Midweek Photos 11/26/2014

Hello everyone. Hear are some photos taken 11-23-14. I hope you all enjoy.

Scot - I love the pictures looking down the tracks at the headlights approaching and the red signals.  Nice job.

Art

Stopped by the St. Louis Union Station last week, The Grand Hall is magnificent. It is now part of the hotel, can't think of name.

The rest of the station looks like a ghost town although I believe it was crowded over the weekend as the Polar Express was soldout on all its trips around the St. Louis area.

UP 8819 North, on the UP's Chester Sub just out of Gorham, IL heading for the next crew change at Dupo, IL, (St. Louis area).  

Dan

I can't believe that switcher still isn't operational. I helped tear it down back in the year 2000.

I love what they have done with the St. Louis Union Station.  Beautiful building.

Art

I don't exactly know if these photos of the T are within the subject of "Real Trains" but I guess I'll find out. Oh, and two different AVR trains.

It's a beautiful station. I stayed there some 20-years ago, soon after the initial renovation into a hotel and shopping/dining complex. The hotel has since changed hands and is now a Doubletree. Most of the shops and eating establishments have closed their doors in this location. As Dan mentioned, it's pretty much a ghost town.

Here's a link to the hotel's website, lots of photos of how it appears currently: http://doubletree3.hilton.com/...l-STLUSDT/index.html

J611, you will not believe what went into getting Baldwin 26 this far. Off the top of my head, there is the frame-straightening, the replacement of the front end tube sheet, the backhead boiler patch, five sheets of steel  to craft the new combustion chamber of the firebox, new cab wood interior, tender frame rebuilding, tender reconstruction, re-tiring and truing all six wheels, six drive boxes, six shoes, wedges and binders for the drive boxes, new suspension, upgraded brakes, steam heat lines added, 1266 stay bolts and 330 firetubes. All while keeping two other cranky steam locos and a few diesels running.

Pittsburghrailfan, there are not many hard and fast rules here, but I would call streetcars, light rail and subways real trains along with commuters, intercity, freight and tourist lines.  Great contributions, all.

A couple of shots of the Ford Motor company SW1200RS switcher at the Ford Avon Lake, Ohio Assembly plant.

And an Illinois Central locomotive in the middle of a CSX consist in Berea, Ohio on a cold, overcast day.

And lastly a PUCO vehicle checking up on some NS track worknear the Berea siding.

Happy Thanksgiving.

John

When I lived in Kansas City I'd go visit relatives in St. Louis every now & then.  I remember the Union Station about 25 years ago, when it was doing well.  I'm sorry to hear that's not the case now.

For the past week I was back out along the RCPE, catching trains with some inside help.  The intense cold had just loosened up and temps went to around 35 degrees.  That caused lots of snow to melt and filled the land with fog!  I actually love fog.   I headed north and intercepted an e/b train at Brookings, SD.  I caught it going over a small iron bridge.  I've not caught a train here before, but now that I've had a close look at it I saw that on the "back" side of the bridge there is a big pool in the river.  Now that it's well frozen over I can walk out on the ice and get a great unobstructed shot of a train on the bridge.  I'm thinking night shot here!  Two flash will easily cover it.

I waited in the great glacial valley west of Lake Benton, MN and set up for a shot at MP 263.  This is a wild area and I was entertained by a family of eagles flying overhead while I ate my lunch.  Train appeared out of the fog and I took a few shots.  There was a w/b train on the way so the e/b held the mainline at Florence MN while the w/b was to take the siding.  There is a wye there with long sidings built by the DME a few years ago, so the DME could interchange grain shuttles with the BNSF.  The BNSF tracks cross overhead there, one of the very few places tracks cross over/under out here.  I've long wanted to get a shot with crossing trains but this is rare.  There's maybe 16 trains/day on BNSF and maybe 4/day on RCPE.  On this day I actually caught one though, for the first time!  The w/b RCPE went under the same time a BNSF manifest went over.    I left the e/b and went back to the glacial valley to catch the w/b one more time.  It had eight matched SD-40 engines on it, and that valley is one of my favorite locations.   I was losing light fast and had to ramp up my ISO and open the lens wide to get the job done in the faint blue light.

I have Friday through Sunday off, and my plan is to head several hundred miles west into South Dakota and see if I can catch a train on the RCPE west of Pierre, and follow it back.  If nothing else there is more fresh snow again.  I'll have my little break action 20-gauge in the front seat with some #5 bird shot.  I alway see a few pheasants strutting along the dirt roads.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Kent in SD

Kent,

Concerning St. Louis Union Station.  The station building is the most expensive, beautiful, and irreplaceable part of the whole complex and it is being maintained as a hotel in its former glory.  The sad part is the ugly grey shopping area built under the trainshed. 

Nathan

Agreed, Nathan, the hotel is successful, but what's under the train shed is indeed sad. I understand there's a move to revitalize the shops and restaurants into office spaces. Do you know if there's any truth to this rumor?

Jon,

There was a news story earlier this year stating that someone was going to bring trains back to St. Louis Union Station.  I think the Polar Express is a result of that.  But I don't think it was connected to anything under the shed and I have not heard of anything else. 

I was in the Cheyenne Wy station last year (or was it Pueblo Co?).  It is all offices and while that pays the bills it was deader inside than St. Louis Union Station shed is now!

The trainshed is ripe for development but it will fail again if all it is are new shops.  The only stores that have longevity are Hard Rock Cafe and that place where a guy makes fudge in front of your eyes.  Even the hobby store that sold entirely trains folded.  There needs to be an anchor under the shed.  A museum on St. Louis railroads and their shaping of the city and points west could both be the anchor and draw visitors into a greater sense of what the place was.  Downtown is slowly revitalizing.  Eventually there will be enough foot traffic to support even dimwitted development ideas. 

Nathan