Blast From The Past – I’ve covered a lot of military activities during my 24 year career as a photojournalist in the U.S. Air Force, as a member of Combat Camera. Photographing military exercises and operations was one of my main duties and required me to travel extensively, which I loved!! This shot was taken of me as I fired shoulder mounted LAWS rocket somewhere in the Sahara Desert during one of the Operation Bright Star exercises in Egypt.
September 22, 2019 – Norfolk Southern 1206 heads south into DeButts Yard with it’s mixed freight at Chattanooga, Tennessee as a northbound freight departs.
October 17, 2019 – CSXT Locomotive #1, “Spirit of West Virginia,” leads Q029-16 as it crests a hill at Mortons Junction in Mortons Gap, Kentucky as it heads south on the Henderson Subdivision.
Blast From The Past – October 15, 1983 – Anti-nuclear demonstrators camped outside the air base during the arrival of Ground Launch Cruise Missile equipment at RAF Greenham Common in the UK. USAF Photo by SSgt. James R. Pearson
September 5, 2019 – Lake Superior Railroad Museum Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 332 steam locomotive passes heads toward Palmers Siding on its way north to Twin Harbors from Duluth, Minnesota on the North Shore Scenic Railroad.
October 14, 2019 – The inbound crew on Union Pacific 1989, Denver Rio Grande Heritage Unit, leaves CSX W221-13 at Howell Yard in Evansville, Indiana after tying down their train. A new outbound crew will take coke train on south onto the Henderson Subdivision on its way to Georgia. It’s trailing units here are UP 6684 and 7164.
According to Wikipedia: Union Pacific 1989: Serial number 20056723-098, is painted in Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad colors. It was delivered on 24 May 2006, unveiled on June 17, 2006, at a special UP employee event in Denver, Colorado.
It is one of six EMD SD70ACe locomotives that are painted in the liveries of railroads acquired by the Union Pacific. The company says the locomotives “pay homage to those railroads and the generations of men and women who helped to build a great nation and the foundation for our future.”
Blast From The Past – March 6, 1985 – Vice-President George Bush, who was in the Sudan on a fact finding tour, receives a briefing on the U.S. Ethiopian relief operation from Dr. Philip Johnston, executive director of CARE. Over 50,000 pounds of food and supplies were delivered to the airport aboard a 6th Military Airlift Squadron aircraft. – USAF Photo by James R. Pearson
October 8, 2019 – A northbound empty coal train CSX E319 meets southbound hot intermodal CSX Q025 at Nortonville, Kentucky as they both make their way along the Henderson Subdivision.
October 14, 2019 – Union Pacific 1989, Denver Rio Grand Heritage Unit, pulls past a switch at CSX’s Howell Yard in Evansville, Indiana, after dropping off a trailing CSXT unit from it’s consist. It is leading a southbound loaded coke train CSX W221-13 on it’s way down the CE&D, Henderson and other Subdivisions in Illinois, Indiana, and Tennessee on its way to Georgia. It’s trailing units here are UP 6684 and 7164.
Blast From The Past – October 1, 1986 – A view of a portion of the Great Wall located northwest and north of Beijing, China showing the fortified tower positions and many tourists. The construction of the wall started in the 7th Century BC by the first Emperor Quin Shui Hunag Di. It is 25 feet high and nearly 25 feet thick in places, the original wall, 1500 miles in length, took ten years to complete. In 1368 AD the Ming Dynasty continued construction for 200 years and it now is over 3750 miles in length.
This photograph was made during an assignment where I covered the crew of a KC-10 Refueling Tanker that flew a group of Chinese Acrobats that had been performing in the U.S. back to their home in China. – USAF Photo by TSgt. James R. Pearson
Blast From The Past – February 1, 1985 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise in launch position on the Space Launch Complex (SLC) #6, commonly known as “SLICK 6”, during the ready-to-launch checks to verify launch procedures at Vandenburg AFB, California. – Photo by TSgt. James R. Pearson
According to the NASA Website: NASA ferried Enterprise to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to conduct fit checks at the Space Launch Complex-6 (SLC-6), which NASA had planned to use for polar orbiting shuttle missions. NASA used Enterprise to conduct tests at SLC-6 similar to the 1979 tests at KSC’s Launch Complex 39. The tests at Vandenberg complete, NASA ferried Enterprise back to Dryden on May 24, 1985.
From Wikipedia: Space Shuttle Enterprise (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101) was the first orbiter of the Space Shuttle system. Rolled out on September 17, 1976, it was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform atmospheric test flights after being launched from a modified Boeing 747. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight.
Originally, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight to become the second space-rated orbiter in service. However, during the construction of Space Shuttle Columbia, details of the final design changed, making it simpler and less costly to build Challenger around a body frame that had been built as a test article. Similarly, Enterprise was considered for refit to replace Challenger after the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was built from structural spares instead]
Enterprise was restored and placed on display in 2003 at the Smithsonian’s new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. Following the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet, Discovery replaced Enterprise at the Udvar-Hazy Center, and Enterprise was transferred to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City, where it has been on display since July 2012
October 14, 2019 – Union Pacific 1989, Rio Grand Heritage Unit, backs into a track at CSX’s Howell Yard to drop off a CSX unit, in Evansville, Indiana. It leading southbound loaded coke train CSX W221-13 on it’s way through the CE&D and Henderson and other Subdivisions through Illinois, Indiana, and Tennessee on its way to Georgia. Not sure why it made its way through our area, but sure glad it did! Thanks to all the folks that gave heads up along the way!!
According to Wikipedia: Union Pacific 1989: Serial number 20056723-098, is painted in Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad colors. It was delivered on 24 May 2006, unveiled on June 17, 2006, at a special UP employee event in Denver, Colorado.
It is one of six EMD SD70ACe locomotives that are painted in the liveries of railroads acquired by the Union Pacific. The company says the locomotives “pay homage to those railroads and the generations of men and women who helped to build a great nation and the foundation for our future.”
September 22, 2019 – BNSF 9163 acts as the DPU as it brings up the rear headed north from NS DeButts Yard at Chattanooga, Tennessee with a loaded coal train on the CNO&TP Third District.
October 8, 2019 – Loaded grain train CSX G307 pulls through the Mortons Junction switch as it heads south on the Henderson Subdivision at Mortons Gap, Ky with CSXT 521 leading.
Blast From The Past – Jan. 20, 1981 – The 52 former Iran hostages are welcomed and cheered by hospital personnel as they arrive at the Wiesbaden Air Base hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, after their release from Iran. The hostages stayed at the hospital for a few days before their departure to the United States. (USAF Photo by SSgt. James R. Pearson)
September 21, 2019 – The John A. Chambliss “TAG 80” passes through and industrial section of Chattanooga, Tennessee, as it returns from a photo charter run to Chickamauga, Georgian, with Southern 4501, all dressed up as L&N 1593 trailing, during the L&N Historical Society weekend at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (TVRM). Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.
According to the TVRM Website it was built for the Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia Railway in 1968, TAG 80 was the last and most powerful engine purchased by that railroad. The engine was named “The John A. Chambliss” in honor of the railroad’s vice president, and dedicated on his 80th birthday.
The 80 was later sold to the Southern Railway, and later became the property of Norfolk Southern, who sold it at auction to the Chambliss family in 2001, who then donated the locomotive to TVRM. The locomotive was restored mechanically, electrically and cosmetically between 2015 and 2016, returning to service in March 2017. It is a model GP38, developing 2,000 horsepower.
Blast from the Past – May 10, 1987 President Ronald Reagan gives graduation address to the graduating class of Tuskegee University their friends and families during ceremonies held at the university. – USAF Photo by TSgt. James R. Pearson
September 5, 2019 – Lake Superior Railroad Museum’s Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 332 steam locomotive passes Palmers Siding as it heads north toward Twin Harbors from Duluth, Minnesota on the North Shore Scenic Railroad.
Blast from the Past Series – December 10, 1982 – A front view of an HH-53 Super Jolly helicopter in flight over the Tower Bridge in London, England during a US Air Force pararescue training exercise. The helicopter was assigned to the 67th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron. – USAF Photo by SSgt. James R. Pearson
September 20, 2019 – Southern 4501, all dressed up as L&N 1593, sits on the turntable at the shops in East Chattanooga, during the Annual L&N Convention night shoot, at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
October 5, 2019 – A Loaded E319 takes on fuel on Ohio Street, just north of Howell Yard in Evansville, Indiana as a Evansville Western Railway crew brings it off their line. Their train it will be tied down in the siding at Harwood, on the Evansville Terminal Subdivision, as it waits for a fresh crew that will take it on north as a N319 (N319 Evansville, IN (EVWR) – Cross, SC). Most coal trains head south from Evansville, but I’m told that some have started going north, bound for the east coast for export overseas. Not sure if they’re being rerouted due to weather or construction.