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

Appalachin & Ohio RR units switching Buckhannon, WV on the Friday before Fathers Day 2023.

Chasing a Buffalo & Pittsburgh train last June, featuring 3 SD60s, some DIT SD40-2s and SD50, and a CPL.

I’m so happy to see this thread becoming so popular and full of both real trains and beautiful model trains, from all around the USA and other countries. My wife and I recently visited via a cruise (Norwegian Encore) from Seattle to many areas of Alaska. A fantastic voyage… During the trip we took a ride on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad. The trip was awesome…. The cost, $425 for my wife and I, just the train ride. The folks were friendly, and we enjoyed the ride. Happy Railroading Everyone

@leapinlarry - great pictures Larry, must have been a beautiful ride.

Don

@Don McErleann, Thank you Don, you might remember my frustration in getting a Passport or a real Birth Certificate prior to leaving on May 20…. We were so lucky to get the passport on May 17th at 5:30 PM Atlanta time, in Atlanta, so we were hurrying everywhere to get on the boat…. Wow, it was worth the effort… Happy Railroading Everyone

Thank you for sharing all the great photographs of your wonderful trip!

A Father’s Day Special…An annual tradition at the Whippany Railway Museum in Whippany, NJ is the operation of train rides on Father’s Day. The consist of the train can be quite interesting as seen in this photo I took of the 2018 special. Behind the locomotive is a Jersey Central club car painted in a Blue Comet inspired livery followed by Pennsylvania, Erie Lackawanna, Delaware and Hudson, Jersey Central and Susquehanna cabooses all restored in historically accurate liveries.

The Whippany Railway Museum is located along the original mainline of the Morristown and Erie Railway. The museum specials are operated in conjunction with the M&E. The power was the 2354, one of Morristown and Erie’s recently acquired former Norfolk Southern MP15DC units. The locomotive was originally delivered to the Southern Railway in 1977.

Bob

Amtrak • Let’s go for a ride! • Pontiac to Battle Creek Michigan

April 17, 2023 - It was a cold day with a light snow. This rail-fanning trip will start at the Pontiac Michigan Station. We will ride in a brand new Midwest Amtrak Coach to Battle Creek. I drove my F150 to Pontiac and Train Room Pamela drove her car to meet her girl friends for lunch at “Clara’s On The River”. I walked to the restaurant to pickup her car. She ask me to return at 3:00 PM. So I went rail-fanning.

This was an interesting train trip. These photos will show a day trip on train number 351. So come along as we go rail-fanning on the Wolverine Line.

The train backing up to the platform.

Inside a new Midwest Coach.

Selfie

The conductors

Leaving the train at Battle Creek, “The Breakfast Capital”. Kellogg’s and Post Brands.

The engineer.

My Amtrak Route.

My ride home. Train Room Pam of 43 years. Train Room Pam in middle with her college friends.

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

Thank you for sharing your latest train ride, Gary!

My Father's Day gift from my wife was a Rail Bike trip on the Boone and Scenic Valley yesterday, great fun. Saw some equipment while we were there.

Videos show a rail bike being turned for the return trip and crossing over a 156’ tall trestle.

La junta Colorado,  yesterday.  BNSF theater track inspection car and crew car on siding, in the middle of a horrendous thunderstorm ⛈.

Then we have today,  Royal Gorge Railroad,  my son and I in the cab for a great father/son experience.

This shot taken from the "front porch " of SD40-2 #601. That's the Royal Gorge bridge above the horn cluster.

Today, at Evaline, WA:

I rarely go railfanning at night, since I don't have flashes and it's very rare that there's enough light for me to see, let alone for my camera. On this particular night, I had hoped to see the evening Glenwood Yard job, which works industries within the yard itself, sets out cars for CSX and works a company called MetalTech on a short spur that used to lead to J&L Steel (I believe). On this particular night, the crew did not get to MetalTech before midnight, but they did get onto the yard leads, which allowed me to use my car hi-beams and fog lights and get semi-decent video. I made the extra effort because this job is now the only one that consistently runs with an end-cab or one of the former IC GP11s that were the backbone of AVR's Washington & Pittsburgh Sub when I was growing up.

On the subject of Paducah rebuilds, here's three more than are close to Pittsburgh. POHC 1711 was a Pennsy GP-9 that IC rebuilt into a GP10 for Conrail. Following a third life on the Ohio Central, the unit was rebuilt once again into a GP-10M by the OC around the time of the Genessee and Wyoming takeover. The unit is currently the only Pittsburgh & Ohio Central-lettered unit on that line (the rest being OC or CIND) and also the only first-generation Geep. Here, the unit is retrieving cars dropped by Norfolk Southern at ESPLEN, trudging down the start of the former Panhandle Line after working the West End job.  

Nearby (about two hours away) are a pair of GP11s, P&OC 8702 and OC 8712. Both were also owned by the Ohio Central, now G&W, and are also on the "scrap or rebuild" list created as part of G&W's settlement with the EPA. I photographed all three of these units this past weekend. This pair worked the former Erie Brier Hill yard before jetting off north to somewhere I couldn't find.

Cool stuff guys!

Spruce, CO

Palmer Lake, CO

Greenland, CO

Cheyenne, WYO

Barr Lake, CO

Hudson, CO

Amtrak 5 at Cheyenne May 23

Erik your photography is the best!

Thanks Coach! 👍☺️

Outside Breckinridge Colorado , June 19th

the Sugar Express.  6/3/23

The Raritan Central Railway is a short line railroad serving Edison and Woodbridge, New Jersey with a focus on the Raritan Center Business Park and Heller Industrial Park. Traffic is interchanged with Conrail Shared Assets at Metuchen.

As is often the case with small roads, RCRY’s locomotive roster features older power no longer operated by the larger carriers. One such example is GP30M number 5. Originally built for the Baltimore and Ohio as the B&O 6923 in 1962, the unit was upgraded by the Chessie during the early 1980s. Among the improvements made were new traction motors and updated electrical components. I took these photos of number 5 as it worked around Raritan Center earlier this month on the 9th.

Bob

Here is the middle branch of the Loup river, just east of Thedford Ne. Across hiway 2 and the Roadside Inn. 308-645-2284.

Again at Thedford

@Erik C Lindgren

Amtrak in Cheyenne?

No sure if anyone's seen anything like these, but the storyline company I work spare time for installed some of these new ''jump frogs ''!!    If your wondering, 'yes',   they are bumpy to go over !!    

Sorry about that, but of course that should have said.....not sure if anyone.... and.... the shortline company  I work spare time for .....      The technology in this old BlackBerry ' Passport ' phone I use thinks it knows how to spell better than us.

CSX Main Line, Livonia Michigan • June 24, 2023

Today: June 24, 2023 - It was a warm spring day just after a light rain. Livonia is a large suburb to the west of Detroit. I was just hanging out waiting for a train on Haggerty Road. The puffy clouds made for an interesting backdrop.

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

Great stuff fellas 👍🙂

I was driving through Hawley, PA this afternoon when I saw an excursion train from the Stourbridge Line (which runs between Honesdale and Hawley). Apparently, they run a special train on Fridays during the summer to the weekly Farmers Market at Bingham Park in Hawley. From what I can gather online, the engine is a Canadian built GM FP7 (formerly Canadian Pacific 4040) which has been beautifully repainted in PRR livery.

While I was there, they backed the train out of the small station while the passengers were roaming around town…

That is beautifully repainted, Paul!!  Thank you for sharing this!

Another video, spending two hours at Metra's Blue Island station in June 2022.

The New York Transit Museum occasionally operates preserved equipment for special events. One such occasion was the “Parade of Trains” on June 16, 2018 when I took the attached photos. Several vintage consists were operated on short excursion turns between Brighton Beach and Kings Highway stations. The highlight of the day was the appearance of the Brooklyn Union Elevated open platform cars. As the oldest pieces in the collection, they’re not operated very often.

Bob

CN Yard, Pontiac Michigan • 4th of July, 2023 🇺🇸

It was a hot summer day, 89 degrees. This being a holiday there was no activities in the yard. Let’s walk around and see what we can find.

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

Nice, Gary.  I’ve been seeing those CN engines here in Butler, Pennsylvania the last few years.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Nice, Gary.  I’ve been seeing those CN engines here in Butler, Pennsylvania the last few years.

Hi Mark: Thanks for checking out these rail-fanning photos This is only a ten minute drive from my train room. This is my go to place just to hang out and watch them built trains.  Amtrak also uses this yard to turn around there locomotives going back to Chicago. They use the wye turn and not the turntable. Take care:

Gary 🚂

Excellent, Gary!  For my whole life, all we see in Butler County is freight

Here’s How a Wye Turn Works. Used by Amtrak & CN.

Steps 1 & 2 the locomotive pulls into the wye. Step 3 the locomotive is placed into reversed. Step 4 the loco backs up. Step 5 the loco is now turned around a goes forward.

As seen from Google Earth. Gary from Michigan. 🚂

Gary, scratching my head for a while with your annotated photo. I originally thought the arrows were the direction of travel, not pointing toward the front of the loco. Makes a lot more sense that way.

A couple of photographs of Susquehanna Station aka the Starrucca House on the old Erie RR main line through Susquehanna. Starting to work up a model.....

That interior shot with the pointed arch windows make me think of a church.

The third floor (interior shot taken from the hallway looking through a tragical door) was set up with individual rooms, each room having a rotating transom window (not pivoting) above the door and a window/lite which read as small dormers on the roof. The trefoil detail that can still be seen from the outside of some of the dormer windows seems to be a pattern that was installed on the inside. The picture that I took does not have the pattern. The building is a stunner.

@Todds Architectural Models posted:

The third floor (interior shot taken from the hallway looking through a tragical door) was set up with individual rooms, each room having a rotating transom window (not pivoting) above the door and a window/lite which read as small dormers on the roof. The trefoil detail that can still be seen from the outside of some of the dormer windows seems to be a pattern that was installed on the inside. The picture that I took does not have the pattern. The building is a stunner.

The curved roof trusses are impressive.

Bob