It's a frigid late December morning in the Chicago suburb of River Forest. The SP unit feels out of place in C&NW country. River Forest has the distinction as the original end of track for the Chicago & Galena Union Railroad. The first railroad in Chicago The original end of track was just west of the Station (where yours truly is standing). It was of course folded into Chicago & Northwestern and eventually made it's way to council bluffs. In the background, the bridge is the Candian National's (nee Wisnconsin Central Nee Soo nee Original WC) connection to CSX's Chicago Terminal Railroad. The connection is made just about a mile south in Forest Park Il. Prior to the CN purchase of the EJE this was CN's primary link between it's properties to the north west of the city and it's properties to the east.
I was just a little kid on my first visit to California when I rode this train at Knott's Berry Farm in 1958.
Here's one from August of this year. I was on a bicycle tour of the northern Oregon Coast when I came across McCloud 25 in Rockaway on the Oregon Coast Scenic. Another bike tourist I was riding with that part of that day and I stopped and he snapped this picture of me on my camera (and I snapped a picture of him on his camera). (NOTE: I don't normally take a bike helmet and bike shoes with me when railfanning.)
I like depots! Here is the famous and beautifully restored Northern Pacific Railway example at Wallace, Idaho. It was originally sited to the left, but thankfully was moved several hundred feet, when the freeway in background was built atop what had been the railroad yard. (Unfortunately the Union Pacific RR depot, once just behind this pictured scene, did not survive.) I was in this building, when Burlington Northern was still using the office, around the time they ended rail service and turned all their business over to UP. This building shows just how properous the area once was, when gold and silver mining was still going in high gear.
I can remember when they were moving that building. Wallace Idaho had the only traffic light along I-90 between Boston and Seattle until that last section of interstate was finally finished.
That leaning lamp post at left causes the picture to be a real eye fooler. It makes the scene seem slightly skewed. But all that is actually tilted is the lamp post. If you draw a vertical line against the turret, it is straight up and down. I, too remember that stop light, and how the highway wound through town. There had previously been two stop lights left on I-90. The other was in North Bend, Washington. That town fought hard against being bypassed, which instead has brought much prosperity to the little backwater place where I once lived.
That "leaning" light post looks more like the effect of shooting with, say, a 28mm lens (speaking in 35mm camera terms) or its equivalent. My brain already filtered out that "keystoning" effect without me consciously noticing it until it was just pointed out.
NS Illinois Terminal behind the Kyger Creek Power Plant near Cheshire,Ohio on the NS West Virginia Sec. Curtis
Amtrak's Exhibit Train is in Gettysburg, PA this weekend. The veterans unit is included but not in the lead right now.
A twilight shot of BNSF road power on the point of two empty northbound rock trains waiting to head north out of Sherman, TX, 10-17-2007.
Thru the end of 2013, looks like closest to what it says for you (Northwest Montana), is going to be Dec 7 in St Paul, Minnesota. There is a visit request form though if there is an event nearby, please give an 8 week notice.
Iowa Interstate train CBRI passing the Rock Island West Liberty Depot with a highwide load. The highwide load on board coming from Sioux City, IA and heading for Muscatine, IA. The load traveled down the Union Pacific Sioux City Sub and handed over to the Iowa Interstate in Council Bluffs to be exchanged with the Canadian Pacific in Davenport, IA. It was taken to a Mid-American Generating Plant in Muscatine, IA. The transformer was transported on a Schnabel 20-axle car with reporting marks and # PTDX 202.
Big load! Nice catch! At what sort of speed as it moving? It is always a bit odd looking at the present day photos of West Liberty depot, how it sits at an angle. You have to know how the track used to be...
The speed was 20-25 mph from Council Bluffs to the Quad Cities. Lay-over in Des Moines then next day the other half of the journey. For a depot like the West Liberty Depot, having a pair of Rock Island lines cross each other made it like that. One is the current line and the other was the line that ran from Manly to, I believe Columbus Jct where it merged with the other North-South line which is currently the CP owns-if I am correct on this.
Yup. I have seen pictures. I have a slide of that depot back in RI service, which a friend had send to me. Without that second track these days, it just doesn't look quite right.
I also took video of the train crossing the Iowa River in Iowa City. [video=youtube;9nnYqsdE8Gs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nnYqsdE8Gs[/video]
I'd bet a few locals were scratching their heads, wondering what sort of monster they'd just seen. You could really mess up a few minds, and tell folks it is a secret government UFO transporter.