View allAll Photos Tagged LOADOUT
After bringing loads down to the runaround and shoving empties back up to spot at the loadout on the Wells-Lamson Spur, the WACR returned back downhill light engine and have just coupled up to their train on the west end of the 900 ft siding here at MP MP 10.9 on the Montpelier and Barre Division. They are getting ready to carefully shove seven loads (the maximum permitted by rule) down the steep grade to the lower switchback, where they will reverse direction then continue the descent off Millstone Hill into the city of Barre. The assigned power on the line is green GMRC 804 (a GP9r blt. Oct. 1955 as NW 13) and red VTR 206 (a GP38-3 206 blt. Oct. 1969 as SOU 2718 and originally a high nosed straight GP38).
Unincorporated Websterville
Barre Town, Vermont
Friday August 1, 2025
(SEE & HEAR)---Western Fuel Association, Escalante Western with ex-C&O SD40's, WFA-1 WFA-2 WFA-3, about to depart Lee Ranch loadout, to head back to the power plant at Prewitt, New Mexico. April 17, 2001. Jack D Kuiphoff photo © video
See this return cab ride in my Youtube link...
With a train of empties for the Lynch 3 loadout, R614 cruises railroad south past the former siding at South End Baileys. As downgrades face the L&N's Cumberland Valley, Pineville is now the only intact siding on the Kentucky side of the railroad.
A pair of GATX leased GPs head south down the old Winifrede Railroad, bringing another cut of empties to the mine for loading, a process that has happened on this line for almost longer than anywhere else in the country.
A handful of miles from the Kayenta Mine Loadout in far northern Arizona at the eastern end of the line, a four pack of Black Mesa & Lake Powell’s General Electric Motors take an empty string of rag-tag coal hoppers through the Klethla Valley for the next load of coal for Page.
Union Pacific C40-8 No. 9203 pulls a Valmy Power coal empty into the Sharp loading facility west of Levan, Utah on March 10, 1990.
The coal was trucked 78 miles from the SUFCo mine, 30 miles northeast of Salina in Sevier County, Utah. The high iron at right is Union Pacific's 83-mile Provo Subdivision, renamed and rebranded the Sharp Subdivision after the UP-SP merger in 1996.
Looking over Big Clear Creek to their left, Three CSX CW44AC's stretch 50 loads out as they depart from Coronado Coal's Anjean loadout outside Rupert. The engineer will pick the conductor up at the next crossing and be on their way toward Rainelle, Wv.
Since my editing computer is OOS and awaiting replacement I'll post some edited but unposted shots from earlier. CSX C391 heads towards the Gatliff loadout with empties on the Pine Mountain west branch.
The Cedar River local crew back in 2006 passes thru Myrtle on the way to the end of the line at Glenville. The Osage Sub runs for about 18 miles along the southern Stateline of Minnesota west of Lyle. In 2006 CN went all the way to Glenville for an ethanol loadout.
In 2016 the Cedar River stopped going past London, MN, to Glenville. On September 18, 2019, the Osage Sub was shorten in the timetable to MP 83.6. All the trackage west of there to Glenville is now other than main track on has been out of service for awhile. Looking at Goggle Earth, the switch isn't in here anymore.
Scanned slide from September 2006.
USSC #310 leads an empty sugar cane train departing the mill at Clewiston heading for one of the many loadouts located in the sugar fields.
Reflecting water ways, and silhouetted cross bucks fill a third of the photo, an SCFE east side empty cane train filling the other two thirds, gets up to speed with GP11 303. I thought he was heading for Moorehaven but when he turned south instead of north it was a beat feet and speed moment out of town to get a great sunset outside of town. The SCFE has a small number of load outs east of Clewiston compared somewhere around 15-20 loadouts on the USSC, so catching these guys going east took me by surprise but during cane season, the trains almost never stop.
It’s November 29th, 2024. Another day, another adventure. Started my morning off heading towards Buckhannon and the A&O in hopes of finding a rare daylight run on the west end of the railroad. Unfortunately that was out of the equation by time I hit the state line with West Virginia. So I called an audible and asked around to see what else might be out there in the coal fields. I got a hit on a train showing to be on CSX’s Coleman Sub near Somerset, PA, which is a pretty difficult piece of railroad to find anything moving, just one of those lines where have to be in the right place at the right time to luck into finding anything. So without further ado, I turned the car around near Morgantown, WV and beat feet eastbound towards the small town of Berlin, to investigate further. By the time I arrived much readily visible cut of cars were already finished being loaded which admittedly had me worried. Was this the last few cars to load? I don’t see any other cars visible in the small yard there. Thankfully that turned to not be the case due to limited capacity of the small yard below the loadout, the train had to be busted into 3 cuts for each half of the train to load it all. I was always reluctant to buy a drone for the longest time. Even after purchasing it I left it sitting in the box for months, debating if I really wanted to go down this route. Eventually I started to experiment with it and it completely revolutionized how I looked at things from the ground. Without the investment into a drone in this instance, partially at this location where PBS Coal’s Cambria loadout is not one that you can even get anywhere close to without trespassing onto mine property or neighboring private property. The drone does just fine at not stepping on anybody’s toes and I come away with some stellar shots of another coal operation I’ve been trying to photograph for a long time.
Climbing out of the valley and nearing their destination, the Reading & Northern's WCGS passes by an old coal loadout outside of Good Spring, Pennsylvania behind a pair of SD40-2's. The local has 5 loads of propane in tow bound for the Koppy's Propane terminal at the end of the line just outside of town.
====Info====
RBMN Tremont Running Track
Good Spring, PA
RBMN WCGS (Local; West Cressona, PA to Good Spring, PA Turn)
RBMN 3057 SD40-2 Ex. UP 3066, CNW 6901 Blt. 1975
RBMN 3056 SD40-2 Ex. UP 3440 Blt. 1978
Now that the Navajo Mine Railroad has been GEVO-ed and the Black Mesa and Lake Powell run its last mile (possibly already being scrapped as you read this), the Deseret Power Railway stands as the last purpose-built electrified coal-hauler in North America. On this visit, I attempted to get some fresh looks at this remote operation, resulting in this OK shot of the eastbound empties just off Colorado Highway 64 about two miles south of Dinosaur.
Headed geographically north in this shot, the train will turn east in moments, headed for a challenging climb up Holum Pass before dropping down to the Deserado mine loadout. The lateness of this run meant that I did not get the typical second run.
The year 2000 was a good one for fans of the Rio Grande, with many opportunities to see original D&RGW power operating on home rails. Twelve years after Rio Grande purchased Southern Pacific and four years after UP absorbed it all, Rio Grande's presence persisted. One of the more obscure operations was in Colorado's San Luis Valley. In this view near the then end-of-track of the Alamosa Subdivision, the crew of UP's "Creede Local" is picking up loaded woodchip gondolas at the loadout along US-160 in South Fork. The crew had turned their power earlier on the wye at Derrick, a short distance to the west. They will soon head back to Alamosa with a short train punctuated by a Rio Grande caboose, doing whatever work was needed along the way.
DRGW 3128 GP40-2
The idled loadout at Anjean looks out across the mountainous landscape at the last handful of miles up at the top of the NFG. This R202 loaded the previous afternoon and tied down outside the last active loadout up here. Here’s the view midday on a humble fall Monday in West Virginia.
Southern 8099 leads NS U44 through the coal loader at Dixiana as it brings a set of 50 coal cars underneath the loadout
CSX R231 splits the signals at Typo on the famed EK Subdivision. They just finished loading their 110 car Georgia Power train and are now running around to head back to Hazard and eventually Martin.
At least five coal trains called at the mine this day besides the Savatrans train, including the loaded CN train to the left about to depart south on the Bluford Subdivision, and three CSX coal trains from Evansville, IN.
An interesting bit of trivia relayed by a friendly mine employee who stopped to watch me watch the train. The owner of these locomotives is a Penn State fan, hence the blue paint, and the three locomotives are numbered for Penn State University (and original Penn State Nittany Lions) national championships: 1912 (trailing), 1982 (leading), and 1986 (mid-train DPU).
Kriegslok 33-248 departing the loadout at Dubrave for the interchange at Ljubace with a loaded train of coal destined for the Tuzla power plant.
With standard gauge steam operations finally ending in China in 2023, the Tuzla mining region of Bosnia and Herzegovina has become the world's final holdout of steam in regular industrial use. The mine's five German-built 2-10-0s are still maintained and see daily service.
It was only about 2 months ago, but I already forgot this empty symbol headed down the Cabin Creek. I still had an hour or two before the KNWA was ready to go east from Dickinson and thankfully the C&O side threw me a couple of bones.
Tom’s Fork is the one and only loadout down here from what I know, Let’s say he’s headed there.
An assortment of Baldwin road switchers power a train on the Eagle Mountain Railroad, west of Desert Center CA in the summer of 1967. The railroad was run by Kaiser Steel and ran from their loadout at Eagle Mountain to an interchange with the SP's Sunset Line to the south. After the Baldwins went away, red U30Cs powered the trains until the late 1980s when the entire operation closed. No photographer listed, JL Sessa collection.
South Central Florida Express train Cane 2 is headed compass west over the Miami Canal bridge with a sweet smelling load of fresh cut sugar cane from the Runyon loadout. Leading the way is USSC 4203, a rebuilt GP40-2 that began life in Oct. 1966 as a straight GP40 built new for the Milwauke Road as their number 193.
This is the northernmost of three railroad crossings of the canal, along different lines. A few miles to the south the USSC's private cane haulage mainline crosses it and then a few more miles beyond that the SCFE's ex ACL Okeelanta Branch also bridges it, both of which are just as photogenic.
The canal runs 77 miles from Lake Okeechobee southeast to the Miami River in downtown where it empties into the Atlantic. In 1906, Gov. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward launched his ambitious drive to drain the Everglades and transform miles of sawgrass prairie from Miami to Lake Okeechobee into the vast Everglades Agricultural Area. Meant to irrigate the new farmland it was also intended as a commercial waterway with a series of locks, the last of which was completed in 1915. But boat service did not last long and ended when the railroads built into the area though derelict locks remain as a reminded of that earlier era.
Canals lace south Florida, and are as ubiquitous here as they are in Venice. In fact my girlfriend and I joked that it should be called the 'Canal State' instead of the 'Sunshine State!' If you're so inclined to learn more about the canal system check out these links: www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2001-11-18-0111170514-st...
www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/07/17/in-sou...
palmbeach.floridaweekly.com/articles/our-canals/
Now getting back to trains, wholly owned by US Sugar Corp. as their common carrier railroad subsidiary, this particular trackage was built about 1929 when the Atlantic Coast Line extended their old Moore Haven and Clewiston line to this canal where they met the Florida East Coast Railway's Kissimmee Valley Line which had been built south from New Smyrna Beach to Belle Glade in 1923 and then similarly extended here in 1929. Consequently this canal was the southernmost point on both railroads and a train going either direction from this point (MP 957.8 on the old ACL or MP K70.9 on the old FEC) is considered northbound!
The ACL trackage west of the bridge passed to the SCL, Family Lines, Seaboard System and finally CSX thru a series of mergers, and the latter finally sold this branch line in June 1990 to the Brandywine Valley Railroad, a Lukens Steel Company subsidiary which operated it as the SCFE. Four years later they sold the railroad to its largest customer, U.S. Sugar which operates it as a separate company semi independent from the 119 miles of private non common carrier branch lines they already owned.
And another four years after US Sugar acquired the SCFE they leased the FEC's K Branch eastward from this point to about MP K15 west of Fort Pierce with overhead trackage rights into the yard there to effect interchange. The trackage into Fort Pierce is actually younger having been built in 1947 as a cutoff from that town on the mainline to Mantola, 29 miles west, where it met the original branch. This new line allowed for some 150 miles of the original railroad which was totally devoid of customers to be abandoned while retaining access to the lucrative sugar mills clustered at the south end of the line.
Lake Harbor, Florida
Friday March 14, 2025
It’s a pleasant day-after-Thanksgiving and while most people were up early for “Black Friday” deals, I left home early in search of more of a “Red Friday” deal…. and I think I managed to find a good one! The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad’s Y501 crew out of Horicon has been tasked with using the WAMX 5901 and 5904, two of the railroad’s sharp-dressed GP59s delivered just a few months earlier after work at MEI in St. Louis, to make a run out to Markesan and return. They’ve got two cars for the co-op in Markesan and a short set of empty 2-bay hoppers to spot at the sand loadout near CTH S between Utley and Markesan on this particular day.
The engineer has the small train humming along at what sure seemed like track speed here at Fairwater as they pass the outlet control structure for the pond on the west side of town approaching the appropriately named West Street crossing. Despite the lack of any significant snow fall (which has continued until almost the end of 2023 this year in a large part of the upper Midwest), this was certainly a fun chase on a “code blue” day.
A five-pack of KNWA SD60's spend the night in Mullens, West Virginia as Norfolk Southern U88 brings loads from the Affinity loadout on the Winding Gulf Branch.
An eastbound Norfolk Southern with coal empties heads past the Bunge elevator between Waterloo and Butler Indiana on the Norfolk Southern Chicago line. The switcher at Bunge sits under the loadout ready to load a long string of cars.
Freshly recrewed, R290-01 begins their pull from Hutchinson down the Rum Creek branch after spending the morning loading their train. The original loadout was off to the right here seen from Rum Creek Rd.
A quiet, still morning in Welch, WV is suddenly disrupted by the loud wail of a distant air horn. As they pass, it turns out it's a light helper set returning east for another shove up the Pokey. Or maybe even better, possible power for a loaded coal train from the loadout at Switchback.
An empty coal train destined for the York Canyon loadout in New Mexico. Passing Joliet Union Station and UD Tower while crossing the former Rock Island Railroad diamonds.
Fresh loads from Coal Mountain off the Cub Creek Branch roll past the signals at 'Lincoln' on Norfolk Southern's Guyandotte River Branch. Crews use a caboose for the ~10 mile shove from the loadout to Morri Branch where they keep the cab at.
Assisting an ailing F40, a pair of ET44s lead the Santa Train under the Collco loadout outside Haysi.
The Big Eagle Railroad takes a cut of empties upgrade for the mine loadout past the iconic Winifrede WV church. These units have since been replaced by a pair of GMTX painted GP38-2's.
OMLX 414 and 412 ease under the old Gavilon loadout on some rough track in Imperial, Nebraska. This isn't quite the end of the Imperial branch, but it only travels another half mile or so to reach Frenchman Valley Coop where the power will grab an empty potash covered hopper before swapping ends and working their way south. The Nebraska, Kansas, & Colorado Railway took over operating this 48 mile line from BNSF in 2004.
South Central Florida Express train Cane 2 has a load of fresh cut cane from the Runyon loadout trailing USSC 3804 (GP38-2 built Oct. 1974 for the San Manuel Arizona Railroad as SMA 17) hustling back toward the mill in Clewiston across the bridge over the Miami Canal.
This is the northernmost of three railroad crossings of the canal along different lines. A few miles to the south the USSC's private cane haulage mainline crosses it, and then a few more miles beyond that the SCFE's ex ACL Okeelanta Branch also bridges it, both of which each are equally photogenic.
The canal runs 77 miles from Lake Okeechobee southeast to the Miami River in downtown where it empties into the Atlantic. In 1906, Gov. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward launched his ambitious drive to drain the Everglades and transform miles of sawgrass prairie from Miami to Lake Okeechobee into the vast Everglades Agricultural Area. Meant to irrigate the new farmland it was also intended as a commercial waterway with a series of locks, the last of which was completed in 1915. But boat service did not last long and ended when the railroads built into the area though derelict locks remain as a reminded of that earlier era.
Canals lace south Florida, and are as ubiquitous here as they are in Venice. In fact my girlfriend and I joked that it should be called the 'Canal State' instead of the 'Sunshine State!' If you're so inclined to learn more about the canal system check out these links: www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2001-11-18-0111170514-st...
www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/07/17/in-sou...
palmbeach.floridaweekly.com/articles/our-canals/
Now getting back to trains, wholly owned by US Sugar Corp. as their common carrier railroad subsidiary, this particular trackage was built about 1929 when the Atlantic Coast Line extended their old Moore Haven and Clewiston line to this canal where they met the Florida East Coast Railway's Kissimmee Valley Line which had been built south from New Smyrna Beach to Belle Glade in 1923 and then similarly extended here in 1929. Consequently this canal was the southernmost point on both railroads and a train going either direction from this point (MP 957.8 on the old ACL or MP K70.9 on the old FEC) is considered northbound!
The ACL trackage west of the bridge passed to the SCL, Family Lines, Seaboard System and finally CSX thru a series of mergers, and the latter finally sold this branch line in June 1990 to the Brandywine Valley Railroad, a Lukens Steel Company subsidiary which operated it as the SCFE. Four years later they sold the railroad to its largest customer, U.S. Sugar which operates it as a separate company semi independent from the 119 miles of private non common carrier branch lines they already owned.
And another four years after US Sugar acquired the SCFE they leased the FEC's K Branch eastward from this point to about MP K15 west of Fort Pierce with overhead trackage rights into the yard there to effect interchange. The trackage into Fort Pierce is actually younger having been built in 1947 as a cutoff from that town on the mainline to Mantola, 29 miles west, where it met the original branch. This new line allowed for some 150 miles of the original railroad which was totally devoid of customers to be abandoned while retaining access to the lucrative sugar mills clustered at the south end of the line.
Lake Harbor, Florida
Sunday March 15, 2025
Cook and Sons 2 -1, at the Sapphire Coal Company loadout, Thornton, Kentucky. April 26, 2003. Jack D Kuiphoff © photo
Unit 2, NW2 built as NYO&W 127 >NYC 9512>8695>PC 8695>9177>CR 9177
Unit 1, SW7 built for NYC 8884>PC 8884>CR 8884
fb, 6/08/2023.
A trio of Indiana Southern SD40-2's have an empty coal train in tow heading west between Linton and Dugger on May 30, 2020. They would make a hard left at Dugger to get to the Bear Run loadout, the largest coal mine east of the Mississippi. G&W isn't my favorite thing ever, but documenting several coaltrains in this area over 4 days will certainly be nice to look back on in a decade or so.