View allAll Photos Tagged Searchlight
CB&Q searchlight signals remain standing at the west end of the siding at Lakenan on the BNSF Brookfield Sub as the sun rises on a cold morning in the middle of December. 12/16/17.
A pair of CW44’s lead Hazard Shifter C842-28 through the L&N Searchlights at Viper, Ky with SCWX loads for Cross, Sc from Typo.
June 28, 2019.
66089 passes Searchlight Lane whilst working 6G71 Cliffe Vale-Bescot china clay empties, 7 February 2017
This is the only daylight freight train on this line per week.
Looking towards Ludlow from Brown Clee Hill in Shropshire. Can you spot Ludlow Church?
Thank you all for viewing, commenting and favouring my images
IORY 3493 builds its train at Sugar St in Lima, OH readying it for departure. At the south end of the I&O yard is a set of former DT&I searchlights that protect the Norfolk Southern line to Findley in the distance. These are just one of the many different types of signals that still govern the I&O.
In the first light of the morning, a late-running MEWSR (Englewood-Strang Yard) curves onto the Galveston Sub at South GH&H Junction in EaDo, passing the now-disused Congress Yard.
The top of the replacement Vader for the searchlights here can be seen 9 cars back; this signal was put up in September 2021, waiting to be cut into service for over 4 years.
FEC train 141 brings in a unit train of ethanol for a customer near Port Everglades on a comfortable South Florida afternoon.
Northbound Q268 passes the now replaced L&N Searchlights in Sulphur, Ky on a pleasant morning in September 2012.
BNSF 9838 takes a train of heavy machinery loads past the searchlight signals at Rusk on the UP West Belt Sub east of downtown.
Houston, TX 3/14/2018
Freightliner's 66587 'As One, We Can', sporting its fetching Ocean Network Express magenta & white livery, passes Searchlight Lane on 4M63, Felixstowe to Trafford Park.
A week off lies ahead, which I'm hoping to utilise to get around the East Midlands a bit, as well as hunting down a few railtours. Weather doesn't look great, as today's dullness shows, but let's see how we get on, shall we?!
Light power pulled off a train backs through the Rock Island searchlight signals to get out of the way for a southbound manifest waiting to depart the South St. Paul Yard.
Just east of Downtown Houston, there's a small bastion of Houston Belt & Terminal searchlight signals still standing in everyday service. They protect two control points on the West Belt: CP Rusk (former Tower 84) and S GH&H Jct.
Here, a southbound UP manifest splits the searchlights at CP Rusk on the West Belt with a long train of tank cars and plastic pellet hoppers.
MEWFP 18 (Manifest- Englewood Yard [Houston] to Freeport, TX)
UP C45AH #2739
UP C45AH #2767
Houston, TX
March 18th, 2021
The remains of a very sticky snowstorm are still on the trees as M426 passes the home signal protecting the east limits at CPF-241 in Rollinsford, NH.
One year ago today, CP 118 heads eastward passing under the Howland searchlight cantilevers on a beautiful sunny morning. It was well known by this time that this would be the last day of operations for most, if not all North Toronto searchlights (there were still questions in the air about the Bartlett ones) so myself and other rail photographers made an effort to be out trackside as much as possible and take in the final weeks / days of these classic signal structures.
For one last morning things felt normal, no excess of signal maintainers and managers around, just the usual freight trains making their way across the short but storied 6~ miles of mainline trackage across the city. Fast forward 24 hours to this image, and this set of signals as well as every other searchlight on the subdivision was cut from power and taken out of service, with subsequent demolitions of each structure and mast coming in the following days.
As I've stated before, I'm overall grateful I was able to document these spots extensively while they existed, but man does it suck that they aren't around anymore.
Thanks for reading.
04/15/2024
CP 118, CP 9768 East
Mile 3.3 CP North Toronto Sub
Amtrak 4 passes a quad set of intermediate searchlights north of Gallinas. The train showed up just in the nick of time before the shadows overtook the tracks.
Freightliner Class 90 Nos. 90012 & 90049 pass Searchlight Lane Junction working 4M42, the 02:23 London Gateway – Trafford Park intermodal on 11 December 2025.
KCS 3940, nee TFM 1640, splits the searchlights at SF JCT in Kansas City as it points a transfer to BNSF's Argentine Yard. Photo taken 11/12/16.
47593 passes Searchlight Lane hauling 5Z47 Long Marston to Crewe H.S. with 37521 on the rear on 06/05/2020.
Still standing along the Erie Mining Company mainline is a lone searchlight signal on the approach to Murphy City, Minnesota. The signal was used for the upcoming grade crossing and maintenance section switch. It gets to enjoy the serenity of the forest.
A Mike Cleary photo from 1990 put this signal on my radar, and I decided to hike to find it while visiting nearby Finland, Minnesota.
FEC 109 passes the searchlights guarding the south end of Port Sewall on a warm March morning. The searchlight's in this photo are on borrowed time as they could be gone within the next few months or a year from now.
With a long line of plastics hoppers rolling by, the old Santa Fe searchlights at Alvin stand watch. After serving this role for many years, they finally saw their retirement at the end of April 2021.
MAGSP 14 (Manifest- Angleton, TX to Spring, TX)
Alvin, TX
April 14th, 2021
Sometimes a shot is worth posting even when the other train you wanted ran in reverse and the weather fucked you over
P098 clears Lakeland down the backstretch at ‘Searchlight Alley’, nicknamed so because of a long stretch of searchlight signals from Lakeland to Winston. We were waiting for the CSX local which unfortunately ran in reverse with the conductor riding the shove on a hopper car. This shot was taken shortly before the new signals were cut in.
I went down with a friend almost everyday we could. We were treated to a unique assortment of power in 2018; Citirail leasers, Dash 8’s, former EMD demonstrators, P40 and P42’s, and SD70’s that were assigned as Bone Valley power.
There are scattered thunderstorms in the area as BNSF's "101" local from Chicago with BNSF GE B40-8W No. 545 races west through the now gone searchlight signals protecting the crossover in Verona, Illinois, on June 20, 2017.
UP OCJWC-26, a westbound unit dirt train, passes a set of Searchlight signals between Cima and Kelso on the Cima Subdivision. This is at milepost 246, the west end of the siding at Elora. These signals were up for replacement during this time, and had just a few months left in service.
As I skipped over to Mp163ish to grab the searchlight, the sun overhead began to transition into the cloud... of course...here RUPO has just cleared the crossing by MaineOxy in Auburn, ME and is headed West to Hacketts to tie down.
What's interesting is that in the short jaunt here, one will cross over the still intact GT tracks (Lewiston-Auburn RR?) that this train is crossing over just outside the frame. That GT line extended past the end of the current SLR branch at Safe Handling, under the MEC and across the Androscoggin river to a station in Lewiston, which to this day exists. Pretty neat if you ask me.
Recently talking to a few like-minded others in the hobby, the general consensus is that there's next to nothing exciting around left to lens anymore. Digging through the archives, I came across this frame that I seriously dismissed at the time. The Ocean is a frankenstein of equipment, the searchlights have been replaced by LEDs, (where haven't they), and the F40s match and aren't back to back. VIA 15 is seen passing the west end of the once busy Oxford Jct. with a solid train of stainless, making every bit of track speed heading for points west on March 31, 2017. I never quite felt the need to post this the same day just to get that dopamine hit, and now it holds so much more worth with all the changes.
How about one more throwback from last summer for this weekend before returning to more recent programming next week? Clouds definitely got me here with the Bozeman turn, but this turned out to be the only shot of the trip of these searchlights at the west end of Craver. Sure they're probably gone by now.
One of my American friends described most Canadian railway scenes as "searchlights and codeline". He's not wrong. CPKC 135 with a pair of BNSF motors passes the intermediates at mile 77.4 on their way to Oak Yard in Detroit. This section between Tilbury and Ringold sidings is one of the few remaining sections of the Windsor Sub that still utilizes the codeline to supply power to the crossings and signals.
Train: CPKC 135 with BNSF 609 (C44-9W) and BNSF 8094 (ES44C4).
CPKC Windsor Subdivision
Tilbury, ON
A chilly December dawn breaks over Staffordshire and Searchlight Lane Junction just as 66415 heads north with 4M95 03:36 Southampton to Trafford Park.
11th December 2025
The sun was a struggle this day and despite spending time here for three trains I never managed that I hoped for. Regardless, this is still one of my favorite places to just relax and have a picnic while waiting for a train to photograph between the classic and unique New York Central era small target GRS type SA signals that still serve here. The set of intermediates at MP 99 on Amtrak's Hudson Line bracket Amtrak Empire Service
train 284 from Niagara Falls to Penn Station as it flies past on Main 2 behind Phase III decorated P32AC-DM 711 on a cold late winter day along the icy Hudson River.
I'm not sure when these signals were installed, and if anyone here can provide insight as to their history I'd love to learn more.
Tivoli, New York
Saturday March 1, 2025
A rare visitor made its way to northern Kentucky Saturday afternoon. CP 6248 leads K815, solo, past the former L&N searchlights at Visalia, KY on CSX's CC Subdivision.