C&R has a nice logo. Draws the eye straight to it. Of course, after ogling the rest of that lovely Alco. Looks like pretty convincing proof... hiccup..
Brazos River bottom lands outside of Hearne, Texas. I drive through there every time I go up to the "Armadillo Ranch" to get off the grid for a while. https://www.google.com/maps/@30.872...4!1sqm5K5Hm-yeJWCgWjaTjk0Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Got a tip from my friend and headed out to see if the camera would do the job last night. We had RAIN!!! and ithis location has some ambient light from a Subway across the street, so here the crew is just getting their orders and waiting on the 'green.' The crew driver's tailights are reflecting off the rail as he heads away back to the depot.
Built for the L&N just three years before, SD-40-2 SBD 8152 is ready to pull from Montgomery, AL in May 1984.
Thinking about my photo just above, I did a Bing Maps Montgomery, AL "flyover" to see what remained in the area. Amazingly, traces of the Western Railway of Alabama's large shop complex still remain. I'm uncertain when they were closed, but I'm guessing it was in the 1960s. It had long been closed when I lived in Montgomery during the mid-1980s Here's a photo from March 1984.
That must have been an impressive roundhouse/turntable back in the day, based on the ghosts in the soil.
"GECX 4777" What looks like a typical, thrashed BNSF Dash 9 is actually a rent-a-wreck. Word is these units' leases are up, so they have been removed from the roster. This one was on a westbound mixed freight leaving Minot, ND.
I had one of those lease returns in my consist the other day. They pulled the PTC screens from both sides so they aren't lead qualified anymore. Considering how many of our other units are suffering mechanical issues we really don't need any help finding trail-only units. And with mechanical cut to the bone I'm not hopeful this problem is going to get better before it gets worse.
I think they were 20 year leases. It wasn't too long ago that betting on a GE lasting 20 years was completely crazy. Some of these Dash 9s feel like they're just getting broken in.
LOL, Yea thats right Ryan. I remember when the SP got the 200-300 series 44AC's, they would pull hell of the cross, you would literally see the tie plates rattling in front of you they would dig in and go to work so slow. But it was un-nerving that the entire operating console, was loose in front of you, must have moved a couple inches in either direction. Which is kinda nuts when you think about all that was entailed in the operating console. They did it for years that way. Oh how those things would pull.
There is nice vintage motion pictures from the F&C in the 30's-50's in the Reflections of the L&N vol 2. Called The Whiskey Route because it served several distilleries, the F&C hosted numerous fan trips between Frankfort and Paris via Cincinnati. Fans rode Southern between Cincinnati and Frankfort, and L&N between Cincinnati and Paris with F&C handling the trip between the end points. F&C management was generous with access as fans rode on the platforms of diesels. When F&C donated a Brill motor car the Kentucky Railroad Museum, L&N granted them permission to run the car over company rails, with passengers, to deliver the car.