Being a member of the LCCA, we attended the annual convention when in the Big city of Chicago and visited the huge Train Station downtown. We had a ball and this was either 2017 or 2018, time flies when your having fun. Happy Railroading Everyone 
Pair of ex EL engines
August 4, 2012. Attica, Ohio:
Tom
Leapinlarry,
You photos and comments about Chicago brought to mind my many trips there via Amtrak. No matter where you live in the US, a trip to Chicago by train and just a day or two in town makes for a great rail excursion. Chicago has so much to see and do and there are all kinds of wonderful restaurants. Why, just shopping along Michigan Ave. is fun. For railfans there is always a ride on the South Shore.
Yes Conductor Earl, thanks for chiming in, Chicago is a huge railroad town, the station is really nice. We had fun at the LCCA annual convention, and a great visit with the friendly folks at the Chicagoland Model Railroad Club where they have there really neat layout. It’s a great place to visit. Also, the Museum of Science and Industry is awesome. I would like to see pictures of the trains people are saying they’ve ridden on as pictures tell a great story. This is a fun thread. Happy Railroading Everyone
Since we're discussing Amtrak - here's eastbound Amtrak at Ashtabula - pre-dawn.
During a 2010 trip to Australia, took a photo in Melbourne of Flinders Street Station, then later went to a steam railway south of the city:
This is from upstate NY, Small town called Remsen, NY. Forgot this small depot was here. It also has a turn table from years gone by. I wish they would clean around it for better photos. Started raining was told to get out of the rain. I had Pictures of a round house down in Utica, NY and a photo of a turntable that was in use till the early 80 maybe someday I will find and will post. HAGD Mark, God Bless America!
www.remsendepot.com Should have taken a look at the site first, has some nice history and photos.
Thanks Mark
Here's another train encounter from my Seattle vacation. We went to see the Chittenden Locks in Ballard yesterday and stopped at the Lock Spot Cafe for some fish and chips. The Ballard Terminal RR provided this appetizer. (July 18, 2021)
Steam on the Black River & Western, September 2016.
West Virginia steam excursion during its final season. Enjoy!
This portion of the former SP "Sunset Route" is now designated by Uncle Pete as 'San Antonio Area'. This westbound freight is climbing a 1% ruling grade at Strobel CTC siding. He is near the end of his run as in 10 miles it will be at the crew change point in Alpine, TX. Alpine is also a division point with the railroad west of there being designated as the 'Sunset Area'. Alpine is also where Arthur Stillwell's Kansas City, Mexico & Orient RR (later AT&SF) joined the SP for a trip up Paisano Pass. At the summit the KCM&O diverged southwest to proceed to Presidio, TX and the US border while the Sunset Route continued west to El Paso, TX. As the view turns westward you can see evidence of my railroad career-turned-cattle rancher with my stock trailer in view. The zoomed view westward shows iconic Mitre Peak in the distance.
Here is some from a weekend trip to Ticonderoga NY. These are from the way back home just crossing the upper Hudson River at Riparius NY.
...and here you thought the warning in the instructions "some assembly required" only applied to kids toys at Christmas. 
The Grandchildren at “The Lost Railway Museum” Grass Lake, Michigan.
May 6, 2021 • • The train crew in front of old #47 •• The boys watching a train movie •• Baby checking the view out of a passenger car window •• Baby got home and wants her own mask.
Every model railroader started out rail-fanning!
Hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary 🚂
This is an eastbound train out of Seagraves, TX headed for nearby Lubbock, TX. This line was once one of the many branches of AT&SF that diverged out of Lubbock and Slaton, TX. This photo was taken during the "you-might-see-anything-Iowa-Pacific" era. The NJ commuter locomotive convinced me to pull over and take this shot.
Today August 4, 2021 • White Castle Lunch at the Amtrak Yard, Pontiac Michigan.
Four sliders and fries from White Castle. Inside my F150.
The Amtrak Crew is inside this coach, doing maintenance.
The rear of Amtrak Charger 4617.
This Siemens Charger and coaches are in for maintenance.
Working on the railroad.
This crewman is walking back to the water tank.
Filling the 1000 gallon fresh water tank.
Every model railroader started out rail-fanning!
Hope to see you out rail-fanning & posting your images on the OGR Forum: Gary 🚂
Took a ride on the Northern Central out of New Freedom PA this past weekend. Quite a treat for someone who is both an 1800s era railroad and a Civil War buff. I will try and post pictures later.
I was camping in the Rocky Mountains near Banff and caught this westbound train with my kids when we were walking the dog. Enjoy!
On the way home from camping we stopped in at a little town called Big Valley, Alberta which used to be an important railway stop with a roundhouse and yard which were abandoned in the late 1930's and moved to a nearby location which better served the railway. During the war the remains were stripped out of the roundhouse and repurposed. Really cool the ruins are still there. Hope you enjoy!
A couple of pictures of 475 from Strasburg. The second picture was taken from the bridge in the corn maze at the Cherry Crest Adventure Farm.
Tuesday at Strasburg
Nice pix from Riparius, MartyE.
Don't think anyone has mentioned this - the photos in the gallery section in the September issue of a monthly magazine about trains are by Erik C Lindgren.
David
Rail-fanning in San Jose and Jamestown back in the 70's and 80's.
RAY
A compilation of railfanning from December 2020 and early July 2021 to answer the question...where are NS's former GP59s?
Two examples of these locomotives, a class only rostered by Norfolk Southern and intended for high-speed intermodal and Road-Railer service, found themselves purchased by Carload Express, an Oakland, Pittsburgh-based holding company for shortlines in eastern Ohio, western PA and the Delmarva Peninsula. Though the GP59s have occasionally seen service on the Southwestern Pennsylvania Railroad in Westmoreland and Fayette Counties, the GP59s (and the ex-NS SD60Ms) have mostly remained on the Allegheny Valley Railroad in Allegheny and Washington counties.
The GP59s spent most of their initial assignments sandwiched between two SD40-3s working the Island Avenue transfer job; occasionally, however, they could be found working the mostly-daily AVR-3 local run to Washington, PA. In December, CLXX 4552 (former NS 4617) led two GP40-3s on an unusually long AVR-3 heading north through Finleyville, PA.
I spent several months away from Pittsburgh, but returned earlier this summer. AVR-3 has been running at night to accommodate almost-daily trackwork on the former B&O "Pike" and I was fortunate to catch one of the ballast extras conducting work at Bruceton (the Wheeling & Lake Erie interchange). Here, CLXX 4551 is pulled off the head end of the southbound train to allow the crew to drop half of the cars on the interchange.
CLXX 4551 used to wear the latest "Horsehead" paint while on NS (as opposed to 4552's older-style Thoroughbred paint with OLS logos), which is wht it has the white 'unibrow.'
An ancient Lake Erie, Franklin & Clarion County hopper brings up the rear of the ballast string coasted onto the interchange track.
The 4551 guides the train as RJ Corman contractors drop ballast on the main at Bruceton.
@Ray of sunshine posted:Rail-fanning in San Jose and Jamestown back in the 70's and 80's.
RAY
How about some locations and dates, please? Especially that first photo of 4449, in 1977, enroute to Oakland, on the Amtrak Transcontinental Steam Excursion.
Hot Water,
4449 was taken at Agnew Station heading north out of San Jose, 1977 as I remember. Canadian Pacific taken 1977 at the San Jose Yards cutting over from San Jose on its way to Oakland. Sierra Railroad engine 34 taken at the Jamestown Ca depot. SP 2472 was taken at the San Jose Round house and yards in 1992 as best I remember.
RAY
Hot Water, it must have been your day off. Or is there a story about the soot on the locomotives?
@Number 90 posted:Hot Water, it must have been your day off.
Tom,
The reason behind all the soot on 4449 in that is; after our layover in San Louis Obispo, on the SP Coast Route, an Amtrak SDP40F diesel was added for assistance climbing Cuesta Grade. Upon departure, we ascended the grade, and then stopped on the big horseshoe curve for a photo-runby. Since I was "off duty" that morning, I got off to take photos of the photo run. The train then backed up, made the photo run, then backed up to re-board all the passengers. As I headed for the crew car, I saw McCormack franticly waving for me to come forward. It seemed that the Amtrak SDP40F had tripped an alarm (as indicated by the red light on the Diesel MU Control Box in the cab of 4449).
I went back to check on the Amtrak diesel, but could not clear the problem (it would no longer load in either direction). I informed the Boss, that he was going to have to start the whole train, including the dead SDP40F, on the steepest part of Cuesta. So much for Amtrak "diesel assist"!
Now, the bad part is, there is a tunnel at the top of Cuesta, and without any diesel assist, McCormack was forced to operate 4449 at FULL THROTTLE thru the entire tunnel,,,,,,,,,,,thus steam cleaning more than 20 years of diesel oily exhaust snot from the tunnel interior. That is why 4449 looks to bad in subsequent photos on the remainder of the trip to Oakland. We had a multi-day layover in Oakland, and it took two days to clean 4449, with diesel fuel and large quantities of Dawn Detergent!
Yesterday August 13, 2021 • Back to the Amtrak Yard, Pontiac Michigan.
Ordered lunch at White Castle. They are celebrating 100 Years.
Rail-fanning & having lunch inside my F150.
This is called “The Poop Truck”. It is used to pump the black water out of the holding tanks.
Working on the air lines.
Crew chief returning to his office.
The Siemens Charger returning from the Y-Turn.
Loco #4629 is returning to the front of the consist. For it’s return trip to Chicago.
Every model railroader started out rail-fanning!
Hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary 🚂
The Monongahela heritage unit on one of its rare visits to its representative region. The locomotive led an eastbound 20E piggyback (and three cars worth of double-stacks) from Chicago to New Jersey one day in January, and I caught it on both sides on Conway Yard as the sun went down. Also featured is the GP38 pair I posted about two weeks ago on NS 170.
Sunset August 17, 2021 • Waterford, Michigan
This E J & E #659 is used by the CN Railway as a switcher.
Every model railroader started out rail-fanning!
Hope to see you out rail-fanning & posting your images here: Gary 🚂
@trainroomgary suggestion:
Place your photo captions BEFORE the photo, not AFTER. Doing so allows the reader to scroll down to read the caption and be prepared for and better understand the photo. When the caption follows the photo, I look at the photo and I'm not sure what it is I'm seeing; i.e., I have no info about the photo to understand its context when it precedes the caption.
@Pingman posted:@trainroomgary suggestion:
Place your photo captions BEFORE the photo, not AFTER. Doing so allows the reader to scroll down to read the caption and be prepared for and better understand the photo. When the caption follows the photo, I look at the photo and I'm not sure what it is I'm seeing; i.e., I have no info about the photo to understand its context when it precedes the caption.
Hi Carl: Thanks for the suggestion but I will have to take a pass. The caption or what we call a cut line always goes below the photo. I was able to make money in photojournalism for over 40 years and still involved.
I subscribe to the Detroit Free Press and this is what they’re front page looks like. There are five photos on the front page and all the captions are below the photo. Every page follows this layout design.(View from my iPhone using the FP App)
This is from Associated Press. The caption goes below the photo. Sometimes it may be in a photo block to the left or right of the photos. Showing several photos for one story.
Hope this helps and look forward to seeing your rail-fanning photos. Gary 🚂
@Hot Water posted:Now, the bad part is, there is a tunnel at the top of Cuesta, and without any diesel assist, McCormack was forced to operate 4449 at FULL THROTTLE thru the entire tunnel,,,,,,,,,,,thus steam cleaning more than 20 years of diesel oily exhaust snot from the tunnel interior. That is why 4449 looks to bad in subsequent photos on the remainder of the trip to Oakland. We had a multi-day layover in Oakland, and it took two days to clean 4449, with diesel fuel and large quantities of Dawn Detergent!
I hope the crew had some masks to protect their lungs! Too bad the 4449 couldn't have been turned around, and run through the tunnel cab-forward style. 
@trainroomgary, I almost included the following in my original replay since I expected that reference to traditional print media technique would be offered as a justification/explanation, so I'll include it now given your informative reply:
In legacy/traditional print media formatting, the reader can almost instantaneously view the image and read the explanatory text. Not so with replies on OGR since one scrolls through image then text using your formatting. Hence, my suggestion to place text before image.
That the traditional print media/photo journalism approach works elsewhere doesn't work for me here. Just my opinion of course.
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