A Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad freight train makes it’s way Eastbound through the Tehachapi Loop East of Bakersfield, California. – Video by Jim Pearson
Year: 2011
This is a video I shot on my September vacation to California and back. It’s in the Cajon Pass on the Union Pacific track that passes through Morman Rocks, East of San Bernardino, Ca. – Video by Jim Pearson
Well, after 4 years, I finally caught this guy on the move leaving Alcoa/Vectren. He normally doesnt leave til 11:00-12:00 as I can hear it, although faint, from my house, and doesnt return til 2:30-3:00am. Thing is I went down to where it normally sits off Eble/Sharon Rd. and there was another one sitting on the main and not the siding. He was all lit up and ready to move too. Waited for a bit but he didn’t move, so I left. Hope you don’t get motion sick, took the video on my phone 🙂
Thought this would be neat to share with the group as its not common for anything to move on this set of track anymore. I can only assume they started using rail to haul the coal in back in 07-08 due to high cost of fuel and therefore using trucks to bring it in. (Video by Matt Gentry)
Submitted by James Futrell
These photos were at a train derailment in Fulton, Ky. The derailment (we know now) started at a broken rail the car derailed and took out some MOW equipment stored on an adjoining track. As the car continued under the bridge it took out several switches and rail before coming to a stop south of the bridge. In the preceding morning pictures you can see a group in the lower left corner of one shot assessing the situation before cleanup began. I’m told that the north bound Amtrak had just cleared this track before train 194 used it going south and derailed. The amount of work performed between 8 AM and noon is nothing short of amazing. It looks like chaos but everyone has probably done this many times before and hit the ground running. The 5 or 6 train backlog was gone by noon.
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Rex Easterly sent in a few photos of his new garden railroad in Springfield, MO. A Missouri Pacific passenger train crosses the Ron Stubblefield Memorial Bridge (these bridges formerly resided on Ron’s garden railroad in Marion, KY). Rex hopes to have the water feature finished this spring. I smell a road trip!
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HAPPY THANKSGIVING! by Ricky Bivins, Chapter President
Let us not forget what we are and should be thankful for as we go about our daily routine. I know I have much to be thankful for as I am sure you do as well. Last month was a very good meeting. Several members were on hand for Chapter Nominations for Officers for the upcoming 2012 year. At the end of nominations last month, there were no nominations made other than current officers holding their respective office. This month I will once again call for nominations from the floor THREE times for each office. At that point I will ask for a vote for each office. Remember, if someone wants to be an officer…speak up, a member can nominate one’s self as well.
I think everyone enjoyed the DVD presented by Tim Moore as the October program. I for one greatly enjoy the old footage of any railroad. Even if the railroad is not a favorite, the scenes and equipment of the era is always fascinating. One thing I notice time and time again about railroads in the 1920’s through the 1950’s is the rights of way. Most if not every railroad right of way is vastly different than what we see today. For example: Seldom does one see ballast to the top of the ties. Nor is the ballast heaped up the sides of the ties. The rails are “closer to the ground” if you will think of it that way. And the foliage seldom seems to encroach the rights of way. These points stick out to me as I usually look for modeling ideas when viewing a video. I think it is wonderful to have these resources on hand and available to us, which is why I have pushed to establish our archive!
And to that end I would like to inform the Chapter of a new and recent development with our meeting place. I have talked to the City of Madisonville Administration about securing and using the rear most room of our beloved L&N RR Passenger Station. This room is eleven feet by 28 feet in length and is accessible via a locking door from inside the upstairs floor. We will have sole access to this room where in we can archive, research and study materials available to us. HEY…we could even build a model train layout if so inclined! (I ask that very question while meeting with the City Administrator, Mike Franklin.) As the Chapter might expect, I will somewhat spearhead and oversee the “room”. Even if the Chapter does not want to get involved or use the space, I plan to use it. But of course it will be available at any time for Chapter use as well. I will have more on this at the meeting.
I hope to see everyone at the November meeting on Monday November 28th. We will be at the former L&N RR Passenger Train Station on West Arch Street, right behind Madisonville City Hall. Be sure to bring an item for show and tell and a guest.
Greetings, fellow members of the Western Kentucky Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. I hope that I can provide information through my monthly reviews that will be useful to you in your search for entertaining and informative RR videos. I have eighty-four different RR videos at this time and plan to continue adding to my collection as time goes by.
As we continue this monthly feature, I would like to share with you my favorite on-line vendors for RR videos. I have found the following websites to be excellent sources of good videos and the vast majority of my collection has come from these sites:
I will try to rate the videos in an objective manner but we all have our favorite railroads and we all have connections to particular areas of the country. If I review a video that has special meaning to me, I will warn the reader that my review might not be entirely objective.
| Title | Indiana Rail Road, the Indianapolis Subdivision |
| Producer | Railway Productions |
| Format | Wide Screen DVD |
| Playing Time | 1 Hr 30 Min |
| Purchased From | TrainVideoDepot.com |
| Date Purchased | 9/12/2011 |
| Price Paid | $27.89 |
Excellent use is made of Google Earth to show the topography of the route from Indianapolis to Newton, IL. The entire route of the Indianapolis Sub is former IC RR trackage. The scenes progress from Indianapolis to Newton, which is considered to be “southbound,” although the actual route of travel is almost due west after Bloomington.
They don’t let the viewer know when the scenes he is viewing were shot. I had to skip ahead to the very end to find that the copyright date is 2009. This information is not on the cover or at the beginning of the video. We get some nice looks at Indiana Rail Road’s new SD 90/43 MACs with their bright red paint.
It is very annoying that the narrator mispronounces “Monon” every time her refers to it, which happens several times during this DVD. He does not put any emphasis on the second syllable. It is supposed to be pronounced MO’-NON’, not “MOWN-un.”
It is also very irritating that the seasons change from one scene to the next. One minute you see the trees in full summer foliage and the next minute the trees are totally bare; then you go right back to full foliage in the next scene and back to winter conditions again in the next scene. There are also some spring and fall scenes mixed in with the summer and winter scenes. This is very hard to ignore as you watch the video.
There is some really nice footage of trains crossing Richland Creek Viaduct, also known as “Tulip Trestle.” It is one of the largest RR trestles in the world, reaching 175 ft in height at its tallest point and running 2295 feet in length. It was built in 1905.
(Reprinted from Greene County Daily World Monday, August 26, 2011)
Submitted by Chris Dees
Indiana Rail Road Company (IRRC) will announce a major capital investment at a groundbreaking ceremony today in Jasonville. IRRC President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas G. Hoback, along with state and Greene County officials, will participate in the 11 a.m. ceremony at IRRC’s Hiawatha Yard near Jasonville. Hiawatha Yard is the operational heart of the 500-mile Indiana Rail Road system, which is headquartered in Indianapolis and provides nearly 200 jobs in central and southwest Indiana, and east-central Illinois. The event will announce a $65 million, five-year investment plan IRRC is undertaking to prepare for growth in its rail traffic over the next five years. IRRC’s current traffic levels take the equivalent of 800,000 truckloads of freight off highways each year.
The planned improvements will include construction of a new locomotive maintenance shop, a parts warehouse, a two-story yard office and storage warehouse. In addition, about 4,000 feet of new track will be laid in the yard. To accommodate IRRC’s expansion plans, a permanent closure of about 775 feet of Queen Four Road (CR. 800N) was granted by the county commissioners. INRD currently has about 5,000 feet of usable track between Shanklin Street and Queen Four Road (CR 800). Closing the crossing at Queen Four Road will allow the railroad to expand its holding capacity and be able to handle the large, modern 140-car coal trains that can exceed 8,000 to 9,000 feet in length.
Hoback told the Greene County Daily World that the major reason for the planned expansion at the Jasonville yard is a contract his company has with Peabody Coal Company’s new Bear Run Mine near Dugger, which is the largest surface coal mine east of the Mississippi River. The mine is about 12 miles from the Hiawatha Yard and Hoback expects his company to grow 50 percent in the next five years with commitments to be hauling about 70 percent of the coal mined at Bear Creek. IRRC will spend $17.5 million to build a new five-mile rail spur into the coal mine.
The yard is also located just south of the planned Landree Mine and in close proximity to two other contracted mines, Sunrise Mine near Carlisle and a Vectren Energy Mine near Oaktown.
IRRC spokesman Chris Rund pointed out expanding the Jasonville facility is critical to the rail company.
“It’s the hub of the wheel and will allow the company to modernize its facility and grow the number of local employees,” he said.
