Today's Train of Thought- Crossing a Warrior; September 7, 2011

Today's train of thought takes us to one of WATCO's operations in the Heart of Dixie- the Alabama Southern, which operates some 80 miles between Columbus, MS and Tuscaloosa, AL.

Thus portions of the line was originally chartered as part of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, which became part of the Gulf Mobile & Ohio towards the end of the Great Depression in 1940. In 1972, the GM&O merged with the Illinois Central to form the Illinois Central Gulf. By the mid 1980s, the line was part of several hundred miles worth of trackage from Minnesota to Alabama that the ICG had divested, forming half a dozen regionals in the process. The Columbus-Tuscaloosa segment became part of the Mid-South railway, which in turn was acquired by the Kansas City Southern in 1994. However, KCS for the most part seemed primarily interested in the Shreveport, LA to Meridian, MS portion of the former Mid South line and in 2005, leased the 80+ miles between Columbus and Tuscaloosa, AL to Kansas-based WATCO Companies. WATCO began operations under the name Alabama Southern that year and has been hauling steel, lumber, aggregates and other commodities ever since.

Earlier this year, the railway suffered a significant setback when one of the many deadly tornadoes that tore through the region knocked down the steel Hurricane Creek trestle east of Tuscaloosa. The 1909 built structure was one of the largest steel structures in the southeastern USA. According to a local conservation group, they have been in direct consultation with both WATCO and Opelika, AL-based Scott Bridge on guidelines for a replacement structure. Since the tornadoes, the Alabama Southern has been interchanging with CSX in Birmingham, AL via a detour on Norfolk Southern.

However, to the west, the 1898-built combination steel and timber trestle across the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa still stands. Here, railpictures.net contributor Chris Martin caught WAMX (Webb Asset Management) SD40-2 # trundling across the eastern end of the Black Warrior River trestle at a brisk 5 MPH with a trip of SD40-2s and some general freight in February 2008.

Today's Train of Thought- Haven't the Foggiest, September 19, 2011

Today's Train of Thought takes us to the bayous right outside of the Big Easy on a foggy Louisiana morning.

Here, the motive power seemingly tries to blend in with the enveloping morning mist as it leads a southbound merchandise freight past Milepost 853 on Kansas City Southern's New Orleans Subdivision.

The rather self-explanatory New Orleans Subdivision traverses Louisiana diagonally between Shreveport and New Orleans by way of Alexandria and Baton Rouge, LA and is one of five lines that radiates from Kansas City Southern's Shreveport, LA hub. Lines also head east to Meridian, MS, north to Kansas City, MO, west to Dallas, TX and south to the Houston area.

Here, railpitcures.net Brian LaFleur (aka 'Pork Chop') caught Kansas City Southern SD40-2 #661 rounding a curve at Almedia, LA in August 2004, just outside the train's final destination of New Orleans.

Today's Train of Thought- Courtesey the Red White & Blue

Prior to the nation's 1976 bicentennial, a number of American railways decided to mark the occasion by introducing one-of-a-kind bicentennial paint schemes. The paint scheme was usually limited to one or two engines- some of which were renumbered 1776 or 1976 for the occasion.

A number of these locomotives have since been repainted, sold, retired or scrapped since then, but there were a number of holdouts. The Alaska Railroad had a pair of F7As that remained in the bicentenial scheme well into the 1980s. Belt Railway of Chicago had one of their then-new MP15AC's delivered in a red, white & blue scheme which didn't get repainted until the late 1990s. Pennsylvania's Pittsburgh and Shawmut was apparently so taken with their bicentinial scheme that they repainted the remainder of their small fleet of SW9s in red white & blue until their 1999 takeover by Genesee & Wyoming. ALCo holdout Delaware & Hudson had a chop-nose RS3u renumbered 1976 that was stored serviceable by the time then-parent company Guilford divested themselves of the D&H. The locomotive never saw service again with the D&H, but it found a home along Pennsylvania's Northern Tier hauling freight and excursion trains for the Tioga Central- where it still remains in its bicentennial colors.

With that in mind, today's star spangled train of thought takes us to the deep south and features some red white and blue engines hard at work.

A solid set of rent-a-wreck SD40-2s- with red, white and blue Helm Leasing #6204 and #6206 leading the way- trundle across the Chattahoochee River Bridge between Phenix City, AL and Columbus, GA with Norfolk Southern stone train 67G in October 2007. Interestingly, railpictures.net contributor Casey Thomason was watching the train approach from another Time Zone as the Georgia-Alabama state line marks the boundary between the Eastern and Central Time Zones.

As all-American as this scene might look, the leading pair of locomotives started out life in Canada, built at EMD's London, ON shops for BC Rail. Not too long after the SD40-2s were delivered, the BC Rail went from a two-tone green paint scheme to red white and blue up right up until their 2003 takeover by Canadian National. The CN deemed the units surplus and they were acquired by Helm Financial and subleased to railroads like Norfolk Southern, Pan Am Railways or Kansas City Southern.

Today's Train of Thought- Peace Through Superior FireHorsepower

Today's train of thought- perhaps unsurprisingly- brings us not only north of the border, but about as far north as one can get on the North American standard gauge railroad network (while Fairbanks, AK would be further north, railcars moving to and from Alaska actually have to travel by ship). Around a hundred years ago, it was determined that the Peace River region in northwestern Alberta was one of the few places remaining for settlers which could support agriculture under the dominion of Canada's land grants. The only problem was that there was no rail link to the rest of Canada, so a series of competing lines were awarded charters to build lines radiating north and west out of Edmonton. After WWI, many of these lines were struggling financially or incomplete and after a series of lease agreements with the province. Alberta would then continue to group these railroads under the Northern Alberta Railways umbrella and the line to Dawson Creek, BC would serve as the railhead to the Alaska Highway construction project following US entry into WWII. The NAR would see some postwar traffic, but it began to taper off when Pacific Great Eastern (BC Rail's predecessor) built a line into Dawson Creek from the south.

Already half owned by Canadian National, the NAR would cease to exist as a separate entity when CN purchased a controlling interest in NAR in 1981. In the late 1990s, much of the NAR lines were targeted for divestiture by the CN, only to have the separate entities (mostly operated by Rail America, Savage Rail Services and CANDO) be reacquired by 2007.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Tim Stevens caught CN SD40 #6001 leading a pair of battered GP40-2LWs as they cross a trestle in Peace River, AB with a slightly overpowered local bound for the Daishowa Paper mill west of town on August 29, 2008.

Also to the west of town is the junction where the line to Hines Creek, AB meanders west while the line to Hay River, NWT heads north. Hay River is terminus for the northernmost standard gauge line in Canada.

I thought I'd close out Canada day with this.

Today's Train of Thought- Different Shades of Blue, June 28 2010

Today's train of thought takes us to the former textile mill town of Lawrence in northeastern Massachusetts. Although a shadow of its former self, Lawrence remains something of a transportation hub- even if most of the people are just passing through- with I-93 and I-495 meeting just outside the city while the old Boston & Maine line through town sees daily MBTA commuter trains and more recently, Amtrak's Downeaster service between Boston's North Station and Portland, ME (although the latter doesn't stop in Lawrence).

To accommodate regular passenger service, the track and signaling on the former B&M Freight Main were upgraded considerably to accommodate higher speeds and more frequent trains (up to 5 daily Boston-Portland round trips for the Downeaster alone).

With that in mind, the Pan-Am Freight Main between Portland and Lawrence serves as a conduit for inbound cement, pulp, clay products and chemicals and outbound paper from the state of Maine. While the improvements to the Boston-Portland line were made nearly a decade ago, more recent improvements to the old B&M West end underwritten by Norfolk Southern (in exchange for access to markets in Boston and elsewhere in New England) over the past couple of years has helped expedite freight into and out of New England.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Matt Rooks caught Pan Am Rail SD40-2s #609 and 607 leaning into a curve as it heads southbound- westbound as far as the railway is concerned- with symbol freight WAED (WAterville, ME to East Deerfield, MA) in early May 2010. Both units are former TFM (Transportes Ferrovias Mexicano) with the #607 still wearing the two-tone blue with red trim of the Mexican national railways.

Today's Train of Thought- Flagging the Crossing, June 14, 2011

Today's rather nocturnal train of thought brings us to the county seat of Oldham County in north Central Kentucky during the predawn hours.

Most towns would consider a busy railway line running right down the middle of their main street a nuisance or hazard. LaGrange, KY however, seems to embrace the presence of CSX on the former Louisville & Nashville Short Line between Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH that runs down the town's main street. Heck- the downtown business association's website proudly features an image of a CSX train trundling through downtown LaGrange.

Located along I-71 and the CSX LCL subdivision (short for Louisville, Cincinnati & Lexington, the L&N predecessor that built the line in the 1850s), the town of LaGrange is about 20 miles northeast of Louisville and 75 miles southwest of Cincinnati. Although the line has seen significant improvement in terms of trackwork, clearance and capacity over the last decade, LaGrange itself is something of a bottleneck due to the 10MPH speed restriction through downtown. Even with those restrictions, the line sees anywhere from a dozen to 20 trains daily hauling anything from auto racks to grain to general freight.

Here, Vermont's own Gary Knapp (who has drawn comparisons to O Winston Link) meticulously set up some lighting and played an hours long waiting game to snap a northbound general freight with Old Glory prominently in the foreground and CSX SD40-2 #8118 leading a pair of widecab GEs towards the end of October 2007. The trains arrival and departure will be relatively quiet, as the downtown area is a 'quiet zone'- passing trains do not blow their horns for crossings on their way in and out of town.

Knapp identified the red brick house with the white pillars as the mayor's residence, which along with the mayor's then new VW Beetle, shows up in the foreground of some pictures taken earlier in the night.

Today's Train of Thought- Talking Trash, June 8, 2011

Today's train of thought revolves around a commodity that American railroads had overlooked until fairly recently- and for good reason according to some.

The July 2011 issue of Trains had a pretty good write-up on cities that had gradually run out of room for trash and waste at nearby landfills, sending their trash to a handful of out-of-state landfills and how the rail industry was seemingly poised to take advantage.

One of the first metropolitan areas to experiment with using rail to ship garbage out of town was Seattle. Typically, instead of being trucked out of town, the trash was compacted into cubes and loaded into containers for a 300 mile trek to a landfill in Southern Washington. Aside from some tweaks to the trains routing, the flatcars and containers, not much has changed in the last 15 years or so.

To the north, Sonomish County got into the act and began setting up transload facilities where the trash is consolidated and moved south by rail to a landfill in the hills overlooking the Colombia river at Roosevelt, WA.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Andrew Kim caught southbound BNSF symbol freight U- EVEROO (Everett, WA to Roosevelt, WA) snaking along Puget sound in Edmonds, WA with former Santa Fe SD40-2 #6887 leading two cascade green SD40-2s and a string of loaded garbage containers behind them right before sunset on an October 2007 day.

With Mt Baker off in the distance, there is no doubt that that is a very scenic location along the former Great Northern mainline. However, we should probably be glad that this image isn't available in that proposed smell-o-vision format.

Today's Train of Thought- Meanwhile in Valley City; May 24, 2010

Today's train of thought brings us to an impressive span in a state that is synonymous with 'flat'. About 60 miles west of Fargo, the town of Valley City, ND also goes by the moniker 'city of bridges'.

In addition to the smaller vehicle and footbridges closer to the town center that span the winding Sheyenne River, there's the soaring former Northern Pacific Hi-Line bridge north of town. The 103 year old structure is more than 3800 feet long and 162 feet high and was built by the Northern Pacific to bypass the steep grades in and out of the valley on it's Twin Cities-Seattle mainline. In the course of traversing the valley, the bridge (now BNSF's) crosses a county highway, the Sheyenne River and the Carrington Subdivision on Canadian Pacific's former Soo Line route between the Twin Cities and the Canadian border at Portal, ND.

Above, railpictures.net contributor Bryant Kaden caught BNSF SD40-2 #6885 leading an eastbound Jamestown, ND to Fargo, ND local freight as the 2nd generation EMD locomotives come off the eastern end of the trestle on June 10, 2010. The CP Rail's Carrington Subdivision is just visible in the bottom left of the image.


As a bonus, railpictures.net contributor Jerimiah Rindahl caught the same train at the same time from a slightly different location, offering an even more panoramic view of the surrounding countryside.

I'll let you compare and contrast the two images and see which one you find more appealing.

Today's Train of Thought- At A Glacier's Pace; Feb 24, 2011

Today's rather snowy train of thought takes us back to Big Sky country before winter fully kicks in. The weather outside didn't look that frightful as railpictures.net contributor Rick Newton caught BNSF #7923 leading a quintet of BNSF SD40-2s as they grind to a halt just outside of Browning, in Glacier County Montana.

This stretch of the old Great Northern between Minneapolis-St Paul and Seattle was completed in 1893 and featured the Empire Builder as the premier passenger train (who's latest incarnation is being run by Amtrak). The stretch in northwestern Montana skirts the southern boundary of Glacier National Park as westbound trains begin their assault on the Rockies.

Here, the cascade green of Burlington Northern, Santa Fe 'Bluebonnet' and BNSF's Great Northern-inspired orange and Pullman green paint scheme are all represented on five SD40-2s handling an eastbound manifest freight as it grinds to a halt in a siding just outside of Browning, MT on a snowy October 6, 2007 day. The eastbound has just made its way through the difficult terrain and weather at the higher elevations and is entering a siding to let a westbound through.

Today's Train of Thought- Having a Ballast in a Winter Wonderland, Jan 6th 2010

I don't have to go too far back in time for this one, as today's train of though features an accumulation of snow left behind from the same blizzard I waited out in upstate NY and left the Big Apple furious at their own Sanitation Department over the slow cleanup.

However, this is a little further south- the wintry, picture postcard scene snapped here is actually along the CSX main line between Rocky Mount, NC and Richmond, VA. Even a mild dusting of snow is quite unusual this far south, but the December 2010 blizzard dumped anywhere from 10-15 inches of snow in the northern reaches of the Tarheel State.

Railpictures.net user Nick McLean ventured out into the snow in the days immediately following the Christmas blizzard and was rewarded with memorable images of CSX, Amtrak and Gulf and Ohio's Nash County Railroad digging out from under the white stuff in and around the Rocky Mount, NC area.

Here, we see CSX SD40-2 #8084 leading a former Conrail SD60I on a northbound Herzog ballast train as it makes its way the middle of Enfield, NC on December 27, 2010. The train is roughly halfway between Rocky Mount and the NC/VA state line.