These Kansas City Southern SD units were photographed at CSX’s Atkinson Yard, May 7, 2012, by Chapter member Bill Heaton.
Author: Jim Pearson
Chapter member Keith Kittinger celebrated his 34th year with CSX and its associated railroad predecessors (L&N, Family Lines, and Seaboard System) on April 10, 2012. Bill Grady was in town for the festivities and got this shot of Keith with a service truck. – Photo by Bill Grady
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This is a very good DVD. As would be expected with a 7idea Productions video, the videography is excellent. The picture quality is extremely good and the camera work was done very professionally. Starting from Portland, Oregon, we take a trip up the Oregon side of the Columbia River on the Union Pacific’s Portland Sub in this video. We are treated to spectacular views of the Columbia River Gorge as we follow the UP route alongside the river, our tour ending at Hinkle, OR, where the Blue Mountain Sub begins. The video was shot between June of 2011 and February of 2012. Along the way we see the Bonneville Dam, Multnomah Falls, The Dalles Dam, and the John Day Dam. Multnomah Falls is the second highest year-round water fall in the U.S. We also see some wind farms with their huge wind generators turning. This is a DVD that you will come back and watch again and again. |
| Title | Columbia River Gorge Part 1: Union Pacific’s Portland Sub |
| Producer | 7idea Productions |
| Format | Wide Screen |
| Playing Time | 1 Hr 58 Min |
| Purchased From | TrainVideoDepot.com |
| Date Purchased | 03/15/12 |
| Price Paid | $27.95 |
As you might have heard already UP 844 developed flat spots on her drivers this week while traveling through Texas. The big engine was taken to the Georgetown RR shop in Georgetown, TX, for repairs. While at the shop facility, UP boxcar UPP 9336 (which carries the stairs so people can look in the cab, plus other support equipment) somehow collided with a gondola, causing extensive damage to 9336. The incident occurred Friday. A photo of the damaged car is below. Details of the incident are sketchy but apparently 844 was NOT involved in this incident, just the support car. Makes you wonder what impact this might have on UP’s steam program. Back in the summer of 1994 the passenger cars for NS’s excursion consist were in a low speed collision in a freight yard, and a few months later the program was cancelled. – Photo by Cliff Downey
In the Spring of 1961, PRR hotshot NF-6 (“Non-Feed”), a livestock schedule from Chicago to Harsimus Cove, NJ, passes under the signal bridge at MP 127.7, just west of Orrville, OH on the Pittsburgh-Chicago main line. With cuts and consolidations in the railroad’s still massive passenger network, the PRR has taken advantage of surplus passenger power to assign E-units to the train on this day, suiting the high-speed nature of the schedule. In the distance, a westbound loaded coal train (“mineral train” in PRR terms) heads for the Lake Erie docks at Sandusky, OH. Submitted by Fred Ripley – photos on his Pennsylvania Layout.
Here’s a nice shot of RJ Corman’s Z544 with the boxcars up front. When I was at Southern Seminary (near this spot) those signals in the background were the old target type. (Editor) – Photo by Bill Thomas
Here is W850 with the 7312. It had 9 tank cars of refrigerant gas. Plus one auto rack. To be a dedicated train of that type of gas, someone’s air conditioner must have been out! This shot was made alongside Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, Ky. In the bottom photo is the same location with CSX S226. – Photos by Bill Grady
Bill Grady caught the R.J. Corman “UK Trophy Train” at Midway and Duckers, Kentucky on April 13, 2012, displaying the prized award following the Wildcats’ NCAA Championship win over Kansas University. – Photos by Bill Grady
Hello Railfan friends. Here we are at the April meeting. If you missed the March meeting, a great time was had by those in attendance. The business portion was short, the refreshments were good and the program was GREAT. Our guest program presenter, Gary Ostlund or GOO as he is known on the internet, had some absolutely fabulous photos of Milwaukee Road electrics that he took while residing in the Pacific North West. While not a long program, Gary showed us images of the locomotives and general area as he explained each scene in detail. I was totally absorbed by it. If you missed it, well shame on you!
There is not a lot to discuss this month; the officer will meet again prior to meeting night to iron out any details of the meeting. I will be purchasing the banner for our table at the upcoming Friday Night Live events which will be held in Down Town Madisonville. Bill Thomas plans to have an Out Door style layout built on his trailer to deliver at the event to go along with a TV/DVD playing train videos. These activities should make for a good time. Now, one point to make here. We need to have members present on the three nights. Our planned activities will be taxing for a couple of us to manage. Wally will have his steam engines going as well. So Members, please take time out for at least one of the event nights.
Bill needs material for the newsletter. He needs things such as photos, stories, historical notes and research etc. I am convinced our Chapter has an abundance of knowledge and history right on tap; one only has to let us know about. Remember, what seems to be a mundane story to you may be very interesting to the rest of us.
Looking ahead, we will have a very special program/tour of the Hopkinsville L&N RR Freight Depot for our May meeting. Make plans to attend.
Tom Johnson has refreshments and program this month. Tom plans to give us a choice of Illinois Central Steam Finale or Illinois Railway Museum DVD’s. Either will be very entertaining I am sure.
SO…Members, come on out Monday April 23rd at 7:00 PM and join in the fun and camaraderie. After all, this is “Your” Chapter.
This Low-Boy 8-axle flat also caught the eye of Bill Heaton’s camera at Paducah. Reminds us much of the old Lionel flat with transformer load. – Photo by Bill Heaton
Bill Heaton also photographed this NS D-9 40CW paired up with a BNSF unit at Paducah. – Photo by Bill Heaton
Bill Heaton found CN 2113 in Paducah, KY, still in its “15-Year As a Publicly Traded Company” paint scheme. The C40-8 was built in 1991 for Chicago & North Western. One on-line source referred to it being specially equipped for mid-train helper service. – Photo by Bill Heaton
Friday the 13th, 8:30 AM, North bound stack train overtakes empty coal train with only one locomotive. Shot at North Nortonville Siding. Photo by Rick Bivins.
Great classic lines here on this EMD GP38 at LaFayette, GA, December 2011. In Georgia the accent falls on “Fay” in LaFayette.
As a child and teen I often traveled the route from Chattanooga, down along the southern slope of Lookout Mountain to Kensington, GA, in Walker County, where my Aunt and Uncle Mary and Perry Jordan farmed dairy cattle in the Cedar Grove community. Nestled in the cove formed by Lookout and Pigeon Mountains, are many great family memories of thanksgiving meals, flying kites over cow herds, and the sounds and smells of the farm. No wonder my mother had great roses – all that fertilizer brought home in paper grocery sacks.
This was the route we took if going from my grandparents’ home in Chattanooga to the farm. It practically paralleled the Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia Railroad (TAG) for almost the entire trip. The TAG veered due south about five miles before reaching the cove. What was great is that when traveling from our home in Ellijay, Georgia to the farm, we encountered the line as it continued through the mountainous terrain, skirting the town of LaFayette. At the time, from there I had no idea where the line went. For years I thought it joined the former Central of Georgia somewhere south of LaFayette. After all, that’s the way my eyes saw it through the big windows of my parents’ Oldsmobile.
I am fortunate to have remembrances of Southern Railway Geeps working the line along GA route 136. Seeing those black hulks striped in aluminum white sneak through the pines is an image I will never forget.
The photos above were taken this past Christmas season as I took my family on their annual trip through Northwest Georgia to see Aunt Mary and Uncle Perry. The Chattanooga & Chickamauga (former Central of Georgia) is the closest operating rail line to the farm now. Driving on to Kensington, I still kept one eye on the old roadbed where the Geeps once rolled. I still tried to figure out exactly where that tunnel portal is as we negotiate the switchback highway across the ridge, peering into the valley to catch a glimpse of the right-of-way through the naked trees of a cool Georgia winter. It’s such a melancholy experience.
The TAG from Chattanooga to Kensington is all but abandoned. This last trip left me saddened to see small bridges falling apart, washouts, and fresh pavement over the rails where the crossing gates have been amputated from their cross buck bodies.
My dream would be that the Tennessee Valley Railway Museum could somehow pull a rabbit out of their hat and restore the line. What a beautiful ride it would be through the scenic southern Chattanooga Valley. If not, and the ties silently return to dirt, maybe I can model it and bring back some of those childhood memories onto which I so strongly hold. Bill Thomas, editor
Former Columbus & Greenville GP7 seemed to be in operable condition the same day at LaFayette.