February 22, 2020 - Indiana Harbor Belt (IHB) 2920 (SD20 backs into the Blue Island Rail Yard at Riverdale, Illinois, past the old control tower, as it works on building a train. From what I find online the unit was built in 1959 and was rebuilt by Illinois Central in 1980 from IC 2010. Then it went to NRE in 2/95, and was leased to IHB 9/96, before being purchased by IHB 6/2007. According to the IHB Website: The Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad is the largest switch carrier in the U.S. with 54 miles of mainline track (24 miles of which is double main track) and 266 miles of additional yard and siding track. The IHB provides a wide variety of services, including industrial switching with 160 customers, generating 170,000 carloads of business annually. The IHB interchanges daily with 16 other rail carriers in Chicago. A growing fleet of approximately 1,400 freight cars is geared predominately to the steel industry. The industrial traffic base includes 4 of the 5 largest steel producers in the U.S. and a large aluminum processor, oil refineries, corn millers, grain elevators, chemical plants, warehouses, lumber transloading, and bulk transfer operations. IHB's industrial traffic consists of 38% primary metals, 12% chemicals & petroleum products, 11% food products, 8% scrap iron, 7% coal & coke, 6% whole grain, as well as a variety of other products including lumber, paper, and aggregates. The IHB also operates as an intermediate switch carrier between the 12 trunk-line railroads for traffic interchanged between them in Chicago, generating an additional 475,000 revenue cars. The IHB main line circles Chicago from near O'Hare to Northwest Indiana and roughly parallels Interstate 294 (Tri-state Expressway) and I-80/94. Its primary yard, Blue Island (a 44 class track hump yard) at Riverdale, IL lies in about the center of the railroad. Other major yards includes Gibson (in Hammond, IN) which only classifies cars of new autos and Michigan Avenue Yard (in East Chicago) which serves the extensive steel plants which accounts for IHB's primary business. From East Chicago, the IHB operates east for an additional 16 miles on trackage rights to access Burns Harbor, IN and Portage, IN, which includes Indiana's International Port.

Indiana Harbor Belt (IHB) 2920 at Riverdale, IL

February 22, 2020 – Indiana Harbor Belt (IHB) 2920 (SD20 backs into the Blue Island Rail Yard at Riverdale, Illinois, past the old control tower, as it works on building a train. From what I find online the unit was built in 1959 and was rebuilt by Illinois Central in 1980 from IC 2010. Then it went to NRE in 2/95, and was leased to IHB 9/96, before being purchased by IHB 6/2007.

According to the IHB Website: The Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad is the largest switch carrier in the U.S. with 54 miles of mainline track (24 miles of which is double main track) and 266 miles of additional yard and siding track.

The IHB provides a wide variety of services, including industrial switching with 160 customers, generating 170,000 carloads of business annually. The IHB interchanges daily with 16 other rail carriers in Chicago. A growing fleet of approximately 1,400 freight cars is geared predominately to the steel industry. The industrial traffic base includes 4 of the 5 largest steel producers in the U.S. and a large aluminum processor, oil refineries, corn millers, grain elevators, chemical plants, warehouses, lumber transloading, and bulk transfer operations. IHB’s industrial traffic consists of 38% primary metals, 12% chemicals & petroleum products, 11% food products, 8% scrap iron, 7% coal & coke, 6% whole grain, as well as a variety of other products including lumber, paper, and aggregates. The IHB also operates as an intermediate switch carrier between the 12 trunk-line railroads for traffic interchanged between them in Chicago, generating an additional 475,000 revenue cars.

The IHB main line circles Chicago from near O’Hare to Northwest Indiana and roughly parallels Interstate 294 (Tri-state Expressway) and I-80/94. Its primary yard, Blue Island (a 44 class track hump yard) at Riverdale, IL lies in about the center of the railroad. Other major yards includes Gibson (in Hammond, IN) which only classifies cars of new autos and Michigan Avenue Yard (in East Chicago) which serves the extensive steel plants which accounts for IHB’s primary business. From East Chicago, the IHB operates east for an additional 16 miles on trackage rights to access Burns Harbor, IN and Portage, IN, which includes Indiana’s International Port.

April 17, 2020 - CSXT 7005 leads Q025-17 past a crew working on a switch at Anaconda, south of Robards, Ky as it heads south on the Henderson Subdivision with a stack train. In case you're wondering about the "Begin OS sign," from what I find on the web it is an old time term used by telegraph operators and train dispatchers to indicate that a train has passed a particular location on a subdivision. "OS" means "on sheet" referring to the fact that the train dispatcher has recorded train movement on the train sheet he maintained each 24 hour period. It also means Originating Station, the first station on each subdivision from which a train is authorized to occupy the main track.

CSXT 7005 leads Q025-17 past a crew working…

April 17, 2020 – CSXT 7005 leads Q025-17 past a crew working on a switch at Anaconda, south of Robards, Ky as it heads south on the Henderson Subdivision with a stack train.

In case you’re wondering about the “Begin OS sign,” from what I find on the web it is an old time term used by telegraph operators and train dispatchers to indicate that a train has passed a particular location on a subdivision. “OS” means “on sheet” referring to the fact that the train dispatcher has recorded train movement on the train sheet he maintained each 24 hour period. It also means Originating Station, the first station on each subdivision from which a train is authorized to occupy the main track.

June 23, 2006 - Blast From The Past - It was a hot, dry day as a Piggyback with BNSF 5232 leading headed east, meeting a Mixed freight headed up by BNSF 4438 waiting to head west toward Bakersfield, in horseshoe curve in the valley at Caliente, California as they made their way through the Tehachapi Mountains on the UP Mojave Subdivision. Thinking of visiting this area? Check out this page on the web! http://www.trainweb.org/brettrw/maps/caliente.html

It was a hot, dry day as a Piggyback with BNSF 5232 leading…

June 23, 2006 – Blast From The Past – It was a hot, dry day as a Piggyback with BNSF 5232 leading headed east, meeting a Mixed freight headed up by BNSF 4438 waiting to head west toward Bakersfield, in horseshoe curve in the valley at Caliente, California as they made their way through the Tehachapi Mountains on the UP Mojave Subdivision.

April 14, 2020 - A CSX High Railer leads a weed sprayer truck just past the highway 62 overpass on track 1, as it sprays the right-of-way at Nortonville, Ky, as the pair make their way south on the Henderson Subdivision, while performing their springtime work.

A CSX High Railer leads a weed sprayer truck…

April 14, 2020 – A CSX High Railer leads a weed sprayer truck just past the highway 62 overpass on track 1, as it sprays the right-of-way at Nortonville, Ky, as the pair make their way south on the Henderson Subdivision, while performing their springtime work.

October 22, 2007 - Blast From The Past - BNSF 5971 leads a loaded coal train off the Buford Subdivision at Chiles Junction in West Paducah, Kentucky as it prepares to head down the Paducah and Louisville Railway bound for the coal Terminal at Calvert City, Kentucky.

BNSF 5971 leads a loaded coal train off the Buford Subdivision…

October 22, 2007 – Blast From The Past – BNSF 5971 leads a loaded coal train off the Buford Subdivision at Chiles Junction in West Paducah, Kentucky as it prepares to head down the Paducah and Louisville Railway bound for the coal Terminal at Calvert City, Kentucky.

May 1, 2005 - Blast From The Past - BNSF 2819 heads past the old interlocking tower at Shattuc, Illinois on BNSF's Beardstown Subdivision as it crosses over the Illinois Subdivision. From what I gather from the web, CSX closed the Illinois Subdivision through here at one point and used it for car storage, but then I find references to the line being used now by The Prairie Line, a shortline out of O'Fallon, IL (I'm now told the shortline hasn't materialized yet). BNSF still owns and uses the Bardstown Sub. I'm also told that the diamond was removed in 2019, at least temporarily. In the past this tower controlled the movements of trains on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad along with the B&O Railroad. It was closed sometime in the 1980's and from what I can find on the web it was torn down in late 2014. I've also found reports where it was bought by a collector and moved. Whichever is correct, this picture isn't to be replicated again today since the tower is now gone. If you'd like to read a great piece on the tower, check out this article on The Trackside Photographer by Tom Gatermann, who visited the tower the same year as me. http://thetracksidephotographer.com/tag/shattuc-tower/ Photograph the towers when and where you can as they continue to disappear from the railroad landscape.

BNSF 2819 heads past the old interlocking tower at Shattuc, Illinois

May 1, 2005 – Blast From The Past – BNSF 2819 heads past the old interlocking tower at Shattuc, Illinois on BNSF’s Beardstown Subdivision as it crosses over the Illinois Subdivision.

From what I gather from the web, CSX closed the Illinois Subdivision through here at one point and used it for car storage, but then I find references to the line being used now by The Prairie Line, a shortline out of O’Fallon, IL (I’m now told the shortline hasn’t materialized yet). BNSF still owns and uses the Bardstown Sub. I’m also told that the diamond was removed in 2019, at least temporarily.

In the past this tower controlled the movements of trains on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad along with the B&O Railroad. It was closed sometime in the 1980’s and from what I can find on the web it was torn down in late 2014. I’ve also found reports where it was bought by a collector and moved. Whichever is correct, this picture isn’t to be replicated again today since the tower is now gone.

If you’d like to read a great piece on the tower, check out this article on The Trackside Photographer by Tom Gatermann, who visited the tower the same year as me.

http://thetracksidephotographer.com/tag/shattuc-tower/

Photograph the towers when and where you can as they continue to disappear from the railroad landscape.

May 1, 2005 - Blast From The Past - The conductor on a Union Pacific freight walks past the American Flag on his engine in the yard at Salem, Illinois. According to the Union Pacific Website: When we added the flag to our locomotives more than a decade ago – at the suggestion of an employee after 9/11 – we followed the tradition of having the Union (the blue field of stars) lead the way, such that on the right-hand side of the vehicle ("passenger side"), the flag would appear reversed. Further, the flag was painted to convey the motion of forward movement as if it were billowing with the speed of the locomotive. Having the Union forward on both sides is the overwhelming choice anytime the flag is portrayed on a transport vehicle, from NASA space shuttles to Air Force One.

The conductor on a Union Pacific freight walks past the American Flag…

May 1, 2005 – Blast From The Past – The conductor on a Union Pacific freight walks past the American Flag on his engine in the yard at Salem, Illinois.

According to the Union Pacific Website: When we added the flag to our locomotives more than a decade ago – at the suggestion of an employee after 9/11 – we followed the tradition of having the Union (the blue field of stars) lead the way, such that on the right-hand side of the vehicle (“passenger side”), the flag would appear reversed.

Further, the flag was painted to convey the motion of forward movement as if it were billowing with the speed of the locomotive. Having the Union forward on both sides is the overwhelming choice anytime the flag is portrayed on a transport vehicle, from NASA space shuttles to Air Force One.

April 4, 2006 - Blast From The Past - CSXT 8584 leads a mixed freight past the signals approaching the southern crossover, where CSX and Norfolk Southern crossover on the CSX CE&D Subdivision, as it heads north through Princeton, Indiana.

CSXT 8584 leads a mixed freight…

April 4, 2006 – Blast From The Past – CSXT 8584 leads a mixed freight past the signals approaching the southern crossover, where CSX and Norfolk Southern crossover on the CSX CE&D Subdivision, as it heads north through Princeton, Indiana. Jim Pearson Photography

June 21, 2006 - Blast From The Past - It's 9:45 in the morning as Union Pacific 2365 struggles past CP Canyon as it heads east up the Cajon Pass in southern California with a loaded manifest.The pass is one of the busiest rail areas in southern California.

Union Pacific 2365 struggles past CP Canyon…

June 21, 2006 – Blast From The Past – It’s 9:45 in the morning as Union Pacific 2365 struggles past CP Canyon as it heads east up the Cajon Pass in southern California with a loaded manifest.The pass is one of the busiest rail areas in southern California.

April 4, 2006 - Blast From The Past - Norfolk Southern 8479 leads a mixed freight eastbound as the setting sun produces a golden glow as the train makes its way out of Princeton, Indiana on the NS Southern East District.

Norfolk Southern 9479 leads a mixed freight…

April 4, 2006 – Blast From The Past – Norfolk Southern 9479 leads a mixed freight eastbound as the setting sun produces a golden glow as the train makes its way out of Princeton, Indiana on the NS Southern East District.

July 31, 2004- Blast From The Past - A pair of E8s, with 5711 leading, in beautiful Pennsylvania RR maroon and gold paint pulled a private car passenger train between Philadelphia and Dennison, Ohio during the Dennison Railroad Museum's 2004 Railfest. Here it is just East of Morgan Run headed away from Dennison. The event was in cooperation with the Ohio Central Railroad, as the museum celebrated its 15th Anniversary. It was billed as the largest railroad heritage event of 2004. It ran from July 30 to August 1, 2004. Many of the locomotives featured during the event were owned by the Ohio Central Railroad. The Ohio Central at that time provided full-time freight railroad services and also offered passenger excursions powered by vintage equipment. Not sure if this is still the case or not.

A pair of E8s, with 5711 leading…

July 31, 2004- Blast From The Past – A pair of E8s, with 5711 leading, in beautiful Pennsylvania RR maroon and gold paint pulled a private car passenger train between Philadelphia and Dennison, Ohio during the Dennison Railroad Museum’s 2004 Railfest. Here it is just East of Morgan Run headed away from Dennison.

The event was in cooperation with the Ohio Central Railroad, as the museum celebrated its 15th Anniversary. It was billed as the largest railroad heritage event of 2004.

It ran from July 30 to August 1, 2004. Many of the locomotives featured during the event were owned by the Ohio Central Railroad. The Ohio Central at that time provided full-time freight railroad services and also offered passenger excursions powered by vintage equipment. Not sure if this is still the case or not.