I just assumed because they were heading away from the refineries on the Gulf Coast toward the oil fields.
S class switcher in Lafayette, Louisiana in 1932. No, it's not a mogul, that is a loose wheelset in front of the pilot.
The Lackawanna was The Road of Anthracite to most, but it also earned the nickname of The Road of Reinforced Concrete. They loved the stuff, a durable and fireproof building material of the new age. Used not only for its massive viaducts, but for everything else including a coal breaker, miner's homes, interlocking towers, depots and even lineside structures like the signal bungalow seen here at Chester Jct, NJ in April 1983. I wonder what the bell was for? Perhaps an alert of approaching trains or a Dispatcher's call?
Lehigh Valley business car 353 at NJ Transit's yard at Bay Head, NJ in 02/1983. Ahh, steam heat. Bay Head is located on the former New York & Long Branch RR, a once jointly-owned PRR/CNJ property heavy with commuter and beach trains. It remains a busy line today. As seen in the bottom illustration, Bay Head is also the site of an honest-to-gosh prototypical reverse loop to turn trains. You can see the beach to the right.
Turbo 567 at Mojave Yard. GP35R. Built between late 1963, early 1964. Rebuilt by MK late 78, early 79. Rebuilt with original turbo 567 prime mover. Seen here in 1993. Mojave CA
An old ATSF Ortner rapid-discharge coal hopper on a manifest: In the same train, a still common, yet aging BN covered grain hopper:
CP 687 with a pair of CSX GE’s and a KCSM GEVO. CP Chicago Sub September 23, 2020 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Another angle of the trailing unit on CP 687 on the CP Marquette Sub; KCSM 4699. September 23, 2020 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Gosh that's seriously hard to believe isn't it? I still think of these as "new" and have long thought that the lightning bolt on the cab side was a super cool detail on the big ACs. I shot the image below in the drizzle at Lima, OH on 09/23/1997 showing the 297, 292, 295, 294 and 293 just delivered from Erie and still smelling of fresh paint.
From the time when the Imperial Sugar Company would, at harvest time, put down temporary narrow gauge lines into the cane fields to bring the sugar cane in to the refinery. The area is now primarily urban residential and folks are still digging up sections of very light rail, small spikes and joint bars (fish plates) in their yards.