July 28, 2020 – CSX W024 makes its way through the S curve at Nortonville, Ky, with a loaded rail train with CSXT 4046 (EMD SD40-3) leading long hood forward as it heads south on the Henderson Subdivision.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 200mm, f/6.3, 1/1000, ISO 360.
July 21, 2020 – Indiana Railroad (INRD) 9001 leads northbound daily train from Jasonville to Indianapolis, Indiana train (HWSA), with engineer Travis Collins at the controls as it approaches the county road 800, south of Switz City, Indiana. He will meet his southbound counterpart (SAHW) at the north end of the siding in Switz City, where they will trade trains and continue to their respective destinations on the INRD Indianapolis Subdivision.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, Sigma 150-600 @ 480mm, f/6, 1/1250, ISO 560.
July 15, 2020 – Progressive Rail Inc. 33 sits idling outside a engine house as it prepares for a day of work at the Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railway in Mount Vernon, Illinois.
According to Wikipedia: The Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railway (reporting mark COER) (formerly American Rail Heritage, Ltd. d/b/a Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railroad Company) is a Class III common carrier shortline railroad that operates in the cities of Marion and Herrin in the Southern Illinois region. It is most historically recognized by the FRA for being the last U.S. railroad of any kind to use steam locomotives exclusively in regular revenue freight service up until 1986.
The present-day shortline currently operates a total of 13.5 miles of track across the industrial centers of Williamson County in two separate railroad districts with a fleet of two diesel switcher engines. One line being known as the “Marion District”, which is the railroad’s main working division with roughly 8.5 miles of track; and the other division being the “Herrin District”, which mostly serves the city’s manufacturing industries along a 5-mile stretch of track.
t also has three different interchange points with two Class I railroads. Near their main offices in downtown Marion, the railroad has a junction with Union Pacific’s Marion Subdivision; another interchange is located in the nearby Marion suburb of Bainbridge with BNSF Railway’s Beardstown Subdivision. A second BNSF connection with the same line is also present in the Herrin district. Most of the CO&E Railroad’s revenue freight products primarily consist of coal, lumber, petroleum, grain, steel, paper, chemicals, manufactured goods, and railcar repair service.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Irex 11mm, f/5, 1/640, ISO 100.
July 21, 2020 – A storm moves to the northeast across southern Indiana as signals on the CSX CE&D Subdivision glow at “middle King” siding at Princeton, Indiana after a southbound had just passed through.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Irex 11mm, f/11, 30 seconds, ISO 2000.
July 21, 2020 – Indiana Railroad (INRD) 301 and 3001 power the Palestine Utility train 1 (PAUT-1), as it passes through granaries at Palestine, Illinois, on it’s way north back to INRD’s Palestine Yard, after doing its work between the Marathon Refinery in Robinson, Illinois and Palestine on the INRD Indianapolis Subdivision.
According to Wikipedia: The Indiana Rail Road (reporting mark INRD) is a United States Class II railroad, originally operating over former Illinois Central Railroad trackage from Newton, Illinois, to Indianapolis, Indiana, a distance of 155 miles (249 km).
This line, now known as the Indiana Rail Road’s Indianapolis Subdivision, comprises most of the former IC line from Indianapolis to Effingham, Illinois; Illinois Central successor Canadian National Railway retains the portion from Newton to Effingham. INRD also owns a former Milwaukee Road line from Terre Haute, Indiana, to Burns City, Indiana (site of the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center), with trackage rights extending to Chicago, Illinois.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Nikkor 70-300 @ 80mm, f/4.5, 1/1250, ISO 125.
July 20, 2020 – CSX Q500 with CSXT 3348 leading, heads over the Red River bridge at Adams, Tennessee as it heads north on the Henderson Subdivision on a beautiful summer day.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 24-70 @ 24mm, f/4.5, 1/320, ISO 100.
July 21, 2020 – CSX K815-19, with CP 7021, approaches the crossing at Old State Road outside Darmstadt, Indiana as it heads south on the CSX CE&D Subdivision with a loaded phosphate train.
Canadian Pacific unveiled 5 of these specially painted locomotives in November of 2019 on Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans Day in the U.S. honoring the culture and history of the armed forces. The five Electro-Motive Diesel SD70ACUs will take the message of military pride across the CP system.
CP 7021 wears the sand colour that the Canadian and U.S. armies apply to fighting vehicles and equipment serving in arid climates.
Tech Info: Fuji XT1, RAW, Fuji 18-55mm @ 18mm, f/5.6, 1/250, ISO 200.
July 21, 2020 – CSX K815-19 with CP 7021 approaches milepost 278 on the CSX CE&D Subdivision at Darmstadt, Indiana with a loaded phosphate train as it heads southbound with every railfan between here and south of Nashville, TN waits for his arrival at their location.
The wait however was a bit long as it stopped at Howell Yard in Evansville, Indiana where it dropped off all its cars, changed crews and picked up a load of mixed freight before continuing it’s run south on the Henderson Subdivision. This was my first catch of one of these units!
Canadian Pacific unveiled 5 of these specially painted locomotives in November of 2019 on Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans Day in the U.S. honoring the culture and history of the armed forces. The five Electro-Motive Diesel SD70ACUs will take the message of military pride across the CP system.
CP 7020 wears North Atlantic Treaty Organization green, which the Canadian and U.S. armies apply to fighting vehicles and equipment serving in temperate climates.
CP 7021 wears the sand colour that the Canadian and U.S. armies apply to fighting vehicles and equipment serving in arid climates.
CP 7022 wears the grey, red and black colour pattern of modern Canadian and American warships.
CP 7023 wears a two-tone gray paint scheme designed after the livery applied to Canadian and American fighter jets.
CP 6644 wears the camouflage colours applied to Royal Canadian Air Force “Spitfire” fighter planes flown at the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 460mm, f/6, 1/320, ISO 360.
July 17, 2020 – Norfolk Southern 3645 leads a empty coal train out of Ramsey, Indiana, as it heads west with an empty coal train on the NS Southern-East District.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 300mm, f/5.6, 1/250, ISO 1400.
I got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday! I have been blessed that one of my pictures has been used in a TRAINS Magazine special edition ‘CSX at 40’ along with several other great photographers!
The cold weather shot of CSX Q025 heading south through ice covered trees at Nortonville, Ky looks really good!!! Thank you to Jim Wrinn, Angela Pusztai-Pasternak, and all the Trains staff, ‘CSX at 40’ looks fantastic with great stories and photography inside! My first published photo in TRAINS Magazine!
July 17, 2020 – RJ Corman 7116 moves at a snails pace as it leads the empty ALCAN train southbound through downtown Frankfort, Kentucky on its way to Tri-Arrows Aluminum in Brea, Kentucky to pickup another load of aluminum ingots.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Nikkor 70-300 @ 75mm, f/5.6, 1/4000, ISO 220.
July 17, 2020 – Norfolk Southern 3645 leads a empty coal train as it passes through the cut at Tunnel Hill road overpass, just west of Ramsey, Indiana, with stormy skies looming to the east on the NS Southern-East District. This cut was constructed to bypass the original tunnel through this area and I’m told it can still be seen via Google Earth Maps of the area.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Irex 11mm, f/5.6, 1/400, ISO 1600.
July 15, 2020 – Union Pacific 7074 leads UP IDLC as it approaches the Green Street overpass at Mount Vernon, Illinois as it makes its way north on the Mt. Vernon Subdivision. Fellow railfan, Cooper Smith and I spent the day railfanning in southern Illinois today and while we got a few nice shots and had a great time, the trains just didn’t cooperate!
We went from Kentucky to Bruceton, Illinois to catch UP and CN action through the diamond there, as well at Christopher and Du Quoin. However, after spending the whole day trackside we pretty much caught one train we each like at each location. Turns out after the one train on the busy UP line we caught at Mt. Vernon, that line was shut down the rest of the day till 9pm. We had no clue it was scheduled, but that’s the way trains roll sometime!
The other lines we railfanned were just having a very slow day, however we did catch at least something everywhere we stopped… eventually! The last stop of the day was at Anna, IL where we caught CN A431 being led by CN 2460 (a “Blue Devil” unit) as the very last light of a stormy evening stole the light from the day.
I’ll be posting a few others from the trip along with a couple videos for everyone’s viewing pleasure!
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 370mm, f/6, 1/640, ISO 320.
June 2, 2020 – It was the dead of night, crickets, frogs and an occasional car passing through the crossing breaking the silence at the Rosewood Crossing, as the moon illuminated the tracks headed out of the south end of the Paducah and Louisville Railway at Paducah, Kentucky toward Mayfield. Moonlight provides a mystical light in my opinion.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Irex 11mn, f/5, 30 seconds, +2 stops, ISO 640 on a Gitzo Tripod, camera timer, 3 second delay, Mirror Locked up.
May 27, 2020 – Norfolk Southern Railway Wabash heritage unit 1070 passes through the NS/UP Diamond at Mt. Vernon, Illinois, as it leads NS 224 westbound on the NS Southern-West District under stormy skies.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 24-70 @ 24, f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO 360.
May 27, 2020 – Norfolk Southern crosses the diamonds on the CN Centralia Subdivision at Centralia, Illinois as NS 9481 & 9635 lead NS 223 eastbound on the NS Southern-East District.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 150, f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO 500.
May 30, 2020 – CSXT 5366 leads loaded military train W831 from Ft. Campbell, Ky as it pulls upgrade at the south end of Pembroke, Kentucky as it heads south on the Henderson Subdivision on the traditional Memorial Day.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, Sigma 24-70 @ 37mm, f/5, 1/2000, ISO 200.
June 18, 2020 – Engineer Travis Collins heads southbound on the Indiana Railroad with engine 9004 leading, after meeting and trading trains with the northbound INRD 9005, at the north end of BLS Siding at Switz City, Indiana as the last light of day fades from the sky.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 24-70 @ 24mm, f/2.8, 1/125, ISO 2,500.
June 22, 2020 – Norfolk Southern locomotive 1098 leads empty coal train WYX1 past a string of empty grain cars at the Paducah and Louisville Railway yard at Madisonville, Kentucky as it heads for Warrior Coal Main in Nebo, Ky to pickup a load of coal.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 600mm, f/6.3, ISO 400.
June 6, 2020 – LORAM Railgrinder 403 approaches the Davis Road overpass just south of Mannington, Kentucky, as it heads south to it’s next grinding spot on the Henderson Subdivision, as it’s lights illuminate the right-of-way in the fading daylight.
According to Wikipedia: A rail grinder is a maintenance of way vehicle or train used to restore the profile and remove irregularities from worn tracks to extend its life and to improve the ride of trains using the track.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 24-70 @ 24mm, f/2.8. 1/160, ISO 3200.
June 4, 2020 – Paducah and Louisville Railway (PAL) 4504 & 4502 pull a northbound loaded coal train through Cecilia, Kentucky as they head north to the Louisville Gas & Electric plant at Louisville, Ky.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 24-70 @ 24mm, f/8, 1/1250, ISO 560.