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Duluth & Northeastern 14 is on switching duty the railroad's base town of Cloquet, MN. 14 is now owned by the Sierra Railroad, acquired in 2022 from the now defunct Filmore and Western Railway.
9-21-1963
Photographer Unknown - Jacob Narup Collection
NR43 and NR30 tackle the gradient at Coolalie with ease, working a late running 3PS7 to Sydney.
Friday 2nd May 2025
For this switcher Sunday, we're in Tulsa Oklahoma on May 22, 1980 and see an SW7 drilling the rear end of a freight that had come into Cherokee Yard from the east. This was a quick stop over for me on the way home from a year long work assignment in Texas. I was anxious to get home but Tulsa deserved a lot more time. Sadly, I've not been back.
A trio of EMD standard cabs sits at the interchange between UP and Kennecott Utah Copper, located at Garfield west of Salt Lake City. All switching at the copper smelter and refinery in Garfield is contracted out to RailServe, hence the RSSX locomotives here.
GMTX GP38-2 #2662
RSSX GP9u #1590
RSSX GP7 #116
Garfield, UT
April 24th, 2023
After arriving from the CN interchange at Joffre Yard with a dozen cars, the Sartigan is switching Logibel, an important client of this growing shortline.
" Lets get the drill on P&H 1 lined for the naught..The yard job on P&H 2 for the Waverly runner ...and I got a transfer job from the Garden waiting to come off the NY BAY Line spur ..and he's on SHORT TIME......"
WA5 in the good ole days on a Saturday morning ..a switch tenders nightmare
Newark NJ WA5 P&H Branch/Greenville Branch CR
C&NW SD40-2 6847, built in March 1974, idles in Union on a partially cloudy May afternoon. The crew breifly discusses what their plan is to pull the locomotives in tow out of the shop and to move C&NW 6847 onto a seperate track. Today's plan was to get CB&Q SD24 504 out of the shop to use the outdoor crane to replace the radiator, and C&NW 6847 was the designated shop switcher for the day. While this may look like a scene straight out of a 1980s Chicago and North Western railyard, in reality C&NW 6847 is currently owned and operated by the Illinois Railway Museum and was switching power around the Diesel Locomotive Restoration Shop.
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Illinois Railway Museum
Union, Illinois, USA
May 24, 2025
Canon EOS 60D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
St. Maries River Railroad’s turn to Plummer interchanges its train to Union Pacific at Plummer, Idaho, on September 27, 2021. It’s pretty obvious where STMA’s former Milwaukee Road Pacific Extension main line ends, viewing the trackage at the foot of Poleyard Road in Plummer. The train is on the former siding and is backing its cars past a crossover switch for the UP to pick up. On the right is the former main line that now butts up to a mound of dirt, and contains the empties that STMA will pick up and take back to St. Maries. To the west, an abandoned roadbed lies empty and trainless, until it reaches Warden, Washington, where Columbia Basin Railroad operates former Milwaukee main line trackage between Warden and Othello.
After switching at the east end of town for a while the 9011 and 9014 shove into the west end of the yard to start the remainder of their work before shoving into the clear for the Maine Northern to pass by. What was supposed to be a short wait for the Maine Northern would turn out to be over a 2 hour wait which gave me a lot of time to do some time exposures and chat with the crew.
February 13, 2011: A mine run switches dolomite hoppers in the storage tracks at Riverview (Tacoma), Virginia on the the N&W Clinch Valley District.
I remember the RS-1's floating around on the SOO but I was a little to young to have shot any. This view of 353 switching at Stevens Point on September 10, 1966 represented pretty much what the did in there later years, yard work and local service. Early on before the merger the DSS&A used there RS-1's on the passenger trains and also in switching service. Catching a back to back pair wasn't uncommon on the St- Ignace-Marquette freight although it generally was assigned Baldwins. Most likely a Joe Stauber shot, Chuck Schwesinger collection.
Norfolk Portsmouth Belt Line 5261 (an ex NS GP38-2) along with an actual NS GP38-3 pulls a cut of grain cars out to switch them onto another track in Berkley Yard. I believe the actual NS GP38 on the consist is being borrowed because NPBL 5260 is in Altoona for Maintenance.
NSHR1 switches out the Chef Boyardee factory in Milton, PA. Now owned by ConAgra Foods, this is the only customer on the Union Country Industrial Railroad on the east side of the Susquehanna River. Chef Boyardee was founded here in 1928, and continues to produce a variety of Italian foods at its original site here in Milton.
At the south end of UP's Settegast Yard in Houston, a pair of Geeps shove back as they drill the large, former MP yard.
YHO82R 04
UP GP38-2 #674
UP GP60 #1167
Houston, TX
October 4th, 2024
Iowa Traction Railway steeple cabs Nos. 60 and 51 switch the yard at Emery on the west side of Mason City, Iowa, on April 15, 2008. IATR No. 60 was built by Baldwin-Westinghouse originally for Youngstown & Ohio, while No. 51 originally worked for Northeastern Oklahoma Railway. No. 60 is 100 years old in 2017, while sister No. 51 is four years younger—both providing 196 years of rail service!
The crew of L506 uses a pair of GP40-2W's to switch the yard at Roma Junction Alberta. The road power for the next day's southbound sits in the yard just to the left of the conductor
NYSW WS-2 switching out cars in MC before heading west towards PC and beyond to work industries around the area. SD40-2 #3022, a former Southern “High Hood” SD40-2 has the honors for the night.
The Iowa Traction is running around Mason City on a very cold day. The crew has just grabbed 20 empties from the CP and is now heading for the AGP plant to get them switched. The crew just got done delivering 4 loads to the UP to my right. The catch and grab game goes on with 2 crews and trolleys to push and pull their way thru the day to spot customers.
Just another view from the East Randall Wobbe Ln. crossing into little five track yard north of town where the Arkansas and Missouri Railroad classifies its traffic.
This is train SFLO (the Springdale local) which was on duty at 11 AM with this pair of classic Alco C420s, numbers 56 and 57 both built for the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad in Dec. 1965 as their numbers 25 and 26 respectively. They are seen here kicking up dust in the sand coated yard near MP 341.9 (measured from the Frisco's historic corporate headquarters city of St. Louis).
To learn more check out the long caption with this shot: flic.kr/p/2mmJMoD
Springdale, Arkansas
Thursday September 2, 2021
The crew of Montana Rail Link’s weekend train down the Bitterroot Branch, formerly known as the Darby Branch, switches their train together at Missoula, Montana, on a rainy May 18, 2013.
C&NW GP7 4104 switches the Morton Salt facility along Elston Ave. at Magnolia and Blackhawk. It is now the entertainment venue The Salt Shed. 1989.
Leased, or even owned, by the Texas & Oklahoma RR, this "GN" (originally Frisco) MP15DC switcher rests just north of I-20. October 2020.
Here's another random LHF shot that meets my criteria for being worthy. I was told by the crew working this day that this particular customer very very infrequently receives cars so getting to see them working here is pretty lucky. And while the light was perfect alas the front coupled unit makes it certainly less cool.
Nonetheless here is one shot for the record as New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad Utica based local UT-1 with GP40 3040 spots two boxcars to the SCI Plywood siding here off the old West Shore Railroad New York Mills branch.
Check out the long caption with this shot to learn more about the history of the railroads in this area: flic.kr/p/2mGgRx2
Village of New York Mills
Whitestone, New York
Thursday October 28, 2021
Former B&M GP9 1741 begins to make up its train for the day at the North Conway Depot on the Conway Scenic Railroad. 1741 was just restored to service, thanks to the 470 Railroad Club. 1741 will lead the annual 470 Excursion to Conway before being added onto the west end of the train to join F7s 4266 and 4268 for the climb up the mountain to Fabyan's. As hinted by the old telephone box, we're in B&M territory, and this train will be operating on the former Boston and Maine Conway Branch. There's no better power than the 3 historic B&M locomotives that will be used today.