View allAll Photos Tagged LEADS
NS 8104 leads an empty coke train towards Granite City, IL through a massive snowstorm. This train will load at the US Steel Granite City Works facility. These trains don't have much life left to them as the company announced plans to restart the blast furnace in April of 2026. So far, everything is on track for that goal.
DMIR 208 leads two other SD38-types and a SD-M with a train out of Missabe's Proctor Yard with an Evtac train with regular ore cars yarding in the receiving yard at left. The date of Oct. 31, 2002 puts this is before the CN takeover and all the freight cars, so catching two moving trains was not super common.
The four non-turbos must have sounded great notching up heading north with the Minntac stone, but don't really remember the sounds of this Halloween 13 years ago on the DM&IR. I do seem to recall being in position at Proctor for this afternoon limestone because a power outage cancelled school and the Halloween party at work.
The SD38AC #208 still looks good at this time, but must have been a tired locomotive as it was taken out of service the next year and wasn't on the property when CN took over in 2004. It still may survive at LTE in Ohio as it has been stored there for over a decade.
BN 2200 leads 725 and 1768 on train 182 at Lyle with 87 cars. The train has paused in Lyle to set out 1768 and a handful of cars for the branch line to Goldendale. I lost the sun for a few hours right after this photo as this was my only shot of this cool eastbound with a GP30, F7B on the point. June 17, 1979. A rescan.
Freightliner 66610 leads the 6L72 0718 Toton Centre to Chesterton Junction Fhh through Waterbeach, on the 8th March 2021.
519 leads the westbound Borealis through Dakota. A first for me, as I had never shot an Amtrak dash 8 before. Unsurprisingly, people were already camped out at this spot well in advance for 2816's return trip.
BNSF 7211 leads the relatively new Q-PTLALT (Portland, OR - Alliance, TX) south near Monument, CO.
This train started running on 12 Sep between the Pacific Northwest and Dallas-Ft. Worth, but this is my first time actually shooting it. Early on, the train lengths were maybe 12 or 13 cars, but it's been slowly increasing in length as time moves forward.
Oh, that guy in the lower right? A fellow railfan who inadvertently wandered into the shot! If that was you, sorry about all the GEs on this particular morning...
IANR 3806 leads CRWA-26 as it pokes forward as it serves the grain elevator on the east side of Vinton on a dreary post-Christmas day - taken on the IANR Cedar Rapids Subdivision.
With just one week left of Iowa Northern's independence, the parachute foamers will certainly rain down across the system in a desperate last-ditch effort to capture some Iowa Northern action over this upcoming weekend. Being stuck in Iowa City during the week has kept me from documenting the last several months' worth of action, but I do hope to get out there this weekend too. Let's play nice, fellas. From the sound of it, last weekend was nothing more than a fart sniffing contest, all brought about by the coolest of the cool from the Chicago region. The Iowa Northern power will likely stick around at least for a little while, so let's cut the hysterics this weekend, sound good? Alright, enough of my soapbox PSAing, no one asked for that, but I did it anyway. It sure feels good to act all high and mighty like I have any sort of real control over the hooligans that show up and ruin things for everyone who actually lives in the region. For real though, just be chill.
37218 leads two wagons and 68008 on a serious of test runs between Derby/Stenson and Stoke
missed out just on some sun
didnt know what was working this till it appeared
novel new warning here a box plays a train horn when the train is approaching
this was a strange sequence of test runs with the 68 and two wagons going to stoke with the 37 following and attaching at stoke to lead back towards Derby
CSX 8383 leads G933 up the former Atlantic Coast Line Main to Montgomery, Alabama, on a spotless early spring afternoon. This rare SD40 leader was a great surprise coming north. We had followed a train down to the siding in Dillard, Alabama, from Montgomery most of the day, and when this appeared on the other side of the southbound we were ecstatic. This shot is just south of the town of Brundidge, Alabama. With no meets in the way until Scott siding some ways north G933 would make a perfect target all the way thru sunset...
Thanks for looking!
Some of you may know that I collect vintage buttons. The trouble is that when you're an inveterate collector like me, one thing leads to another. It wasn't long before I discovered that vintage thimbles can be very pretty ... and old cotton reels ... and antique needles ... and ribbons. You get the picture. My guilty pleasure is that I'm always looking for the next thing. :)
For this week's Macro Mondays group theme, Guilty Pleasure.
More detail for anyone who's interested. The guilloché button dates from the 1910s. It's made of silver and the back is rose gold. The silver thimble is French and from the same time period. The silver bodkin needle is Georgian and was made in the 19th century. It actually has a lovely pattern on the sides. I'll photograph it properly one of these days. Lastly, the Sylko cotton reel (colour: Lupin) is from some time between the early 1950s and 1960s. I needed to fill a space on the left with a bit of colour, so that's just a piece of modern chiffon ribbon. :)
T448p-111 leads a set of loaded tanker wagons through the sad, brown, wintery fields on the outskirts of Gdynia, just before terminating its short journey of 4 kilometers.
The fuel base number 21 in Dębogórze is a fun thing to see whenever you are in the area of the Polish northern Tricity (Gdynia+Sopot+Gdańsk). Its railway track is completely detached from the urban part of Gdynia and instead runs through the fields on its outskirts, which makes for a nice atmosphere (at least in summer...), which almost lets us forget that it's not a real full-scale unelectrified railway line.
The rolling stock of PERN, which is stationed at this base almost reminds us of the Czech Republic or Slovakia. They have two T448p locomotives and (since August 2023!) S200-289, only a Brejlovec and Barodtka are missing for the full experience. The newly aquired six-axle S200 locomotive was one of the main targets of my stay in Gdynia for the winter holidays, as I didn't manage to see it in action during summer. Until recently it was the only broad gauge S200 in Poland, because it served trains from the east at the base no. 13 in Zawadówka.
The whole railway network of the fuel base is comprised of two stations, one of which is used as a pickup point for other railway carriers - mostly Orlen, and the other for loading the tank wagons. They are connected by a track with around 3 kilometers of length. The fuel base itself has a direct pipeline connection to the harbour in Gdynia, from which it takes its entire supply of liquid products for storage and later shipping into Poland.
If you ever do decide to drop by, you are almost destined to see some traffic, as there are up to 3 pairs of trains during daytime. I wholeheartedly recommend coming here for some almost-branchline vibes with lots of diesel action... until it gets really monotonous.
Sadly I once again failed to catch the S200. Well, better luck next time I guess.
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus
43122 leads with 43094 on the rear of the train, seen passing through Metheringham forming 5Z53 Bishop Auckland - Mid Norfolk Railway sidings empty stock move 22nd June 2026.
BNSF 8249 leads a loaded Herzog ballast train north into Larkspur, CO.
Something different on the Joint Line...never caught one of these before. I was pretty surprised how short it was as well as the fact that it had two more GEVOs on the rear.
43093 leads 2P16 13.15 Penzance – Plymouth through the reverse curve at Trenowth between Truro and St Austell on 17 November 2025. 43198 is the rear power car.
CSXT 911 leads a E784 through Oakland MD passing the Oakland B&O Museum and station heading for Grafton WV
More black and matched "NW" dip leads a westbound freight through the interlocking known as "The Puzzle", just west of the East 55th Street yard. This is the former Nickel Plate Road "High Speed Service" mainline. One thing I always thought was wild (and great for railfans) about the N&W guys is that they really seemed to love their geeps! More often than not, you'd get that geep leading the newer power.
CSX 5370 leads an eastbound Herzog ballast train through the curves of the Yakima River Canyon at the former timetable location of 'Hillside'.
Hillside was once home to a 4,400ft siding which lasted from when the Northern Pacific first built through the canyon in 1887 until 1971, one year after the Burlington Northern merger. The sidings at Hillside, nearby Roza, and Umtanum were removed in early 1971 as the newly formed BN began rationalizing its trackage, and downgraded the Fourth Subdivision to a secondary route. When the June, 1972 timetables were issued, these locations were no longer named places.
When BN shifted the majority of through trains from the ex-NP mainline across the Cascades to the former GN and a portion of the ex-SP&S, they quickly realized that four sidings in 23 miles of track were completely unnecessary. Only the longest of these passing tracks in the canyon at Wymer was retained.
Traffic on the Stampede, and Yakima Valley Subdivisions can go from almost none in a day, to several trains in the span of a few hours. All traffic over the Stampede Sub is eastbound, consisting of empty grain, and crude oil trains.
When heading east on Interstate 90 late on the evening of the 27th, I intercepted a transmission from a defect detector 20 miles ahead of me, announcing the passing of a short, 164 axle train. Clear roads ahead of me allowed me to eventually catch this ballast train near the south end of the Yakima Canyon. With summer vacation traffic over for the year, and a week early for the surge of fall fisherman, I was the only car on the road. In addition to aiding my speedy travel, the absence of vehicle traffic allowed for the headlights of the train to be the only major light source in frame. The glow of the Roza dam around the next bend in the river is visible as well.
This image is a composite of four 30 second long time exposures, stitched together in Photoshop. I underestimated how slow the train would travel through this section, and grossly misjudged my camera settings for the exposures. I typically would set up well in advance, and take several practice images before the train arrived, but the train's head start on me and chase down the canyon prevented this.
Utah 9011 leads loads west as they climb the grade of Soldier Summit. Before long a six pack of mid-train helpers will roar by my location at Castle Gate
UP 5510 leads CP train 292 just east of the Loretto siding in Medina, MN. The SOO 4410 is a nice addition, but too bad it wasn't leading.
This marks my first still photo train shot from the 3DR Solo drone. I've done some video in the past several weeks but thought I'd check out the quality of the stills from the GoPro Hero 4 Black. Not has good as a DSLR but the ability to get more elevation will be a worthwhile tradeoff.
NS high hood GP38-2 #5109 leads an Atlanta, GA to Memphis,TN bare table train past the 94.3 intermediate signal at Seney, GA on Norfolk Southerns Atlanta North District.
A BNSF C44-9W leads an intermodal train westbound out of the Cacade Tunnel at MP 1708.1 on BNSF's Scenic Sub. The big GE built in 1994 wears warbonnet colors of the legendary Santa Fe half of BNSF and looks decidedly out of place in a iconic Burlington Northern location.
The 7.8 mile long bore is the longest railroad tunnel in the United States passing beneath the Cascade Range. Opened in 1929 by BN predecessor Great Northern Railway it replaced a 2.6 mile long tunnel 500 feet higher that dated from 1900 that itself replaced the original temporary switchback alignment over the mountain dating to the GN's 1893 opening.
One particular interesting fact among many is that this monumental tunnel took only three years to construct and the project was led by Frederick Mears. Colonel Mears is best known for being appointed to the Alaska Engineering Commission by President Wilson and then serving as the chief engineer responsible for the construction of that road. Col. Mears saw that railroad to completion and resigned on July 7, 1923 six days before President Harding drove the gold spike in Nenana, AK at the end of the bridge bearing Mears' name across the mighty Tanana River.
This tunnel sits at an elevation of 2881 ft some 1180 ft below the pass that the original switchback route crossed. The east portal is in the community of Berne in Snohomish County, WA while the west seen here is in a location known as Scenic.
King County, Washington
Sunday June 20, 2010
37099 leads 1Q97 10:50 Ferme Park Recp. to Clacton-on-Sea through Walthamstowe Wetlands on 12/08/26. 37057 was on the rear.
Amtrak 500 leads the 1340 east at Blackbird running about an hour late due to a frozen switch at Saint Paul.
Borealis video: youtu.be/1yU0sg9BW9M
Big GE 655 leads a Binghamton bound Lanesboro Detour train at the old Erie coaling tower in Susquehanna, PA on 12/28/1985. This was supposedly the last Lanesboro detour train, so the Lanesboro helpers that assisted in the run around move on the Penn Division were left on the end of the train for the trip to Binghamton. The newly rebuilt tunnel was open for train traffic and the first train would pass thru it later that afternoon. After New Years, the Lanesboro detour was used again for a couple of days so that some final finishing work could be completed on the tunnel. Once the tunnel work was complete, the D&H Penn Division was gone forever. There were a few railfans on hand for the final move on the Penn Division, most notably the late J.J. Young Jr., and his photo essay from that final train was featured in an issue of Railpace as I recall. This day in December was my last hurrah however, and the last time I was ever at this location.
GO 562 leads a Kitchener Line train east on the Weston Sub within the first hour of daylight on a crisp winter morning.
Utah 5005 leads a five unit consist and a CITX empty coal train near Brewster Kansas. The coal cars are headed to storage at various auxiliary tracks on the Kyle.
CN 3186 leads a potash train out of the siding at Blueberry after meeting a westbound. Don't let the map fool you, the Sprague may be in Minnesota, but the railroad in form and practicality are Canadian holding true to the Canadian operating rules. Such evidence is the CTC signaling system like the three-headed east entrance to Blueberry.
68017 Hornet leads 68034 Rail Riders with train 6M67 from Georgmas Junction to Carlisle Kingmoor. The train formation is a loaded nuclear flask sandwiched between two four wheel barrier wagons. The train runs only occasionally, carrying contaminated waste from the decommissioning of the Nuclear facility at Dounreay on the far north coast of Scotland, which shut down back in 1994. Here was a fast reactor development centre, commissioned back in 1955 and also a Naval development and test centre for the reactors for Nuclear Submarines. Now well into the decommissioning phase, it is expected to have the site cleared by 2036.All being well, the site will become a Brownfield site by 2336. This train runs infrequently and as required, the only booked freight North of Inverness, it is seen here running along the coastal section of the Far North line past Kilmote between Helmsdale and Brora on the 28th of August 2024.
CP 2203 leads a nice consist through Newport, Minnesota on local H19 towards Canadian Pacific's St. Paul yard on BNSF/CP's St. Paul Subdivision.
Locomotives:
CP 2203 (GP20C-ECO), CP 2218 (GP20C-ECO), SOO 4444 (GP38-2), CP 2206 (GP20C-ECO)
July 18, 2013
Conrail 6228 leads a mail train past the old tower for "Tower Tuesday", a tower that had a long time ago simply become "CP 141". Already severely downgraded in the PC era, Bellefontaine at one time hosted six different NYC lines heading out of town as well as a good size yard. The tower was the only remaining structure at the time of the photo, and actually somehow remains such today even under CSX, but it is surrounded by tree's these days. Even though Conrail was almost history at the time of the photo, good old #MAIL-44 was still running right on schedule. Actually even about 30 minutes early for it's scheduled 11 AM passing of CP 141.
CN 8815 leads a 6 headed monster M338 past a classic Iowa farm off McClain Lane west of Dubuque. The day's edition of the Waterloo, IA to Kirk Yard (Chicago) train is dropping downgrade through the early fall colors of the scenic Catfish Creek valley, headed for the yard at Dubuque for a pickup and setout along with a crew change.
BNSF 8208 leads a Clay Boswell coal empty out of the yard and around the wye for the Hillsboro Sub as it departs Grand Forks, ND.
I had previously caught this train thundering west across the border in Minnesota:
www.flickr.com/photos/chris_paulhamus/40432108863/
This was typical power for northern plains coal trains in the mid-2000s (SD75s, Oakways, SD60Ms), but there was a period in 2007 that saw a glut of AC-power leading coal...a harbinger of things to come. Soon, the era of DC-powered coal trains would come to an end.
Amtrak 160 leads the Beech Grove segment of Amtrak’s Cardinal at Lafayette Junction, wearing the heritage “Dash 8 Phase III” scheme in the “Pepsi Can” livery that many Dash 8s on the Amtrak roster wore upon delivery. With a lot of actual Dash 8s being on this train in the area over the last year, this is the closest we will get to getting this scheme back, not on a real dash 8 unfortunately (4/2/25).
37706 leads 92042 "Honegger" passes Breaston with the 6T19 1230 Chaddesden Sidings - Toton spoil empties which is also carrying old sleepers in the back wagons on 14th Dec 99.....I'm not really sure why the Dyson was being moved to Toton ,but it wasn't for painting although the loco does seem to have a non standard black square panel on the center bodyside .....While both locos are still with us....the footcrossing has since been replaced with a bridge
3265 leads the transfer of the 'Steam to Surf' consist back to Thirlmere, seen here putting on a display heading upgrade into Campsie in a lucky patch of shadow-free evening sun. 4916 is on the rear.
43094 leads a uniform rake of executive liveried mk 3 coaches south at Sunderland Bridge, County Durham with the 1140 Newcastle to London Kings Cross service.
HSTs on the the East Coast route to London were replaced in December 2019. However, until September 2023 the line between Edinburgh and York continued to enjoy one HST per day as part of an Edinburgh to Plymouth working.
70806 leads today's 3J11 off the curve at Moss Bay and toward Harrington station. 70811 was on the rear.
This was Plan "B" after Plan "A", shooting the train at Long & Small's, was scuppered by the approach of the cloud bank seen in the background.
I was fortunate that the train was 10 minutes early here as the first wisps of cloud, ahead of the main bank, had already begun to block the sun, but allowed it to pop out for just as long as it took the train to pass me before occluding it for good.
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An SD70ACe leads an ES44AC and another SD70ACe on the point of the Provo-Denver. The train took the siding at Rocky to meet the westbound Zephyr and is now on the approach to Leyden. The Zephyr is actually somewhere in the background in the area of Plain.
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BNSF 8219 leads the Empire Builder down the Milwaukee Road-built Short Line at Merriam Park seen here crossing the bridge passing over I-94 and Fairview Avenue.
VB SANDON leads Boluda Towage flotilla out of Gladstone Lock on March 26, 2023.
Photographed during the DANIEL ADAMSON Mersey Dock and River Cruise on Sunday March 26, 2023.
After concluding a tour of Liverpool North Docks the DANIEL ADAMSON ran down in the large Gladstone Lock in the company of 8 tugs from both Svitzer and Boluda Fleets.
For more photographs of the DANIEL ADAMSON Mersey Dock and River Cruise on March 26, 2023 please click here:
www.jhluxton.com/Shipping/Historic-Ships/ST-Daniel-Adamso...