I cannot recall if this is October of 2005 or 2006, but I think 2006. I had taken a trip back to Chicago that fall to do something with my dad and had an opportunity to chase trains. This was in South Bend Indiana. This was the last roll of film I ever shot. I got my D50 that Christmas. I miss the odd ball bespoke options that railroads used to get. This is one of only 3 times I'd seen a draper taper in person.
That SD50F must be close to retirement. Engine stress on the 16-cylinder 645 was too much and they needed lots of attention to survive. I saw an SD60F in action - basically identical but for the 710 engine instead of a 645 - behind a rare SD70I at Ste-Ursule QC some years ago: IMGP5783tb by Mike VE2TRV posted Jun 3, 2016 at 10:07 PM
Montgomery, AL in October 1985. At its height, Montgomery was served by six railroads -- GM&O, SAL, ACL, L&N, WofA and CofG.
Examples from this company used to stray through my area with much greater frequency (Whitefish, Montana, around ten years back):
All I have for this week is another old grain car. Some years ago, these former Scoular cars showed up in Marlette fairly regularly. Unfortunately, in every case the graphics were so washed off, I had no idea what they had looked like until I found a decorated kit at my LHS. I will be modeling one of these cars, but since they were an interesting and attractive car, the paint will be in better shape than this one. I think this will be the prototype I use: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=568679
SIRX is Southern Illinois Railcar's reporting mark. I did find a 1980 photo showing a similar car in new condition looking almost neon bright wearing Scoular's SCOX reporting marks, but in the 2006 photo I linked to in my edit showing legible graphics, the car is wearing the SIRX reporting mark. http://www.bnsf9187.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3378835
Don't care what notch the hogger was pulling, that's one high speed photo. If it was a GG-1 in front, it'd easily be pulling 100. Thanks for a great photo.
