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

Scanned slide of electric locomotive in Berchtesgaden, Deutschland, 1973. Love those large spoked wheels. Notice the outside-braced, wood-sided car coupled to the locomotive. There appear to be security bars behind the car's windows.  At the time this was taken, I was on vacation from my assignment as Education Services Officer at Storck Kaserne, Illesheim.

The past week has seen an explosion in Amtrak heritage units operating out of DC; in that time Amtrak 46 (50th anniversary Phase V), Amtrak 130 (second Phase II), Amtrak 161 (50th anniversary Phase I) and Amtrak 108 (50th anniversary Phase VI) have all appeared on Northeast Regionals running south out of the Capital; I was fortunate to catch all but 46 (which I had seen previously) on the trains to Newport News.

Amtrak 108 (Phase VI) leads the weekend 8:30 PM Regional across North Henry Street in Williamsburg, VA, on 30 September.

Phase I 161 pauses at Williamsburg with westbound Regional 66. The 161 led this Regional twice in the past week, and came down tonight on the evening train.

108 charges eastward with the morning weekend train on Saturday. Despite catching this unit 5 times, I have yet to take a satisfactory photo.

Tonight's westbound 66 was led by Amtrak 130, the second Phase II heritage unit, back after a brief westward jaunt on the Capitol Limited and a Roanoke-bound Regional.

I was at one of my favorite restaurants yesterday for lunch. It is perched right next to the LIRR main line in Mineola NY. The LIRR is nearing completion on adding a third track through Nassau County from the Queens line to Hicksville.
Regrettably, it's what's not in this picture any more, that I noticed.

The Nassau Interlocking Tower and Power house had to be torn down to make room along the ROW for the new track. The Nassau Tower (in the background) had stood since 1923. It was decommissioned recently when the LIRR automated all of the signals and switches as part of the project. The tower was at the junction of the Oyster Bay branch and the main line.

Just took this less than an hour ago...

Photos from Gathering of 19th century stem locomotives on Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, Antonito, Colorado.  August 2021.  Narrow gauge is not the usual topic on this forum, but this was an exceptional event.  The "into the sunset" photo is of two wood burners built in 1875.

The bridge at the blue hour - A switcher repositioning move waits on the Rockville Bridge for a westbound out of Harrisburg to clear the main.

The Black Hills of South Dakota are home to the Black Hills Central Railroad's so-called 1880s Train. The name is a bit of a publicity device since the only locomotive in the Hills at that early a date was the J.B. Haggin, a diminutive steamer operated by the Homestake Gold Mine, and its job was hauling ore rather than passengers.  Later, major railroads did reach into the Hills, and today the 1880s Train runs on former Burlington rails between Hill City and Keystone, offering locals and tourists both one-way and round-trip tickets. The attached photos show two of the railroad's several locomotives, including a center-cab switcher and #110, a 2-6-6-2 tank engine.  I took these one day while volunteering at the South Dakota State Railroad Museum, a separate entity but physically co-located with the Hill City terminal of the Black Hills Central.

The first locomotive to operate in the Black Hills of South Dakota was the J.B. Haggin, a mining engine brought in by the Homestake Gold Mine.  Because no rails yet connected western South Dakota with anywhere else in the world, the engine was brought across the prairie on an ox-drawn sledge.  She now resides in the Adams Museum in Deadwood, South Dakota.  Collectors of post-war and early modern-era Lionel may be amused by a brief article comparing the J.B. Haggin with Lionel that I wrote several years ago for e-Train, the TCA's on line magazine at http://tcaetrain.org/articles/...es/SPOKES/index.html

South of Bellevue, IA. 1995. Plus farm field near Slovan, PA. 2000l

Do you know the story of that tank engine. It looks similar to ones that ran on the Uintah.

@tripleo posted:

Do you know the story of that tank engine. It looks similar to ones that ran on the Uintah.

The 2-6-6-2T articulated Mallet was built by The Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1928 for the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company of Vail, WA. Its next stop was The Rayonier Lumber Company where it received a tender from Rayonier #101 and was retired in 1968. This engine was later displayed at the Wasatch Mountain Railway in Heber City, Utah, and then sold to the Nevada State Railway Museum. The 110 was sold to The Black Hills Central Railroad in 1999, and was trucked from Nevada to South Dakota on four semi-trailers. Restoration on this engine by the mechanical crew of the BHC was completed in the spring of 2001.

Almost abandoned branchline through Cromwell/Middletown, Connecticut. There's no train in this picture--but what's a train without tracks to run on? It's beautiful here.

Coming home from Lulu's Hot Dog shoppe after lunch with my train club buddies, lo and behold  Amtrak making a backing maneuver to turn the train at the Newport News wye.

30 years ago I'd ride Amtrak from DC to NN to spend week-ends with my brother.  Then ride it back to DC.  Never saw the train turned until today.

Just a few from my Birthday trip out to Strasburg from last weekend. I will have to try and keep the pictures to a bit here and there not to overwhelm everyone with too many at once.

And here are some videos too boot.

Yosemite Shay Cab ride.

Well, after coming back shopping this morning, the Black River & Western's #60 was warming up getting ready for the days work of hauling passengers between Flemington and Ringoes Station. Just about at 8:30 was the first whistle blow. I took these few just before 8 as I had stopped for gas. I knew that would buy some time for them to start getting her into that spot where she'd be just about up to steam.

Also shot a time lapsed video, which I didn't know I could do until this morning. No whistle in any of the videos as I was too early to get that. I do have other videos with the whistle blowing, which I think I have already posted, if not I can.

   A few more photos I dug up. Illinois Central scrap yard, Centralia IL 1991 & 1992.

Rail-fanning Yesterday • My favorite place • October 9, 2021  CN Yard • Pontiac Michigan

My afternoon started out picking up lunch at a White Castle Restaurant, and driving about two miles north to the CN Yard. I was in my F150 and I saw a Chlorine Institute Tank Car with a chemical tender. This is my first time seeing these cars. Not sure what they do.

I was trackside rail-fanning for just over three hours. Being a Saturday yard operations were slow. Caught a yardman throwing switches and the Railroad Police in the next lot over. All images shot with a Canon DSLR - T6i.

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”. Any day and time. 😎

Gary 🚂

I finally captured my "Moby Dick;" after ten days trying night shots, bridge shots, and into-the-sun shots, I got Amtrak's Phase VI heritage unit leading westbound morning Northeast Regional 174 at Williamsburg. It was an overcast morning, which dulled the background and gave mostly even lighting. That, and 108's bichromatic paint, inspired an artistic thought; why not emphasize the grayness of the morning with some selective colorization?

Rail-fanning Today • Went back looking for the Chlorine Institute Tank Car • October 11, 2021

CN Yard • Pontiac Michigan

I went back to the CN Yard looking for the Chlorine Institute Tank Car with a chemical tender. These cars have been moved to a siding use for south bound trains. I was hoping to see if it was set up to provide safety instructions to railroad crews. The Chlorine Institute was founded in 1924. Is a technical trade association that exists to support the chlor-alkali industry & provide safety procedures.

The CN Yard had no locos or crews in the yard. All the locos were shut down & not even left idling. Today is Columbus Day, they must have had the day off. Caught the front end of an E J & E switcher and a CN loco.

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”. Any day and time. 😎

Gary 🚂

In the early morning hours of Saturday, October 8th, the LIRR performed a special equipment move of the boxcar and other equipment from Holban Yard in Queens to the Oyster Bay yard, where it was loaded onto a flatbed truck and trucked around the corner to the museum's display yard. This past weekend the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum  received former New York, New Haven & Hartford boxcar #32006.

Photographed in August 1978 at the Manassas, Virginia depot.  There may have been a railfair in progress, but I failed to note any details on the aging 35mm slides from which these were scanned, and my memory has long faded.

Mechanicville, NY August 1977

The same (former) D&H shark 1205 with 1216 at the engine house in Cadillac, Michigan when they were being used by the Michigan Northern Railway in July, 1978.

Great shots, don't those sharks still exist?

Thank you Lee.  The last I knew they were both out of service and being stored at the Escanaba & Lake Superior RR.

@SWCLARK posted:

In the early morning hours of Saturday, October 8th, the LIRR performed a special equipment move of the boxcar and other equipment from Holban Yard in Queens to the Oyster Bay yard, where it was loaded onto a flatbed truck and trucked around the corner to the museum's display yard. This past weekend the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum  received former New York, New Haven & Hartford boxcar #32006.

Great shots. Is the RROB Museum planning to do a restoration of the car?

#610 pulling a Southern Railway excursion train through Manassas, Virginia in August 1978. From her history on Wikipedia: "Texas and Pacific 610 is a class "I-1a" 2-10-4 "Texas" type steam locomotive that was originally operated by the Texas and Pacific Railway (T&P). It served the T&P from 1927 to 1951 before being donated to the city of Fort Worth. It was briefly used for the American Freedom Train in the mid-1970s, and subsequently for the Southern Railway steam program. Since 1982, No. 610 has remained on static display at the Texas State Railroad's Hall of Giants in Palestine."        

RSJB18 it will be painted back to New York, New Haven & Hartford.  On the one side you can still see the old stencil of New York, New Haven & Hartford. 

Royal Gorge Co.  SD-9.

@pittsburghrailfan posted:

I was fortunate to catch all but 46 (which I had seen previously) on the trains to Newport News.

i caught 46 eastbound at Harpers Ferry, WVa on Sunday, 10/10/21

Here is some more photos from October 2nd 2021 611 at Strasburg.

The Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Miami, Florida 2015.

Five miles North of Bishop CA. is the Law train yard and museum.

Located in East central Nevada in the Nevada Great Basin. The town of Baker Nevada, population of 58, is located near the Lehman caves. Here you will find a diamond that most of us would love to have. I have no additional information on this home.

Penn Central locomotives 3106 & 3202 at the engine house in Cadillac, Michigan in May, 1969.