View allAll Photos Tagged fp9
Pan Am's OCS, now with four cars, is seen patiently basking in the sun at the Lowell Station in Lowell, Massachusetts, awaiting its passengers to head east. The newest addition to the train, former CSX sleeper "Mississippi", is immediately behind the power, followed by ST 102 "Bluebird", and ST 101, and ST 100. After departing the station, it'll be a leisurely cruise east to Portland, Maine for the train, where they would tie down for the night.
A VIA westbound passenger with FP9 #6541 grabs some late light at a cool 90mph at Saint Germain-de-Grantham, Quebec, just west of Drummondville. I'm not sure which train it is. It might be The Frontenac.
PAR 1 and 2 (ex-CN FP9s) lead Pan Am's OCS just outside of the Wachusett MBTA station on the Fitchburg/Westminster town line. The train is travelling eastbound on Pan Am's District 3 Mainline.
Lots of clouds over the weekend, but we lucked out by going a little out of the way to check out the Keokuk Junction. I had figured the train would be sitting staged for a Monday morning departure. I didn't count on the lighting and rainbow! Totally worth getting home late as Pioneer is being sold so the future of the operations on all the lines might be in question. Amazing to see these F's still running in 2019 on a line they've been on for 10+ years!
05-19-2018
From September of 2011, I chased the KCS business train south out of Kansas City, and found it pulling through this hogback near Amsterdam, MO. This was at MP 65 on the KCS Pittsburg Sub, and the train was the B-KCSH-01, which had previously toured the ex-Gateway Western across Missouri.
VIA FP9 6510 is reflected in the water as it leads train No. 4, the Super Continental, eastbound at Yellowhead, Alberta on August 28, 1986.
TP&W 2070 waits it's call to duty outside of Mapleton, IL on this warm & peaceful August 2019 morning.
Before the 1990 VIA cutbacks, there were four Toronto-Sarnia round trips each day. Here is train #84 approaching Pulham Road, east of Komoka, led by FP9 6512.
Keokuk Junction Railway's famous A-B-A set of FP9's sit in storage at the engine shop in La Harpe, IL. Occupying the same track are a pair of Algoma Central painted FP9's, also in storage.
November 5, 2019.
CP 21B, the RCP, is stopped at Banff Station and preparing to run around their train for the trip back to Calgary. June 2, 2022.
A few clouds roll in on an otherwise sunny Monday, June 6, 2022 morning as the Kansas City Southern business special cruises past a group of grain bins in the commmunity of Stotesbury, MO. Having left Kansas City around two hours prior, this particular business train included five Canadian Pacific cars on the rear. The train would make a stop in Pittsburg, KS for a midday meeting of executives before continuting to Heavener, OK to stop for the night.
One of my biggest regrets was never shooting the Algoma Central F units on their home road. That's not quite true, I was on assignment for WC in the Soo when single units made their debut on local trains the first couple of days they were in service in 1995. I was excited at the time thinking "Man this is going to be great when a whole bunch of these things are on both passenger trains!" I had until July 2001 to get them, but I never got back after 1995. I don't know why but it could be I was a stay at home dad beginning in 1997.
However I made up for it a little bit when WC brought the Fs into the US for some excursions. I made a point of getting those and luckily had good weather and good results. On May 6-7 2000, WC ran a trip from Green Bay to Ishpeming, with a side trip to Nestoria up the former C&NW ore lines and the ex-DSS&A. They used an A-B-A set of ACR F's, seen here meeting a southbound ore train at Little Lake. So I redeemed myself - a little. Lead unit 1756 is at a museum in British Columbia today.
On a bright 19 March 1989, VIA FP9 No. 6512 brings train 72, the eastbound Pt. Pelee into Toronto, just minutes from Union Station as it cruises along the Gardiner Expressway.
VIA Rail No. 2, the Canadian, is approaching the outskirts of Thunder Bay Ont. on July 15, 1984. The train will be moved to the CN route and skip Thunder Bay in January 1990.
On one of its first trips, Algoma Central FP9 1751 leads Algoma Central train 1 at Heyden, Ontario on July 21, 1995. Originally a CN and VIA unit, it would travel to the Gettysburg Railroad in Pennsylvania, then the Peoria & Western in Illinois. It then was sold to locomotive dealer BUGX who moved it to California in 2022. The last I could find out about was moving east on a BNSF train in early 2024. Anyone know where it ended up?
It is essentially dark in Lobdell, Louisiana, but for me that is a perfect photographic challenge. The northbound KCS Business train is stepping down the Huey P Long bridge in Lobdell towards a crew change at the pass a few miles up. Almost the entire day the shiny passenger train has created a near identical run to the fabled Kansas City Southern's "Southern Belle" passenger train of old. The FP9's and matching trainset ran into and out of New Orleans within about 20 minutes of the original "Belle". Here at Lobdell they were only a few minutes off of the northbound timetable schedule. Getting to recreate the run of KCS' crack passenger train in 2022 was, almost certainly, my favorite chase of the year, and sharing it with my new and old friends was even better! There was a pleasing circularity knowing, that if you placed me 55 years in the past, I would be seeing an on time "Belle" passing this same location, at the same time, and looking almost identical. History repeats itself, for at least one day... Perhaps I am learning something valuable lately. Don't rush yourself to upload photos... I posted a decent, but hastily edited, version of this shot many months ago now. I wish I hadn't pulled the trigger quite so soon on it. This is a slightly wider, color corrected, and, in my opinion, much better edit of the prior photograph. I selected an entirely different frame from the first look, and spent about two and a half hours attempting to get the results I can say I am quite happy with. Especially considering that this may have truly been a once in a lifetime opportunity...
Thank you for reading and viewing!
Leaving the Exhibition Tracks at Kansas City's Union Station as they enter Main Track 4 of the KCT East-West Corridor at Penn Ave. is CP train 41B with the two FP9's and a portion of the business train consist. They've been on display here at KCUS for a couple days, and they're heading for the Joint Agency KCS-CP Knoche Yard.
CP's business train arrived into Kansas City a few days ago at the end of inspection trip, and it remained here for some meetings and some promotional photos, as well as being on display with a portion of the consist at Union Station. At Knoche, they'll retrieve the FP9B and the rest of the passenger equipment and return north to Canada. 10/26/22.
Pan Am Railways OCS approaches Waste Water Road in Erving, MA with PAR 1 & 2 leading eastbound on the D3 Mainline.
Action at Brockville on 2 May 1982, with plenty of Friday F-units: FP9 No. 6542 pulls out of the station with train 54, bound for Ottawa up the CPR branch to Smith's Falls, while an FP4 A-B combination waits on the main with the transcontinental Canadian. Can't go wrong either way...
It was a 600-mile day to chase CP's business train on the Detroit Lakes Sub, but yielded only two sunny shots. This is one as the train heads east (directionally south) where we were able to catch a sucker hole at Bejou.
VIA train 56, the eastbound Bonaventure, rolls into Brockville behind FP9 No. 6523 in the evening hours of 11 June 1983. In a little over a week it will be the first day of summer and the longest day of the year for sunlight, and already our intrepid group of railfan photographers are taking full advantage of the long days. The change of season will also mark my graduation from high school and a taste of freedom.
(SEE & HEAR)---AC, Algoma Central FP9 #1755, leads four other F's on a northbound fall color Agawa Canyon Tour train out of the Sault, at mp22, about a mile from Searchmont, Ontario. September 23, 1997. Jack D Kuiphoff photo & video
You can see this scene live in my Youtube clip.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UaKWGQJUYw&t=8s
fb, 8/16/2020
The F's are really pounding it on the uphill approach to the first of the wooded grade crossings, the private crossing off of Reed City Road.
Running as CPKC Train D40B-13 from Kansas City Missouri back to Shreveport Louisiana, KCS 1 and the rest of the Kansas City Southern Business train head south on the CPKC's Heavener Subdivision passing over Butler Creek in Sulphur Springs Arkansas.
Blasting south by CP South IFG in Belton, MO is KCS train BKCSH-14 with the FP9 A-B-A set leading the way en route from Kansas City, MO to Shreveport, LA. 11/14/16.
The KCS Business train, running as CPKC train D40B-13, is southbound near Gentry Arkansas. The train is making its return trip to Shreveport Louisiana after spending a couple days in Kansas City chauffeuring CPKC guests around for different events.
Kansas City Southern's Business train is southbound on the former KCS now CPKC's Pittsburg Subdivision passing through an S-Curve just south of Richards Missouri. The train running under CPKC Symbol D40B-13 and led by KCS 1, an EMD FP9, is heading back home to Shreveport Louisiana after spending the last few days in Kansas City Missouri doing corporate events in the area.
After finding this train in Cleveland Missouri right as the sun was raising above the horizon and shooting it for the first time just south of Amsterdam Missouri the real chase began. Trying to get ahead of this train on unfamiliar territory was quite the challenge, but nothing the Nomad couldn't handle. After getting ahead of the train somewhere around Hume MO we felt we had some time to do some quick drive by scouting of some potential shots, but all were still to shadowed this early in the morning. But as we rolled through just south of Richards MO we came across a nicely lit slight S-Curve and decided this would be the best shot for the time being, since we knew the train would be showing up momentarily. About 30 seconds after the vehicle was put in park this shot was taken, then the chase continued south for another 8 hours through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
After the Shebrooke roadmaster was let off and the Montreal roadmaster got on at the Farnham station, CP 41B is on its way to Montreal. Power is CP 1401, CP 7019 & CP 1900.
This version of the RCP was a Banff turn dinner train. No word on who was onboard, but shooting the train at Banff was an easy choice. A classic location for a classic train.
With the sale of Pan Am Railways to CSX and the Berkshire Eastern Railroad, the classy blue dipped business train and EMD FP9's have been removed from the property; destination unknown (to me at least). Thankfully, I was able to catch them a handful of times during their existence.
Here, PAR #1, PAR #2, and a pair of business cars roll out of the East Deerfield yard on a cloudy fall morning. White flags waving in the wind, the train passes under the "railfan bridge" that provides entrance to the yard. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago the bridge was replaced with a higher, newer, bridge and a tall fence was added. You can still shoot through it, but with the height of the new bridge and overhead power lines, photo angles like this are now pretty much impossible.
Here's another angle of the train backing into the yard earlier that morning:
September 2015
East Deerfield, MA.
KJRY 1750, a B-unit and a GP20 lead a freight west across the Illinois River in Peoria, IL. This is likely the last time the Fs will cross this bridge before being stored.
Two additional former Algoma Central FP9's, PREX 1751 and 1754, sit in storage at Keokuk Junction's shop in LaHarpe, IL along with other various relics.
August 25, 2019.
Former VIA Rail FP9ARM with the road number 6510. Sitting on static display at Kam Park.
Thunder Bay, Ontario
Panasonic Lumix G 14mm f2.5
Hoya R72 Filter
Olympus OM-D E-M5
NS train 088, the KCS OCS, passes under the Southern era signal bridge at Edwardsville as they head for Atlanta. The KCS OCS was making a rare appearance off of its home rails since KCS executives wanted to inspect the AGS South & Alabama East Districts since several of their trains run on them, going to & from Atlanta. 8-22-19
KCS's FP9 A-B-A set along with the business train is parked on KCT Track 281 along the KCT East-West Corridor outside of KC Union Station on a very cold afternoon. As it is every year, KC Union Station is hosting KCS's Holiday Express, and of course, KCS's business train is in town as well. 12/18/16.
PAR 1 (ex-CN FP9) leads the Ringling Brothers, Barnum, and Bailey Circus Train through West Boylston, MA on it's journey to Manchester, NH. This run would be one of the final Ringling Bros. circus trains as the circus ceased to exist after May 21, 2017.
WC train SOGBA is in the siding at Rudyard for a meet and power swap with GBSOA on July 28, 1998. Power short at Steelton the WC has ran SOGBA to Rudyard with 1751, 1750, 1754 and 1752. The units will cut off there train here and pull over the west switch, then back east to get in the clear on the main while the power off GBSOA which is west of the H-40 crossing will cut off and come into town and proceed into the siding and tie onto to SOGBA. At that point the crews will swap there stuff over and then the GBSOA crew will get on the F's and back to there train then head for Steelton. Nothing like a four pack of FP's in freight service.
CP 41B is not too far from Farnham as it passes the station sign for Brookport with CP 1401, CP 7019 & CP 1900 for power.
The Ontario Southland Railway's Woodstock Job is on the approach to Carew Diamond and the interchange at Woodstock with the CP.
Pulling todays train is OSR 6508 and OSR 1594, both wearing the attractive paint scheme of their owner.
It had been quite some time since I had shot the OSR but with a good friend in town, this was the perfect excuse.
Happy F-unit Friday!
Many years ago, in the early 80s, a railfan friend asked me a rhetorical question "So what do you think about the VIA paint scheme?" and before I could answer he stated "It's nice, but..." summing up the feelings of many.
Still, a vintage cab unit in blocky yellow and blue peeling paint in full sun is still a nice sight to behold, regardless of when you view it. Such is the case with ex-CN FP9 No. 6504, speeding into Brockville with Toronto-bound train 55, the Bonaventure, late in the afternoon of 4 June 1985.
Back when the Pioneer Lines had literally tracks of exotic motive power, we see this interesting line up in LaHarpe, IL. Pictured are GP10 471, a former CN SW1200RS lettered for Savage, two former Santa Fe GP20's, and one of Keokuk Junction's famous FP9's. Under new ownership, Pioneer Lines has been tasked to clean house and some of these relics are now history.
Photo by John Eagan