Random Railfan Prototype Photos For All

Hardcoaler Mar 26, 2015

  1. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    I love stuff like this -- you found the location for certain! (y) Very cool Russell, and you can see the Cutoff to the north. I have a friend in who loves researching long-gone rights-of-way. "The deader the better", he says. He has an almost photographic memory and is great to railfan with. On our way to railfan, he sometimes pulls off the highway into empty clearings and describes in detail what used to be there.
     
  2. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

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    I remember Trains Magazine a long time ago, did one of they're "Difference of Decades" theme on this spot, showing different pics, like the steam one, then the diesel one.
     
  3. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    And after a little research it appears that the Pineveta flyover to go from left hand back to right hand running for the climb to Crookton is in the left background. The train has just gone under it. Here it is zoomed in a bit, the bright triangle is the abutment on the left.
    crossing.jpg
     
  4. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    That's pretty cool; never knew about that. Thanks for spelling Crookton correctly. I always mess up and spell it Crookston.
     
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  5. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    From 04/05/1989 at Cresson, PA on the former PRR main, CR power is in abundance. The 6790 is an SD-50. Cresson is just a few miles from the summit at Gallitzin, so served as a helper base. The Black Lick Secondary connected with the mainline here as well, using a flyover bridge seen to the left in the distance.

    1989-04-05 009 Cresson PA - for upload.jpg
     
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  6. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    6-21-16.JPG
    Back in June of 2016, when the Sunset Route bridge over the Brazos River in Richmond, Texas, was out of service due to flood damage, Amtrak was running the Sunset Limited into Houston via the BNSF bridge further down on the Brazos. As this was "rare mileage" on Amtrak, I just had to ride it. I caught the Sunset in San Antonio on the 21st of June to Houston. Here is looking out the back door of a superliner as we are passing a BNSF freight that is in the hole for us. This location is called Duke by the BNSF and is occasionally used for crew change. The name goes way back to when the Sugar Land Railway (later MoPac) crossed the Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe (later ATSF) near this location. In 1929, Tower 162 was authorized by the state of Texas at Sugar Land Junction which is just up the tracks around the bend in this photo and the two railroads worked out the details about building and operating it. Below is a piece of paperwork from that process.

    [​IMG]
     
  7. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    Just down the tracks behind me another mile is where Tower 161 was built to control the crossing of the MoPac mainline from Houston to Freeport, Texas in Arcola (they misspelled it). The Sugar Land Railroad tied into this after the MoPac purchased it.
    [​IMG]
     
  8. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Ryan,
    It's a great little museum. It has two BN predecessor cabeese, on e BN and one Soo, a BN snow plow built from a steam tender, Gavin Yard's hump retarder controls, the dispatcher's board from Surrey to Williston, two speeders, lots of historic railroad photos of the area, and a basement N scale empire with a scale replica of Gassman Coulee Trestle. Usually open Saturdays 10-2 or so, or by appt.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  9. BNSF FAN

    BNSF FAN TrainBoard Supporter

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    Reading and Northern at Port Clinton PA - Feb 2004

    DSC01743.JPG
     
  10. MetraMan01

    MetraMan01 TrainBoard Member

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    Interesting little steamer sitting at Tobu World Square in Nikko, Japan. Apparently quite the world traveler (according to the plaque). Built in 1897 by Baldwin for the Oahu Sugar Railroad in Hawaii. Moved to California in 1975 for a tourist railroad. In 1988, she moved to Nikko, Japan for use in a western (US old west) theme park, which then closed in 2006. Then she was transferred to a private railway company (Tobu) and then eventually installed at the Tobu World Square Park where it sits outside the main entrance.

    As an aside-Tobu World Square is an outdoor park of 1:25 scale landmarks from around the world-with a few operating features built in. It had trains, airplanes (on tarmac) cars and boats moving on tracks as wells as operating bridges, locks, and some bands and dancers that would move around. All movement was coin operated-cost about $1. It was pretty cool-Easter eggs hidden around like a mummy at the Great Pyramids.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  11. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Nice, cool snow. Very appropriate setting for mid-Summer! :D
     
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  12. BNSF FAN

    BNSF FAN TrainBoard Supporter

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    True. It was just below zero that day and that was a bit cool for this southeasterner. :D
     
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  13. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    We have T shirts on in that weather, here in Minnesota. And, if the water wouldn't freeze, we'd be washing our cars in the driveway, too.

    :D

    Doug
     
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  14. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    Back in January 1960 when the Ballistic Early Warning System radars were being built in northern Alaska, we got a photo from our techs and contractors. Apparently the temperature had risen from about 30 below to 10 above. They were all dressed in T-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops. :eek:
     
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  15. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    From my 4th grade scrap book when my family lived in Fairbanks, Alaska. On December 29 I recall that it bottomed out at 62 below.
    IMG_3626.JPG
     
  16. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    :eek:

    My coldest temp ever was 38 below. -62 is bloody-well REDICULOUS!

    That's why I'm happy to live in coastal Mississippi! :ROFLMAO:
     
  17. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    Just out of curiosity, I pulled up a climate page on Fairbanks to check my memory from 60 years ago. I remembered correctly. Now if I could just remember where I left my glasses.
    Well, now back to railroad photos. This was at the old Brooklyn Roundhouse in Portland Oregon in June of 2009.
    6-18-09.JPG
     
  18. Mike VE2TRV

    Mike VE2TRV TrainBoard Member

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    I remember way back in the 70's, when the TV weatherman still used chalk and drew the H's and L's and temperatures himself (these guys worked for a living!), it was -60F up in Whitehorse, Yukon...:eek:

    Never mind the car not starting. I wouldn't start either...
     
  19. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I remember those days, very well. Their forecasts were no less accurate than using today's billions of dollars technology. And much more interesting to watch!
     
  20. rch

    rch TrainBoard Member

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    One of the things I enjoy about laying over in Oklahoma City is the weather on TV. I don't know if it's presented more professionally and with more detail anywhere else in the U.S. There are computer driven animated maps but the symbology used is still the old style we grew up with. And these aren't simply pretty faces presenting sensationalized weather ("...will this cold front bring snow over the weekend? Find out after these words from our sponsors..."). These meteorologists know their viewers are well-educated and they don't hold back on the details.

    Of course it goes without saying one of the things I don't always enjoy about laying over in Oklahoma City is the weather!

     

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