It is twilight time in Madisonville as the WWII M4 Sherman tank is catching the last rays of the sun. The L&N freight has dropped off the most recent gold nugget for Don Clayton next to the station and the whole world is at peace. – Rich Hane
Category: Photo Section
Photos from the Pennyrail Newsletter
I’m trying a little RR historical preservation in my back yard these days. This signal and lights came from West Broadway (Madisonville KY) a few years ago when CSX replaced it with gates. Hope to have a flasher unit from Paducah RR museum soon.
Bill Thomas
I couldn’t resist. We’ve had high nineties for what seems to be forever, and today only 90. So just to jog our memory of cooler climes, this January 1979 scene seemed like a nice idea. I feel cooler already.
The eastbound is exiting one of two wooden show sheds along Lake Keechelus. Interstate 90 occupies the shoreline across the lake. Snoqualmie Pass and the 11,789 foot tunnel are a few miles behind the train. The vertical milepost number 2112 indicates the miles to the bumping post at Union Station in Chicago.
Everything except the power poles in this scene are gone, track, sheds and all. Yours truly became the proud owner of the salvaged the milepost sign after the abandonment. The right-of-way is owned by the state parks system, and great for hiking and biking in the Summer, and cross-country skiing in Winter.
Credits: Picture by Jay Lentzner from the book “The Milwaukee Road,” by Frederick W. Hyde. Submitted by Gary O. Ostlund, gary.ostlund@att.net, Pinehurst, NC
July 10, 2018, CSX suffered a derailment at the cut-off switch in Mortons Gap, KY. Jim Pearson got a few pictures of the reasonably uneventful slip. It was clean-up and service restored about 8:30am the next day.
Photo by Chris Dees.
Several chapter members wave to CSX crews Saturday, May 19, as they gather in Morton’s Gap, KY, for Trains in the Gap Day!
So the question becomes, “why paint up a fancy new locomotive and leave the wheels and coupler all rusty..?” Very simply put, the wheels and couplers take a horrendous beating. Hairline cracks occasionally form, and if painted are difficult to detect. Broken couplers and chipped wheels cause nasty derailments. Rail managers feel that a little rust isn’t going to hurt anything, and maintenance forces can easily stay ahead of the problems. Submitted by Gary Ostlund.
Former chapter member Fred Ripley sent me this for my birthday back in April! Great present. Bill
Louisville & Nashville 4-8-2 No. 407 on Cincinnati–Birmingham train 7 passes 2-8-0 No. 1212 on a northbound freight on double track 10 miles south of Louisville in November 1948. – C. William Streit photo
Chapter members enjoy “Holy Train Night” at Steve Miller’s in April. Photos by Rick Bivins
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.