View allAll Photos Tagged SWITCH
Maine Northern Railway Train 521-11 switches LaJoie Growers on 4/11/2025.
LaJoie runs a warehouse here which loads and unloads products for the Twin Rivers Paper mill in Madawaska, since there isn't a whole lot of room at the mill. In addition to this LaJoie takes cars of fertilizer for local potato farms, in addition to shipping occasional loads of potatoes.
Behind me is the large Irving lumber transload, which can load 10-11 cars at a time with lumber from various mills in New Brunswick.
Once done working the US side, 521 will normally work the Irving mill across the river in Saint-Leonard, NB as well as dropping interchange traffic with CN. However on this day they didn't end up switching the mill.
At one point tracks continued south from here to Stockholm, where the line split with one leg going to Caribou and the other to Mapleton. The trackage from Caribou to Van Buren was pulled during the BAR's downsizing in the late 60-80's, while the Mapleton-Stockholm line survived for a few more years. After large plots of land were sold by the paper companies, the BAR got rid of the Mapleton-Stockholm portion after the loss of logs going to the paper mills.
A few customers remained in Van Buren until sometime in the 90's. Around 15-20 years ago, US Customs and Border Protection bought the remaining track running into downtown, to allow for a new border crossing to be built on the former right of way. Today the line dead ends around a mile south of this point.
Maine Northern Railway
Train: 521-11
4/11/2025
Van Buren, ME
MNR Van Buren Yard
I thought this shot could look like something else going on a few decades ago. The Illinois Railway Museum diesel crew was using CNW F7 411 as Museum switcher on Sunday 3/12/23. Among the switch moves was to pull out GTW RS1 1951. This veteran ALCO hasn’t been outside in some time.
... from workweek to weekend - TGIF !
African Elephants / Afrikanische Elefanten (Loxodonta africana)
Serengeti N.P., Tanzania, Africa
A little flashback Friday, to a pre-Hunter Harrison CP, when they still ran some switchers in Muskego Yard.
CP 1447
Iowa Northern Railway train BUWA has IANR 4100, 3809, 3802, and 3803 for power on this December Sunday to make the run from Butler Yard near Shell Rock, Iowa to Bryant Yard in Waterloo. The train had 75 cars out of Butler, but have brought the head 15 into the CN Waterloo Yard for interchange. In the background EJE 667, still in orange, is paused in between it's duties as the yard switch engine, and a few other motors are laying around at the engine facility including EJE 658 in CN paint.
The CN is in the process of purchasing the IANR but is still awaiting STB approval, and so this is perhaps a bit of a look into the future. Meanwhile the past is well represented in this view too, as the Illinois Central Roundhouse here in the background has been present in at least in some form, (it's had stalls added and removed over the years) back to as far as 1901 (and possibly longer, it was hard to pin down a good date for the roundhouse construction from just some quick online research).
The Iowa Northern Railway uses the CN Mainline in Waterloo and Cedar Falls for a few miles from Waterloo West to Cedar Falls Junction as part of an arrangement going back to the 1980s and a highway project that saw the consolidation of some lines in Waterloo to make room for US 218. Normally from what I've seen the interchange work is typically done by the IANR in either direction at some siding tracks just west of Waterloo West and so they don't come into the yard like this. But occasionally when traffic warrants the CN will have the IANR come directly into the "A Yard" here at the Waterloo Terminal to make their setout and pickup as seen here. They would tie onto a cut of cars and shove back out of the yard to the rest of their train waiting on the mainline.
I had gone out after this BUWA even though it was likely to be a cloudy day because IANR 4100 on the point is one of the road's newest units (arrived to the IANR in August 2023 per some online notes, though it's originally a C&O unit) and still looks pretty sharp. But it was a nice bonus to get them making this less-common move, and this angle normally would be a heavily backlit-view if the sun were present.
The Landisville Railroad's SW900M prepares to gather outbound cars for the NS interchange a couple of miles to the north. Despite the Chessie-inspired livery, this is a former Lehigh Valley engine by way of Conrail. Taken on railroad property with permission and escort.
Mass Coastal 2008 is seen departing Maritime Terminal Inc. in New Bedford, MA after switching out the load for the empty.
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Heading through the wide part of the Potomac River valley between Moorefield and Petersburg. Note the rock formation on the side of the distant mountainside. There are several other similar "razorback" ridges or "fins" in this region of the state. After dropping 23 loads of feed at Pilgrim's Pride at Moorefield, the crew is headed for the end of the old B&O line to switch two of three freight customers at Petersburg.
A CSXT local switches Kayne Ave on March 9, 2019. The days of an end cab switcher on CSX are numbered.
© Eric T. Hendrickson 2019 All Rights Reserved
Way back in September 1998, Rich Barnett, Ken Putelis and myself set out on a 7 day trip to the midwest. It was just after the merger of the ATSF-BN into the "new" BNSF. Luckily we did well on weather the entire week, and we did well with matched pre-merger consists all across Illinois . We covered quite a bit in and around the greater Chicago area, give or take a 100 plus mile radius. My notes show us shooting about 15 different railroads, mostly now all fallen flags. Toward the end of our week, we were all ready to kill each other, however the sun stayed out and the action was plentiful as we made our way back east. After spending most of the day on the Wisconsin Central, and getting an SDL39 leading, we ventured down to Bensonville yard, just on the other side of O'Hare for rush hour. At the time, I didn't think much of this slide, as were concentrating on the parade of Metra F40C's and F40PH's. Here the west end switcher job with a pair of former MN&S SW1200's drag cuts of cars momentarily blocking our view of the mainline. Such cool stuff, hard to believe it was so long ago. September 1998.
A pair of Iowa Northern GP38s switch the yard in Mannly, Iowa seen here pulling through the car reader near Harris Street. It is weird to think that the Iowa Northern is now a fallen flag and gobbled up by the Canadian National.
Decided to spend a cloudy morning with the Housatonic NX-10 on their trip down to serve their customers in the Danbury area. After running south from New Milford, the crew cut away from their train of empty dumpsters to pull and spot Pharmco in Brookfield, CT. While these two sidings are used by the railroad various times a week, they were both fairly grown in.
This is Mark.
Mark is the president of the Nevada Northern Railway - a national historic landmark in Ely, NV. The railroad Mark presides over is considered one of the most complete historic railways in the United States.
While Mark would never claim credit for the success of the NNRY, I'm here to tell you that so much of what you can experience today is only possible because of this man and his passion. It takes an army to keep this place running, but Mark is the spark at the center of it all.
That energy and enthusiasm is precisely what inspires me to volunteer my time and talents to the NNRY; I have no doubt other volunteers would say much the same.
This scene was taken in 2018 at the Photographer's Weekend, but it could just as easily have been 1918. Mark has checked the south switch of Keystone Wye and will soon direct NNRY #40 forward.
A pair of Prairie Line's locomotives switch Archer Daniel's Midland in Clinton Iowa NBH photo 10/16/2024
The Southern Railway of British Columbia's westbound Abbotsford switcher climbs one of the many small grades in the Mount Lehman area of Abbotsford, BC. This line's roller coaster grade profile, and everpresent parallel pole lines are a not so subtle clue to it's origin as an interurban railway.
The British Columbia Electric Railway was already a thriving interurban operation in the Vancouver suburbs on the north side of the Fraser River when construction of the new 'Fraser Valley Branch' began in 1909. Enabled by the 1904 construction of the Fraser River Bridge by the Federal Government, the Fraser Valley Branch stretched from New Westminster, through the then rural farming communities of Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, and finally Chilliwack. Once opened in 1910, the Fraser Valley Branch boasted a healthy ridership in addition to significant business in transporting milk and other farm products into Vancouver for sale. The last interurban trolley ran in 1958, after which the ownership and control was passed on to the crown electric power corporation 'BC Hydro' who continued freight operations as a short line. BC Hydro leased the freight rights, rolling stock, and track to the American shortline operator Itel in 1988, who in turn sold to the current owner, the Washington Group in 1994.
The two MP15DC powering the train wear the same paint scheme that until recently the other Washington Group rail property, Montana Rail Link also used. Of the 14 cars that the train departed Abbotsford with, 10 were dropped at Gifford, and only 4 covered hoppers remain. These would be left at Sperling for their eastbound counterpart from New Westminster to spot.
While 10,781 foot high Mount Baker soaks up the last sunlight of the day in the background, the dense forest on Mount Lehman has been shading these rails from the sun for hours already.
While I was waiting for the southbound Amtrak Talgo funeral train, Union Pacific sent this nice SD40N/Slug combo up the Brooklyn Yard lead. That's the Eastmoreland Golf Course across the tracks in Southeast Portland, Oregon.
CSX switching crew dismount to reset the switch after the train passes off the siding onto the main line preparing to head to Raleigh.
SFG Train 565-11 has cut away from the rest of the train and will shortly start working the Groupe-Lebel lumber mill in Nouvelle-Ouest, Quebec.
The lumber mill is one of only a few customers on the Cascapedia Subdivision and ships outbound loads of lumber and woodchips.
Société du chemin de fer de la Gaspésie
Train: 565-11
12/11/2023
Nouvelle-Ouest, Quebec
SFG Cascapedia Subdivision
The other day I was creating with some friends and was a bit lost in my own mind.
I started thinking of how creative my friends are, how creative this community is and how I'm so lucky to have a job and passion and life where I get to share very openly, the inner workings of my mind. The inside of who I am as a person through my work. I came up with this idea of my "inner workings" spinning away above my head, like a hamster on a wheel.
#thelightbulbproject_inside
Macro shot of a Hama Wireless Remote, unfortunately I forgot to remove the dust and noise so here it is “warts and all”.
Three yard goats help break out switches at the CHS elevator in Superior prior to BNSF delivering a cut of grain hoppers. The freeze/thaw cycle the past few days has really played havoc with switches.
Escanaba and Lake Superior Baldwin DS-4-4-1000 202 switches Menominee Paper, Menominee, Michigan, on July 7, 1986.
A square-cabed Geep trundles down the overgrown spur to WCO Enterprises to retrieve an empty wax car off of CSX's now decommissioned Export yard. With the adoption of precision scheduled railroading, all jobs from Export yard are now originating from Moncrief and have been consolidated into fewer and fewer locals. The customers around Export yard largely remain. Portside Paper has vacated its space and moved to a different warehouse up the line, still receiving cars at its new location. Manson Construction's service ended after enough rock for the St. johns dredging project was delivered. Owens Corning had discontinued limestone deliveries a few years ago but still gets asphalt service. Steelcon Supply hasn't gotten a car in a few months to a year but continues to be in business it appears. That leaves Export yard with WCO (pictured here), Jones Chemicals, a Crowley transload (tomato paste boxcars), Owens Corning (asphalt only), Lehigh Cement, and potentially but not certainly the occasional service to Steelcon Supply.
Below are some photos of the customers that have disappeared:
Portside Paper, relocated and still serviced in Yulee, FL:
www.flickr.com/photos/henry_dell/15445579949/in/photolist...
Owens Corning Roofing, switched to trucks at several facilities across the US with limestone shipments:
www.flickr.com/photos/henry_dell/14510986414/in/album-721...
Steelcon Supply, may or may not get service still - hasn't gotten a car in months:
www.flickr.com/photos/henry_dell/14512630714/in/album-721...
www.flickr.com/photos/henry_dell/28915284395/in/album-721...
Manson Construction, reactived its spur for about a year to receive rock for dredging project:
www.flickr.com/photos/henry_dell/22147836598/in/album-721...
www.flickr.com/photos/henry_dell/23119879146/in/album-721...