September 20, 2017 – CSX Q513 (Avon, IN – Waycross, GA) departs Howell Yard with UP units 7191, 9608 and lease unit KLWX 5749 trailing, that is a ex-CP unit, as they head south on the Henderson Subdivision with northbound Q648 (Waycross, GA – Chicago, IL) waiting in the distance to enter the yard.
September 9, 2017 – Southern Railway steam locomotive 630 bursts from the east end of Missionary Ridge Tunnel with a loaded passenger train during the 2017 Railfest at Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, as it heads for the station at East Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Completed in 1858 the tunnel is the primary reason TVRM runs on the three-mile section of the former Southern Railway. As railroad equipment grew too large to pass through and the single-track tunnel became a traffic jam for an otherwise double-track railroad, Southern Railway abandoned the three mile portion of the line and built a new section around the end of Missionary Ridge, avoiding the tunnel altogether.
The museum restored rails through the tunnel in 1971 and continues to use the pre-Civil War Tunnel on a daily basis.
September 9, 2017 – Southern Railway diesel locomotives 5000, 3170, 2594, with a freight train, sits on the Chickamauga Creek bridge at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum during the museum’s 2017 Railfest night photo shoot.
2017 Railfest, Chattanooga, TN – I’m often torn when I decide to shoot video trackside, because I invariably hate “missing” a good photograph, but Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s Railfest lended itself so well to video that I made an effort to get some footage using my iPhone 7 Plus. The below, slightly over 13 minute, video is a bit longer than I normally do, but I think it flows pretty good and I hope you enjoy getting a glimpse into the event.
It’s a selection of videos from the 2017 Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum Railfest Operations, Chattanooga, Tennessee of Steam and Diesel operations around the museum and between Chattanooga and East Chattanooga.
September 2, 2017 – A southbound Paducah and Louisville Railway local heads south out of Princeton, KY and meets a northbound empty coal at GV Junction in Gilbertsville, KY, where they did a crew swap.
September 9, 2017 – Southern Railway steam locomotive 630 heads into the west end of Missionary Ridge Tunnel with a loaded passenger train during the 2017 Railfest at Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, as it heads for the station at East Chattanooga, Tennessee. By the way, I love long lenses!!!
Completed in 1858 the tunnel is the primary reason TVRM runs on the three-mile section of the former Southern Railway. As railroad equipment grew too large to pass through and the single-track tunnel became a traffic jam for an otherwise double-track railroad, Southern Railway abandoned the three mile portion of the line and built a new section around the end of Missionary Ridge, avoiding the tunnel altogether.
The museum restored rails through the tunnel in 1971 and continues to use the pre-Civil War Tunnel on a daily basis.
September 8, 2017 – BNSF 9221 leads a loaded coal train down grade alongside Norfolk Southern DeButts Yard in Chattanooga, TN as it heads west on the Chattanooga Terminal.
September 10, 2017 – A gentle cool breeze and birds can be heard in the surrounding trees until till the shrill of a steam whistle and sounds of an approaching locomotive breaks the quietness as it approaches the west end of Missionary Ridge Tunnel.
Next thing you know, it has covered the 900 feet and then Southern Railway steam locomotive 4501 breaks out of the east side of the tunnel as it heads to Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s East Chattanooga station and shops, with a train load of passengers, during the 2017 Railfest.
Completed in 1858 the tunnel is the primary reason TVRM runs on the three-mile section of the former Southern Railway. As railroad equipment grew too large to pass through and the single-track tunnel became a traffic jam for an otherwise double-track railroad, Southern Railway abandoned the three mile portion of the line and built a new section around the end of Missionary Ridge, avoiding the tunnel altogether. The museum restored rails through the tunnel in 1971 and continues to use the pre-Civil War Tunnel on a daily basis.
September 9, 2017 – Southern diesels 2594, 3170 and 5000 (not pictured) move east across the Chickamauga Creek bridge at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, as they are positioned in place for a night photoshoot during the museum’s 2017 Railfest in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
This was the first night rail photoshoot that I have participated in, other than my own that is, and really had a fun time! Casey Thomason, with the NS Railroad did a wonderful time lighting the event for us and a big shout out to the museum for putting it on! Hope to see more events like it in the future!
This shot actually was a 30 second long exposure. The two engines sat on the bridge just long enough into the exposure before they started to move forward, giving me just a tad of motion blur. Wasn’t planned on my part at all, but I’m very happy with the results! Sometimes life just works that way!
September 9, 2017 – Southern 630 and 4501 pull and empty passenger train over the bridge just outside the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum at Chattanooga, Tennessee during the first morning of the museum’s 2017 Railfest.
September 8, 2017 – It’s the afternoon before Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s railfest in Chattanooga, Tennessee and we find the crews busy getting steam engines 4501 and 630 ready for the next days festivities!
September 7, 2017- My first chilly night in Chattanooga, TN I found myself with several fellow railfans on the banks of the Tennessee River, photographing this mixed freight southbound as it headed across the Tenbridge, on the CNO&TP 3rd District of NS’s Central Division. It runs from Chattanooga, TN to Harriman, TN.SB NS on the Tenbridge, Chattanooga, TN
August 25, 2017 – CSX Q647-25 heads south through the Crofton Cut, as Ferromex 4663 leads the Chicago, IL to Waycross, GA mixed freight south on the Henderson Subdivision, on a beautiful springlike summer day, north of Crofton, Ky
September 5, 2017 – There’s been a lot of work being done on the CSX’s Henderson Subdivision this summer, as evidenced by the stacks of used ties stacked along the Earlington Cut-off at Mortons Junction in Mortons Gap, Ky. Here we see CSX 0587 (Evansville, IN to Nashville, TN, as it comes off the cut-off onto the main on the way south.
September 2, 2017 – Well, today was my day for catching long strings of power! Not only did I catch the Paducah and Louisville Railway local between Madisonville and Paducah, Ky, but when I got to the PAL Yard at Paducah I found this string of ex-BNSF units destined for Progress Rail. There’s 13 of them in all and I couldn’t get a shot where I could read all their numbers.
September 2, 2017 – A southbound Paducah and Louisville Railway local (right) pulls past a northbound empty coal train after a meet and crew swap at GV Junction in Gilbertsville, Ky. The local, with 9 units went on to Paducah, Ky and the coal train continued on north towards Warrior Coal in Nebo, Ky where it would pick up its next load of coal.
September 2, 2017 – A Paducah and Louisville Railway local heads south across the bridge at Kentucky Dam, outside of Gilbertsville, Ky, with a string of nine units. PAL has decided to start moving any power left in the yard at Madisonville, Ky on Saturdays back to Paducah, KY, hince the train with so much power. The units were 4523, 4510, 4502, 2118, 2111, 2110, 2109, 2120 and 2117.
August 23, 2017 – Kansas City Southern 4771 leads CSX Q029-23 (Chicago, IL-Atlanta, GA) south, with BNSF 4980 trailing, as it passes it’s counterpart, northbound Q028 in the siding at Trenton, Ky, as it heads south on the Henderson Subdivision.
I wanted this shot bad and in the rush I failed to check my shutter speed on my Fuji XT-1. The photo ended up being about 5 stops over exposed! While I lost some details in the highlights, mostly evident in the ballast and sky, at least I recovered it well enough to make this post. The key to recovery is that the photo was shot as a RAW file, as all my images are shot and processed as RAW files.
If you don’t shoot in RAW and your camera is able to do so, you’re not using the full potential of your camera’s sensor! When shooting and processing in RAW format you capture every bit of detail and data that your sensor can capture, whereas JPG doesn’t. This photo wouldn’t have seen the light of day as a JPG. Just food for thought!!
If you’re looking for a tutorial for using RAW here’s the one I bought and learned from:
Of course there’s a lot of free classes out there also on YouTube, but this one is the best I’ve found.
If you’ve never visited Creativelive it’s a great resource and if you watch the live broadcast then there’s no charge! Once it broadcasts, or if you want to go back and review the video over and over again then it’s available for purchase as the RAW course. It’s a great resource!
August 31, 2017 – This afternoon I had just got home from railfanning and was sitting on my front porch here in Richland, Ky, when Paducah and Louisville high rail trucks pulled up to the crossing in front of my house and 4 workers got out with flags in their hands. Well, I figured something different was going on and grabbed my camera and walked down the hill to the crossing.
Loram Rail Grinder 514 was working it’s way north along the PAL and it appeared to be a brand new rail grinder. My 5-year old nephew Damion called it a rail polisher! They spent several minutes as they grinded across the defect detector and crossing in front of the house, before they headed on north.
Some days things just come to me, others I have to go looking! LOL
August 16, 2017 – Indiana Railroad 9010 and 9013 heads toward Hoosier Energy’s Merom Generating Station outside Sullivan, Indiana to deliver about 100 loaded gondola coal cars.Indiana Railroad 9010 and 9013 heads toward Hoosier Energy’s Merom Generating Station