September 27, 2020 – Kansas City Southern 4054 and 4744 lead loaded ethanol train, CSX K443-26, as it pulls out of the south end of Rankin siding as it continues its move south on the Henderson Subdivision at Rankin, Kentucky.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/240, ISO 100.
September 26, 2020 – CSXT 3159 leads northbound CSX Q648 past the old Louisville and Nashville (L&N) depot in downtown Hopkinsville, Ky as it heads north on the Henderson Subdivision.
According to Wikipedia: The L & N Railroad Depot in the Hopkinsville Commercial Historic District of Hopkinsville, Kentucky is a historic railroad station on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in 1892.
The year 1832 saw the first of many attempts to woo a railroad to Hopkinsville. This first attempt was to connect Hopkinsville to Eddyville, Kentucky. In 1868 Hopkinsville finally obtained a railroad station, operated by the Evansville, Henderson, & Nashville Railroad. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad acquired the railroad in 1879.
The Hopkinsville depot is a single-story frame building with a slate roof. It has six rooms: a Ladies Waiting room (the room closest to the street), a General Waiting Room, a Colored Waiting Room, a baggage room (the furthest room from the street), a ticket office (the only room which connected to all three waiting rooms), and a ladies’ restroom. Immediately outside were warehouses for freight, usually tobacco.
Its last long distance train was the Louisville and Nashville’s Georgian, last operating in 1968.
During its operating years, the Hopkinsville depot was a popular layover spot for those traveling by train. It was the only Louisville & Nashville station between Evansville, Indiana and Nashville, Tennessee where it was legal to drink alcohol. Hopkinsville got the nickname “Hop town” due to train passengers asking the conductors when they would arrive at Hopkinsville, so they could “hop off and get a drink”.
The Hopkinsville L & N Railroad Depot was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 1, 1975. It was last used by the Pennyrile Arts Council and from what I last heard it is empty. CSX, which bought out the Louisville & Nashville, still run trains on the tracks next to the depot, but do not stop.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 320, ISO 100.
September 26, 2020 – The last shot of the day! Today was the annual outing for the West Kentucky Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society and many of us gathered at Crofton, Kentucky on the CSX Henderson Subdivision to enjoy each others company and do a bit of railfanning COVID19 style!
I’ve been wanting to try a blue hour photograph from my drone and while waiting for this K422 train to finish dropping of a grain portion of the train to RJ Corman in Guthrie I decided if I was going to photograph it I’d have to drive the 20 miles from Hopkinsville, where I was around sunset if I was going to catch it.
So, talk about stability, this is a 3 second exposure taken during the blue hour of Canadian Pacific 8930 leading K422 as it waited for a NB green at the north end of Guthrie, Kentucky on the CSX Henderson Subdivision. It was shot about 20 minutes after sunset from my DJI Mavic Mini Drone.
I shot several shots, but this is the one that I liked the best. I will say that it was also probably the sharpest one of the 6 that I shot, all at the same shutter speed. The ISO was 400.
While the light was fading fast, as it does during the blue hour, there was enough where I could maintain line of sight with the drone.
All in all it was probably one of my best days trackside with the drone so far, with fellow railfans, where I caught 15 different shots that I’ll post from this days shoot over the next couple of weeks!
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 3 seconds, ISO 400.
September 22, 2020 – CSXT 290 leads K997 across Trident as it heads north on the Henderson Subdivision at Madisonville, Kentucky.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/1000, ISO 100.
September 24, 2020 – Paducah & Louisville (PAL) 4512 and Evansville Western 4511 lead a 5,400ft loaded coal train across Barkley Dam at Grand Rivers, Kentucky on the Cumberland River, as they head for the Calvert City Coal Terminal at Calvert City, Ky.
Barkley Dam construction along with Kentucky Dam formed the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area by stopping the flow of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, forming Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake respectively and the PAL mainline runs right across the dam.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/320, ISO 100.
September 22, 2020 – On the first day of fall Paducah & Louisville local WW1, led by PAL 2112 crosses of the CSX Henderson Subdivision at the location known as Monarch in Madisonville, Ky.
The local was on its way to CSX’s Atkinson yard to perform interchange work between the PAL and CSX after making their way from the PAL yard at Princeton, Kentucky. Still working on trying to catch two trains at this spot! It will happen!
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/140, ISO 100.
September 21, 2020 – Paducah and Louisville Railway University of Kentucky locomotive 2012 leads the afternoon Louisville Gas and Electric coal train as it skirts the downtown area of Central City, Kentucky on its way north to Louisville.
The grassy area below is the general location of the old Illinois Central depot from the days when passenger trains used to service Central City. There used to be an elevator that took the passengers up to the tracks to catch their trains.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/1250, ISO 100.
September 17, 2020 – CSXT 3411 and 3087 lead Q503 south across the bridge over the Red River as it heads south on the Henderson Subdivision at Adams, Tennessee.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/640, ISO 100.
August 29, 2020 – The light from the early morning sunrise illuminates the scene as Canadian National 9634 and 8879 lead CN L533-91 around a curve as they head west into Teutopolis, Illinois on CN’s Effingham Subdivision.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 460mm, f/6 1/1000, ISO 180.
September 17, 2020 – CSXT 710 & 3050 run point on CSX Q025-17 as they pull their hot intermodal train across the Sulfur Fork Creek Trestle headed south on the Henderson Subdivision at Springfield, Tennessee.
They were running a bit late today as they encountered a truck on the tracks somewhere between Hopkinsville, Ky and this point, putting their train into emergency. From what I could find out no one was hurt in the incident, put it did cause a delay, which they don’t like to have happen on this, one of four hot intermodals that run daily between Jacksonville, Florida and Chicago, Illinois on this subdivision.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/640, ISO 100.
September 13, 2020 – Norfolk Southern 168, with NS Pennsylvania Heritage unit 8102 leading on the NS Southern East District, departs the west end of the siding at Ayrshire Township, Indiana as it heads west toward St. Louis, MO.
Tech Info: Full Frame Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 150mm, f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO 360.
September 17, 2020 – CSXT 3439 and 275 lead loaded coal train CSX N040 south on the Henderson Subdivision as it approaches the John Rivers Rd. crossing at south Casky in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/320, ISO 100.
September 17, 2020 – CSXT 3439 and 20 lead CSX Q026-16 across the Sulfur Creek Trestle, north of Springfield, TN as they lead the hot intermodal north on the Henderson Subdivision to Chicago, IL from Jacksonville, FL.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/500, ISO 100.
September 14, 2020 – BNSF 5794 and 6299 lead a loaded coal train through the loop at the Calvert City Terminal in Calvert City, Kentucky as it is halfway through unloading its train.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/500, ISO 100.
September 15, 2020 – CSX Q513-15 sits at the south end of Howell Yard after making a pickup as it waits for CSX Q028, 648 and 512 to clear his location so it can continue its move south on the Henderson Subdivision, with United States Army 4607 and 1869 running dead in tow as its last two units.
Both Army units have been refurbished and I found out that 4607 is heading to Hopkinsville, KY (Ft. Campbell) and 1869 is heading to Leland, NC.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/640, ISO 100.
September 12, 2020 – CSX K811 heads south on the Henderson Subdivision as it passes the old Louisville & Nashville Depot at Henderson, Kentucky.
From various sources on the web: The first L&N depot in Henderson, at Fourth and Adams streets, was constructed in 1875. The two-story, wood-framed passenger depot for the L&N cost $2,000 to erect and contained five offices and two waiting rooms. The Ohio Valley Railroad was built in 1892 between Hopkinsville and Gracey, who had built a depot at Ninth Street. The Ohio Valley was acquired by the IC in 1897.
A replacement depot, built of brick and granite, was constructed by the local firm Bailey & Koerner opened at the cost of $25,000 on July 1, 1902. The Union Station replaced the separate stations for the L&N and the IC. The former L&N depot was converted into the residence for the local yard foreman while the former IC station was used until it was demolished in November 1942.
By 1922, Union Station was handling 24 passenger trains daily, but the advent of the automobile and the construction of the interstate highway system and parkways in the region decimated passenger trains. The IC ceased passenger operations on February 13, 1941, and the station was closed by the L&N after it ceased passenger trains in 1971.
In 2015, the city requested bids to either demolish or restore Union Station. 7 Two companies placed bids to tear down the building while Architectural Renovators of Evansville, Indiana submitted the only bid to restore the depot. The city awarded the contract to Architectural Renovators in December and agreed to pay $80,000 towards restoring the building: Additionally, the city deeded the building over to Architectural Renovators, who were required to begin construction within six months and to complete exterior restoration within 36 months or be forced to give up the deed to the building.
Work to restore the building began almost immediately although the restoration company found the inside in worse condition than expected. A new roof was installed by the conclusion of 2016, with all exterior work mostly finished by February 2017. There’s been no visible work on the depot since then.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/320, ISO 100.
September 13, 2020 – I got word from a fellow railfan out of Louisville, Austin Bell, that Norfolk Southern 168 was headed west from Louisville, Kentucky with NS Pennsylvania Heritage unit 8102 leading on the NS Southern East District. He knew it was one of three that I still needed to fill my collection of the 20 Heritage Paint Units that NS has put out. (Now I need NS 1065 and NS 1700)
I typically don’t railfan Sundays as I do church and edit the videos from the live stream in the afternoon and update our web locations with the same. However, I answered the call this afternoon and made the 1.5 hour drive to Princeton, Indiana to capture this shot of the train as it heads west through the yard at Princeton with my drone!
I actually caught it starting at west end of Ashire, Indiana and chased it to Princeton and was able to catch it at several spots along the route with my D800 and the drone, but in this case the drone won out because of the new angle it gives me!
I also met up with a lot of railfan friends that were trackside for the same train and got to finally meet Railfan Julian (6 year old railfan that loves trains) and his mom!
If you want to encourage young railfans I invite you to give his page a like here on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/railfan.julian.5
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/100, ISO 100.
September 12, 2020 – CSXT 945 leads Q503 south as it makes its way up the final leg of the viaduct to the bridge across the Ohio river at Henderson, Ky as it heads south on the Henderson Subdivision on the dog days of summer!
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/1000, ISO 100.
September 10, 2020 – Paducah and Louisville 4518 & 4522 lead PRX1, a loaded coal train, as they depart Warrior Coal at Nebo, Kentucky, headed southbound for the barge loading and blending facility at Calvert City, Ky.
I’ve shot trains coming out of here for well over 15 years now and this is the first time I’m able to get this view thanks to my new camera platform, the DJI Mavic Mini Drone. To say this device has opened up a whole new world of pictures and videos is an understatement!
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm lens (24mm Equivalent), f/2.8, 1/1250, ISO 100.
September 7, 2020 – CSXT 872 heads up loaded grain train G419 as it heads south on the Henderson Subdivision at Nortonville, Kentucky.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, Lens 4.5mm (24mm Equivalent), f/2.8, 1/1600, ISO 100.