Railroad Scenes

A tri-fecta of "GP-38" type locomotives from Grand Trunk Western, Detroit, Toledo and Ironton, and Chicago South Shore and South Bend move west on the eastbound track of the GTW's South Bend Subdivision, which at this point skirts the old Kingsbury Munitions Plant (parts of which are now a wildlife refuge and an industrial park). Date approximate; I believe the second locomotive was GTW 6227, formerly DT&I 227. The South Shore unit might have been 2009.

By Esther Fairchild: "Trailing" view of signbl on Washington Terminal Co. outside south portal of First Street Tunnel

Eastbound train ready to depart the south end of Union Station, Chicago

A UP local job pushes caboose 25881 and a covered hopper west by Bonner Springs

Well, at the moment only One type of traffic has the right of way: BNSF 4170 and 734 as they lead an auto train off the old Frisco line toward the former Santa Fe to Kansas City at Olathe, Kansas. Note the red-over-green signal displayed for the 4170.

By Esther Fairchild: UP northbound empty coal train on the old Katy crosses the AOK main at McAlester, Oklahoma, while AOK 4093 watches

By Esther Fairchild: AOK 4093 watches empty coal gons go north on the old Katy line, McAlester, Oklahoma

By Esther Fairchild: UP pusher engine 5964 on a northbound empty coal train clears the AOK diamond at McAlester, Oklahoma, as AOK 4093, 4098, and 4012 soak up the sun

By Esther Fairchild: AOK 4098 comes west toward the UP (old Katy) diamond at McAlester, Oklahoma

By Esther Fairchild: Clear signal for the AOK (old Rock Island) westbound across the UP (old Katy) main at McAlester, Oklahoma

By Esther Fairchild: Two UP trains, an auto rack train (left) and a coal load, wait to go south on the old Katy at Monroe Avenue in McAlester, Oklahoma.

Three Norfolk and Western trainmen smile for a short girl with a camera as they push two empty box cars out of the Purdue University spur track back toward the ex-Nickel Plate Frankfort-Peoria main near the Purdue Airport, West Lafayette, Ind. Spring 1980 (photo date approximate)

CNW 409 in the gloom of the CNW Madison Street station in Chicago, Fall 1980 (date approximate). Kind of a dark, fuzzy shot, but it did capture the mood.

AT&SF 5543 creeps down the street-running section of the main line through Fresno, California in December 1980 (date approx)

Number Fourteen (Amtrak "Coast Starlight") southbound meets SP northbound at "SLO" in this horribly overexposed scene, June 1981

Rock Island car shop, Armourdale (Kansas City), Kansas June 1981 (date approx.) I crept up close that day and saw that the "sprayed-out" words on the door windows were "die ing".

Peoria and Pekin Union number 500 has cars on both ends as it switches in Pekin, Illinois in September of 1981 (date approx.). Note that the headlights are ON in both directions - quite the multi-tasking little engine!

B&O 4223 crosses the Conrail (PRR) Fort Wayne line and passes the old-school station sign at Hanna, Indiana southbound on the old Pere Marquette line from New Buffalo, Michigan to LaCrosse, Indiana (date approx.)

early 1985 (photo date approximate); another picture in this album shows the mid-train pushers 003 and 013 of this same train

Pusher engines on the train led by DE 002 and friends in another picture (photo date approximate)

Metro-North Commuter Railroad RDC number 56 passes through Burr Rd. interlocking westbound in the summer of 1985 (date approximate)

Washington approach to Potomac River bridge; beyond the wires, an aircraft has just departed from National Airport "DCA" (photo date approximate)

By Esther Fairchild: Maryland Department of Transportation "F" unit 7182 emerges westbound from the tunnel just west of Point of Rocks, Maryland, in the Spring of 1987 (date approx.)

By Esther Fairchild: Westbound evening Maryland DOT (B&O) commuter train unloads at Point of Rocks, Maryland in the Summer of 1987. Round "30" sign indicates speed restriction.

Conrail C&S (Communication and Signal) department highway grade crossing signal equipment mounted on a trailer for use as a mobile training center to train signal maintenance forces. Date approx.

By Esther Fairchild: MDOT 7182 carries afternoon commuters home toward Brunswick, Maryland in the Summer of 1987 (date approx). About this picture, Esther says "Looking at this scene I can still feel the mist hanging in the air and the smell of the Potomac valley in the summer time."

Three Budd RDC cars make their afternoon station stop at Point of Rocks, Maryland on the B&O "Metropolitan Sub" in the Summer of 1987 (date approx.).

A genuine, if electric, switch light still in service on the Norfolk and Western end of the interchange tracks at Shenandoah Junction, W.Va., November 1987 (date approx). Rail Car Trivia note: the "W&K" on the frame of the auto rack in the picture stood for "Whitehead and Kales", a builder of such cars in (of course) Detroit.

By Esther Fairchild. Esther didn't think of it as a photographic success, but there's too much good "old" stuff here to pass up. The scene is near "Ivy City" in North East Washington, D.C. in November of 1987. Among the things no longer seen: a Conrail "SW" type switcher with a Rio Grande box car and Conrail caboose on an industry track just the other side of the Amtrak "Northeast Corridor" main line. Then there's a pre-MARC evening commuter train on the B&O "Capital" subdivision featuring a Maryland Department of Transportation RDC (with the vestibule door open, no less). In the background, the Hecht & Co. (department store) warehouse. A true collection of antiques. Thanks, Esther, for letting me put this one up.

By Esther Fairchild: Just out of Potomac Yards on Conrail trackage rights, Guilford-era Boston and Maine engine 356 leads a Delaware and Hudson train off the Potomac River bridge and into Washington, D.C. on its long journey north back to home rails in early Spring, 1988 (date approximate).

Metra 213 rests beside Joliet Union Depot after a run from Chicago's LaSalle Street Station (date approx)

CNW 401 leads the North Western's business car wrain by Kedzie Tower in Chicago as "scoots" pass in both directions on the three main tracks of the Geneva Subdivision (date approximate)

One Geneva To Another: The sun has almost set on my favorite Chicago and North Western subdivision just west of downtown Chicago (date apvrox.)

Two new BNSF GE C44-9W locomotives work west toward their new home on what must have been their first assignment after leaving the GE plant at Erie, Pennsylvania (photo date approximate)

While on their way west to home rails (possibly for the first time since leaving the GE plant in Erie, PA) BNSF 712 and 711 go back toward their train after having set off a car at the Conrail yard in Burns Harbor, Indiana. (photo date approximate)

by Esther Fairchild. The tall nose of NS 5035 with the even taller N&W position light signal at Front Royal, Va.

Norfolk Southern Piedmont main line, rail rolled at Bethlehem rail mill Steelton, Pennsylvania May 1997, 132 pounds per yard

CSX coal empty train westbound on BB RR crosses NS (Southern) at Charlottesville

Engine 171 waits for passengers at Charlottesville on the Buckingham Branch RR (old C&O)

engine 171 pulls the Cardinal westbound across the NS diamonds at Charlottesville, Va. on the old C&O main (now Buckingham Branch RR)

southbound Orange, Va.

By Esther Fairchild. Empty rapid-discharge coal hoppers creep west through Charlottesville, Virginia on a CSX train using Buckingham Branch (former C&O) rails

by Esther Fairchild. Eastward signals cast a late afternoon shadow on the Jackson River bridge at the west end of Clifton Forge, Va., on the old C&O main line

Stop signal displayed - with good reason - on recently removed plant spur track at CSX (B&O) Laughlin Junction (Pittsburgh) Pennsylvania

by Esther Fairchild: Northern Indiana Public Service Company engine SE-1 leans against a cut of coal loads during rotary-dumping operation at Michigan City Generating Station (which is a coal-fired power plant; don't let that nuke-like cooling tower fool you). Close-up photos of this baby-blue beauty are in my "Industry Locomotives" album on my site here.