Railway Pics - Locos, Rolling Stock, Buildings, Etc!

[Kevin WS]

You wonder right John!

[Kevin WS]

Going modern.

A MOW rail vehicle used to maintain catenaries.

[Monkey]

Here are a few shots of the Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boy I took a few years back at the transportation museum in St. Louis. They have since restored it and it is just beautiful! I have more if anyone wants to see them.

[whulsey]

Monkey, always up for shots of a Big Boy. Somewhere I have shots of the one that used to be at the LA County Fairgrounds that UP is restoring to operational condition. If I ever run across them will scan and post.

[whulsey]

Kevin, are the steamers, etc. being scrapped for survival money, or like here, were all kinds of equipment is stolen for drug money?

[Kevin WS]

Whulsey - anything metal here gets stolen, with the railways being a major target because of all the metal.

The railway lines near me actually have armed guards for every three to four hundred metres to prevent signal cables being stolen.

The theft is definitely criminal rather then for survival.

[whulsey]

That's here also. With the combo of that and TSA, it makes rail fanning difficult and if you're photographing around an airport you probably going to at least get taken in and questioned.

[NevadaBlue]

Originally Posted by Kevin WS

Ken,

Those shots are great! Especially as they look like like what I imagine trains in that part in the world to look like and you have the Centennials in the shot as well! You know what I mean!

The countryside is stunning too. You are lucky to be able to experience that.

Two different trains?

The crossing photo is of interest as well. nicely maintained. Incidentally, if it was here it would not exist - everything metal gets stolen, so the fittings, cabinet doors and so on would have gone, along with the crash barrier rails alongside the road (the first things to go).

Kevin,
It appears that all four locos are EMD SD70M models. I looked them up in the LONG list of UP locos. Yes, all the same train. We just happened to pass it on the highway at the right time to catch the scenery too. The Argenta rim is in the background, just east of Argenta, NV.


The crossing was just rebuilt. The crossing guard hardware and controls are not new though. This particular stretch (just east of Golconda, NV) is a touchy place. Quite often the speed is reduced due to unstable track conditions. The track is squeezed between the river and cliff there.




I must stop and take pictures of the 'telegraph' poles at that crossing sometime. They are installing underground lines, probably fiber would be my guess and the old poles will be abandoned. One line of them is the old square poles with roof peak tops. The comm lines also share some poles with power lines. That discussion causes some 'experts' to say nay, but that's how it is.




Yes, we are lucky. Beautiful, rugged and remote place we live.

[whulsey]

Here's a shot in town on the UP tracks and a couple of shots of a track speeder at the Kansas Flywheelers Museum.

[Kevin WS]

Thanks Ken for all the extras info. Appreciated!

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Whulsey - I like the speeder (who doesn't dream of having something like this to dash down the rails in), but your UP photo is really great.