HLCX 4215 leads a SB AA train towards Toledo.

After loading different cuts of cars all morning, EIRC 1040 paired up to it's partner-in-crime, the 7565. They then backed south of town one final time for the last cut. After loading these 6 cars, HLCX 3834 will pull the whole loaded 90 car train south through town and the two 1950s-built GPs will tack themselves to the north end. This train is bound for Metcalf for interchange with the DREI/CSX.

Ex-Southern Pacific #8436/HLCX #6341 leads the Sebring Turn south and east back toward Clewiston over the Caloosahatchee River after interchanging cars with CSX in Sebring.

HLCX SD40-2 6341 brings CSX K628 through Union City, Georgia on the Manchester Subdivision. November 21, 2014

Yesterday's ventures primarily focused on catching the Central Midland Railway's bi-weekly turn from Union, MO to Maryland Heights. With SW1504 HLCX 1521 and MP15DC FURX 1550 in charge the crew collects some boxcars from Esselte Corporation and other industries before making the trip.

Three Helm Leasing SD40-M3s and a CSX SD40-2 lead eastbound CSX manifest Q352 down Sand Patch Grade near Philson, PA on Oct. 13, 2001.

Freshly painted and in service for a power short BNSF

I regret not seeking out more of Guilford/Pan Am high hood GP40s and 35s when they were around; I foolishly didn't think there was all that much special about them. I was looking around on my hard drive last week and did find a few keepers, like this view of an NMED train at Salmon Falls in Rollinsford. At the time I was much more excited to see the trailing HLCX lease unit; this was in the era that all I ever saw was GRS painted locomotives. Imagine that, being unhappy about everything having matching paint!

This westbound CP freight is passing under the wooden trestle bridge at Nichols Road, Newtonville, led by CP RS-18u 1846, NS SD40-2 1607 and HLCX GP40-3 4406. This bridge, and the one beside it spanning the CN, have since been demolished.

No sun for a nicely lit photo, as the afternoon is dark and frigid just east of Whitewater at Woodward Road, while Wisconsin & Southern train T4R hustles towards Janesville with it's hot freight.

WSOR T4R

WAMX 4171,4223,

HLCX 6334

Whitewater, WI.

Winter 2020

CSX L542 is between Jones Avenue and 10th Street at Atlanta, Georgia with HLCX (Espee) SD40R 6341. June 2015

A pair of former SP SD45s (rebuilt as SD40M-2s) works an Allentown Yard trimmer job near CP HAM. The units still wore the attractive blue, gold and white colors applied by Motive Power Industries in the early 90s.

HLCX 9004 SD40M-2 (ex-SP 9015 SD45, MPI 9004)

The Grenada Railroad's Batesville Turn switches out storage tank cars at the siding just north of Senatobia during a hazy sunset.

Toledo, OH to Curtis Bay, MD Q278 sports a colorful consist as it descends Sand Patch. Two HLCX lease units (SD40-2 6201 and SD40M-2 6518) in two different liveries trail CSX 441 (AC4400CW). The engineer is temporarily distracted as he aims his camera at the railfans photographing his train from the Foley overlook.

On the first day of operations for Watco's new Fox Valley and Lake Superior Rail System, train AP201 was to be the first train out of the Appleton yard. HLCX 1042 and 1048 take 20 cars across the Fox River and into the Appleton flats

A Helm unit leads two more still painted for the Milwaukee west at Pewaukee. This is presently the west end of double track at Forest Grove Drive. J. David Ingles photo, Brian Schmidt collection

HLCX 4215 (GP40-2)

WAMX 3925 (GP39-2)

This ex-BN SD40-2 now has a retirement job as a switcher at the North West Terminal Ltd facility in Unity Saskatchewan.

HLCX 1052 leads the GALCEI south into Abingdon, IL.

HLCX SD40-2 6341 brings CSX K628 by the former L&N depot at Cartersville, Georgia on CSX's W&A Subdivision. November 22, 2014

UP Miller yard job YMY15 at Forest Avenue, CPT 214 Dallas sub

Westbound CSX train X261 passes through Hansrote, WV on June 28, 2003 with CEFX SD40-2 No. 3146 and HLCX SD40-2 No. 6207.

A trio of former BN EMD's & a HLCX GP38-2 leading the Santa Fe local towards Galesburg, IL. I barely got this guy in the sunlight.. Just in time!

HLCX 4212 leads a Neoga bound grain train from Oakland to interchange back to the CN. This would be the 4212’s last trip on the Decatur and Eastern as both this is unit and 4210 had their leases expire December 1st of 2023. Now, 4210 and 4212 both reside in Mexico working for Bulkmatic as plant switchers.

SFG Train 565-2 rockets down CN's Mont-Joli Subdivision, making full use of the speed limit as the crew makes a midmorning run for Campbellton, NB.

At Campbellton, a GP38-2 will be dropped and a RS18u-3 will be added for the return trip to Matapedia. I have been lucky enough to catch this unusual move twice on my visits. These are done, so locomotives can be serviced/repaired at SFG's locomotive shop in Campbellton.

The train is passing through the short tunnel at Tide Head/Morrissey Rock. This tunnel is the only active tunnel in New Brunswick and is maybe 100 feet long. The tunnel was cleared for stacks at some point, since the Mont-Joli and Newcastle Subdivisions are used as a detour route, for the more well traveled Pelletier and Napadogan Subdivisions, when those are shut down due to derailments (such as one in 2021). Other than the light power moves, VIA traverses the line about three times a week along with a handful of trips by CN 558 and 562.

Since the arrival of the HLCX GP38-2's last year, most of the SFG RS18u fleet had been stored. However, during the summer the railroad began running shuttle trains from a quarry in Nouvelle to Maria where the materials were transloaded onto trucks. From there it took a short drive to the nearby beach, where Beluga Construction was doing a major beach replenishment project, to repair decades of storm erosion.

The added business resulted in most of the RS18u fleet being reactivated. Unfortunately, I never got to shoot the shuttles which were sometimes doing 4 trips a day, with two separate trains due to work. So when I was finally able to get a week off in December, I headed north. The plan for this day was to shoot the light power running to SFG's engine shop then back to Matapedia, where they were going to grab a train before heading to Nouvelle to tie down. After catching that, my plan was to shoot the shuttle train that was made up of both sets of cars. Due to the cold, material was freezing to the cars, so only one trip per day was possible by this point.

Unfortunately, they had so many issues with unloading cars on this day, that they decided that the remaining material could be trucked, so I never did end up shooting the stone shuttles. But I was lucky enough to catch 4 different MLW's on this visit. Only a few days later, 3 of the 4 active RS18u's would be taken back to the shops for storage. With the regular service to Port-Daniel delayed again, they will likely remain stored for the time being.

Société de chemin de fer de la Gaspésie

Train: 565-2

12/2/2025

Tide Head, NB

CN Mont-Joli Subdivision

HLCX SD40R 6341 leads CSX L542 by the South End of College Park, Georgia in June 2015

It is a pleasant summer afternoon at Reeseville's Maiden Lane bridge, as Canadian Pacific's westbound train, 391, muscles westbound towards Portage with a different sort of consist.

The newest addition to Watco's Decatur & Eastern Illinois Railroad is two ex-ICE GP40-2s leased from HLCX.

Here at Hume, HLCX 4212 leads the 101 west towards Tuscola with a good sized train in tow.

HLCX 3814 Leads four other motors on a 158 car LCBA-TURN by the classic R2 signals at Macclenny.

Merry Christmas!

Another one from my most recent trip to SFG.

Société de chemin de fer de la Gaspésie

Train: 565-4

12/4/2025

Pointe-à-la-Garde, Quebec

MTQ/SFG Cascapedia Subdivision

HLCX GP38-2 1067 leads Local 105 West through Hodgkins, IL.

A look at Delaware and Hudson engine facility at East Binghamton Yard reveals a large variety of paint schemes. That Grey Helm Leasing GP40 is one of the better-looking HLCX units.

DGNO Railroad at CPT 214 - Forest Avenue on the UP DALLAS SUB.

CSX A727 is northbound by the North End of Union City, Georgia with HLCX SD40-2 6300 on September 6, 2015.

A pair of HLCX GP's approaches Trans Chemical on TRRA job 202 as the day comes to a close. St. Louis, MO

An HLCX SD40-3M and an ATSF B40-8W hustle south on the BNSF Gateway Subdivision in summer 1988, roughly ten miles out of Klamath Falls, Oregon. When this transparency was exposed, the Gateway had been operating as a BNSF property for a little over a year. The BNSF had been in business for just under three years. However, aside from the variety of motive power roaming the Klamath Basin, changes were few.

The Helm unit was somewhat exotic. It had been rebuilt from a Rio Grande SD45. The warbonnet GE was common in comparison, as BNSF had been regularly running locomotives in the stylish livery into Klamath Falls since the line was reopened.

For a brief time after the Gateway Subdivision commenced operations in 1997, Klamath Falls was the dividing line between the 1970s and the 1990s. To the north, trains to and from the Oregon Trunk ran with former Burlington Northern EMD Dash 2 power and cabooses - railroading from the 1970s at its finest. South of Klamath, trains on the Gateway Sub had EMDs freely mixed with GEs, lots of Santa Fe warbonnets, and FREDs blinking away on the last car’s coupler - contemporary 1990s operation.

History soon bowed to reality.

A trio of standard cab EMD's lead BNSF's Galesburg to Des Moines manifest H GALDMO1 11A as it rolls over the bridge spanning the Des Moines River in Ottumwa, Iowa. A recrew boarded back in town for the trip up the Des Moines Branch, which they will get on in Albia.

====Info====

BNSF Ottumwa Sub

Ottumwa, IA

BNSF H GALDMO1 11A (Manifest; Galesburg, IL to Des Moines, IA)

BNSF 1740 SD40-2 Ex. BNSF 6900, ATSF 5172

BNSF 2907 GP39E Ex. BN 2907, BN 2531 GP35, CBQ 985 Blt. 1964

HLCX 3891 GP38-2 Ex. HLCX 342, UP 342, MP 2079, MP 928 Blt. 1973

The DREI (Decatur & Eastern Illinois) took over operations of the Eastern Illinois Railroad on 1/1/20.

An early snowfall has Wisconsin's Southern Kettle Moraine looking like wintertime, as Wisconsin & Southern's Janesville bound freight ambles through the forest.

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DGNO Railroad at CPT 214 - Forest Avenue on the UP DALLAS SUB.

With a loaded sand train in tow from Ossipee Aggregates, a trio of New Hampshire Northcoast GP's lead D8 south as it crosses over the Union Meadows Pond causeway approaching the town of Union, New Hampshire. On the head end is a block of company hoppers bound for the Tri City aggregates terminal.

====Info====

NHN Conway Branch

Union, NH

NHN D8 (Sand Loads; Ossipee, NH to Dover, NH)

NHN 3825 GP38-2 Ex. HLCX 3825, GATX 3825, CR 8244 Blt. 1978

NHN 1801 GP18 Ex. NHN 503, NEGS 503, CRIP 1341 Blt. 1960

NHN 3823 GP38-2 Ex. HLCX 3823, GATX 3823, CR 8242 Blt. 1978

DGNO units at Mockingbird yard

UP 1440 and a HLCX unit lead the LSB50 local south into the setting sun and over the last crossing of the day.

DGNO Garland Turn do their interchange at KCS Dallas yard with a UP SD9043Mac on loan for the day courtesy of Miller yard

CSX L542 with HLCX SD40R 6341 passes NS 950 at Jefferson Street in Atlanta, Georgia June 2015

After picking up 53 cars and dropping 50 of them at Neoga, EIRC 1040 and HLCX 3834 rounded up the first two and last plastic cars for Hi-Cone at Charleston. Seen here at Trilla, the pair of units are seen rocking and rolling down the old Nickel Plate main.