Congratulations to Bill Grady and and Ricky Bivins!! Our next contest runs from May 1-15, 2018 Submission Deadline: May 22, 2018. Your entries must be taken during this time periord and submitted to Jim Pearson by the deadline. Email your entries to: jim@jimpearsonphotography.com
Westbound #201, exiting tunnel 48, just west of Easton and about to cross the Yakima River. The river is entering Lake Easton. The Tunnel is only a hundred feet or so out of the picture to the right. I once drove my motor home through that tunnel. The bridges had been removed and I did a spectacular u-turn. Lots of maneuvering. As I exited the other end leaving I stopped short of the portal, got out and took a pix. A few weeks later they built a impassable berm, so the fun was over. The electrics ended here in 1972, 1974 in the Rockies. That is the former NP mainline leading up to Stampede Pass in the right coming under the Milwaukee.
All this right-of-way from Seattle to the Columbia River is State Parks trail system now. Obviously one must detour the bridge scene, but it’s easy because the MILW crossed back to the west side of the river in about another mile. So all you need to do is trespass on the BNSF. (I didn’t say that….) The BNSF (formerly NP) begins the 2.2 percent climb up to Stampede not far to the left out of the picture. Warren Wing, photographer, was a close friend of mine, he passed a few years ago. Enjoy.
Gary Ostlund again has sent me a fantastic shot from the old Milwaukee Road. A westbound #22.
April 6, 2018 – With permission, I was able to get this shot of Respondek Railroad Corporation’s 415 and 2425 sitting in the old engine service facility at CSX’s Atkinson Yard in Madisonville, Ky on the Henderson Subdivision. Last word I got was that these two units are going to be servicing industry in the Henderson, Ky area.
My major Seminary Professor, Dr. Doug Smith poses in front of the Dollywood Express in Pigeon Forge, TN, with his daughter Lara and his sister Marilyn. Knowing I am a train nut, he always thinks of me when near a train. I guess that’s the way I’d want to be remembered. – Bill Thomas
Greetings my fellow Western Kentucky NRHS Chapter members, welcome to a wet and cold April! My hasn’t the weather been strange? Of course, strange and unusual is what we expect in Kentucky this time of year!
There certainly was nothing strange about our meeting last month, March 19, 2018. We had an excellent time, Blair Terri presented a fabulous program on his travels out west. Bill Farrell made a return after his medical scare. With pizza for refreshments, along with homemade cookies, how could that possibly be strange? Indeed a large time was had by all.
If one takes the time to review the minutes provided by Bill Farrell of the March meeting, they would notice we have several events coming up. Please, check the newsletter and stay informed.
Do not forget the Chapter calendars are available for purchase online. The photos within that calendar were taken by club members during the periodic photo contest. Jim Pearson has done a great job putting that calendar together so please, consider purchasing one. Jim will give us a quick rundown of the upcoming photo contest and time periods. Jim will also conduct the judging contest for the previous photo period.
Once again we will be meeting at Innovation Station, which of course is the renovated L&N train station on Arch Street in Madisonville, Kentucky. Meeting time will be 7 PM. Refreshments by Will Kling and a program by Jim Pearson will follow a brief business meeting. I hope to see you there and bring a friend.
Rick Bivins
My first real job out of college was with the Boy Scouts of America. Yes, I was a professional scout. Now get the images of being paid to camp out, go to pinewood derby races, and start fires with two sticks out of your minds. Professional scouting takes on a whole different set of activities, mostly servicing existing scout groups or units, starting new units, and raising money. As I stared at these empty text boxes on my computer thinking about what to write, it came to me that those brief years of my BSA experience contained a lot of good railroad memories.
I arrived in LaGrange, GA, in the spring of 1988 – 25 years old, single, no mortgage, and about 60 lbs. lighter than present. I had to cover two counties, Troup and Franklin, in west-central GA. Actually, I was almost as west as you can go in GA. Fishing was great on West Point Lake. LaGrange was the intersecting point of the former Atlanta & West Point RR’s line from Montgomery, AL to Atlanta, and former Seaboard Coastline’s (I think former ACL) route between Waycross, GA, and Birmingham, AL. I also had to make weekly trips to Columbus, GA, where are council office was located. This brought me alongside the former Southern branch to Pine Mountain, GA (Callaway Gardens), and it origin at Columbus and Southern’s line from Columbus to Birmingham.
Unfortunately, CSX had just completed some re-routing of their inherited lines. The Seaboard rose on a steady grade coming in on the east side of town and flew over the A&WP via a plate girder bridge, still in place when I arrived but without rails. The two lines shared an interchange yard on the east side near this location which was mostly empty with the exception of a few cars for local delivery to lumber outlets and textile giant Milliken Mills. Today, it’s completely gone and a wye has been installed between inbound tracks. The railroads once ran side by side through town, but now join as one on the west then separate on the east.
Now, what this created was a fantastic bottle neck for train watching. In great CSX fashion, the two roads joined on each side of town, but then entered a double main through high-speed switches (two motors to throw the points). Often, we could see two to four trains from one point. I often enjoyed pacing a 60 mph sand train heading north out of LaGrange toward Atlanta.
My regret is that cameras where not as readily available as they are these days. So, I have almost no pictorial recollections of all this fun I crammed in about 24 months of my young days. Below is a screen shot from an online street view app. Hasn’t changed much except CSX finally came around and extended the 2nd main past the west/south split to avoid the bottle necking. It used to be located behind the camera, just beyond the street crossing.