journey. I was facing a 4 hour drive to Grand Rapids assuming no major traffic snarls the next day. Two work days remaining.

This is a wider view of the scene. Maize is located at the end of the old train station on the right. The outdoor patio dining is located behind the blue dumpster. Very pleasant area to enjoy an evening dinner or adult beverage of choice. The highlight for me is having an Amtrak or heavy freight rumble by just 12 feet above your head. The high speed rail was torn out years ago as can be seen by the empty right of way left of the existing track.

For those of you who enjoy videos

Nice pics!  I was a regular rider on the Saluki on the Carbondale-Chicago run back when I attended Southern Illinois University. 

2 days and counting.  Nice!  Congratulations.

The crew of the N&W 475, Strasburg, PA. October, 2019.

The Buffalo & Pittsburgh in Butler, PA. doing some switching at an intersection.

@Hartman I know the location of the B&P switching.  Kittanning Street.  I live about a mile and a half from there.  Thank you for sharing.

Here are some more photos and videos I’ve taken this week at various railroad locations in Massachusetts.

Tuesday, May 23rd…the CSX local freight (that works between Framingham and Worcester, MA) is returning to Framingham as light power.  They are passing eastbound on Track 1 through the MBTA Commuter Rail station in Grafton, MA.

Wednesday, May 24th…this is the other side of the office and radio tower (shown in my earlier post above) at the Providence and Worcester Railroad’s yard complex in Worcester, MA.  The tracks in the foreground are the main line between Worcester and Connecticut.  The tracks on the left (where the train is sitting) lead to the engine terminal and yard, and are part of the main line to Providence.

Thursday, May 25th…this is the Massachusetts Central Railroad’s small yard and “headquarters” location in Palmer, MA.  MA Central is an interesting little short line with some interesting motive power painted in a variation of the Boston & Maine’s Bluebird scheme!  Unfortunately, lighting wasn’t great for these long-distance shots.

Thursday, May 25th-Palmer, MA…here are a couple CSX freights on the mainline between Boston and Albany.  The lower-priority “trash train” had to sit in the hole while waiting for an Amtrak passenger train and a priority freight (on its way to Selkirk, NY) to pass.

First up is the priority freight is seen splitting the signals near the former Palmer station (now the Steaming Tender Restaurant).  The CSX mainline crosses the New England Central Railroad’s mainline on a diamond just over my left shoulder…

Next is the trash train, which was accelerating from a complete stop and therefore moving much slower.  Turn up your speakers to listen to it notch up!

Delaware and Raritan River Railroad’s RB-1 rolls through Eatontown, NJ on its return trip from Lakewood to Red Bank via the former Central Railroad of New Jersey’s Southern Division yesterday afternoon. The train consists entirely of empty centerbeams from Woodhaven Lumber in Lakewood. Note the roof mounted air tanks on GP9 752. It was built as a passenger unit for the Northern Pacific in 1956 so additional space was required under the frame for the steam generator’s water tank, requiring the relocation of the air tanks to the top of the hood. I took the photograph from the Tinton Avenue overpass.

Bob

CT Rail #6698 GP40-2H southbound from Springfield, MA into Hartford, CT on Tuesday. The tracks are just beyond a hiking loop (4.6 miles) parallel to the Connecticut River. Defect detector heard in the background is for Amtrak train coming north out of Hartford.

The second video is of the Amtrak train, and I wasn't so much interested in the train itself, but the sound it generates in the rails just before it goes by - they sing. I heard it earlier this spring while bird watching in the area. It's like the sound you hear if you rub the rim of a crystal glass filled with water. Seconds after the singing starts the train, coming through a highway underpass, blows past at full speed - scary.  The noise coming from the highway obscures the sound a bit, but if you listen carefully, you'll hear it. Good reminder to steer clear of the tracks and use your zoom feature for filming.

@Hartman posted:

The Buffalo & Pittsburgh in Butler, PA. doing some switching at an intersection.

@Mark Boyce I was up there yesterday as well! I had meant to go to Ohio, but was decoyed by a vide of a coal train I thought would run out of Dubois. When I realized my error, I decided to go after the BT-3 local to Petrolia and Karns City instead.

This was in East Butler, where the Main Line meets the Petrolia branch. The mile marker I believe reflects the distance to Buffalo.

Crossing one of the three bridges at Chicora. These apparently used to be all wood until about 2016, requiring first-generation Geeps and light axle loadings.

Crossing the southernmost trestle, one of the rare instances in which my photography reflects the holiday that allow me to see the train.

Departing the Occidental Chemical facility in Petrolia.

Hooker Road in Karns City.

Crossing under a bridge for the abandoned Bessemer & Lake Erie Western Allegheny branch.

Crossing under the Main Line at Vanderzee Lane in East Butler.

WS Cabin (junction with the main line).

Here's a video from my trip last summer, where I spent a few hours at a highway interchange to watch Canadian National, VIA, and Exo commuter trains.

Dan, those are some familiar locations on the Buffalo & Pittsburgh.  Yes, I think the mile marker is showing the distance from Buffalo.  The trestles at Chicora got some work a few years ago.  Amazingly, kids set one trestle on fire, and so it had to be repaired, and they must have reinforced with steel then.  Those are some very nice photographs!!

Train excursion season at Elkins, WV.  This is the Tygart Flyer.  The ABA set with a C&O painted F-unit noses into the station - Sat May 27th.  At the 11:00 am departure the train set backs into the wye and heads out for a 4 hr round trip.  Elkins also has irregular freight service for the local industries.

Rich in WV

Looks great, Rich!  Great day!  The last time we were in Elkins was in 2017.

My family and I spent yesterday in Strasburg, PA. Here’s a video of N&W 611 and 475.

Nobody tell Lionel or they may get ideas for their next run of E units.

@naresar posted:

Nobody tell Lionel or they may get ideas for their next run of E units.

I’d buy one, if Lionel made it. 😛

This is the Norfolk Southern line by my house. It started as the Richmond & Danville and became part of the Southern. For NS, this is SD40-2 territory.

The Nursery where the modular group has its 8 week Christmas run is across the intersection on the right. When one is there running trains, you can feel a train approach the crossing in your feet before you can hear it.....

Peter

Have a great week, everyone!

Peter

Last night

Yesterday afternoon. Need for speed.

@Lehigh Valley Railroad posted:

Last night

Great photo, Chris!

Sitting in CSX West Springfield Yard - long way from home.

Yesterday afternoon:

the NS shot is from Marion OH on May 18 and the CSX is at Grafton, WV on May 27.    These in passing on a family trip with a few extra hours to railfan.

Three working locomotives I spied six years ago while driving across Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The Wanamaker, Kempton and Southern Railroad operates tourist service over a portion of the old Reading Company Schuylkill and Lehigh Branch between Kempton and Wanamaker in Berks County, Pennsylvania. When we visited on July 31, 2016, power was provided by 45 ton side rod center cab unit number 7258. The locomotive was built by General Electric for the US Army during WWll. The WK&S acquired her from Birdsboro Steel in Birdsboro, PA in the late 1990s.

I took the attached photo as the 7258 ran around the train at Wanamaker. We were riding aboard the open air car which is a former Lehigh and New England 50 ton composite gondola converted for passenger accommodation with the addition of longitudinal bench seating. Great fun and highly recommended.

Bob

This week's video is another one from this summer. The first clip is from an afternoon where I woke up late and decided to go for AVR-3's return trip on a whim because of the GP59 trailing second. On another day, I set my sights on catching the AVR-4 switch job that runs with GP11s; while I waited, the evening AVR-2 to New Kensington departed the yard, and would pick up some more cars in the Strip. The third clip is from a mid-day trip to visit AVR after walking down Pittsburgh's graffiti path near Station Square with a friend. We found the AVR-6 interchange job getting ready to depart with a string of Oak Ride high-sided gondolas.

#82, the BL2, was leading the Tygart Flyer today at Elkins, WV.   I could not hear its engine running so I asked the guy in the cab, what’s the deal ?  He confirmed it was not running but would be the “control unit” today ?  It was train time so our conversation came to a close.  I was never a BL2 guy, but they’re growing on me.

Rich in WV

This week's video features switching action on both ends of the Pan Am Railways yard at East Deerfield. I was looking for the famous "railfan bridge" at the yard's south end, but at first instead ended up at the much less accessible north end. After realizing my mistake, I found the south end, hung out with a few local railfans, and watched yard job ED-4 build a train with a pair of B40-8s, including the one with a nose painted to match the Ukrainian flag of the-then just months-old conflict.

I'll also share a mediocre photo or two from last weekend, when Union Pacific's Missouri-Kansas-Texas heritage unit ended up leading Norfolk Southern manifest 13Z during its run to Roanoke. The occasion brought out almost as many folks as chased the 611 ferry move the preceding Friday. In the madness, I didn't get to one spot, and I accidentally blocked access to another spot, but given shooting and crowding conditions, not to mention the tourists, it turned out OK.

Incorporated in 1945, the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, CT has preserved an impressive variety of trolley cars and other types of electric railway rolling stock, many of which have been restored to operating condition in the museum’s well equipped shops. Cars run between East Haven and Short Beach over a mile and a half long segment of former Connecticut Company trackage operated by the organization as the Branford Electric Railway.

The collection is quite varied in its scope as seen in the following pictures I took of just a few of the cars in operation during 2017’s National Trolley Festival. From top to bottom they are as follows: New Orleans Public Service 850 built by Perley A. Thomas in 1922, Third Avenue Railroad Company 220 erected by the Laclede Car Company in 1892, Johnstown Traction 357 built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1926, Connecticut Company Parlor Car 500 built by J.G. Brill in 1904 and Union Street Railway 302, a Railway Post Office car dating from 1907 which operated out of New Bedford, MA.

Bob

A few pics I took of #110, a 2-6-6-2 Mallet, in Hill City, South Dakota.

@CNJ 3676 posted:

Incorporated in 1945, the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, CT has preserved an impressive variety of trolley cars and other types of electric railway rolling stock, many of which have been restored to operating condition in the museum’s well equipped shops. Cars run between East Haven and Short Beach over a mile and a half long segment of former Connecticut Company trackage operated by the organization as the Branford Electric Railway.

The collection is quite varied in its scope as seen in the following pictures I took of just a few of the cars in operation during 2017’s National Trolley Festival. From top to bottom they are as follows: New Orleans Public Service 850 built by Perley A. Thomas in 1922, Third Avenue Railroad Company 220 erected by the Laclede Car Company in 1892, Johnstown Traction 357 built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1926, Connecticut Company Parlor Car 500 built by J.G. Brill in 1904 and Union Street Railway 302, a Railway Post Office car dating from 1907 which operated out of New Bedford, MA.

Bob

I recall several trips there when I was a boy in the 70's. Way past time to visit again.

Thanks for sharing.

@trestleking posted:

#82, the BL2, was leading the Tygart Flyer today at Elkins, WV.   I could not hear its engine running so I asked the guy in the cab, what’s the deal ?  He confirmed it was not running but would be the “control unit” today ?  It was train time so our conversation came to a close.  I was never a BL2 guy, but they’re growing on me.

Rich in WV

Careful Rich....BL-2 addiction is hard to shake.  🤣🤣

Bob

Big boy comes east today 6-11. Stop in Columbus Ne. I had a close up view of the bearing lube operation. Looks like hard grease being fed into the gun. Round sticks about 6x1 inch. I think air then propels. A better explanation would be appreciated here. Leaving early, I traveled east about 5 miles to a gravel intersection off US 30. About 100 yards is the double main heading east to Fremont and Omaha. Attached is a short video, made so by the speed coming at us. I stood next to a kid from Witchita making a u-tube vid.  We are looking west toward Columbus. Just above the control box is a tower of the Cargill plant. It eats a lot of corn. Platte river is to the South.

Having fun with rail-fanning art.

Adobe Photoshop can be used to make rail-fanning art. These are fun to make and hang in your train room. Below are a view examples.

1 Amtrak crew member using abstract colors.

2. E J & E Front End as a duotone with wild colors.

3 The boxcar with a crew member using custom colors in the sky & shadows.

4 A selfie shot with a fisheye lens, with abstract colors.

Every model railroader started out rail-fanning!

Hope to see you out rail-fanning and posting your images on “Rail-fanning on The OGR Forum”. From any day and time. 😎

Gary from Michigan 🚂