View allAll Photos Tagged Searchlight
Union Pacific GP38N No. 578 and GP38-2 No. 724 make a seven-car set out at CP Becks in Salt Lake City, Utah on July 17, 2023. UP 578 was built Southern Pacific GP38-2 No. 4815 in May 1980. The vintage GRS "searchlight" signals stand tall in spite of their age, installed when this was Rio Grande's Salt Lake City - Ogden, Subdivision 7 main line.
Similar to a previous upload from a wintry Derwent water,but this time the spotlight has changed to a searchlight.This was a great spectacle as the sun started to penetrate the cloud layer,then burst through with this beam of light.As is quite often with the weather in the lakes,a few minutes later the wet stuff was falling and it was time to return home.
EXIF....F16....2 SECONDS....ISO 100....14MM...SINGH RAY ND3 REV. GRAD + KOOD ND2 FILTERS
Berkshire & Eastern train MOED departs Mechanicville, NY on a frigid December morning. This was my first experience on the old Boston & Maine, and while mundane NS power wasn't exactly what I was looking for, the searchlight signals were. The ex-B&M (and ex D&H too) mainline still has a plethora of searchlights, which in the age of Safetrans is a very welcome sight.
A searchlight signal displays a clear aspect on a clear night in Sharon, Wisconsin. With such prime conditions, we took to some astrophotography, and the searchlights made as prime foreground elements.
The Milky Way is present in this frame, but not visible, mainly due to my lack of expertise in this style of photography. My friend Kyle Krinninger did a much better job in the matter. His photo is viewable here: www.flickr.com/photos/kylekrinninger/48259474527/in/datep...
CP 6069 breezes east through Plymouth with empty rail cars and a caboose on the rear. The searchlight has now been replaced and CP SD40-2s cannot lead in the USA anymore. A scene that is now history.
For many years Norden held the last active searchlights on Donner Pass. Though several older signal bridges like this one had turned searchlights, this one stayed in service even after the other searchlights were torn out in favor of newer Safetrans. However, by the mid 2010s these signals were running on borrowed time but despite that managed to survive up until Thanksgiving Day 2022. In late October 2021, just over a year before the signals were torn down, the ZLTG2 was seen rolling past the old signals as it approaches Donner Summit. By this point the new Safetran Vaders had already been put up a while ago and were waiting for their moment to enter service. Today, there’s no remains of the Norden searchlights but at least some, such as the signal bridge, have been sent to new homes where they wait to be put up on public display.
Going back and re-editing some older photos tonight found this gem from the spring of 2015. In what was a short lived rebirth of older UP power brought out of storage, the last thing I expected to see on the CP was a rebuilt UP SD90MAC. None the less one eventually found its way on the point of an eastbound oil train seen here passing the searchlight signals just south of the Milwaukee depot. As per normal for me at this age, the remainder of the train was well hidden
DB Cargo's 66047 'Maritime Intermodal Two" heads south through Searchlight Lane on 6G71, returning a rake of empty china clay tanks from Cliff Vale, Stoke, to Bescot Yard.
Not amazing conditions, but when it's one of two remaining maritime livery locos I've yet to snap I couldn't pass it up, particularly when hot on the heels of 66587. I'm also a firm believer in photting in all conditions, not just when the sun's out and makes you look good...
Yes milepost 5 is cool, but...no love for their searchlights? Here NSM 674 split a pair of searchlights as it leads the morning train up the hill from Silver Bay bound for Babbitt for another load of iron ore.
The new Darth Vader signals loom ominously over the old searchlights at Niangua in some of their last days of service on the Cuba Sub. The headlights of an approaching westbound glow bright as it makes its way up from behind the hill at the west end of Niangua siding.
BNSF GE C44-9W No. 4713 painted in the Warbonnet scheme leads this long Spokane to Alliance high priority manifest/intermodal train west through the UP searchlight signals at the west switch in Messex, Colorado, on June 29, 2021. This section of track is what is left of UP's Julesburg to La Salle line.
Q SPOALT6 26D
Messex, Colorado
BNSF train XDHTEDY5 soaks up the morning light at Baring, MO. If I recall correctly, this was a unit train of protein pellets packed into old BN coal gons with a few cars of general merchandise tacked onto the head end.
Imagine staring down the signals while also getting a commanding view of Lake Superior. For 50 years, trains descended the grade approaching Taconite Harbor on the Erie Mining Company railroad. Trains passed the loop switch searchlight signals leading to the dock before dumping taconite pellets into the dock pockets, navigating the loops, then grinding up the grade empty.
The tracks are barely visible under the grasses growing on the grade. It's been 12 years since Cliffs Erie ran trains reclaiming iron fines from the dock and bringing them west. The middle bridge over Minnesota Highway 61 is gone, so it adds a nail in the railroad's coffin.
A green signal beckons a westbound up the grade towards Mullan Pass at Tobin, the end of double-track from Helena on the former Northern Pacific. The Rocky Mountains loom in the distant evening haze.
Tobin, MT
September 5th, 2021
Farmer's pond. Bishop, CA
I hear the pond(s) are not typically filled with water this time of year. Lucky for us, I guess the surplus of snowmelt allowed for them to fill the ponds early.
A southbound oil train passes one of the few remaining New York Central searchlight signals on CSX's River Line along the Hudson.
CP 421 hauls past CTC Howland at Mile 3.4 of the CP North Toronto sub. Howland had switches up until 2016 when a collision and derailment between CP 118 and CP 235 took out one of the crossovers. CP then moved the other one over to Osler, where the Mactier sub splits off of the North Toronto, and CP 421s route towards Winnipeg. The engines included CP 8147, CP 8910, CP 8720, and CP 9751, an Ex Unstoppable unit with the striped plow!
The Pinnox ballast trip working from crewe has started doing two trips a day taking used ballast and other materials for recycling
The morning trip now goes to stafford to run round before returning to crewe
Seen here heading to stafford with 56049 powering over the summit of the devation over the WCML
The Sierra Northern Railway plays an integral role in the Yolo County economy, serving industrial parks in both Woodland and West Sacramento, as well as the Port of West Sacramento.
On weekdays, the Sierra Northern makes the 35 mile round trip along the Woodland Branch. Here, SERA 47 drags approximately 10 cars from Woodland into West Sacramento, where they will be interchanged with the Union Pacific and taken to their final destinations.
In West Sacramento, you can find some of the last remaining searchlights in the area. Shoot them while you can, just make sure to keep your head on a swivel.
SERA 47 --- Woodland Local --- West Sacramento, California
jakemiillephotography.com
An eastbound flanger makes an early morning patrol of the Donner Pass Route on a perfectly clear January day. The UP 572 is seen ducking under the Norden searchlight signal bridge as it races towards Truckee.
I have a new story on my website which highlights the Norden searchlight signals. Checkout the full story, “Norden Searchlights: The Last Stand”:
jakemiillephotography.com/2022/11/19/norden-searchlights-...
UP 572 — WTKTKF 05 — Norden, California
January 5th, 2021
jakemiillephotography.com
The rear DPUs on an empty coal train pass the searchlight signals at Monument. These and most of the other remaining searchlights on the Joint Line were replaced a short time later.
A Wabash era Searchlight stands tall, without replacements, just north of Bement, IL as NS 9896 leads a southbound loaded grain train from The Anderson's just west of Champaign.
BNSF 8016 rolls under the searchlight signal bridge at Hoffman just outside the city of St. Paul, MN.
Strobist:
One Alien Bee, just out of frame right (way back deep in the scene) pointed along the tracks @ 1/4 power. Another, with a 30 degree grid, ~ 150' out of frame left getting the signal, nose, and grass @ 1/4 power
Union Pacific SD60M 2403 had a Soo SD60 and a pair of Norfolk Southern EMDs on an eastbound for the Belt approaching the Metra Mars stop on a sunny morning along the Elgin Sub.
Variety in motive power and signals were in full effect at this time.
After meeting eastbound intermodal train B100 here Berkshire and Eastern Railroad train EDMO is pulling through the searchlights off Main 1 onto the single track at CPF415 on the B&E operated Pan Am Southern Freight Mainline, the one time Boston and Maine Fitchburg Division. Just behind me they will cross the Deerfield River and enter the town of Florida before crossing River Road then plunging into 4.75 miles of darkness through the Hoosac Tunnel.
This train originated in Ayer as train SAED and will turn into Norfolk Southern train 11R at Mechanicville for continuation down the old Delaware and Hudson to East Binghamton Yard. Berkshire and Eastern is a Genesee and Wyoming owned company which was created to serve as the neutral third party operator of the former Pan Am Southern property as a condition of the sale of Pan Am Railways to CSX in 2022. The train is led by a rebuilt GE AC44C6M which is a bit unusual as most thru trains feature homely EMD rebuilt SD60Es due to the fact they are equipped with ACSES for operation on the MBTA property east of Westminster to the end of B&E's territory in Ayer. Trailing is BERX C40-8W 7879 in it's Genesee and Wyoming heritage scheme.
Rowe, Massachusetts
August 31, 2025
From digging around in past shots from the Port area, BNSF's Strang- New South transfer splits the SP searchlights at Manchester Jct, coming off the Strang Sub onto the Harrisburg Sub. These searchlights were removed when the Strang Sub east of the junction was double-tracked in 2019.
Houston, TX 4/27/2018
Passing one of the searchlight signals that still govern the diamond with the IAIS Newton Sub at Grinnell is UP train LNM34-30 led by one of the last few SP-painted GP60's on UP's roster. They're en route from Marshalltown to Eddyville on the UP Oskaloosa Sub, former M&STL rails, but unfortunately, the ran as light power the whole way south this day.
Knowing the UP No. 1066 had been the southbound leader for the LNM34, I made time to chase it as I made my way back home from RRHMA's open house at Silvis the day before. As disappointing as it was to see them run light the whole way, especially with such nice weather, it was nice shoot something on this fairly scenic, lightly used line. Plus, who knows how long it'll be before everything gray and scarlett disappears entirely on the UP? 6/30/24.
A pair of Iowa Chicago and Eastern SD40-2s roll a 472 into Bensenville in 2012.
The classic searchlights have been replaced by modern signals and the SD40-2s have been replaced by GEs