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With the Phase II Anniverary P42DC second out, Amtrak Train No. 3, the westbound "Southwest Chief", arrives 22 minutes late on Track 30 at KC's Union Station en route from Chicago to LA. On the left, the KCS FP9 A-B-A set is tied down on Track 280 along the KCT East-West Corridor with the KCS "Southern Belle" business train, which brought the 2019 KCS Holiday Express to KC's Union Station. 12/20/19.
In 2014 the North Carolina Transportation Museum held their biggest party ever and in my humble opinion the single greatest railfan event I've ever attended before or since. Following up on their wildly successful heritage unit family portrait event for Norfolk Southern's 30th anniversary they planned something even bigger.
Gathering 26 surviving freight and passenger diesels from the classic first generation era, they all came together for three days of festivities centered around the old Southern Railway turntable. New England was well represented and in this frame I captured three of the visitors that spent decades polishing the rails of my homeland.
Front and center on the turntable representing the second generation of American streamlined passenger power is Amtrak 406. The EMD F40PHR was blt. Jul. 1988 and converted into an NPCU in 2011. One of the last of her kind in revenue service at Amtrak she was part of order number 877008, the final 10 of the model acquired by Amtrak. After the fledgling government road's first new power, the six axle SDP40Fs failed to meet expectations, these four axle successors were wildly successful and defined the railroad for decades from coast to coast. 406 was no stranger to the Northeast Corridor hustling back and forth between Boston and New Haven leading Amfleets at 100 mph before the catenary went live in 2000.
She was repainted in Phase III heritage colors as part of Amtrak's 40th anniversary where she traveled around with a special train that told the story of Amtrak's history which also was in attendance at this event.
To her left and sent by the Railroad Museum of New England in Thomaston, CT is New Haven FL9 2019 that received a complete restoration and paint job prior to this event. Built by EMD in Oct.1960 as NH 2049 the dual mode 5 axle unit unique to the New Haven spent her whole life hauling passengers on the rails for which she was built passing from the NH, to PC, CR and then Metro North before being sold to the state of Connecticut. One of 10 such ConnDOT units she was rebuilt by Chrome Locomotive in 1985 and returned to her original McGinnis era New Haven livery. Retired around 2002 I believe she still operates in CT on the Naugatuck Railroad's excursion trains on an ex NH branch to Torrington.
And of course at right is PAR1 a unit that needs no introduction to New Englanders. The FP9 was built in 1954 by GMDD as Canadian National 6505. She passed from CN to VIA Rail in 1978 before being picked up by the Conway Scenic in 1995 when they expanded into Crawford Notch. After 15 years spent hauling tourists in the White Mountains 6505 would become PAR 1 when she and sister 6516 were traded to Pan Am Railways in March 2010 for GP38 252 and GP35 216. Alas, in 2022 she left New England for an uncertain fate in Waycross, Georgia now the property of CSXT.
If you want to learn more about this railfan event of the century in case you weren't there this gentleman has a fabulous overview on his site: www.wvncrails.org/streamliners-at-spencer.html
Spencer, North Carolina
Friday May 30, 2014
Pan Am ran their office car train from North Adams to Worcester. The usual FP9 PAR 1 leads the train east as they pass through Wendell, MA. Photo taken August 16, 2018
After appearing in Laredo for the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Ottensmeyer Bridge (the new international bridge over the Rio Grande into Mexico), KCS 1 and the Southern Belle business train are now hightailing it eastward. The train is headed to Shreveport this evening to pick up supplies, then will make a quick turn-around and roll through the night down to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.
Here, the former KCS F9 trio rolls down Winter St in Houston's First Ward. This is on UP's Houston Sub, part of the 120 or so miles of trackage rights CPKC trains use between Rosenberg and Beaumont, TX. At Beaumont, the biz train will return to CPKC rails and head north for Shreveport.
D 41B 07 (Business Train- Laredo, TX to New Orleans, LA)
KCS FP9A #1
KCS F9B #3
KCS FP9A #2
Houston, TX
February 7th, 2025
The KCS F-units sit in Godfrey, IL with the 2018 Holiday Express. Hopefully it's not another 7 years before this train returns to this area.
The Pan Am OCS is seen passing thru the town of Hoosick Falls on the trip towards Mechanicville..
PAR OCS
PAR FP9-A #1
PAR FP9-A #2
After spending a couple months down south deep within former KCS territory, the FP9 A-B-A set with the Royal Canadian Pacific business train returns north for Calgary, AB, operating as CPKC train 41B.
Today's run is from Heavener, OK to Knoche Yard in Kansas City, MO, and right now, the train is on the former KCS Pittsburg Sub cruising north on the steel viaduct above 63rd St. Tomorrow, they'll leave KC for Nahant, IA on the former MILW. These trips north are occupied, and thankfully, they're making much better time than they did going south two months ago. 11/11/25.
Former VIA Rail FP9ARM with the road number 6510. Sitting on static display at Kam Park in Thunder Bay.
Thunder Bay, Ontario
LG Velvet
(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 7/23/2021
May 24 was the opening day of the 2025 season on Iowa's Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad. The line steamed up its Chinese 2-8-2, JS8419, to pull the regular excursion trips from Boone to Frasier and return, while FP9 6540 was tapped to pull the Picnic Train. Also in operation was Charles City Western interurban combine 50, which was running on the East End Traction line into downtown.
Dropping downhill just south of Searchmont is train 3 with AC 1753 and 1750 heading for the canyon on July 5, 1997. The siding here was call Goulais if I remember right. I don't think it was used in WC days and was removed fairly soon after this shot, at least the switches were pulled.
Keokuk Junction's fine looking FP9's roll into Bushnell Illinois over a right of way that looks more like a Milwaukee Road secondary line back in the seventy's. This railway is a must see for anyone wishing to get the feel of how things used to be. The chase is painfully easy to do,with the average track speed of 10mph. Lets go !!
Besides being home base for the AC FP7/FP9/F9B fleet the former ACR shop at Steelton in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario became a bit of a truck repair location in WC days. There even was a spare set of SDL39 trucks always on hand as they were very common to the area. I wandered into the shop and took this view of 6519 awaiting new shoes on the evening of July 29, 1995. Hand held Kodachrome with just available light. No idea how I got a usable image but here it is.
CP's business car special crosses a causeway south of Detroit Lakes. Many foamers were gathered here to catch the F's heading for Glenwood and ultimately St. Paul.
Former VIA Rail FP9ARM with the road number 6510. Sitting on static display at Kam Park in Thunder Bay.
Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Fujifilm Super G Plus 100 (expired in 1998, shot at 50EI)
Nikon F90X
Kiron 28mm MC F2.8
Epson V370
KCS 1 an EMD FP9 is leading the Kansas City Southern Business train south through Decatur Arkansas passing a KCS EMD F7 on static display near the depot. The train is on the rails of CPKC's Heavener Subdivision on a run from Kansas City Missouri back home to Shreveport Louisiana.
As the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus came to a close, the railroads that would move their train, were putting some interesting motive power on the train. On April 17, 2017, the train was being moved from Worcester, MA to Manchester, NH. P&W handled the train for about 3 miles from Worcester yard up to Barbers with a pair of Dash 7's. Pan Am took over the train at Barbers and ran it up to Manchester with both Pan Am's FP9's and 3 more EMD's providing power. Here we see the P&W leg of the train heading north through Worcester. The leader, 2201, was retired about a month later. The trailing unit 2216 was relocated by G&W out to the Ohio Central Railroad.
Two new CN SD50Fs meet VIA FP9 6510 on the eastbound Super Continental at Edson, Alberta on Aug. 28, 1986.
The Royal Canadian Pacific navigates the Thompson Canyon as it travels east on a lovely summer afternoon.
VIA Train 73, the Point Pelee, rips west through Prairie Siding, Ontario on Oct. 3, 1985. The FP9 was going so fast I got speed blur even at 1/500 of a second.
Back in 2019, the RCP heads west through the woods on the Paynesville Sub on a crisp autumn morning. I wasn't a fan of this photo back then, when I didn't know what I was doing shooting with a DSLR, but now it's grown on me. I don't know who that woman is next to the train, or how she even got to that spot, odd.
Pan American Railways 1954 built EMD (Electro-Motive Diesel) FP9 PAR 1 & 2 at South Portland Maine, originally built for Canadian National and used for business and occasional excursions.
Canadian Pacific Railway train 41B-15 heads back to Calgary, Alberta after a business trip on the former Milwaukee Road between Kansas City and St. Paul. No. 4106 was replaced by SD70ACu No. 7015 when it developed problems and needed wheel work in St. Paul on the way south.
Kansas City Southern Business Train is deadheading Southbound from Kansas City back to Shreveport Louisiana passing through Curranville just south of Mulberry Kansas. The train running as CPKC D40B-13 is lead by KCS 1 an EMD FP9 and has the train well in hand as it nears the end of its southbound run on the Pittsburg Subdivision. Once in Pittsburg Missouri a new crew will take the train down the Heavener Subdivision toward Heavener Oklahoma.
Cruising past the Chicago & Alton Depot along the KCS Mexico Sub in Higginsville, MO is KCS's FP9 A-B-A set on KCS train B-KCES-25 heading to East St. Louis, IL for the Verizon Indycar Series Bommarito 500 at the Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, IL. 8/25/17.
The distinct sound of FP9's (and a GP38) can be heard echoing throughout Kicking Horse Pass before CP #4107 pops its nose out of the trees and crosses the Kicking Horse River with the beautiful Royal Canadian Pacific.
VIA/CNR eastbound #74 to Toronto awaits departure from "Walkerville" station behind two FP9 (6529-6520.) Detroit's "Renaissance Center" is barely visible in the distance through the muggy warmth of early Autumn.
A week and a half after the CP Holiday Express came to KC, the KCS Holiday Express came into town, towed in by the railroad's beautiful FP9s and business train. I sure was hoping to shoot the KCS 1 alongside a westbound freight train, but the KCT didn't quite make that happen while I still had sunlight. Regardless, this shot of the train parked just north of the KCT mainline in golden afternoon sunlight was a nice consolation prize.
Canadian Pacific's business train waits out the eastbound traffic at Tamarack before continuing westward to Portage and beyond. The classy FP9's sure sounded great in the still summer night.
Purchased from Via Rail in 1995, this A-B-A set of former CN FP9's have spent longer under KCS ownership than either of its former Canadian operators. They've been in business train service for the last 30 years and have been well taken care of at the former KCS shops in Shreveport.
Here KCS 1, 2, & 3 sit with the 2024 Holiday Express in Port Arthur, the Gulf Coast Port that Arthur Stillwell founded as the end of his original dream for what became Kansas City Southern. Although some of the KCS passenger cars have been repainted into CP Tuscan Red, many railcars and the F Units have maintained their KCS paint. It seems for the time being that they'll keep their sharp paint scheme as they continue to operate business trains on the former KCS system.
CPKC Holiday Express
KCS FP9A #1 "Michael R Haverty"
KCS F9B #3 "Pittsburg"
KCS FP9A #2 "Shreveport"
Port Arthur, TX
December 12th, 2024
Yes, it's a re-tread, but as this must be the all time winning passenger train leading consist - in my experience - I figured it was worth the Adobe Lightroom revival and subsequent re-posting. Yet another rainy afternoon in the late Spring in the Maritimes...no surprise there. But during one of my many layovers on the way to and from Newfoundland, the CNR had a bit of a surprise on the head end of Montreal-Halifax #14, the "Ocean Limited." The 14 cars of the train were headed by two C630M's, FP9, Fb, RS18 (2000-2011-6528-6622-3119.) I'm guessing the two MLW "Big Kahuna" units (not CN's name, but from a WC conductor who used that for the SD45's) have been either borrowed to make up for a unit that's "not loading", or maybe being ferried to Halifax for a westbound. I could take a few raindrops for this one!
Snowplows were also far from uncommon on the WC but the power on this one was. The ACRI F's pulled a lot of freight along with there passenger duties but seldom lead freights. This was the one and only time I ever was aware of a set of the on a snowplow south of the border. On January 14, 1998 1750 and 1755 push the Gladstone based plow east near Cordell, MI.
No matter the situation, KCS' "Southern Belle" is a GREAT looking train. Here, after having let its dignitaries detrain at Knoche Yard and spinning itself at SW Jct., the train is seen back into the yard ahead of its southbound trek.
Fall was the best time to shoot the ACR/WC canyon trains as the trees added to the show and the trains grew to a huge size. It was also the hardest time to shot them due to the shortening amount of daylight and the tendency towards more cloudy days or worse yet early morning fog. that usually would lift after the northbound had cleared Searchmont and wandered off into a highly inaccessible area. September 13, 1997 was such a foggy day and no shots were possible until number 3 broke into the sun near Bellevue. 1755, 1754 and 1750 have 15 cars in tow headed for Canyon. This was just at the start of the fall color season so the train still is somewhat short. In another few days as tour groups started arriving it would grow to a 5 unit 25-30 car monster.
The day after shooting the Weed Sprayer with CMQ 9017, the Royal Canadian Pacific made an appearance on the Laggan Subdivision. We began our chase at Bearspaw on the western edge of Calgary. June 3, 2022.
Reading 902 and 903 are two very nicely preserved examples of EMD FP7As. A few feet longer than a standard F7, the extra length was used to house a steam generator for passenger service. While the FP7 and later FP9 found a lot of favor in Canada, they were not very common in the US, with most RRs relying on E units for passenger trains. These 2 are now privately owned and are currently stored/displayed at Steamtown in Scranton, PA.
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The KJRR can finally ease up a bit as it enters the first town west of Mapleton, the thriving metropolis of Glasford (pop. 1,000 -- a metropolis by Mapleton's standards, anyway). Here the route finally tops the hill and begins a slow decent to the aptly-named Breeds, the next town west.
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
Wisconsin Central brought down an A-B set of F-units into Chicago for a five-car passenger train that ran over Labor Day weekend from 1999. Here they are just out of Schiller Park yard passing through Des Plaines, IL.
Just a random photo from one of my trips home back when I was still living in Alaska that I captured with my first digital SLR. Springfield Terminal high hood GP35 216 (blt. Mar. 1965 as NW 1328) leads the vintage Boston and Maine rail train into Pan Am's (the railroad had been officially been rebranded from Guilford Transportation to Pan Am a couple years prior) Lawrence Yard approaching the Andover St. crossing.
A couple years later she would be traded to the Conway Scenic along with GP38 252 in exchange for the famous FP9 duo that would become Pan Am's OCS power.
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Thursday September 18, 2008