Railfanning Western Pennsylvania
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Our 2020's summer/autumn railfanning photo tours available for booking now.
You can book to us:
- Private tour
- Small-group tour (3-5p)
- Join group tours
Please join our fantastic photo tours and welcome to the Trans-Mongolian diesel railway!
MONRAILPIC TOURS
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Gary Railway SW1200 #318 pulls a cut of torpedo cars out of 1BOP at U.S. Steel Gary Works a few weeks ago. This was the first test flight of my new DJI Mini 3, and I figured what better way to test it then flying over a heavily secured steel mill.
This scene sums up Ontario railfanning pretty much. CP, searchlights, intact codeline, and a nice wooden bridge all right off of the 401!
Train: CP 234 with CP 7006 (SD70ACu) and CP 7023 (SD70ACu).
CP Galt Subdivision
Milton, ON
Mit einem lautem Wummern verließen 2062 114 und 2062 018 mit einem langen Güterzug den Bahnhof Kastel Stari auf dem Weg Richtung Ogulin.
We'll be ready to organize your tours (railfanning, photography, sightseeing, cultural, etc) after a pandemic period and canceled the border restrictions. An important good thing is for any travelers that Mongolia is one of the NO COVID-19 outbreak countries! You can freely and safely travel in the Mongolian landscape :)
Please join our fantastic photo tours and welcome to the Trans-Mongolian railway!
MONRAILPIC TOURS
Contact us: monrailpic@gmail.com
You don't see many photos from this stretch of the Alaska Railroad since the closest road is about nine miles away. The only way to get here is a paddle up the Placer River in summer or a run over the snow and ice via snow machine or dog team in winter....or a ride on the ARR. While I've never paddled in I have snow machined here and ridden the train a few times. Here is a gorgeous late summer day that I road the Glacier Discovery out to the Spencer Whistle Stop. While hiking around out toward Soencer Glacier I decided to get this view of a southbound cruise train headed to Seward with SD70MAC 4317 leading the train over the Placer River bridge at MP 54 here in the heart of Chugach National Forest. In the background rising steeply from the glacier fed waters is 4400 ft Tincan Peak in the Kenai Mountain Range.
To see this same bridgd a few months earlier in slightly whiter conditions check out this shot: flic.kr/p/2o7CZvR
Spencer, Alaska
Sunday September 6, 2009
You can tell by my photo-stream that I did a lot of railfanning "on the job." Why not, when you've got the best seat in the house and the trains came to you, not to mention getting paid for actually looking at the passing trains. So, here's another example of why I loved working the towers. We're at 49th St in Chicago and Run 219 is hustling down the hill with a train out of Corwith yard. To the left you can see the remnants of the Pennsy Panhandle, out of service, while over to the right is the Trunk's Railport piggyback yard. Llfe was sweet at 49th ST, if you could put up with the aroma from the vinegar/pickle across the tracks.
A Union Pacific MOW train with 61 cars cruises through Larkspur, Colorado heading northbound during the late afternoon.
Not being a morning person, railfanning before work is something I rarely (never) do. But on one of my after work trips I found a spot that I just knew would be excellent in the early summer morning light. The light here is only good in the early early morning (sunrise to 7 AM) so it required taking the 5 AM train to the end of the tarrif zone then a short 15 minute bike trip. I was rewarded with back to back freights before the traffic completely driend up around 7, leaving plenty of time to get to work by 9. May have to wake up earlier more often....
Railfanning the Overland Route is challenging. Defect detectors do not talk unless a defect is found, signals are approach lit, and crews don't call signals unless it's a less-than-clear indication. So many of my photos are of the "drive until you find a train, then turn around and drive back to the first neat spot."
Case in point is this empty coal train. While on U.S. 30 west of Ogallala, we spotted this set of signals and active code line. No signals were lit, so we continue east. Not five miles later, this train soars around a curve on the west side of town. An immediate U-turn in the highway and we hightailed it back to the signals for this shot. All in a day's fanning...
Railfanning during COVID just plain sucked, it was a pain in the ass for everyone. The worst part it seemed for everyone was food and overnight stay for a simple trip. The many trips we did to the CMQ during this time were nothing short of 20-26 hours. The train schedules of number 1 and 2 required you to be trackside along Moosehead Lake at dawn. Usually, an 11:30 PM departure from the house meant the day would end around midnight the next day. We had lots of fun and laughs, and we made the best of it. After following number 1 west to Jackman, then back east with number 2 we enjoyed the final days of Blueberry Barns leading the way. Here number 2 with 9020-9011 and 9017 pass us at the closed for the season, Squaw Village resort in Greenville, ME after "swimming" through hip deep snow getting from the parking lot to the edge of back lot. It was all worth it in the end, making for good stories....let's hope it never again. Greenville, Maine February 17, 2021.
On a beautiful cool Fall morning, NBSR 120 runs downhill arriving into Fredericton Junction, New Brunswick. Fall seemed to be extra nice and colorful this year.
October 9, 2024
Just another wider take on a favorite moment from 2019 that I'm adding to Flickr that was long ago shared on FB. If you missed the original story you can find it with this shot: flic.kr/p/2hTWB9V
Norfolk and Western Class J 4-8-4 611 leads a regularly scheduled excursion west on the Strasburg Railroad main approaching the Black Horse Rd. grade crossing at MP 3.3.
Ronks, Pennsylvania
Sunday September 29, 2019
Wood County, Ohio
On an early slightly foggy morning, autorack train CSX Q241-18 heads out of the Walbridge Yard for a journey south down the former C&O Line.
Sadly, the old C&O signals were replaced with new PTC signals, and the old pole line supporting the signaling circuits (code) and 440 volt power circuits were no longer needed and taken down.
I was bummed that I couldn't give chase to this one: endangered species SOO 6053 leading Norfolk Southern train 30T to Enola Yard. My only chance to grab the train came at the end of its journey as it pulled up to a stop signal at CP Wye, waiting north of Harrisburg on its turn into the yard across the river. Like a tourist I pulled up to the side of US 22/322, grabbed this quick frame from the car and away I went.
DiB 01/05/2016
Our 2019 and 2020's railfanning photo tours are available for booking now. Please join our fantastic photo tours and welcome to MONGOLIA!
MONRAILPIC TOURS
Contact us: monrailpic@gmail.com
T21 is seen here crossing the Tennessee in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee with the sun right in the crews face they make there morning run to Alcoa to switch for a few hours.
With the Front Range Flatirons dominating the scene, Union Pacific's West Elk Mine, Colorado to Blue Island, Illinois loaded coal train (CWEKS 25) led by ES44AH no. 8262 rolls on through the tunnel district just north of Plainview.
Wisconsin Central train FDNS was rolling south through the northern Chicagoland suburb of Prairie View in 2000.
WC SD45 6531 (built by EMD in 1971 as Burlington Northern 6531) led Norfolk Southern SD40-2 3283 (built by EMD as Southern Railway 3283) had the Fond du Lac to Elkhart freight well in hand.
The CPKC holiday train is making it's first appearance on the New Brunswick side, en route to its first ever show in Saint John, New Brunswick.
NBSR decided to join in on the fun, decorating it's own engine for the trip eastward on NBSRs trackage.
November 21, 2024
A pair of Union Pacific's former Chicago and North Western C40-8s had an eastbound through Elmhurst back in 2005. A BNSF ES44DC and a UP EMD were helping out.
The 9035 is now working for the Canadian National as their 2011. The number 9035 is now occupied by a SD70AH on the UP roster.
Re620 is a Swiss build retro locomotives which are currently getting replaced and scrapped, this shot is special due the construction works on the Hauenstein line (Sissach-Tecknau-Olten) thats why the train went through the older one Hauenstein line (Sissach-Läufelfingen-Olten) so all Northbound trains from west Switzerland or from Lötschberg were driving here, and all from Gotthard went via another line, Bözberg line.
Thundering over the Kettle River in Sandstone,MN, UP 4014 makes its way to LSRM for a weekend of steam activities
Some of my absolute favorite locomotives ever were SOOs fleet of EMD SD60s. Very common on the CP trains across Michigan when I was little, by the time I started railfanning in the mid 2000s they were starting to be a rarer sight. While seeing one was always nice, a pair was a real treat. Here SOO 6033 and 6054 are slowing near Elmdale with X500, getting ready to duck into the siding to meet west-bound coke loads K351.
Interested in purchasing a high-quality digital download of this photo, suitable for printing and framing? Let me know and I will add it to my Etsy Shop, MittenRailandMarine! Follow this link to see what images are currently listed for sale: www.etsy.com/shop/MittenRailandMarine
If you are interested in specific locomotives, trains, or freighters, please contact me. I have been photographing trains and ships for over 15 years and have accumulated an extensive library!
Coaster is a commuter rail service, it stands for Coast Express Railway, in that case the American west coast is mentioned, a pretty short line between Oceanside and San Diego, trains run pretty often, sometimes 1 train per hour in each direction, sometimes 3 trains per direction. This spot is right after Carlsbad Poinsettia station where Coasters do their stop. Earlier you could have seen F40’s but the NCTD wanted to do a upgrade and have bought the Siemens-built Siemens Chargers which are modern, efficient and better how they’ve thought but if you know what right now happens with the Pacific Surfliner SC-44’s ypu will understand that they aren’t that good.
BNSF C44-9W No. 4007 puts on a smoke show as it leads BNSF’s Denver to Amarillo manifest southbound through Larkspur, Colorado with a fresh blanket of snow.
G789 is seen here passing the south end of the siding in the small town of Jacksboro, TN after having to stop for MOW up ahead after this stop it was a straight shot towards Knoxville.
The Mansfield branch is an elusive operation, usually only seeing a train for Redfield once every week or two. Service up to Northville is fairly inconsistent along with storage car pulls north of that, sometimes going months in between. The original CNW crossbucks guarding a majority of the crossings on this branch is clear evidence of how low traffic is up here.
Always striving to go places not many others have is one of my constant goals when it comes to railfanning. I don't see any fun in going to the places that hundreds of unoriginal, boring sheep have milked dry to oblivion such as the iron range, LS&I, Trona, or the Columbia River gorge. On my recent fully self-funded trip (springowski could never), I wanted to explore the deep south and its plethora of rarely documented shortlines, as well as some actually enjoyable class 1 action that the two eastern roads can't provide. Among my main targets was Alabama and Gulf Coast and their newly acquired fleet of GEs. One of those, ex Conrail C40-8W #4055, recieved G&W's 125th anniversary heritage paint. I thankfully timed my trip while it was being used on the turn job from Columbus, Mississippi to Boligee, Alabama and back. Here it is paired with a Columbus and Greenville SD40 as they build their train to head south. This is seriously one of the best looking engines I've ever seen. Hats off to G&W for doing this shit. The train would wait a few minutes as Golden Traingle would depart in front of them, and they themselves would make Watco's Alabama Southern wait at their diamond in the southern part of town. Columbus is an extremely underrated little railroad hotspot with 4 different shortlines and 2 class 1s running locals to town. More deep south content is to come.
117 315 fuhr am Nachmittag des 27.05.2025 als Sz37461 von Oroshaza nach Szentes und erreicht gleich den Bahnsteig von Jushtmajor.
Chicago Terminal DS was bringing this eastbound stacker into town on main 2 at Elburn, which prompted me to head for this spot just east of the La Fox Metra station. Yet again, an ACe heads through La Fox on a cold code-blue day.
Philadelphia, PA - CSX M409-06 passing Laurel Hill as of 15:48 on 6-6-22. CSX759+CSX169+CSX5119 with Consist