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Quite the cool find!
MPVX SW14 1460 pushes a load of sulfuric acid tankers into the Potash Corp industry located in Marseilles, Illinois.
I am always a sucker for end-cab switchers. On Sunday, March 9, 2025, I stopped by the Sand Springs Railway in the city of the same name. The former electric interurban line west of Tulsa, Oklahoma, now serves a variety of industries.
I made two previous visits to the SS, one in 1965 and another in 1994. The latter included an excursion over the whole line. But on this visit, I was surprised that the SS is now in the OmniTrax camp. From what I can determine, the railroad operates with two ex-ICG SW14 switchers, Nos 142 and 143. This one was spotless and appears well cared for.
There is an SS logo on the cab side, but it is in black on a dark blue background, so it is nearly invisible.
The old GM&O shops were all still there at Bloomington, IL from January of 1983. The red and white GM&O locos were mostly gone by this point through. A pair of Paducah Geeps along with SW14 1474 completed the scene.
The IC SW14's will now cross the IHB/NS and B&OCT mains at Calumet Tower. The large building in the background is the former Inland Steel plant, now owned by Mittal Steel.
East Chicago, IN
Photo by John Eagan
IC SW14 1504 moves some passenger cars in Homewood, IL. I didn't even know any of these still existed on CN, let alone running.
On October 8th, 2013 CN IC SW14 switcher #1204 rests at the diesel facility in Stevens Point, Wisconsin under the deepening purple skies of twilight time. - This unit was built way back in the year 1950 for the Illinois Central Railroad as an SW7. – Although this little switcher is no longer on the roster of the Canadian National, at over seventy years of age (as of this posting) it may continue to work for new owner Dieselmotive Company/Bruggere & Monson (BUGX). ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©
US Lime SW14 #1200 or #100009, can't tell with all the letters and numbers under the cab, shoves a cut of loaded lime cars across the bridge over Sallisaw Creek and down to interchange with the KCS in Marble City Oklahoma.
This obscure operation just happen to be down at the Marble City interchange picking up empties left by the KCS while we were in town. Once they tied onto their empties they pulled those back to their facility about 1.5 miles from the KCS interchange. Not long after they arrived at their facility they shoved loads back down to the interchange, before returning to their facility. A serious stroke of luck on an operation that has virtually no coverage and doesn't seem to interchange a lot of traffic with KCS.
This bridge seemed a bit to heavy duty for the volume of traffic on this small branch line, at first glance. And after some research its appears this bridge, or at least the main span, appears to be from an abandoned branch line from Spiro Oklahoma, to Fort Smith Arkansas. When that line was abandoned sometime around 1943 that bridge got moved here.
Now for the locomotive. From the research I've been able to gather this locomotive was built in July of 1951 as IC SW9 # 9455, it then went to the ICG and was rebuilt as a SW14 and given the new number of 1412. After this locomotive left the ICG it appears to have bounced around a few other locations and railroads before finding it's way to the Ventura County Railroad (VCRR), a 13 mile industrial railroad around Port Hueneme in Oxnard California. The VCRR was part of the Rail America conglomerate which is where this locomotive got it's Red, White, and Blue scheme from. Once Rail America was sold to the Genesee and Wyoming (G&W) this locomotive got shipped out and sold, winding up on this 1.5 mile stretch of obscure industrial railroad in woods of Eastern Oklahoma.
Illinois Central Gulf Railroad SW14 1489 at Memphis, Tennessee on March 15, 1985, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. The lead locomotive was SW14 1489, built as IC SW9 9474 ( c/n 16416 ) on EMD Order 4123, renumbered to 474, rebuilt at Paducah during 1981 and becoming 1489. Also seen is Paducah BU2 Slug 57, built as IC SW9 9435 ( c/n 14358 ) on EMD Order 4093, renumbered to 435, then 1248, rebuilt as Slug 57 during 1981, sold for scrap during June 1987. Note that the slug retained its plain bearings. The trailing cab was SW14 1434, built in July 1951 as IC SW9 9456 ( c/n 14379 ) on EMD Order 4093, renumbered to 456. It was rebuilt during 1980 to SW14 1434, retired June 8, 1998 and sold to NRE.
After bringing a loaded grain train from CP to Ojibway Yard, the 0900 ETR crew takes a well deserved lunch break at a nearby Tim Horton's. Over the next few days, the contents of the hoppers will be emptied at a nearby ADM facility, processed, and then loaded onto lake freighters destined for Montreal.
Train: ETR grain extra with ETL 105 (SW1200) and ETL 104 (SW14).
ETR Branch (Ojibway Yard)
Windsor, ON
A pair of lookers, Essex Terminal 105 SW1200 and 104 SW14 team up to switch the Ojibway Yard in Windsor.
ICG IC SW14's, 1509 1414 1491, in 3 different paint schemes are at Homewood, Ill., on 5-15-88.
Along with the safety car watching over them.
IC 1200 and 1201 pull up to Larch to work Niagara Logistics before heading to the ELS and North Escanaba. Larch is the location where the CNW main line from Escanaba to the Marquette Range crossed over the Old Soo Line main line from the Sault Ste Marie. The switch in front of the engine allows for westbounds/southbounds on the SOO to go south on the CNW.
IC 1204 works the west end of the yard at Gladstone shuffling box cars headed over to the paper mill in North Escanaba. July 1, 2016
Inside CN Harrison Yard, the turntable remains where the roundhouse once stood in South Memphis. Several engines are on the fueling pad while a lone switcher sits among the wheel sets.
Illinois Central Railroad SW9 1224 at Pullman Junction on the south side of Chicago, Illinois on April 20, 1965, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Number 1224 was built in October 1952 ( c/n 16431 ) as number 9324 on EMD Order 4184, renumbered at an unknown date to 1224, it was never rebuilt and retired by the IC in May 1968. Also seen is passenger GP9 9204, built in January 1957 ( c/n 22327 ) on EMD Order 5517, rebuilt to GP10 8293 in October 1973, eventually becoming USAX 1879. The third unit was SW9 1226, built in November 1952 ( c/n 16433 ) as number 9326 on EMD Order 4184, renumbered to 1226, rebuilt to SW14 and renumbered to 1509 in 1982.
ICG SW14 1412 & SW9 1246 are switching the yard in Memphis, Tennessee. Canon TX, Canon FD 50mm 1.8 Lens, Kodachrome 64, Epson 4990 scan.
East Camden & Highland Railroad SW14 62 at East Camden, Arkansas on July 31, 1986, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Number 62 was built in January 1941 ( c/n 1313 ) as D&RGW NW2 7000, renumbered to D&RGW 100 on September 13, 1941. It was retired and sold to Precision Engineering ( later, Precision National Corp. ) in January 1968, re-sold to the ICG and rebuilt to SW14 Great Lakes Steel 100, later becoming EACH 62.
During 1950 - 1952, as D&RGW it was equipped with a trolley pole to trip the signals on the Denver & Intermountain Railway.
Quite the rarity and oddity found near the DSF at BNSF's Argentine Yard in Kansas City, KS is former IC SW7RM in CN paint, now owned by Dieselmotive Company, Inc. and bound for Blackwell, OK.
This was built in April of 1953 as the Mississippi Central Railroad as MSC SW9 No. 206, later becoming a part of the Illinois Central as the IC No. 1241. In 1978, it was rebuilt at the Paducah Shops as an SW14, now renumbered as the IC No. 1419.
From 2006 to 2007, five IC SW14's were rebuilt by CN into SW7RM's, which resemble UP's SW10 rebuilds. The five rebuilt were IC No. 1200-1204, this one specifically was the IC No. 1202. All five have been retired by CN and purchased by Dieselmotive Company, Inc./ Bruggere/Monson. 12/2/23.
Built as an SW7 for Illinois Central in 1950, it's quite an oldie. Later it was converted to an SW14 sometime in the future, then the engine was rebuilt to an "SW7RM" in 2007, which is what it currently is now. The engine is now under ownership of BUGX, not sure what the fate for it holds. Note the Menards bucket covering the exhaust stack.
The Illinois Central transfer has just made its delivery to the B&O at Barr Yard and are now headed back to pick up their caboose. Their two switchers are passing a fresh out of EMD NdeM Geep, sitting just west of the old Halsted Street viaduct.
Fall is in full swing as the 0700 job makes their way back east to interchange traffic with CP and CN before calling it a day. The yellow on the trees, particularly the one on the far left compliment ETR's paint scheme along with the TTX boxcar. At this location they are crossing the Canadian side of the Windsor/Detroit rail tunnel; known as "the cut". The tunnel was originally built by the MCR and was part of the CASO Subdivision. Today it is owned and operated by CP and is part of the Windsor Subdivision.
Train: ETR 0700 job with ETL 104 (SW14).
ETR Branch
Windsor, ON
A former iC SW14 rebuild is seen at DeBruce Grain's Amarillo Terminal, 1442 has seen a mix of previous employers prior to it's arrival in Amarillo. May 7, 2019 (Photo Taken with permission)
Back in 1987, we went to Glenn Yard in Chicago in search of the new Chicago, Missouri & Western. We found it in the form of some former Western Pacific GP40's. Here one of those units sits in the company of ICG GP10 8219 and a couple of SW14's.
With downtown Memphis and Central Station as a backdrop, CN's RJY25 works the Sugar Services Yard at sunset. This bird's eye view of IC 1499 is courtesy of yet another set of new condos that were being built in the South Main District during 2005.
One of the more interesting power sets to visit Burlington yard in recent memory, fading Warbonnet 555 and the unique 2911 were coupled to a former IC SW14 now owned by MVPX. Prior to this, it belonged to Chicago Raillink.
Illinois Central Gulf out in the country? Not hardly, this rebuilt SW14 is rolling down the Main Line of Mid-America in the gritty, industrial suburb of Harvey, IL He's headed north on the elevated right-of-way back in 1978.
With my Uncle at the throttle, ICG's Job #24 is about to slam the IHB diamonds at Argo tower. The job switched out the Shell refinery & the Corn Products plant. Today's train is led by the SW14 1493/slug 53 combo.
Illinois Central Gulf Railroad SW14 1489 at Memphis, Tennessee on November 20, 1988, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Also seen is Slug 50 and SW14 1488. Slug 50 started out as IC SW1 9017, built in December 1939 ( c/n 984 ) on EMC Order E284, converted to a Slug during 1981. One record indicates it went to NREX in 1990, perhaps acquiring the number BU-1.
Illinois Central Gulf SW14 1439 at Memphis, Tennessee on November 25, 1987, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Built in April 1950 as IC SW7 9304 ( c/n 10036 ) on EMD Order 6008, it was renumbered to 1204. During 1980 it was rebuilt to SW14 1439.
An eastbound C&NW Bird headed for Canal Street Yard on the CJ waits at Ash Street, blocked by the IMX Yard switcher and ICG SW14 No. 1454 leading a westbound local freight, in April 1987.
An ICG local freight behind an SW14 has made its statutory stop at Brighton Park, in April 1987. Brighton Park was a non-interlocked crossing at-grade and trains in all directions had to stop and wait for a signal from the Conrail switchtender who operated the installation. Here, the switchtender has raised the semaphore signal to clear, allowing the train to cross the CJ, B&OCT and the former PRR Panhandle.