Eastbound and Westbound BNSF stack trains meet at the signal bridge at MP 336.3 on the Seligman Subdivision just west of Williams Junction, Williams, AZ, in the mid-1990s.
Tech Notes: Nikon F3 Film Camera, Nikon 70-300mm lens at 300mm, f/stop and shutter speed not recorded.
BNSF 6293 leads a coal train through the loop at the Four Rivers Marine Terminal along the Ohio River at West Paducah, Kentucky as it finishes up unloading their train on March 15th, 2024.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone, RAW, 22mm, f/2.8, 1/640, ISO 180.
BNSF 976 leads a intermodal across the bridge at Diablo Canyon, Arizona as they head east on the BNSF Seligman Subdivision, through the Navajo Reservation in north central Arizona. From what I recall this slide was shot in the mid-1990s.
According to Wikipedia: Canyon Diablo is a ghost town in Coconino County, Arizona, United States on the edge of the arroyo Canyon Diablo. The community was settled in 1880 and died out in the early 20th century.
The ramshackle camp of railroad workers originated in 1880, due to the construction of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad bridge over a large canyon named Canyon Diablo. The temporary community assumed the name of the canyon that stood in the way of the railroad construction – Canyon Diablo. The bridge construction took six months, during which many regular railroad construction workers were encamped and waiting to recommence their work once the canyon had been spanned. After the bridge was completed, construction resumed and the camp was largely abandoned.
When the railroad bridge was completed, the town quickly died. The original railroad bridge was replaced in 1900 with a new bridge to carry heavier locomotives and cars. By 1903, the only thing remaining in the town was a Navajo trading post. A new double track railroad bridge was completed across the Canyon in 1947. What remains today at Canyon Diablo are a few building foundations, the grave marker and grave of Herman Wolfe, the ruins of the trading post, a railroad siding and a double track railroad bridge.
Tech Notes: Nikon F3 Film Camera, Nikon 70-300mm lens at 200mm, f/stop and shutter speed not recorded
![Santa Fe Railway 142 leads four war bonnets as they pull east through Tehachapi Loop with a “Piggyback” trailer train sometime in the late 1980’s, as they head for Tehachapi, California, and points east on the UP Mojave Subdivision, through the Tehachapi Pass.
When I lived in southern California between 1981-1995, not counting a break where I lived in the Philippines for about 1.5 years, I spent a lot of time in these mountains and Cajon Pass, around the San Bernardino mountains! Over the coming year I’ll be scanning images from these and other locations and sharing them on Saturday evenings.
According to Wikipedia: The Tehachapi Loop is a 3,779-foot-long (0.72 mi; 1.15 km) spiral,[1] or helix, on the Union Pacific Railroad Mojave Subdivision through Tehachapi Pass, of the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, south-central California. The line connects Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley to Mojave in the Mojave Desert.
Rising at a steady two-percent grade, the track gains 77 feet (23 m) in elevation and makes a 1,210-foot-diameter (370 m) circle.[1][2] Any train that is more than 3,800 feet (1,200 m) long—about 56 boxcars—passes over itself going around the loop
Fuji 6x17, Fuji 105mm lens, other exposure information wasn’t recorded back then.
#trainphotography #railroadphotography #trains #railways #jimpearsonphotography #panphotography #6x17photography #trainphotographer #railroadphotographer #TehachapiLoop #SantaFe](http://www.jimpearsonphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/WEB-1989-6x17-Santa-Fe-Intermodal-heads-east-through-the-Tehachapi-Loop-Tehachapi-CA-1170x371.jpg)
Santa Fe Railway 142 leads four war bonnets as they pull east through Tehachapi Loop with a “Piggyback” trailer train sometime in the early to mid 1990’s, as they head for Tehachapi, California, and points east on the UP Mojave Subdivision, through the Tehachapi Pass.
When I lived in southern California between 1981-1995, not counting a break where I lived in the Philippines for about 1.5 years, I spent a lot of time in these mountains and Cajon Pass, around the San Bernardino mountains! Over the coming year I’ll be scanning images from these and other locations and sharing them on Saturday evenings.
According to Wikipedia: The Tehachapi Loop is a 3,779-foot-long (0.72 mi; 1.15 km) spiral,[1] or helix, on the Union Pacific Railroad Mojave Subdivision through Tehachapi Pass, of the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, south-central California. The line connects Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley to Mojave in the Mojave Desert.
Rising at a steady two-percent grade, the track gains 77 feet (23 m) in elevation and makes a 1,210-foot-diameter (370 m) circle.[1][2] Any train that is more than 3,800 feet (1,200 m) long—about 56 boxcars—passes over itself going around the loop
Fuji 6×17, Fuji 105mm lens, other exposure information wasn’t recorded back then.
BNSF 5299 and 6859 lead a mixed freight along the Columbia River (photographed from Arlington, Oregon) as it moves along the river on the BNSF Fallbridge Subdivision on the washington side of the Columbia River Gorge, on June 20th, 2023.
Tech Info: Nikon D800, Sigma 150-600mm @ 440mm, f/6, 1/800, ISO 320.
BNSF 1093 and 1005, in H1 paint scheme, lead loaded potash train CSX B207 as they pass the old L&N Depot at Henderson, Kentucky on their way north on the CSX Henderson Subdivision on September 9th, 2023.
I am told that Railmark Holdings, Inc has purchased the depot and is currently continuing restoration on the station. I have not been able to find out what their plans for the depot include yet.
According to their website: Railmark, its brands, and subsidiaries are leaders in the railroad industry in North America and around the world. An accomplished provider of railroad transportation, rail services, and rail systems development, Railmark provides a complete and fully integrated program for rail network improvement and rail management services to railroads, governments, municipalities, and industrial clients.
Railmark also owns and operates railroads in North America and sponsors philanthropic initiatives through its Railmark Foundation Limited. Together the Railmark group of rail service companies work around the world each day to make rail transportation better by improving economies and the quality of human life.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone, RAW, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/800, ISO 120.
On June 28th, 2023, I tried to count the locomotives stored on the Black Hills Subdivision at the BNSF Donkey Creek Yard at Rozet, Wyoming in the two lines of locomotives from this picture, but there’s too many and seem to go on forever. The trains on the far left are coal trains, loaded and empty, waiting on crews.
According to news reports I found online, this yard was scheduled to close June 5th, 2022, affecting 38 jobs, but from what I could see there were people working in the yard, so Im not sure if that happened or not. The reported layoff was due to the tough market for coal. It has been a bit over a year and perhaps things have changed since then.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone, RAW, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/1600, ISO 100.
A BNSF mixed freight on the overpass for the Front Range Subdivision, passes over a westbound UP train westbound coming out of the yard at Cheyenne, Wyoming, on the Laramie Subdivision on the morning of March 18th, 2023.
Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @150mm, f/5.6, 1/500, ISO 320.
BNSF 6872 heads up a train as they head out of the yard toward Santa Fe Junction on June 16th, 2023, at Kansas City, MO.
Santa Fe Junction sees on average over 100 trains a day and it hosts the double decked railroad (ATSF Double Deck Railroad) bridge that crosses the Kansas River into Missouri, a triple crossing. The junction is partly in Missouri and Kansas and sees BNSF, UP, KCT, Amtrak, KCS, NS and CP traffic, from what I saw during my visit.
The tracks through the junction have been reduced or changed around over the years, but the area remains one of Kansas Citys Busiest locations.
Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @600mm, f/6.3, 1/560, ISO 800.
BNSF 9808 and 8843, lead a mixed freight as they pickup a string of lumber cars at Deer Lodge, Montana, on June 26th, 2023, before continuing north on the Copper City Subdivision.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone, RAW, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 100.
On June 28th, 2023, I tried to count the locomotives stored at the BNSF Donkey Creek Yard at Rozel, Wyoming in the two lines of locomotives from this picture, but there’s too many and seem to go on forever. The trains on the far left are coal trains, loaded and empty, waiting on crews.
According to news reports I found online, this yard was scheduled to close June 5th, 2022, affecting 38 jobs, but from what I could see there were people working in the yard, so Im not sure if that happened or not. The reported layoff was due to the tough market for coal. It has been a bit over a year and perhaps things have changed since then.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone, RAW, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/1600, ISO 100.
A westbound BNSF intermodal passes the old depot at Chillicothe, Illinois as the light of day begins to fade on the Chillicothe Subdivision on June 30th, 2023.
According to Wikipedia: Chillicothe was an Amtrak stop in Chillicothe, Illinois; a suburb of Peoria. The station was a stop on the Southwest Chief between Chicago Union Station and Los Angeles Union Station before the alignment was changed to go via Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s Mendota Subdivision in 1996.
Amtrak service at Chillicothe began on May 1, 1971, with the Chicago-Houston Texas Chief, a service previously run by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. This route was renamed the Lone Star in 1974 and discontinued in 1979.
For most of Amtrak’s first quarter-century, it was Peoria’s only link to the national rail system. The short-lived Prairie Marksman ran to East Peoria in 1980 and 1981.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone, RAW, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/15, ISO 120.
BNSF 9808 and 8843, lead a mixed freight past the Community Evangelical Free Church (Depot Church) at Deer Lodge, Montana, on June 26th, 2023, as it heads north after completing a pickup at one of the local industries in Deer Lodge. The depot used to belong to the Milwaukee Road and saw passenger service until sometime in 1964.
According to the waymarking.com website:
“Deer Lodge was the division headquarters for the Milwaukee Road (MILW), officially known as the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, until their demise in 1980. Here, the MILW was electrified until June 15, 1974, when the conversion to diesel-electric locomotives retired all the line’s electric locomotives. At one time Deer Lodge was the site of large railroad yards, shops, and a roundhouse. The roadbed and many of the bridges are still intact across Montana, with BNSF trains passing by daily during the week.
On what was known as the Pacific Extension, which extended the MILW lines in the Midwest to the Pacific Ocean, this station would have been built about 1907 or 1908. The 2,300-mile-long extension was built in 1906-1909. One of the premiere passenger trains ever to run on this continent, the Olympian Hiawatha, stopped here until it was discontinued in May of 1961, ostensibly for lack of passenger traffic. It turned out that ridership was still showing respectable numbers, but the train was unprofitable, nonetheless. Replacement trains continued to make Deer Lodge a stop until 1964, when the western terminus of passenger service was pulled back to Aberdeen, South Dakota.
Though we can’t say what, or who, occupied the station in the interim, it is today home to the Community Evangelical Free Church. Here in Deer Lodge, you can actually see what used to run by. About half a mile south on Main Street is an outdoor museum of railway vehicles, with a couple of old MILW engines and a caboose on display.”
Tech Info: DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone, RAW, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 110.
A loaded BNSF loaded coal train passes the siding at Dawson Springs, Kentucky as it heads south on the Paducah and Louisville Railway from Warrior coal mine loop at Madisonville, Ky on May 1st, 2023.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone, RAW, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/2500, ISO 130.
Saturday Infrared photo of An empty BNSF 4 Rivers empty coal train heads north on April 21st, 2023, on the UP Marion/BNSF Beardstown Subdivision at Goreville, Illinois approaching the Side Street overpass.
Tech Info: Fuji XT1 converted to 720nm, Nikon 10-24 @ 16mm, f/4, 1/250, ISO 400.
An empty BNSF 4 Rivers empty coal train passes over the bridge next to the Southern Illinois Stone Company as it heads north on April 21st, 2023, on the UP Marion/BNSF Beardstown Subdivision at Goreville, Illinois, under stormy skies.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone, RAW, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/240 sec, ISO 120.
BNSF 5050 leads the BNSF local as pulls out of P&I Junction in Paducah, Kentucky after making its drop-off and pickup at the Paducah & Louisville Railway on November 23rd, 2022.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Air 2S Drone, RAW, 22mm, f/2.8, 1/1500, ISO 140, -.3 stop.
BNSF 8211 and NS 1075 bring up the rear of a loaded Norfolk Southern coal train as it heads north on the Paducah and Louisville Railway line at Madisonville, Kentucky on January 24th, 2023. The line and train is crossing over the location referred to as Monarch on the CSX Henderson Subdivision at Madisonville.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Air 2S Drone, RAW, 22mm, f/2.8, 1/320, ISO 140.
My Railroad Photography as Art
My niece Kelly R Gates has nominated me to share my artwork for 10 days and to nominate another artist to do the same. My take on this challenge is to create what I consider photographic Art pieces from some of my railroad photography.
Now, I realize there are now AI programs out there these days that can create just about any type of art pieces for you with just words, but as most of you know I’m a visual person and all the pieces I post over the next 10 days will be created in Photoshop by me from photographs I have shot, not with AI Software.
I know that this type of art isn’t for everyone, but I do like to get outside the box and my comfort zone from time to time, as I think it’s good for my creative eye. I’d appreciate your constructive thoughts and comments!
For today’s digital photographic art piece, I’ve selected this shot from September 4, 2019 – A BNSF local works on picking up cars at BNSF’s Rices Point Yard in Duluth, Minnesota.
On Day 6 I nominate fellow railfan photographer Travis Dewitz to share his art (whatever type he wants to share) ~ I know he has plenty as he hopefully joins in on the 10-day art challenge!!!!
Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @550mm, f/7.1, 1/500, ISO 640, Available for purchase in my store at https://pixels.com/featured/digital-art-bnsf-6353-leads-coal-train-jim-pearson.html
Day 5 of 10 – Photography/Art Challenge
My Railroad Photography as Art
My niece Kelly R Gates has nominated me to share my artwork for 10 days and to nominate another artist to do the same. My take on this challenge is to create what I consider photographic Art pieces from some of my railroad photography.
Now, I realize there are now AI programs out there these days that can create just about any type of art pieces for you with just words, but as most of you know I’m a visual person and all the pieces I post over the next 10 days will be created in Photoshop by me from photographs I have shot, not with AI Software.
I know that this type of art isn’t for everyone, but I do like to get outside the box and my comfort zone from time to time, as I think it’s good for my creative eye. I’d appreciate your constructive thoughts and comments!
For today’s digital photographic art piece, I’ve selected this shot from September 4, 2019 – A BNSF local works on picking up cars at BNSF’s Rices Point Yard in Duluth, Minnesota.
On Day 5 I nominate fellow railfan photographer Fredrick Simon to share his art (whatever type he wants to share) ~ I know he has plenty as he hopefully joins in on the 10-day art challenge!!!!
Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @600mm, f/6.3, 1/500, ISO 1000, Available for purchase in my store at https://fineartamerica.com/featured/a-digital-art-piece-a-bnsf-local-works-rice-yard-jim-pearson.html
In this week’s Saturday Infrared view, we catch an eastbound, with 4 BNSF units leading, as it heads away from downtown Kansas City, Missouri past the famous Santa Fe Junction on June 29th, 2022.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24 @ 16mm, f/4, 1/250, ISO 200.