Pickens' Railroad Belton job is eastbound just outside of Anderson as they roll along over the big Broadway Creek bridge. The two U18B's are having no issues handling the light 8 car train from Anderson this AM. While this branch is indeed former Southern, the U18B's would be right at home. The Seaboard system had track rights to Belton over the NS Honea Path Line. Lots of interesting railroad history is located in this small little area of South Carolina. I'll go more into depth soon.

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224b 5 - Z62_0601 - lr-ps-wm

Nockberge Kärnten_03.09.2024

NS Appalachia District local U41has a healthy cut of Eastman Chemical coal loads from Dixiana mine on the drawbars as they wrap around the corner into Weber City, VA, approaching Yuma yard on the former Southern Railroad. Eventually they will terminate at Frisco Yard in Tennessee, a few miles ahead. Sometime overnight the loads will be delivered to Eastman Chemical in Kingsport, TN. U41's run coincided nicely for some beautiful light as the train approached Yuma/Fricsco on the former Southern. 41's crew would grab a similar cut of empty Eastman's for the run back to Andover yard that evening/night.

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CSX G933-24 has a roll on it through the small Alabama community of Banks late one spring evening. A straight frame SD40-2 leader was added in Montgomery as a "kicker", and the G933 crew had it on the front of two trip optimizer equipped GE's. We followed this train quite easily up the former Atlantic Coast Line Dothan Subdivision from Dillard to Snowdoun as the sun sank lower and lower. Surprises of this variety don't happen often, if at all, on CSX anymore. The 52 year old SD40 leader was a welcome chase up a line I've never documented myself. The ACL Dothan sub is quite scenic for a backdoor mainline, and was a fun chase this afternoon.

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The daily Illinois Central Memphis, Tn, to Geismar, LA, scheduled freight is seen rippng south through Hazelehurst, MS, on their way south towards the Louisiana border. It's 2024, but in this image there's little evidence to suggest that the Illinois Central has been merged into the Canadian National for almost a quarter of a century. In the late 90's this train would have looked almost the same as it does this April day in 2024. The Illinois Central SD70's on the front have yet to be painted by owner CN, and the Memphis to Geismar train was running an identical 7x a week schedule back in the mid 90s. The only differences between past and present are on paper with today's train. Canadian National symbols this train A420 from Memphis south while the IC had this schedule in their system as MG-5. Whether in 1990 or 2024 this train is always high priority. It carries mostly tanks of either empty or loaded chemicals for the various plants located along the Mississippi River in south Louisiana. This particular run of 420 was over 500 axles and had the EMD 710 prime movers in 1011 and 1001 howling at every little hill they encountered on their way south. With over 100 cars for Destrehan, LA, on the headpin, and a balance of 45 or so left for Geismar the crew of this train was in for a long night of work south. Many days the 420 will run out of time before the crew can reach Geismar out of Jackson with the workload they get out of town. Getting this train was a total surprise, and I was glad for it.

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CSX time freight M653 has just exited the Nolichucky Gorge into Poplar, NC, on a cloudy spring morning. The greens of spring are less than a week old at this point. M653 is running through some of the most pristine mountain railroading scenes in the east. The Blue Ridge Subdivision of the former Clinchfield Railroad will take this train south along the Toe River to Altapass where the train will descend the Blue Ridge Escarpment, via the Clinchfield Loops, towards an eventual crew swap at Bostic, NC. The rural scenes between Poplar and Marion are some of the best around, and are always a favorite to visit.

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Georgia Central triple nickel B32-8 leads two sister motors westbound through Tarrytown, Georgia, with GC L782 in tow. Storms the prior week had severely wrecked the GC's normal schedule through the area putting this train in nice timing for afternoon light west of Vidalia. This train would run out of time at dark in Dublin, and be tied down for a Saturday morning extra crew to drag the long freight back to Macon the following morning. While not the U23B's of years past it is refreshing to see a solid fleet of older General Electric locomotives holding down assignments on the former Macon Dublin and Savannah Railroad through Central Georgia.

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Always love photographing these!

I am really tired of being removed from groups on Flickr. I swear some of the people who run the groups on Flickr are gate keeping jerks.

It's exactly sunset on a blustery day in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In the last light of day a BNSF Heritage One Paint CW44-9 leads a long intermodal train from Midway yard west of town down the Mississippi River at CP Hoffman. This view is courtesy of Mounds Park in east Saint Paul, and is known as "Dayton's Bluff". This evening the railroad was busy with the trains of UP, CPKC, and this final BNSF move at sunset. The solo H1 was DPU'd to another H1 about 2/3rds of the way back in the train. A great leader by BN standards against the only decent light seen all afternoon...

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CSX priority freight train M606 is seen here in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, rolling north, on a beautiful winter evening. Directly backlit conditions are challenging to shoot in, but a fun challenge nonetheless. The golden hour sun peaks out from behind the oak, and bathes the scene in pleasant light. Even in the challenging conditions I can think of worse places to shoot in wintertime. 55 and sunny isn't a bad January day...

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Salt Spring Island, BC.

Zoomed out and shows more of the surroundings

flic.kr/p/2nYkR4v

New Orleans RTA 900 is outbound at Loyola University and Audubon park in New Orleans, LA. A surprise clearing of the clouds allows for some wonderful low afternoon sun to illuminate the flanks of 900, and the Holy Name of Jesus Church behind. A pleasant scene all around that, thankfully, wasn't blocked by cars for once. More to come soon!

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Former CNW 8501, a C40-8 built in June of 1989, hustles an empty ore train north through the tiny hamlet of Wales, Minnesota. A foggy morning sets the mood nicely against the Tamarack forests that are in full fall colors. The 3 pack of C40-8's are on a quick hustle north to meet a hot southbound load running out of time to make Two Harbors to the south. Wales is not much more than the connection for the Canadian National to the remote Northshore Mining Railroad via the Wales spur to Norshore Junction a few miles to the north. The remote Iron Range subdivision runs largely through the vast Minnesota Northwoods until reaching the ore mining country around Hoyt Lakes many miles to the north.

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Two late nineties leaders meet, in the late blue hour, at the Castleberry siding, on the CSX Mobile and Montgomery subdivision. The conductor of the stopped grainer gives a wave to the engineer of the speeding mixed freight cruising past at 50mph on the main. He won't be down long... It's cold out, and darkness will shortly take over. After the short meet is completed the trains will continue off into the night towards their respective destinations. For the crew of the 4561 north this is only the first of 4 trains they'll see before reaching their home terminal of Montgomery at 2am after some ten hours on duty...

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Three Georgia Central B32-8's lead 151 cars of Macon bound freight business through Montrose, Georgia. Montrose looks much the same as it did years ago, with many buildings sitting vacant, and unchanged with time. The Georgia Central polishes the rails of the former Macon Dublin and Savannah Railroad twice daily on weekdays moving freight across the state of Georgia to Savannah.

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This is pretty much SOOC!! I used a Nikon 58mm + a extension tube on a Nikon Z6II. The wind was blowing which made it impossible for anything to be sharp at this magnification, but after I sat looking at the images I decided that I really liked the "accidental artistic creativeness" to them. Make lemonade out of lemons!!

Another one of the venerable Saint Charles Streetcars is paused at the intersection of Saint Charles and Napoleon Ave with a few late night stragglers tagging along for a ride home. Traffic whizzes by, paying no attention to car 953 stopped in the median. Superior Seafood discharges some of the last patrons for the evening, and the Garden District slowly falls asleep. The blitzkrieg of outbound cars will soon dwindle to the overnight schedule of just 3 per hour. Car 953 will continue on, however, and continue making trips overnight before the morning rush brings the fleet of century-old 900s out for a new day.

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West Madison Street. West Garfield Park Neighborhood. Chicago, Illinois.

Of course I chose a torn blossom!

At Shaughnessy Park, Vancouver BC

At Harrison Hot Springs, BC.

New Year's fireworks, 1st January 2023

It's shortly after 9pm in the Carrolton Carbarn, and the fleet of New Orleans RTA Perley Thomas streetcars have come in for the night. The century old streetcars have just completed another day of service to the city, and will be prepared for the following days runs overnight. A few cars remain out on the night owl runs but the majority of the fleet is now at home base. The spotless Carrolton Carbarn on the west side of the city takes great care of these streetcars as they roll out mile after mile along the Saint Charles Line.

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Business Train in the Louisiana Swamplands.

KCS Executive Business train P-BRNO, with the classic ABA set of EMD F9 locomotives up front, flies south through the rural Louisiana swampland. This particular run of the business train was fully loaded with guests getting a test run of the KCS line between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The Kansas City Southern line from Baton Rouge south cuts straight through a swamp on the way south to the massive refineries that line the northern shore of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and Nola. At Reserve, a few miles up the line, the train will re-enter the industrial center of the southeast along the Mississippi. For now, however, it is cutting straight through rural swampland with only a scant few grade crossings. The classic F's on the KCS business train are surely some of the finest engines on the rails these days. A classic throwback to the era of streamlined passenger trains of the 1940s and 50s.

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DSC_6920

Pickens Railroad Anderson Job is seen leaving Belton, SC, headed back towards their terminus in Gluck. Carloads this day were so heavy that two jobs needed to run out to handle tonnage. On the rear end of this 40+ car return train the Belton Job is helping get the big train back to town after they ran to Honea Path. With the rainy conditions the U18B's were having wheelslip issues getting the train up to speed out of town. Blue Ridge Avenue leaving town made for a nice photo location on what was an otherwise dreary day to shoot Pickens for the first time. More to come from Pickens soon!

There's a whole lotta history, and a whole lotta green in this classic New Orleans scene. It's a perfect evening as car 947 makes another outbound run towards the Canal Street loop in downtown. If you go back 100 years you'd see this car doing the same thing, at the same place, at the same time. The New Orleans Perley Thomas Streetcars are a testament to the power of preservation. Seeing these 100 year old streetcars in daily service in 2023 is nothing short of a miracle. The neutral ground these cars run on is a preservation miracle as well, as the Saint Charles line is the oldest operating streetcar trackage in the world. It all started here nearly 200 years ago...

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Hello Boys!

An outbound Saint Charles Car disappears into the fog along Carrolton Avenue at Midnight in New Orleans. I was needing to get home at this point, but the foggy conditions were too good to pass up. Using nothing but available light we are able to capture the feel of the city at night. It's a great time.

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In a scene repeatable for over a century now, Saint Charles Car 969 rolls into the setting sun. The outbound car is just another in the line of 100 year old Perely Thomas built streetcars making countless numbers of roundtrips into New Orleans. Some real history is found along the neutral ground of Saint Charles Avenue.

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around Harrison Lake, Harrison Hot Springs, BC.

This branch of blooming small flowers looks like a happy person showing a welcoming gesture...