Rail-fanning on The OGR Forum 🚂 Welcome: Pictures YOU have taken! • Hope to see you out rail-fanning.

I see on the map.  At 20th Street.  Thank you

Having fun with Photoshop • Michigan Central Station

October 4, 2022 - The nickname for the Michigan Central Station is the Ellis Island of Detroit. This iconic building is where thousands of immigrants arrived from New York to find jobs at the Ford Motor Company building the Model T and much more.

It is fun to take Rail-fanning Photos with a fisheye lens and process them with Photoshop.

Rail-fanning photography should never be “Plumb Bob & Square”

Hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary 🚂

In a German coal-fired power plant.

Train with 50 tons coal cars.

Train for the slag

Arne

A couple of shots of the Rio Grande Scenic 1230 train on 11/23/22

@trainroomgary Michigan Grand Central is by far my favorite piece of railroad architecture. Detroit in general is absolutely gorgeous with its architecture. Awesome city!

A favorite of mine.  UP Bigboy Nov 8, 2019 near Navisota Texas.

Napavine, WA about two hours ago:

Where in the world is SeptaTony?

Hope you enjoyed your Lititz visit.

In February 2021, a buddy and I went south into Ohio and visited Deshler and Fostoria.    Both places have railfan "parks".    I personally think Deshler is a better spot for photos because the park is on the south side of the busy CSX east-west tracks.    there is also another CSX line crossing north-south.   I think it is an old C&O line.    Fostoria is on the same line, but on the north side with a crossing also.   Fostoria also has a single track NS line.    The photos were taken on a sunny day with a good snow cover.   I think there was about 6 inches on the ground!    The first 3 are at Deshler and the 2nd 3 at Fostoria.

@CPC posted:

Hope you enjoyed your Lititz visit.

Thanks! Lititz is great and it’s changed A LOT since the last time I was here.

That caboose was originally CNJ but still glad it survived past CR.

Happy Friday! Here is a lineup at Chicago Union Station of old and new power. I was able to grab a quick pic of the Siemens cab. It’s just from my phone and it’s plenty dark, but I think it’s still pretty cool how the control panel is lit up!!

A few pics from a photo excursion I recently attended:

In Pittsburghrailfan's video at Blue Island, in one of the video scenes, it was interesting to see that in the Iowa Interstate pusher engine there was a crewmember riding in the engineer's seat (facing the rear). Never seen a crewmember riding in a rear pusher engine before.

@Mark Hedges posted:

A few pics from a photo excursion I recently attended:

And when and where was this?

@breezinup posted:

In Pittsburghrailfan's video at Blue Island, in one of the video scenes, it was interesting to see that in the Iowa Interstate pusher engine there was a crewmember riding in the engineer's seat (facing the rear). Never seen a crewmember riding in a rear pusher engine before.

It was interesting! I think this was because the train, which I believe was CBBI (Council Bluffs to Blue Island) comes in from the south on CSX trackage rights, but terminates at Blue Island Yard on Union Pacific's ex-Rock Island trackage, necessitating a half-mile backup move. That is, I think this was the lead engine, but I got there only after the train had sat on the crossing for several minutes, and I wasn't paying attention when they started across the Rock Island bridge.

For today, I have two videos: the first is a pair of clips from 2021, when I chased Pittsburgh's two local Genesee and Wyoming railroads: the Pittsburgh and Ohio Central and Buffalo & Pittsburgh. While not terribly sophisticated in their camera work (I was still using my phone), these two short chases were significant to me. In the POHC case, I had chased the Arden Turn once before, but I hadn't caught it going underneath the Wheeling & Lake Erie bridge at Vanadium Road, a spot I passed several times a year when I lived in the South Hills. Because the Turn was running late and I didn't want to risk missing the train by driving further south, I waited at the crossing for four hours, which was at the time the longest interval I laid in wait for a single train. This particular RIBT chase was my first look at the Buffalo & Pittsburgh on home rails, since most of their trackage is at least an hour away from me.

The second video is from this past summer's trip around the US and Canada in search of Alcos, GP9s, GE standard cabs, and F59PHs. I had been told that the F59s most frequently appeared on Kitchener line trains, and that it was probably best to avoid railfanning in metropolitan Toronto, with its heavy traffic. After driving about 5 hours from Montreal, I spent the afternoon waiting for the afternoon GO Transit rush. While I did not catch any GP9s, the Canadian National local that I showcase here did have something interesting on point: a Canadian cab GP40-2W, in the North American paint scheme (yes, the gray is intentional on the long hood, though on NS it would probably be real chipped paint). While the road bridge I perched on mercifully lacked the anti-suicide screens that are endemic on US bridges, the spot was quite windy, and I was still five months out from getting an external mic with a windscreen.

@Hot Water posted: And where and when was this?

November 5th at the Everett railroad in Hollidaysburg Pa (near Altoona).  

Here’s a link to my “best of” album if anyone is interested.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/76951579@N02/Cxzq530b59

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train • Windsor Ontario, Canada

We are going to Canada, “Eh”! Then in part 2 to the Motor City, To see the train come out of the CP Railway Tunnel. “Eh”!

December 1, 2022 - I arrived in downtown Windsor at 4PM and stayed until the train left for Detroit at 6:45 PM. I had no issues getting though Canadian Customs. Showed my passport and they only had one question. Where are you going?

As I came out of the auto tunnel my map quest and iPhone stopped working. I did received a warning from my carrier. I stopped at the Ontario Welcome Center and they got my phone working. So I could use map quest and get to the Holiday Train.

The following photos tell the story about the CP Holiday Train. Starting at the Canadian Customs at the Detroit Windsor Auto Tunnel.

Below is a video of the CP Holiday Train leaving the CP Yard to Detroit.

Had a great time and met a lot of fellow rail-fanners. The Canadians call Rail-fanning, Rail-Spoting. “Eh”!

Thanks for taking a look. Hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary 🚂

Gary, that’s some great photographs and video of the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train! Eh!  You always give some great background in writing and photography! Eh!

'Tis the season, so photos with snow are de rigueur.  Here's one I took outside the Alaska RR headquarters in Anchorage in the early 1980s.  MTH reproduced this car as a RailKing model but omitted the prominent phone number on the side of the car.  I pointed that out to MTH and received  a shocked reply saying "We would never put someone's phone number on a car!"  ;-)

Fresh snow in SD today (12/09) and RCP&E is moving over 100 empties westbound toward the grain elevators.

saw some of these gathering down towards elk point on Thursday.  Nice video, thanks for posting.

Apparently it's getting harder to see solid single-car sets on MARC trains. I'm not sure I believe that, every time I've gone out for MARC in the past two years I've seen at least one set.

Christmas time in NYC!

thanks!

-Mario

Great video!

Detroit - Windsor Tunnel

December 1, 2022 - In this video we are going to see what it would be like to take the CP Railway Tunnel. There are two tunnels going under the Detroit River. These international tunnels connect Windsor Ontario 🇨🇦 & Detroit Michigan 🇺🇸. Amtrak and VIA Rail of Canada are in negotiations to run passenger trains from the new Michigan Central Station to Toronto Canada. This would start in the fall of 2024 along with the inauguration of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge.

If this happens I would try to get tickets for the first run from Detroit to Toronto.

Hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary 🚂

Thank you for the trip through the tunnel, Gary!

Hi Mark: You’re welcome: Thanks for checking out the CP Holiday Photos & Video. Along with the Detroit - Windsor Tunnel. I prefer the tunnel over the Ambassador Bridge. The tunnel is faster because they do not allow large trucks. They are building second bridge. The Gordie Howe International Bridge. Schedule to open in the fall of 2024.

Gary: Hope to see you out rail-fanning. 🚂

Fitting name for the new bridge.  Pittsburgh has the Roberto Clemente Bridge.  I would take the tunnel too if there were no trucks

Chama, New Mexico

A couple of months ago I took a little trip.


Kent in SD

It's good to see you posting again, Kent.

I have another set of photos I'm working on. 


Kent in SD

Train Room Pam Goes to Pune India

December 2022 - Train Room Pam spent two week in Pune, India. She arrived home last week and she brought me some rail-fanning videos. She flew nonstop from Chicago to Delhi on Air India. The flight was about 14 hours and then 2 more hour to Pune. This is the only western airliner that is allowed to fly over Russia. The fight took off from Chicago and flew north to the North Pole and then over Russia to India. Come join Train Room Pam on her Christmas vacation as she travels by rail. Notice how each passenger car is filled.

Hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary 🚂

Christmas in Chicago!

Durango, Colorado
Durango & Silverton RR

We also visited the D&S although we didn't ride it.  We only had three weeks and I chose the Cumbres & Toltec to ride.  Will get back to the Four Corners area and ride the D&S too.  I did sign up for the roundhouse tour.  I thought I'd get more unusual photos in the shops than I would along the tracks.  Everyone takes photos along the line, and I really like shop scenes.  This tour was ten bucks and obviously geared toward the casual tourist with a cell phone, not a more serious foamer with a camera.  It was guided by a low level employee who really didn't know much about the shops or operation.  When I pointed to the Yukon engine he did know it was a diesel.   Other than that mostly all he did was keep prodding me along when I was trying to take nice shots.  I intend to make prints of the better photos I took and send them down to the D&S marketing manager.  First, I want the guys I took photos of to have them.  Second, I want to wise the sales &  marketing guy up.  The quickie tour was only ten bucks.  I would have readily paid fifty bucks if I had more time and go at my own pace taking photos.  I think there are enough fairly serious railfans out there (the ones carrying $5,000 worth of camera gear) who would gladly pay fifty bucks to take some unique photos.  Even just one guy paying $50 for an hour tour would be profitable for them.  Anyway, I do think I made the right call spending the time inside the shops rather than along the tracks taking train photos.

Kent in SD

Northbound Cascades heading up the south side of Napavine Hill at Winlock, WA.

Kent, those are some great shop photographs!  I would love to go to the four corners.  I have cousins south of Denver and never made it there the only time I visited.

Mark--

If you go be sure to visit Mesa Verde.  It alone is worth a trip.

Kent in SD

@Two23 posted:

Mark--

If you go be sure to visit Mesa Verde.  It alone is worth a trip.

Kent in SD

Oh yes!  Thank you!  My cousins have been there.  It’s a bit of a haul for us in Northwestern Pennsylvania.