picnic fare and train-watching.
picnic fare and train-watching.
Author: Jim Pearson
picnic fare and train-watching.
Earlier this year my wife and I visited the Fordsville, Ky train depot on a rainy day. Fordsville is about 46 miles east of Madisonville in Ohio county. The depot is across the street from City Hall downtown.
The first train to Fordsville on the newly built Owensboro and Fordsville Railroad was on October 1, 1889 and regular freight and passenger service started a week later. The round trip fare was 85 cents. The Illinois Central Railroad built a branch line from Horse Branch to Fordsville in 1893. The L&N Railroad bought the lines in 1905 and the present station was built in 1916.
As many as 6 passenger trains a day went between Horse Branch and Owensboro but passenger service was cut June 15, 1941. Freight service lasted until the late 1970s.
The depot has been nicely restored and contains a modest train museum. Call 270-929-5792 for current hours of operation. There is a nice diner a block away on the main road (Hwy 54). – Rich Hane
Are you a hold out for jumping into the social media circle? Afraid you’ll get unsolicited friend requests and suspicious messages from people you don’t know and may not want to know? Reluctant about getting your account hacked? Well, if you’re willing to change your password every 6 months or so you can avoid most of these demons.
The truth is, in my opinion, the advantages and benefits social media offers to rail fans and model railroads far outweigh the occasional frustrations experienced by many of us, myself included. Here are just a few examples of rail-related Facebook pages and/or groups:
Nashville Steam – a FB page dedicated to promoting the restoration of NC&StL steam locomotive 576. It is chocked full of pictures and current information about the restoration process. You can post questions and make comments on each post.
Illinois Central Railroad – A public FB page designed for former (and current it still says) employees of The Illinois Central – “A place for former and current employees of the Illinois Central Railroad to hang out and keep in touch.”
L&N Railroad Modelers – A public FB page for those modeling anything L&N.
Railroad Fools – I think the name of the public page speaks for itself. One of my favorites.
Railroad Oddball Locomotives and MOW Equipment – A closed group so you’ll have to click on the “Join Group” button and wait to be granted entrance. A unique site for unusual railroading equipment.
West Kentucky Chapter of The National Railway Historical Society – keep in touch with what your chapter mates are up to and post your own photos, comments, and ideas. Jim Pearson does a great job keeping the public page updated and looking good.
I hope these samples have encouraged you to give social media a try. If you do not have a computer, smart phone, or tablet, you can use your public library’s computers. Just ask the library staff for help.
Bill Thomas, editor
Continuing the recent DPU (Distributed Power Units) parade by CSX, northbound freights glide through Morton’s Gap, KY. Photo by Ricky Bivins.
For my money, one of the best looking diesel locomotives to ever grace a 4’8.5” gauge track. The 42-year-old, 1977 built-for-Conrail EMD SD40-2 rolls south through Morton’s Gap, KY, September 12, 2019. – Photo by Morton’s Gap resident and our president, Ricky Bivins.
First Place, July 2019, West Kentucky NRHS Photo Contest – CSX locomotive # 958 pulls an intermodal south on the Henderson Subdivision after emerging from the south portal of Ridgetop Tunnel, north of Baker Station crossing in Ridgetop Tennessee on May 30, 2019. – Photo by Bill Farrell. 
Second Place, July 2019, West Kentucky NRHS Photo Contest – CSX locomotive # 958 pulls an intermodal south on the Henderson Subdivision after emerging from the south portal of Ridgetop Tunnel, north of Baker Station crossing in Ridgetop Tennessee on May 30, 2019. – Photo by Bill Farrell. 
Third Place, July 2019, West Kentucky NRHS Photo Contest – Illinois Central 1026 and 1000 lead a northbound CN mixed freight on the Centralia Subdivision at Champaign, Illinois on July 29, 2019. – Photo by Rick Bivins 
Honorable Mention, July 2019, West Kentucky NRHS Photo Contest – BNSF 665 Santa Fe War Bonnet with no patches makes its way south on the Thayer Subdivision on July 5th, 2019 at Mammoth Spring, Arkansas. It’s a GE Model Dash 9-44 CW Series, Build date 8-9-94. – Photo by Donny Knight
Railroads have long played a major role in the automobile industry, from the era of primitive converted wagons to today’s high-performance cars. Auto manufacturing is a key market segment for railroads, so train schedules have often been geared to production deadlines and needs. There will be at least one follow-up to this series.
The evolution of change in handling finished automobiles is seen here.
Twenty seven loads of “Big Inch” pipe from Kaiser Steel enroute to Wyoming.
So why the boxcars, fore and aft. Those empty cars are for crew protection in the event of a mishap along the way. Those heavy pipes would be like missiles in any kind of sudden stop. The buffer cars provide at least some level of personal protection.
This scene is just north of Sacramento very late in the steam era, September 1956. This Southern Pacific train will deliver the cargo to the Western Pacific at Marysville for onward shipment.
The use of buffer cars continues to this day. 100 plus car trains of crude oil, likewise lengthy trains of ethanol have buffer cars behind the power, you no longer see a caboose and the friendly wave from the crew. Buffer cars today are partially filled with sand to reduce the impact in the event of an accident.
The jury is still out as to the wisdom, efficiency, even the safety of shipping crude via rail or pipeline. My take is in favor of the rails, as the infrastructure allows flexibility in sources and destinations, on an existing transportation plant. No need to tear up the countryside and abuse the environment with underground pipe. Ethanol cannot be shipped via pipeline, so we’ll always that on the rails of barges.
Credits: photos by Richard E. Lohse as seen in Classic Trains – Spring 2018 Gary O. Ostlund
As of July 8, employees have begun light locomotive repairs and inspections.
Citing a rebounding rail industry and an increase in work orders, NRE reopened its 450,000 square foot Paducah, Kentucky plant on July 8, 2019. Employees have begun making light repairs and inspections of locomotives, as well as provide other service offerings.
“We are very excited to be able to reopen the Paducah plant,” said Steven Beal, President of NRE. “The Paducah plant and its employees have a nearly 100 year history of providing quality locomotive products and services. Our goal since we shuttered it two years ago has always been to bring it back online and to get our employees back to work,” he added.
NRE is actively seeking applicants to fill available positions at the plant as the plant increases its operations. If interested, please visit www.nre.com/careers.
When full-strength, NRE Paducah provides the following services:
• New Locomotive Builds
• Remanufactured Locomotives
• Locomotive Service
• Field Service
• New Parts and Components
• Remanufactured Parts and Components
• Salvage
“The reopening of the Paducah facility is merely the beginning,” said Beal. “Paducah will be a key component of the future of our company and we look forward to growing together.”
For more information, please contact Brandon Schwartz at 618.899.5591 or b.schwartz@nre.com. – Submitted by Chris Dees
Mishaps will always be a part of railroading. These scenes show the old and newer methods of cleaning up a wreck scene. In years past the railroads owned and positioned “big hooks” and associated equipment out on the line. Such equipment was always in the ready-mode, warmed up and on the go in a moment’s notice.
In today’s “contract-out” way of doing business, private firms like Hulcher Services are called to the task. They and other firms have highway transportable lifting equipment on the scene dispatched from numerous locations around the country. Upon completion of the Interstate highway system truck-transported clean-up equipment allowed the rail lines to reopen sooner.
Note the special tread on the pair of crawler tractor side-mounted lifting machines. I didn’t use the word “Caterpillar” because their origin could be of a different manufacturer.
On July 27, 2019, Rick Bivins hooked up with Matt Gentry at his home in Champaign IL for a day of railfanning. The following pics are from that trip. First stop was the old CB&Q line from Chicago to Galesburg via the quad cities.
Most railroad roundhouses were round, thus the name, duh!. However, here in Avery, Idaho we have a unique design dictated by geography. The narrow valley, with the robust St Joe River immediately behind, made for this unusual building. Avery was where helper engines were added to assist trains over St Paul Pass, crossing the Bitterroot Mountains into Western Montana. A two-mile tunnel was dug under the summit. The history of that event is recorded in the book: Doctors, Dogs and Dynamite. A good read.
Avery became a key terminal for the Milwaukee Road with crew and engine changes. 440 miles of electrified operations from central Montana ended here. Westward trains switched to steam, and more recently diesel locomotives. The line from Othello in Central Washington to Tacoma and Seattle was also electrified. Monday morning QBs say the 216 mile gap was one of the downfalls for the Milwaukee. Either way, for 71 years the Milwaukee Road provided “spirited” competition to the NP, GN and UP.
The Milwaukee was the last kid on the block, in its westward venture, necessitating two important facets. First, the railroad had fewer choices in selecting routes, particularly through mountainous areas; and second, they rose to that challenge by constructing the most direct, and subsequently the fastest route from Chicago to Tacoma. In their heyday, the Milwaukee Road ran freight trains from the windy city to the coast in 55 hours. Amtrak could only wish.
Credits: Photo by Bruce Black as seen in Frederick W. Hyde’s book: The Milwaukee Road – Gary Ostlund
