What a chance of a lifetime. While riding a dome on a Canadian National Turbotrain newsman Ernie Lee caught this action on December 10th, 1968. Memo to self, “always have your camera ready.” The train was making 60MPH near Kingston, Ontario when it struck a stalled truck. And the rest is history.
Lee was a London (Ont) Free Press photographer and as you can imagine, gained international coverage with this picture. The image was one among the 100 greatest railroad photos, featured in a special edition titled the same. The special edition was a collection from the pages of TRAINS Magazine, 1940 -2008.
Not noted in the captioning was the fate of the driver, front end train crew or the condition of the rolling stock. My guess is that the driver, since the truck was stalled, had the opportunity to be away from harm. Cannot be so sure for the train crew. Submitted by Gary Ostlund.
Since photo submissions were extra short this month, I decided to go back in my picture stash for some favorites from over the past few years.
Some of my most enjoyable moments were spent in the backyard of our Lakewood home here in Madisonville. We moved in the late summer of 2003 and by 2005 I had a train running. I was inspired by Bob McCracken and Rex Easterly, both former WKNRHS Members. Other former and current members are seen in these shots.
Jimmie Burden was not a member of our chapter, but if you knew him, you soon learned he had a fascination with Lionel operating accessories. When my sons were younger, we were annually invited over to Jimmie’s home to witness a symphony of moving parts set up on his laundry room floor.
The winners for our September 2024 photo contest were Ricky Bivins 1st Place and Chris Dees for 2nd! Congratulations Bill and our next contest runs the month of January 2025! Entries due to Jim Pearson by midnight on Febuary 7th, 2025.
Our 2025 Chapter Calendars will be available for Purchase/Order at our November meeting and available for pickup at our December Christmas Party.
1st Place West Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS September 2024 Photo Contest – A northbound mixed freight with CN power leading the way crosses over West Broadway Street in Madisonville, Ky on the CSX Henderson Subdivision, on September 12th, 2023. – Photo by Ricky Bivins
2nd Place West Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS September 2024 Photo Contest – Held Up At Horicon – Wisconsin & Southern SD40-2 4219, GP59 5906 and another GP59 await tomorrow morning’s early call for train HJ-1 (Horicon to Janesville) at the company’s Horicon, Wisconsin engine facility. 4219 began life as a standard SD40 prior to her rebuild. – Photographed September 03, 2024 by Chris Dees
West Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS September 2024 Photo Contest – A southbound mixed freight heads through downtown Mortons Gap, Ky on the CSX Henderson Subdivision, on September 3rd, 2023. – Photo by Ricky Bivins
West Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS September 2024 Photo Contest – A Streetcar Named Desire – On September 06, 2024, Kenosha, Wisconsin Transit Authority (KTA) streetcar 4616 awaits the first run of the day. The KTA runs a two-mile loop through downtown Kenosha, stopping on demand for citizens running errands or tourists enjoying the sights and sounds along the Lake Michigan shoreline. The 4616’s yellow colors pay homage to The Cincinnati Street Railway system. – Photo by Chris Dees
The Illinois Central Railroad’s original line between Cairo and Freeport Illinois, via Centralia was completed in September 1856. As the railroad grew and traffic developed, the original “Old Main” or “Gruber Line” segment north of Centralia via Decatur and Bloomington-Normal (referred to officially in ICG timetables as the Amboy District) lost its original significance as the primary mainline between New Orleans and Chicago grew rapidly.
The fate of the original IC main was in question as the flurry of spinoffs, sales and abandonments by the Illinois Central Gulf in the early 1980s came to pass. Long gone were the good old days recalled by Jim Boyd in his book “Monday Morning Rails”. Relegated and downgraded to secondary main status, the additional (and substantial) existing state tax burden from the original land grant legislation for the route slowly choked the Gruber to death.
Eventually, Illinois Central Gulf was granted a certificate of abandonment by the Interstate Commerce Commission with date of formal discontinuance of service to be effective May 10, 1985. However, the Gruber would not give up the ghost just yet. Just like the Windy City’s White Sox and Cubs, it would take more than three strikes to call this deal out.
The first suitor was the Prairie Central Railway, which at the time was operating the former Wabash Valley Railroad (Conrail route) from Decatur southeast to Paris, with an extension to Mount Carmel. Always a precarious operation, numerous derailments and disagreement with Illinois Central Gulf regarding trackage rights into Decatur soured any chance for PACY to purchase the line. The Interstate Commerce Commission found PACY to not be financially responsible in its bid for the Freeport line, and the resulting 1985 PACY bankruptcy did not help matters.
Second up was the Freeport & El Paso Railroad, formed to purchase the 121.18 mile route between Freeport, Illinois (MP934.18) and El Paso, Illinois (MP 813.). In the July 1, 1983 ruling by the Interstate Commerce Commission, F&EP’s offer was found to be bona fide and the new company to be financially responsible. ICG and F&EP entered into a contract and the planned sale was approved September 21, 1983. However, the deal quickly unraveled and on May 10, 1984, the Interstate Commerce Commission vacated its earlier ruling, voiding the sale because F&EP had failed to obtain proper title insurance and the $150,000 earnest payment bounced like a rubber ball. Then came a railroad with reporting marks of a classic 1980s muscle car, the IROC, or Illinois & Rock River Railroad Company. Incorporated on July 13, 1984 by two former Rock Island railroad executives, a short line consultant, and a railroad construction contractor, the IROC filed ICC Docket No. 30638 on March 11, 1985 just two months before the targeted abandonment by ICG. Business plans of the IROC were supported by several on-line grain elevators, Motor Wheel in Mendota, and Lonestar Cement in Oglesby. Additional plans were in the works to construct a rail-barge transloading facility on the Illinois River at La Salle, near the massive Illinois River bridge (which still stands and has rail service today). Purchase price was set at $3.027 million.
But like the first two offers, IROC’s plans were soon scuttled – this time by unhappy unions and their lawyers. On March 29, 1985, the Railway Labor Executives Association filed a letter of opposition with the ICC regarding the sale. Not to be left out, the United Transportation Union filed a follow-up formal protest on April 19, 1985. With time running out on the abandonment authority’s expiration date of May 10, 1985, the ensuing litigation tied up IROC efforts in courts instead of out on the rails building the business plan. Opportunity loss from the 1985 grain harvest eventually resulted in IROC calling it quits without ever turning a steel wheel on steel rail. And although new regional Chicago Central & Pacific attempted negotiations to purchase the line from Freeport south to Oglesby (location of the Lonestar Cement facility), Illinois Central Gulf could not settle on a purchase price and the Gruber was gone.
Luckily today there are some short segments of the Gruber between Centralia and Freeport still in operation.
Buzzi Unichem still operates over the large Illinois River bridge between LaSalle and Oglesby to serve the cement facility in Oglesby and interchange with Iowa Interstate.
A short segment of trackage is utilized daily by ICG successor in the Decatur terminal area. South of Decatur, the Decatur Junction operates between Elwin and Assumption and it the location of a nicely restored depot.
Vandalia Railroad serves a few industrial customers on a short spur at Illinois’s first capital city and the railroad’s namesake city of Vandalia.
And just north of Centralia, an asphalt plant is served on a few hundred feet of the southernmost section of the old Gruber.
But perhaps the favorite portion to railfans is the segment between Heyworth and Clinton operated by the Illinois Terminal Belt Railroad serving several grain elevators with Paducah rebuilt GP10s just like us old guys remember. Yes, some forty years since its abandonment, new railfans can still get a glimpse of what the Gruber used to look like – four stack exhaust belching out along the prairie as seen in the accompanying photo at Wapella, IL on August 25, 2023.
The Union Pacific’s eastbound City of Portland is about 30-miles upriver from The Dalles. In another couple hours those three units will use all their power to propel the train up and over the Blue Mountains. Passengers will detrain in Chicago the second morning.
One would expect these train picture stories to be about the railroad or trains. But what are those white structures at the tip of the pointers..? The US Coast Guard calls them “Range Dayboards.” These Aids, which are usually shore-mounted come in pairs to help the vessel operator maintain a straight and safe course within a navigable channel. Each member of the pair is separated from the next in distance and elevation, with the one in front shorter than the rear one. When the two appear to be vertically stacked, the vessel is on the range line, and the center of the channel. If you look closely there is a red vertical line on both Dayboards. A perfectly straight single red-line has the vessel dead-center, mid channel.
In this scene, the Dayboards guide marine traffic going downstream. A skipper would view these markers from his position far out of the picture to the right (upstream). A green buoy will guide him (her) in making a safe turn to starboard (right) and on down-river. Not visible, but most likely there is another pair of dayboards downstream on the far shore. In darkness red lights provide the same message. Dayboards are found not only in rivers, rather they mark the safe course when entering many harbors, particularly entrances to rivers and bays when entering or exiting the ocean.
Burlington Junction Railway Alco C415 center cab number 702 sits at Quincy, Illinois on the afternoon of October 15, 2024. The rare bird began her career on the Southern Pacific. – Photo by Chris Dees.
Rust in Peace – Former Chicago and Northwestern GP40 5515 is seen at Burlington, Iowa on October 15, 2024, on a yard track of the Burlington Junction Railway. – Photo by Chris Dees.
Rain into an old friend in San Jose, IL this afternoon. She now works for Encompass Grain and Rail at their grain elevator. Fromer IC 2035 – Photo by Chris Dees
A Streetcar Named Kenosha – Kenosha Transit System number 4616 is ready to depart on its two mile trek around downtown Kenosha on the morning of September 6, 2024. – Photo by Chris Dees
Union Pacific 4-8-8- 4 number 4017 is safe and sound under the roof at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin on September 3, 2024. Her sister number 4014 was steaming through Nebraska and Iowa on the same date during her 2024 tour. – Photo by Chris Dees
Holding at Horicon – Three Wisconsin & Southern Diesels are holding at the company’s Horicon, Wisconsin yard on September 3, 2024. – Photo by Chris Dees
E is for Excellent – Big E, Little E…. What Begins with E? This E-unit, CN number 103, which served on Illinois Central’s Executive Fleet, now resides at The National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Photographed on September 3, 2024 by Chris Dees
The winners for our July 2024 photo contest were Bill Grady 1st Place and Bill Grady for 2nd! Congratulations Bill and our next contest runs the month of September 2024! Entries due to Jim Pearson by midnight on October 7th.
1st Place West Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS July 2024 Photo Contest – Standing at the crossing at Sebree Springs, Kentucky, CSX M647’s head-end has cleared the city Limit of Sebree and the engineer notches them out to keep rolling South in this July 7, 2024 view.
Photo by Bill Grady2nd Place West Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS July 2024 Photo Contest – NS #168 is sounding the horn for the small community of Tazwell, Indiana. The up and down profile of NS’s Southern-East District can be seen in the “hump” here. – July 21, 2024 Photo by Bill GradyWest Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS July 2024 Photo Contest – July, 30, 2024, A northbound MTA Metro North commuter train pulls into Southeast, NY, station on the “Harlem Line”. This former New York Central artery normally terminates a few more miles up the line in Wassaic, NY, but due to some heavy track maintenance Southeast it its northern terminal for a while. Shortly, this train set will back through the crossover and into the service yard unseen to the right followed by the southbound train making its way to the southbound platform from the same yard. The round trip from Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, NY, was part of the travels during Bill, Angela, Joe Thomas’s trip to NY to see their daughter Fern and Angela’s sister Jodi. Top speed was about 60 mph according to the iPhone speedometer. – Photo by Bill ThomasWest Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS July 2024 Photo Contest – July 28, 2024, From the former New York Central “high line” one can overlook the MTA’s Westside Yard in the Hudson Yards community of Manhattan, New York City. This section of the high line is called the Interim High Line Walkway. It was built as a ramp up to the main portion of the line along the Hudson River from W 30th to W 34th streets. The line moves east after doing a complete 180 degree turn then veers south to run parallel with 10th Ave. The historic elevated rail line replaced the street level tracks so important to the industrial businesses and life on Manhattan’s west side. The high line fell into disuse in the 1960s. CSX Transportation (RR) donated the structure to the city in 2005. Since then it has literally flourished as a walking nature trail above the streets with native plants installed among the rusting tracks. The line terminates at Ganesvoort St., in lower Manhattan. The yard tracks in this view end at the wall in the foreground. The tracks run east to Penn Station’s beautiful new Moynahan Train Hall where I arrived and departed on Amtrak 50 and 51, The Cardinal. – Photo by Bill ThomasWest Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS July 2024 Photo Contest – The CSX Conrail Heritage unit leads Conrail a northbound freight at Mortons Gap, Ky on July 18, 2024. – Photo by Ricky BivinsWest Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS July 2024 Photo Contest – The CSX track working crew at Mortons Gap, Ky on July 18, 2024. – Photo by Ricky Bivins
The winners for our May 2024 photo contest were Ricky Bivins for 1st Place and Bill Grady for 2nd! Congratulations to you both and our next contest runs the month of July 2024! Entries due to Jim Pearson by midnight on August 7th.
1st Place winner of the West Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS May 2024 Photo Contest –CSX Chesapeake & Ohio Heritage Unit leads a northbound train through Mortons Gap KY on the CSX Henderson Subdivision on May 12th, 2024. – Photo by Ricky Bivins2nd Place winner of the West Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS May 2024 Photo Contest – Reactivated CSX Autorack trains M216 and M217 are back to operating on CSX’s “Texas” Subdivision. Here is CSX M217-27 Eastbound just East of Maceo, KY on a splendid May 27, 2024. – Photo by Bill GradyCSX locomotive # 3138 on the lead of a south bound coal drag just north of Trenton, Kentucky. Photo by William Farrell, May 23, 2024Louisville to Owensboro “Long Distance Local” L369-11 is nearing the end of its run as it passes the M.P. 109 Signal known as “Steelton”. The crew will yard their train at Doyle Yard in Owensboro to end the day. May 11, 2024. Photo by Bill GradyThe Butlers Did It – The motive power for Union Pacific’s train LBU53, the daily turn to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, rests up for today’s run at the former Chicago & Northwestern yard in Butler, WI on Saturday May 18, 2024. GP40-2 1480 began life on the Baltimore & Ohio, GP40N 1493 is a former Penn Central unit, and GP60E 1107 started out on the Southern Pacific back in 1993. Photo by Chris DeesParked at Portage – Two unrebuilt Canadian Pacific SD40-2 units, 6043 and 6025, bask in the sunlight at Portage, WI on May 25, 2024 as they await their next assignment. Photo taken by Chris Dees from the northbound Amtrak Borealis (new service from Chicago to St. Paul) that just launched four day earlier on May 21, 2024.Kentucky and West Tennessee Railway 1808 leads a freight through a crossing in the countryside. – Photo by Cooper SmithKentucky and West Tennessee Railway 1808 leads a freight through the countryside. – Photo by Cooper SmithBNSF 6318 leads a train through Mortons Gap, Ky on May 1, 2024, as it heads south on the CSX Henderson Subdivision. – Photo by Ricky Bivins
Stevens Pass in Washington State provides great vistas for the railfan, whether on the east slopes like this scene, or up the west side. This is former Great Northern mainline with a westbound freight looping along Nason Creek through Gaynor Tunnel. The 8-mile Cascade Tunnel is about a mile ahead. Noted northwest railfan Ben Bachman captured this stunning shot from a switchback laden US Forest Service trail leading to Rock Lake in 1995.
In 2001 yours truly attempted the same. Needless to say Ben had a better camera, with much better results. The exercise and fresh air was nice. But not all was lost, I spent the night very near trackside in the trees just across the bridge in the upper left of this scene. This was one of those camp trips where sleep is sporadic. Hot coffee and a bacon and cheese omelet soothed things nicely in the morning. In over reaction to 911 the Burlington Northern Santa Fe has blocked access to the well hidden road leading down to my semi-private campsite. Nothing stays the same. Pacific Rail News May 1996.
Former CSX Transportation B40-8 5964 sits outside at the West Tennessee engine house in Jackson, Tennessee as new paint is being applied. Photo by Chris Dees on July 5, 2024.
West Tennessee power reflects in the puddles from the previous evening’s rain at the Jackson, Tennessee yard. Photo by Chris Dees on July 5, 2024.
A Fracking Paducah Geep in Wisconsin – With all the frac sand mining in western Wisconsin it’s no surprise to see industrial switchers at some of the facilities. On May 25, 2024, a former ICG GP10, 4613, is seen east of Tomah, WI. This old girl has done service for her country in the U.S. Army and now is a lease unit owned by Robert Riley’s Rock Island Railroad, as noted by the RILX reporting marks. Photo by Chris Dees.
All Aboard the Borealis – On Sunday, May 26, 2024, the eastbound Amtrak Borealis prepares for departure at the Saint Paul, Minnesota, Union Station. The new Borealis service – a partnership between Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, CPKC and BNSF – provides a second option for daily Amtrak service in this part of the Midwest. Service started just six days earlier on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 and ridership is strong. Photo by Chris Dees
Parked at Portage – Two un-rebuilt Canadian Pacific SD40-2 units, 6043 and 6025, bask in the sunlight at Portage, WI on May 25, 2024 as they await their next assignment. Photo taken by Chris Dees from the northbound Amtrak Borealis (new service from Chicago to St. Paul) that just launched four day earlier on May 21, 2024.
I was the Army Recruiter there from 1963 to 1968. The party-line was that this was a water diversion issue, but anyone that traveled that way when a train was passing took their life into their hands. The roadway behind the foreman with the Ford pickup heading east (out of town) is a two-lane and sole entry into Aberdeen from the east.
The way those boxcars swayed back and forth; I don’t know how they kept on the track. Most folks would not pace those outbound trains, as the rolling stock was in what would have been an adjacent traffic lane were it a four-lane highway.
On outbound trains many if not most of the boxcars full of shakes and shingles had no doors. Clearly, the railroad saved their, newer rolling stock for cleaner products that needed all-weather protection. Doorless boxcars full of raw wood products seemed to travel safely to their customers far away. A series of 4×4 lumber stock from floor through the holes in the roof kept the bundles safely aboard. The shakes and shingles would arrive safe, having most likely been rained upon a few times.
They are, after all, roofing material.
In my five years there I never heard of an incident. Luck…? Only the Northern Pacific Railway used this entrance to the twin cities of Aberdeen and Hoquiam. The Union Pacific and Milwaukee also entered from the east, but on the southern side of a major river valley coming through Cosmopolis and South Aberdeen. They crossed the river on a swing bridge about a half mile behind the photographer. Today this line is the only rail entry, now serviced by the short-line Puget Sound and Pacific Ry. – Photo by Dell Mulkey
Tidbits on the life of a railroader. Early in the 20th century (and before the various “Safety First” campaigns that we still see today), a dozen railroaders — on average died on the job every day. On any given day, tens of thousands more were injured or maimed.
That was often brought home by the fact that few conventional insurance companies would write policies for railroaders — their jobs were considered too risky. So, railroaders set up their own group insurance plans and mutual benefit associations. An industrial pension program so that employees could expect to retire (rather than work until they died) was largely a railroad innovation. The first plans emerged in the early 1880s and led to the creation of the Railroad Retirement Board in 1934, which was the model for the Social Security Act, just a year later.
Hundreds of thousands of railroaders worked in jobs that took them away from their homes and families. Sometimes they enjoyed networks of boarding houses, railroad YMCA’s, beaneries, and places of entertainment and commercial affection. At other locations, the away-from-home accommodations could be threadbare or downright deplorable. And then, the names. For everyone from the president on down, official railroad documents generally identified the employees by a sterile two initials and surname, (J. T. Blow). Yet no group of industrial workers embraced nicknames more than railroaders. There was always a few Butches, a Nookie, Boogie, Shotgun, Skeeter, Barney, Screwdriver, Speedy, and all sorts of fellows who, for one reason or another, went by some alternate version of their given names. All of which speaks to a larger truth. Despite the hazards and demands, railroaders were proud of their work. You would hear variations of this theme many times: “I hate the company but love the work,” or, “I can’t believe they pay me to do this.”
A friend of mine in Butte, Fred Coombes was #1 seniority in the Rocky Mountain division, and a fellow church member. He knew I was an avid railfan, but straight-laced as he was, he never even let me up in the cab the many times I saw him hooking up and trekking over Pipestone Pass. He and I both respect the Rules. He retired when the electrics ended in ‘74, and moved to Seattle with his wife of many years. I once asked him why as #1 on engineer’s seniority roster that he didn’t bid on some glamorous hotshot freight-run. With a twinkle in his eye, he stated: “I sleep in my own bed every night.”
Credits: Pix by Howard S. Patrick as seen in Kalmbach’s 100 Greatest Railroad Photos
This rather interesting switch stand is on the ex-C&NW West Allis, WI to New Berlin, WI spur. UP runs twice a week for a couple of industries in the New Berlin area. Interestingly enough the switch is out of service and the throw mechanism, frog, etc have long been removed. – Photo by Chris Dees
