Lets See Your Best Real Train Pictures

These are not the best quality as they were originally 35mm slides uploaded to my computer.

I want to remind everyone that this thread could potentially get some folks in trouble....copyright trouble.  So...please review the copyright thread within our featured topics.  Since the OP is asking for YOUR best real train pictures, make sure that you are the one that has taken the picture.  Googled pictures don't count...or any other picture that may belong to someone else...this should be your photograph that you took.

Thanks!

I love Sandpoint, ID

Here are a couple of my favorites...

#4014 waking up in Yermo, CA and being made ready to head down Cajon Pass. - Oct. 13, 2019

UP #4014 at Canyon on the Palmdale Cutoff in Cajon Pass. - Oct. 13, 2019

San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society's crown jewel... AT&SF #3751 on the ex-Santa Fe turntable in Redondo Junction (Amtrak's 8th Street Yard) on the final event before her "1472." This was taken on July 15, 2017.
They've almost got her ready for a hydro test, so she's moving in the right direction. 

Where to begin.

I took this pic of 614 at Somerset, Pa c.1980:

 Our Son same venue:

This one best only for it's poignancy. The last train on the old PRR Pittsburgh-Buffalo Mainline c. 1982:

Then they tore it up. It's a rail-trail now. My Sis one Friday evening rode the Buffalo passenger train up from Pittsburgh to Rimer ( half-mile to the left) and we rowed across the river and picked her up. It was dusk so we carried a kerosene lantern in case anyone was out late with one of those new-fangled motorboats. That was c. '58-'59 when she was in training as an Xray technician at Presby in Pittsburgh.

I like this one:

Black Hills Central June 7, 2014.

That is their 2-6-2T doing the honors that morning.

ICE TRAINS in Munich Train Station on 12/11. Picture is mine.

I took this picture on May 13 2008 with my brand new Sony Alpha camera from the car window. This is from the car window somewhere between Palm Springs and Cathedral City. We were on our way to pay our respects to Frank

Taken on various trips:

The cantilever signal bridge at Lubbock Junction.The RailRunner ready to depart Santa Fe, NMFW&D Rwy at Quanah, TX with REA building and QA&P headquarters.Restored Quanah, Acme & Pacific headquarters.From the cab, a place all Santa Fe people will know.

Christmas Eve 1964 at the P&LE station in Pittsburgh, waiting for the Eastbound Capitol:

Mom&I sitting, bottom right.

Christmas Dinner on the Westbound Capitol after Christmas Day in DC:

Hearst, Ontario September 1984:

Rusty

Western Maryland Scenic RR.  

My photo while I was fishing under the bridge. Camp Chase Railroad.

Not my best picture, but interesting because its from 2019.

     I took these shots passing thru Blissfield, Mi. one night, around Christmas time...

Train that I rode in April in the South of France.

Pere Marquette 1225...

   NYS&W Stack Train SU100 on Conrail's Hudson Secondary at Warwick, NY- Jan.87'. 

                                                                MY PHOTO

TGV at Gare' Lyon?

So fresh out of the paint shop that I could almost smell the paint (West Pelzer, SC):

I wish that I had had my sunglasses on with this one (Toccoa, GA):

These are both favorites, but I really do not know which one that I like the best.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite, so I'll show a few here that I think is some of my best work. This might be a bit long-winded but I hope you still find it enjoyable. All photos are mine and may not be reproduced without permission.

Starting off with last weekend, at the American Steam Railroad work session with Reading T1 no. 2100.

To start off with is probably my favorite from that day. Two of the Midwest Railway Preservation Society's roundhouse cats sit on the trailing truck of the 2100.

Although the Society hasn't had steam since 1990, the smell, the atmosphere, the look; everything about this place is enchanting to me.

One of the American Steam Railroad volunteers works to remove two of the foot pedals in the cab on the engineer's side. This was part of one of the tasks that was accomplished that day: removing cab appliances to make way for a new cab floor.

Show here are the guts of an ALCO RS3, built in 1950. This classic diesel still runs today thanks to the dedicated volunteers of the Society. Additionally, she still uses her original prime mover she was built with, so the famous ALCO smoke is a common sight around here!

Moving on to adventures last year, these were taken with an iOS device. The full videos of all of these can be found on my YouTube channel, linked in the signature.

Starting in November of last year, this is the second North Pole Express run of the season. On the head is Pere Marquette no. 1225, an unforgettable star in a certain Christmas movie.

The small town of Carland is perhaps the most sought-out place to film on the entire line from Owosso to Ashley. It's a scene that can be easily mistaken for a cold, wintry day in the 1940s. That is if you can find a shot without any people in it. 

The Steam Railroading Institute often lets the 1225 get quite dirty, as shown in this photo. If it was my choice, she'd be polished like a new penny, but it also adds to the "in-service" appearance of the engine.

Backtracking again to October, I find myself in Strasburg, PA, which for 5 weeks in the fall was the center of all things steam. A monumental reunion of Norfolk and Western J Class no. 611 and M Class no. 475 drew crowds from all over the world.

The 611 puts on quite a show as she accelerates her 3-car train west out of Groundhog Cut. The regularly scheduled hourly train would soon follow, putting on an equally stunning show.

Well, would you look at that? A sugar-beet-hauling Decapod from Colorado passing one of the finest 4-8-4's ever built. No wonder they call this place "Paradise".

For only 50 cents, you too can climb up in an old Amish grain silo and experience a spectacular view of the landscape.

Now in September, I chased Nickel Plate Road no. 765 on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. This chase was unforgettable, and not everything went according to plan.

It began on September 22 with this. Unexpectedly, the train came to a stop right in front of the camera. This was the farthest north the train went, and just a few minutes later, the 765 began leading the train back down south.

The 765 drew quite the crowd on that sunny Sunday morning. My chasing plans had gone way off track, but I had come up with a revised plan based on the previous run, and the rest of the day almost went to plan.

The 765 put on a spectacular show that afternoon at Indigo Lake, but my good microphone broke and I had to settle with camera audio. The camera mic didn't like the 765's Nathan 6 Chime, so I deemed the shot unfit for publication. I redid this the next weekend, with NC&StL no. 576's whistle attached.

My final shot of that day was here, at Ira Road. This was one of two shots I did that went according to plan, which is quite interesting considering I was chasing the engine for 8 hours that day.

Now in the second weekend, this was another shot I had attempted the previous week and gave another try. It was a nice, sunny day right up until the 765 entered Peninsula. Then, the clouds began rolling in. For the shot after this, it was raining.

At the Friday night photoshoot that was held in Akron, I was able to catch a soldier lighting his pipe one last time before heading off to war.

For one Ohio teenager, these two weekends were the best chasing experience he ever had. He caught the steam bug from this very locomotive a year prior, and it doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. As Led Zeppelin's "The Rain Song" put it, it was "the summer of my smiles".

And on that note, I end my collage for now. Looking forward to presenting more in the future. Keep 'em coming! 

Back in 1956 I took this shot on what was billed as the Boston & Maine 3713's final run. I think it was one of the best RR photos I've taken.

Lew Schneider

Some great stuff guys! 

some recent work, I’ll be presenting at Winterail in Corvallis OR in March also  

Facing south on Kennedy Avenue in Highland, Indiana

 Burnham Yard on the South Shore

East/West tracks just north of Sibley Boulevard in Hammond, Indiana

CN Hazelcrest yard. These may be instruction cars.

Alongside Kennedy Avenue in East Chicago, Indiana

Burnham Yard. Racks are for hauling sheet steel or track switches if wider than 10'.

North/South tracks in Homewood, Illinois

In the Calumet Region we can hardly travel five miles without either crossing or running parallel to tracks.

John in Lansing, Ill

Repainted engine at A&M's shops in Springdale, Arkansas.  I think the unit is an ex CSX.

Dinner Train in Bardstown, Ky

From a couple of fan trips I took in the 70's.

Pictures of NKP 765 at LaSalle street station June 2017(?) fan trip. Where I first met rattler 21 also not quite a train but photos I took of different trolleys and street cars in San Francisco Labor day weekend 2014

Bill T

#403  Royal Gorge, Co. 8/2018

#1512  Verde Canyon, Co. 9/2018

I took this picture in the pouring rain at the Owasso, Mi. 2009 TrainFestival.

  " Working hard up outa' Cumberland!": 

"Split the switch!":

Alder Gulch RR, (a two mile museum pike) was operated in Virginia City by the state of Montana until defunded.

"Ready to signal Washout! Bighole it!"

Our then 2yr old Granddaughter on the B&P, nee B&O, nee BR&P:

"Pic of a guy taking a pic of a train!":

"Westbound Septa @80 per":

My favorite pic of my Grandfather sitting at his Telegrapher's desk at Enslie Tower, Pa on the PRR, c.1910:

I was unsure of the spelling until I consulted his 1917 Employee Timetable:

His handwriting says: "E E Johns   Rose Tower"

Fifth from the bottom. Fourth from the bottom, Dents Run is where Grandad met Grandma at the boarding house she helped her mother run.

Haysi Coal Mine Switcher..

I took this I think in 2017 when I went to Seattle on my bike. The first one is on the ocean side of Steven's Pass, i annoyed a BNSF work crew that were replacing stolen batteries. The 2nd was taken on the South Skagit Hwy right by Hwy 9 out of Sedro-Woolley. No trains, just amazing scenery. 

                 Marci's photo's...

Steel mill in East Chicago

No more putting a stick of dynamite in the coal to make small pieces.

East Chicago(Indiana) Fire Department training department car.

John 

Aha! Brian. So that little engine is a GE, a 20/25 tonner.

What fooled me was the high engine hood, not like a GE at all. But if you look at this pic:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.n...ture.aspx?id=3122510

you can see that the engine Marci photographed doesn't have an unusually high hood but rather an unusual low cab. 

Another pic of a guy taking a pic of a train:

An excursion out of Clearfield, Pa c. 1999-ish.

This Budd car was being nicely kept up by Mid America Railcar Leasing  of Quad Cities.

A nice touch:

I took this Illinois Terminal in Madison IL. This past November one of my favorites 

Here are a few that my father took around Roanoke, Va. back in August 1923.

Scott Smith

Caught some excursion trains while hiking in the White Mountains area of New Hampshire.

Compound Mallet pusher shoving hard on the BR&P, c.1930:

Dad took this pic and from his position he was standing in the vestibule of the last car on his work train. Note the Hack behind, which was made SOP on the BR&P after a Mallet squashed one of those old wood-framed Crummies.  

A nice photo of a perfect train:

Another favorite only for it's poignancy, the same spot on the EBT a year after the last train ran. 

These were last October at Strasburg, and it was dynamite. I shot a bunch of pictures, but I like these out of what I shot.

Back in the 1960's when the CB&Q would run excursions out of Chicago, I lived in Berwyn and would photograph both 4960, a 2-8-2, that is still in operation today at the Grand Canyon RR and also the famous 4-8-4 5632, went down to the scrappers torch in the 70's.

Here is one of my favorite shots at the Berwyn station, with 4960 making a pick up stop on the why west to Aurora.

RAY

Some nice shots here.  I’ve never really thought about which ones are my best train shots so I’ll just add a few that I like.  SMS Baldwin DS4-4-750 and Strasburg number 90.

Here are a few more images for you all. Hope you enjoy them... 

The BEAUTIFULLY restored FP45 at the Southern California Railway Museum (previously O.E.R.M.) basking in the late evening light... 

A foreign leader in San Timoteo Canyon as KCS 3936 heads west near El Casco with stacks in tow...

A relatively new UP #2583 slips past MOW equipment at El Casco in San Timoteo Canyon at daybreak... 

A Union Pacific Officer Special heads up Cajon between Verdemont and Devore with UP #1943 leading the way. The train is about to cross over the top of the 'Mother Road' Route 66...

UP #844 backs out of Yermo, CA and into a cloud of cylinder steam...

more Strasburg

One more from me. Don

These are two of my favorites. I took the first photo on a Carl Franz charter at the WMSR in the early 2000's. The second I took at the TVRM in October 2018.

Do compressed air locomotives count? Taken at Ft. Steele, BC. 

sidehack posted:

more Strasburg

The PRR Railroad Museum is certainly a gift. Close enough to enjoy every now and then.  And as many times as I have seen GG1s in action, statically and in photos, 4935 painted in it's original colors, save the authentic gold leaf, I still view them as a masterful work of art.  

Fuzz, anything that pulls a trains counts. Don

My wife and I pass by these on our way home from the Lancaster area. They sit on a siding on PA Rte 895 south of Lebanon. I can't remember the name of the town. I had a camera, so we stopped and I took a few pics.

Great stuff guys 

How do you follow Eric Lindgren.    But took these summer ‘18 by the Kincade Power plant.  This SD70MAC #9695, born in Nov 1995, served the power plant with coal.  It even still appears in google maps.

Thanks for posting Ted. It's been a long time since I've went by the power plant at Ellis station on the old C&IM.

Rusty

#614 at Somerset, Pa:

Dad took this pic of me studying a T1. It reminds me of a Norman Rockwell:

I took this pic at Virginia City, Montana:

Snapped this one while biking the Great Allegheny Passage up out of Cumberland:

Took this one at the Mouse:

Yup...It’s one of my favorites...🚂

One happy engineer. SP 2472

Don

I bet I'm happier!

A few of mine from over the years.  Most of these are likely reposts but it's been a while.  Wish I would eventually get around to scanning my 35mm and medium format chromes from my film days too. 

My first train photo at age 13 at Little Silver NJ during the summer of 1982 when NJT was running a Matawan to Long Branch shuttle that consisted of an E8 on each end of the train and three coaches in the middle.  This was done during the expansion of electrification to Matawan from South Amboy.  I have a few rolls of film sitting around from this summer that captured a lot of classic NJT operations that no longer exist.

Powder River Basin in the Summer of 2006.

Abandoned segment of track south of Ajo, AZ and on a military bombing range from 2005.

Former Reading MU car rusting on the Pacific Ocean in Fort Bragg, CA 2005

Inside of a former UP wooden caboose (CA-1 maybe) at a ghost town in Nevada, 2005.

A cloud day at the Grand Canyon Railway, 2007

TCA Desert Division trip to Globe in 2011 during a brief period when the Arizona Eastern was part of SLSG (?) prior to the Genessee and Wyoming takeover.  The train consisted of a former C&NW E9, former ATSF Great Dome, and a former IC observation lounge.

My favorite shot of UP 844 when it came to AZ in 2011.

Misc. Amtrak between 2014 and 2016 on the Keystone Corridor and NE Corridor.

BNSF in Flagstaff, 2017.

Black Mesa and Lake Powell E60C in Williams, AZ awaiting construction of the Arizona Railway Museum someday, 2017.

Grafton & Upton "Plow Extra" southbound trying to clear the line post-blizzard February 11th, 2013...

G&U northbound at same location (nicer weather!) on July 30th, 2013...

Additional shots below.

These are neither my best, nor worse - but they are mine. Hope you enjoy.

Paul

July in New Hampshire; last post was October in Paradise (PA)

Delmarva Central RR - October in Dover, De

Lew, this picture is priceless. Hope you have it hanging on a wall. Don

Times gone by!

I saw this in Suffern, NY earlier this month.

Long gone now.

Coaling tower on the old PRR Pittsburgh-Buffalo Mainline, just North of Redbank:

Obviously now a Railtrail. A bit further North is Brady's Bend tunnel:

This is Brady's Bend:

The railroad followed the river so a tunnel was driven under the narrow neck of land (constituting an ancient buried meander) thus shortening the route by several miles. Notice Phillipston (lower right quadrant on the map). This is the turntable at Phillipston yard:

My former CNJ GP40P photos when they were recently repainted into NJT and still had steam boilers.  The Pony Express sitting outside of Monmouth Park in 1982.  Not the best quality photos as the camera was an all plastic 35mm with a fixed plastic 50mm lens that was a gift from my grandparents.  Like its medium format cousin the Holga, it had light leaks.  I was 13 when I took these.

Santa Fe weed killer train. There was a string of tank cars behind. Took this sometime I think in the 1980's. Wonder where that old loco is now. Don

scale rail posted:

Santa Fe weed killer train. There was a string of tank cars behind. Took this sometime I think in the 1980's. Wonder where that old loco is now. Don

It's not a locomotive, it's a converted baggage car outfitted with spraying apparatus.  The weed sprayer train is pushed by regular diesels.

Rusty

Thanks Rusty. I saw the train in Northern Calif. sitting on a siding. No engines in sight so I thought it was an old Doodlebug or something. Thanks for the info. Hope the engineer pushing the train had a mask on. Don

Wow guys, lots of great pictures of the real deal. I took a few pictures of the RJ Corman diesel at the Clarksville Station, a small city park where folks can visit and get railroad memorabilia, and picnic. It’s not very popular now. 

Larry, what steam tender is that in the last picture?

Here are some of my favorites I've taken over the years:

These are of a local short line RR that services a nearby industrial park. The line runs behind my house, and I took advantage of a long process of hooking up to a cut of tank cars that were stored on a siding. 

My Great Grandfather on my father's mother's side.

Bessemer Engineer (on the left) E.S.Tyson

Amish Country/Strasburg Train

“Don’t worry about it...I’m sure it’s just a passing fancy”...🚂

Paul, that is a good looking team. Are they gonna' drag that harrow?

These sat for months last summer.  I drove by all the time on the way to the golf course.  Might give you some weathering or siding ideas...

Commemorating today's wonderful news wrt the East Broad Top!

Early AM #15 getting up steam, c. 1984. Dad posing:

Ready to whistle-off on that beautiful Summer day:

Aboard the Orbisonia that day:

#15 Summer 2010:

And the Orbisonia that day:

So looking forward to seeing a polish on these rails again:

Two pictures of the same engine at two different times. First picture, Southern 604 (Buffalo Creek & Gauley #4) under steam in the early 90's at NC Transportation Museum in Spencer. The second, still at Spencer in December 2008, is the chassis and running gear. The engine was taken apart for a major over haul and was not put back together. It was sold to Durbin & Greenbrier Valley RR in 2015. I can't find anymore information on it's current condition.

Tom Morris posted:

Two pictures of the same engine at two different times. First picture, Southern 604 (Buffalo Creek & Gauley #4) under steam in the early 90's at NC Transportation Museum in Spencer. The second, still at Spencer in December 2008, is the chassis and running gear. The engine was taken apart for a major over haul and was not put back together. It was sold to Durbin & Greenbrier Valley RR in 2015. I can't find anymore information on it's current condition.

 

From what I just searched it looks like it is still in the plans to be restored by the D&GVRR. I had thought I found it elsewhere, but that was the trade off that was renumbered 604 which is on static display at NC, I think they call it 542 in the search(even though it's renumbered 604?) if I read all that right.

Strasburg Railroad Museum

I took this pic in Madison Illinois one winter day 

That's a young me on top of the tender.

NKP 765 cresting Carson Hill in Ashtabula, Ohio.

This is at milepost 4 on the NS Youngstown Line that runs between Youngstown and Ashtabula, Ohio. Throttle wide open, reverse down in the corner, pop lifted, fireman crowding the fire a bit to make sure that pop stays lifted, and going about 9 mph.

It was quite a battle!

July 26th 2019, UP Big Boy #4014 passes through my hometown train station in Elmhurst, IL.

First test run after my son restored his locomotive Santa Cruz Portland Cement #2 (SCPC 2).