View allAll Photos Tagged ES44AC-H
Looking down off the Stone St. overpass at MP 82.8 on CSXT's Boston Sub (the ex Boston and Albany mainline) we see Selkirk to Rigby (ex Pan Am) manifest M426 holding the main. The train has an impressive eight unit lashup led by a pair of twenty two year old AC4400CWs in as delivered YN2 bright future livery trailed by a fourteen year old ES44AC-H and five dead in two SD40-2 variants four of which are rebuilt SD40-3 'spongebob' cab units. The five units are presumably headed to Waterville where CSXT has been sending many older EMD's lately for reasons unknown (perhaps maintenance, or storage, or prepping for service on the former Pan Am properties, or something else entirely).
Palmer, Massachusetts
Friday November 11, 2022
Lead by CSX ES44AC-H #765, a unit Union Pacific grain train crosses over the mighty Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota, on a beautiful Spring afternoon.
St. Paul, MN.
May 2021
Just another frame from here because this light is pure perfection and on Flickr there aren't any rules so I can put as many make me happy in my album!
While not like the glory days by any means, the old Boston and Albany is far and away the busiest freight corridor in New England and still puts on a good show. Most mornings in Palmer if you time it right you can see three eastbound freights (one each auto rack, manifest, and intermodal) as well as the local all by 11 AM or so.
Here is another one of those typically busy mornings. Moments after Q264 sailed by on the main and taken from the same angle, we see the specially painted Honoring First Responders unit 911 (GE ES44AC-H blt. Jul. 2008 that received this special one of a kind scheme in April of 2019) on the point of a massive Q436 (Selkirk to Worcester manifest). They arrived with 75 loads and 60 empties but have made a cut and now are shoving back on the 20,600 ft controlled siding to drop 30 cars on the east end of the small but busy Palmer Yard near MP 82 of the modern day CSXT's Boston Sub.
Palmer, Massachusetts
Thursday March 3, 2022
CSX ES44AC-H 3065 makes easy work of the small Q424-08 from Selkirk yard, as the train crests the top of Washington Hill on a chilly Thursday afternoon in the Berkshires.
After checking into our hotel in Minneapolis, I wanted to check out St. Paul Union Depot for the first time, so I took the light rail over there to find what I could, and found the UP 2521 rolling west past the depot along the Mississippi River.
Just behind the train are the ex-CGW Lift Bridge, and the complimentary Robert Street Bridge. The adjacent road and river traffic was a nice compliment to the action on UP's Mankato (?) Sub.
A pair of Lake State Railway SD50s and a CSX ES44AC-H pass the C&O fork signal at Grand Blanc with a grain train bound for Paines, Michigan.
As the shoppers rush home with their presents on Christmas eve, it's business as usual for CSX as ES44AC-H 918 brings Q492-24 past the old Seaboard station in Matthews, NC
After spending the night in Alexandria enjoying dinner and drinks with a good friend we headed out Friday morning only 15 min from his home for a wildly productive morning of photographing 12 different trains in the span of only three hours (plus a couple we didn't bother with because it was raining so hard when we first showed up).
With the world renowned Sakura (cherry blossoms) at peak there was only one place to go to photograph some trains. Few places in the district are more iconic for rail photography than the short bridge over the Washington Channel flowing from the Tidal Basin as seen from East Potomac Park.
This was the ninth and final trainI shot at this spot before we moved to two other locations for trains 10 thru 12. We hung out this long specifically because I wanted a freight heading the 'right' way and we knew these guys were north of us enroute. CSXT M301 (manifest Greenwich Yard, Philadelphia to Rocky Mount) is running 1x1 DPU with CSXT 718 (GE ES44AC-H blt. Oct. 2007) seen here at about MP CFP 111.3 on modern day CSXT's RF&P Subdivision. These rails leading to the Long Bridge over the Potomac River (out of sight to the left) are ex Pennsylvania Railroad and a few catenary poles remain as seen in this shot from the days when long freights behind electric motors headed for classification at the mighty and long gone Potomac Yard.
The roof of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is visible at right center behind the spring trees and the 555 ft tall Washington Monument rises beyond
Washington, D.C.
Friday March 24, 2023
Approaching the County Road 702 crossing, UP MEGDU-19 (Eagle Pass, TX - Dupo, IL) is northbound on the Union Pacific Chester Sub at Dexter, Missouri.
2008-vintage GE ES44AC-H 831 was curving across the iconic Thomas Viaduct in Relay with CSX train I-031-13 on a warm 62 degree winter morning.
Heading for Floriduh and even warmer temperatures, the bright nose of the ubiquitous GE stood out against the background of brown.
It's always to go to a new place for photography especially when one is traveling with SWS and JJL. The tower is long gone but there is still some footprint of the history of the area.
This spot always delivers! Alas this was probably the least desirable train you could shoot given that it was running 1x1 DPU with a rather uninspiring leader in the form of dirty CSXT 702 (GE ES44AC-H blt. Oct. 2007). But good old I022 (Syracuse to Worcester intermodal) is scheduled in the perfect light window for this gorgeous spot where they cross the Quaboag River at about MP 75.5 on CSXT's Boston Subdivision.
Thanks to a new family of beavers that built a lodge right on the shore in 2021 there are a lot less trees and brush and the scene is nicely opened up compared to a year ago. The ancient twin stone arch bridge dates from the line's construction in 1839 as the Western Railroad that when completed in 1842 formed the longest and most expensive railroad constructed in the United States up to that point.
The three predecessors merged to form the Boston and Albany Railroad in 1870. Thirty years later the B&A was leased by the New York Central Railroad and the line would pass successively to the Penn Central in 1968, Conrail in 1976 and CSXT in 1999. To this day it remains as the preeminent freight route and the only Class 1 trunk line still serving New England...truly a testament to the forethought of those who laid out and built the line over 180 years ago.
Warren, Massachusetts
Friday January 7, 2022
The UP MEGDU-19 (Eagle Pass, TX - Dupo, IL) passes through Missouri Junction on the Union Pacific Chester Sub at Dexter.
A set of four helper locomotives passing west over the iconic stone bridge at the Youghiogheny River and Indian Creek. #293 was a recent repaint at the time. These helpers were based out of Connellsville Yard, but manned helper service has now been phased out on the Keystone Subdivision. CSX now runs mid-train Distributed Power Units or DPUs. Something that western U.S. railroads had already been doing for many decades.
BNSF 5320 and a good variety of other units lead a manifest train through Bison as they make their way into East Glacier Montana.
It was clear and cold in the Shenandoah Valley this morning and I've long wanted to photograph a Northbound on the NS's H Line near Arcadia but that didn't happen today but I was Leopard and felt confident that he would pull something out of his hat. Yup, he did, here T219-29 is rolling along the James River at Natural Bridge and the NS is crossing over the both of them. Spring has come to the Shenandoah Valley.
Unidentified CSX coal train stopped in Thurmond, WVa. ES44AC-H #936 and AC44CW #211 await orders to move.
Looking across the Quaboag River from above the falls at the old Wright Cotton Mill complex near MP 75 on CSXT's Boston Sub (the ex Boston and Albany mainline) we see Selkirk to Rigby (ex Pan Am) manifest M426 cruising east. The train has an impressive eight unit lashup led by a pair of twenty two year old AC4400CWs in as delivered YN2 bright future livery trailed by a fourteen year old ES44AC-H and five dead in two SD40-2 variants four of which are rebuilt SD40-3 'spongebob' cab units. The five units are presumably headed to Waterville where CSXT has been sending many older EMD's lately for reasons unknown (perhaps maintenance, or storage, or prepping for service on the former Pan Am properties, or something else entirely).
Warren, Massachusetts
Friday November 11, 2022
The eastbound Lathrop 'Z' train, ZLTG2 is battling the 2.43% eastward grade of Donner Pass at Gold Run, California. This train is one of the few that UP deems necessary to receive a somewhat reasonable amount of locomotives for the task. Despite its long length, the train's seven locomotives, arranged in a 3x3x1 configuration have the train maintaining a steady 15-20 mph.
Around the corner off the left side of the frame was a glaring example of what can happen when 'just enough' power is scheduled for a heavy train on the hill. The previous evening's MFRSP, an 8,500ft manifest train, had stalled between Gold Run and Alta around 11pm on track 1. The lead unit, UP 6851 had a momentary issue with it's DPU controller, leading the train to stall. Despite having six locomotives, in a 3x3x0 configuration, the train couldn't get restarted on the wet rails. The head end was of course in an inaccessible location by road, so the crew ran out their remaining hours of service in the cab, while their train went nowhere. The train was fouling the grade crossings at Lincoln Road, and Sacramento Street, making travel between the two communities much more difficult.
Eventually around 7am, the DS reached out to a foreman going on duty in Colfax, that he needed to steal the lead unit from his work train, to use with a rescue crew to go relieve the stranded MFRSP. That DS must not have fully briefed the daytime DS of the gravitas of the situation, as the rescue crew had to wait for both the EB and WB Amtrak, and a WB Z train before they could run up track 2 to the crossover at Midas, to line themselves back onto track 1, to reverse to the stricken train. The new leader got the train up to the Main St grade crossing at Alta around 3pm, where after 20 hours in the cab, the original crew was put in a Hallcon van. I sure hope UP didn't send them to their away from home terminal.
The rescue crew in turn only made it as far as Emigrant Gap before they too ran out of hours. When I finally saw them pull up to the crossing there at 20:05 they got to commiserate with the crew of the MSPRV who had been waiting in the center siding there since mid day for the line to clear up, and were waiting for their recrew also.
As a casual observer I can't comment on the economics of modern 'Precision Scheduled Railroading', but from the display I witnessed this day of autumn in 2023, I would question Union Pacific's frugal strategy of scheduling horsepower per ton.
After setting out a CSX ES44AC-H, Lake State Railway Z117 passes the company billboard as it departs Flint’s McGrew Yard with a pair of SD50s.
A trio of BNSF GE's lead manifest freight H GALDMO1 11A as it arrives at the yard in Burlington, Iowa after crossing the Mississippi River and meeting eastbound loaded coal C NAMCEJ0 12A. The DPU of the coal train passes the head end of the H GALDMO as it pulls into the yard for work before continuing west.
====Info====
BNSF Ottumwa Subdivision
Burlington, IA
BNSF H GALDMO1 11A (Manifest; Galesburg, IL to Glake Yard - Des Moines, IA)
BNSF 6329 ES44AC Blt. 2009
BNSF 5840 AC44CW Blt. 2004
BNSF 3904 ET44C4 Blt. 2015
BNSF C NAMCEJ0 12A (Coal Loads; North Antelope Mine, WY to CN - Newton Power Station - Centralia, IL)
BNSF 6604 ES44C4 Blt. 2009
BNSF 7236 ES44DC Blt. 2009
BNSF 8380 ES44C4 Blt. 2015
(DPU) BNSF 9254 SD70ACe Blt. 2008
Unassigned
CRGX 100 SD9 Ex. BUGX 4324, OMLX 4324, NWP 4324, SP 4324, SP 3813, SP 5352 Blt. 1954
With the NS quiet this morning JJL and I headed over to photograph the Buckingham Branch Dillwyn Line job crossing the James River to interchange with the CSX. So of course we are on the wrong side of the river but the guy we heard calling signals was meeting an Westbound at Bremo so we scored the meet and still got the BB, a good morning out.
On a dreary December afternoon, I got out to photograph the westbound nuclear flask train as it rolled west out of KC towards Topeka. It had come out of New York(?), was running as the SESSV-13, and had the CSXT 798 leading.
Here, it's leading the westbound special over Stranger Creek in Linwood, KS
Video of the train can be found here: youtu.be/opzm16TeGPM
Unless the number jumped out at you in yesterday's post you may not have even realized there was a special unit on the point of CSXT train M218 (Selkirk to Philadelphia Greenwich Yard unit auto racks) so here's a wider take featuring 1869 in its special Chesapeake and Ohio Railway heritage paint scheme. The fifth out of 21 total, this GE ES44AC-H was blt. Jul. 2012 as CSXT 3061 and received the number 1869 in August 2023 when it was repainted into this commemorative scheme.
The train is emerging from the south portal of the 2640 ft long tunnel into a light rain after passing beneath the plain inside the United States Miltary Academy at West Point, which is also the oldest continuously occupied military post in the nation. Situated at MP 47.2 besides modern day CSXT's busy River Sub mainline the first West Shore train passed through this bore on June 4, 1883.
The Gothic stone portal of the tunnel blends in with the imposing crenellated parapets of Thayer Hall which rises above, the creation of which was the result of a 1903 design competition to improve and expand the Academy at West Point. The successful design proposal, won by Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson, created Thayer Hall as a riding arena, the largest masonry indoor riding facility in the world, at that time. By the end of the Second World War, horse and mounted Calvary training was obsolete and no longer relevant to the mission of West Point. Between 1955 and 1959, the riding hall was repurposed to house 350,000 square feet of classrooms, laboratories, assembly spaces and academic offices.
It is named for Sylvanus Thayer, the 33rd graduate of the academy in 1808 who was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers. In the War of 1812 he commanded the defense of Norfolk, VA and built the installations to defend the port. After studying and touring Europe he returned in 1817 and was made the 5th Superintendent of the Academy by President James Monroe, a post he held for 16 years in which time he created the first college of engineering in the United States.
The similarly styled stone building at left is Mahan Hall, buit in 1974 and home to the academy's Department of Civil & Mechanical Engineering and Department of Systems Engineering. Named for Dennis Hart Mahan who graduated as first in the class of 1824. In 1832 he became chairman of the academy's engineering department and he remained on the faculty until his death 39 years later.
United States Miltary Academy West Point
Highlands, New York
Saturday May 31, 2025
The last solid-foreign-power consist on this evening was a trio of big CSX GEs on a westbound fertilizer train. Knowing how far north the sun was setting and being in the St. Anthony area, I hitch-hiked under MN 280 for a right-side-lit tele.
That due to the terrible flooding in South Carolina recently CSX plans to reroute a lot of their trains through Hamlet, NC. I've heard reports of bridges out, etc thus the reason? If so Hamlet could be the place to be.
This rock train was heading into Hamlet when I took this...
Here's a wide angle frame of a shot from last fall that I'd shared a vertical of several months ago. This was a fabulous day in perfect fall conditions and here is what I wrote at the time.
Saturdays in New England are notoriously slow and by far the worst day of the week for railfanning. So the fact that I got eight different trains is about unheard of. So let's take a look in chronological order at what was the BEST Saturday I've ever managed since moving back east nearly five years ago.
With foliage at just about peak and full sun predicted all day I headed west to the Berkshires for a try at some action on the old Boston and Albany. There were a pair of westbounds I didn't bother with and then morning stalwart train I022 (Syracuse to Worcester intermodal) showed up in screaming morning light here at MP B121(note the old 'tombstone' NYC style mile marker at left) on CSXT's Berkshire Subdivision. Running 1×1 DPU with locos head and rear, CSXT 983 (GE ES44AC-H blt. Dec. 2011) is seen here on the point.
This line opened as the Western Railroad in 1841 and at that time it was the longest and most expensive railroad constructed in the United States up to that point. The three predecessors merged to form the Boston and Albany Railroad in 1870. Thirty years later the B&A was leased by the New York Central Railroad and the line would pass successively to the Penn Central in 1968, Conrail in 1976 and CSXT in 1999. To this day it remains as the preeminent freight route and the only Class 1 trunk line still serving New England...truly a testament to the forethought of those who laid out and built the line over 180 years ago.
This link to the National Historic Landmark nomination form for the Western's arch bridges and Chester Village provides a fabulous history and is worth a read if you care to learn more: www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/upload/Wes...
Huntington, Massachusetts
Saturday October 15, 2022
An oil empty makes a quick stop at the BNSF Northtown yard for a crew change and quickly departs. Leading the train is a neat GE ET44AH Tier 4 locomotive.
Priority Morning Train. CSXT 805 (ES44AC-H) leads CSX Q010 (Intermodal) over the trestle at Doodletown Bight from Bear Mountain to Iona Island, NY on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. With the high angle sun season in full effect, being out early in the summer is important for catching the best light for photography.
Rear helpers on eastbound coal train N785 at Indian Creek. Note how badly the paint is coming off on the aluminum coal gondola. At least it won't rust!
As told in this post: flic.kr/p/2mNzZVK it was quite a nice hour spent atop the Boston and Albany on Washington Hill. After the excitement of seeing the black bear I set up for a shot of eastbound Selkirk to West Springfield manifest train Q424 that I knew was following on I024's block. The wide open marshland south of Muddy Pond kept a nice stretch of the main bathed in golden light even this late in the day. So I set up atop the bed of my truck for what was looking to be a nice evening shot here at about MP 137.6 on CSXT's modern day Berkshire Sub mainline.
The headlights of CSXT 802 (GE ES44AC-H blt. Jan. 2008) cut through the shadows of the forest but the train could not outrace the small cloud that cast a shadow of dissapointment on my scene at just the last moment as you can plainly see in these two images.
But at least this was nothing special so I just may try again tomorrow I suppose....
Washington, Massachusetts
Friday December 3, 2021
A duo of CSX foreign power lead a loaded BNSF grain train along the Middle Fork Flathead River as they make their way into West Glacier, Montana.
One hour and seven minutes after shooting M433 and after wiling away my time clearing brush and taking mediocre telephoto shots of window trains across the river I got my second southbound here...but alas no sun.
CSXT train M409-23 (manifest from Selkirk to Waycross) has 31 loads and 57 empties totalling 6314 ft and 5889 tons trailing a rebuilt GE CMM44AC and an ES44AC-H. They are southbound as they cross Iona Island at MP 41 on the River Line roll over the long causeway over Snake Hole Creek that separates the marshlands from the Hudson River.
CSXT's River Sub (ex Conrail, Penn Central, New York Central, nee West Shore) dates from 1883 in this area and despite being a relative latecomer its mainline up the west bank of the Hudson has only grown in importance over the decades as traffic patterns have shifted. Today this line between northern New Jersey and the Albany area is by far the busiest north south route in the northeast, while conversely virtually the entirety of the West Shore's route to Buffalo along the south side of the Mohawk River has long been abandoned.
Iona Island is now part of Bear Mountain State Park but has an interesting history. In the mid 1800s a hotel and amusement park were located on the island but in 1899 it was bought by the US Navy and served as an ammunition depot during both World Wars but was decommissioned in 1947 and sold to the state in 1965 though large portions still remain off limits and the few remaining buildings are closed the public.
Rising beyond is the Bear Mountain Bridge. When it opened a century ago it was the longest suspension bridge in the world spanning 2255 ft across the Hudson River and 155 ft above the water line and with its towers reaching another 205 ft skyward! Originally a private toll road it has been property of the state of New York since 1940.
The bridge has a couple railroad connections I found interesting as well. The original Hudson Highland Suspension Bridge as chartered in 1868 was originally planned to be a railroad bridge which if built would have been the farthest south rail crossing of the river. Despite raising capital, completing engineering work and even starting excavation of the anchor pits it never came to fruition and the second charter finally expired nearly a half century after the first.
When the state then authorized the private highway bridge instead in 1922 one of the directors of the new company was E. Roland Harriman of the famous banking company who was the youngest son of legendary Union Pacific and Southern Pacific president E. H. Harriman who purchased the UP out of bankruptcy in 1898 and then acquired the SP in 1901. His leadership until his death in 1909 turned them into modern economic and corporate powerhouses that would be hugely influential throughout the 20th century leaving a legacy that carries on to railroading today....but I digress!
Bear Mountain State Park
Stony Point, New York
Thursday October 23, 2025
In June, BNSF Railway's Kalispell Local got a few interesting guest units, including Union Pacific ES44AC-H 2742. On June 16, 2023, the local is heading south at Columbia Falls.
CSX's Law Enforcement ES44AC-H 3194 was putzing around the CSX Chambersburg Intermodal Facility after arriving from Chicago with the Q016.
In the background sits a SD40-2 that was hanging out at the complex. I guess that it is used for switching, but it didn't help out with the yarding of Q016.
CSX Intermodal I032-17 is headed out of Savannah GA at big hill road with amazing light. This train had just started to get going after catching a hotbox defect.
On a sweltering hot and humid morning in the green Berkshire Hills CSXT train Q019 (Worcester to Selkirk) is in the teeth of the steepest part of the climb at about a 1.65% grade here on the old Boston and Albany. They are negotiating the giant s-curve made of two full horseshoe curves and here at the bottom of the first curve is about the only place a westbound train can be found heading into the sun during the morning hours. This is at MP 129 and they are climbing up track 1 as the NC Dispatcher in Jacksonville has a hot move line up on track 2 that will overtake them before they reach Washington Summit. Leading the train is an ES44AC-H, a C44-9W in old YN2 paint, and a dead in tow GP40-2.
This route following the West Branch of the Westfield River dates from 1841 and includes the famed cluster of dry laid Keystone Arch bridges in this area. The 1912 rebuilding and double tracking of the line bypassed all but the double arch bridge which remains in use to this day though three of the long bypassed structures remain and can be hiked to, an adventure I highly recommend. If you want to learn more here is a great article: www.mass.gov/doc/keystones-for-wildlife-and-posterity/dow...
Becket, Massachusetts
Wednesday June 9, 2019
Union Pacific ES44AC-H No. 2528 leads a westbound manifest into Barstow on the Needles Sub, having recently come off the Los Angeles & Salt Lake line at Daggett. The train has just passed two BNSF freights which have been tied down, no doubt due to crew running out of hours on the wait to get into Barstow. 25 February 2023.
More photos from my recent trip to Southern California will be added to my website as I process them, see: cogloadjunctionphotography.weebly.com/california-february...