Sometimes you get off cheap: all it took to get the inbound crew to pull up from behind a cut of grain hoppers and spot the power was a round of onion rings for the crew from the burger joint acro... (more)

I remember being torn between almost liking the new MP yellow scheme and disliking it because it insulted the old UP scheme. I got over it and so did UP.

The daily grind: 1.) start at Bellville in the morning yelling at the clouds to just move ao you could shoot last night's remote cut-outs at the old roundhouse tracks, then 2.) move on to shooting... (more)

The MP ran basically a shuttle for the RS&S/PC&N between Point Comfort and Rockdale using their power, northbound one day, then southbound the next. It was one of the few trains that, as a rule, ... (more)

The SF30Cs were common on grain, potash and sulphur trains, and we tried to get as many as we could while they were in kodachrome colors and reasonably clean. Bellville was where southbounds (rai... (more)

In Chicago for the WGRF, Mike Abalos (may he rest in peace) was right beside me shooting the parade, one train after the other at Western Avenue.

Cruisin' down the main drag at Sidney, effortless at track speed, about to throttle up for the slight uphill run up to and around the Potter bluffs. This was a pretty standard lashup for leaders ... (more)

The 534 was the fav train in the AM to chase north from Bellville. You started out at B'ville shooting the sulphur train, a loaded grain train usually, the remotes set out at Bellville from grain... (more)

Westbound stack train on the Eagle Lake branch calling ahead for a rock train at Eagle Lake to hurry up and move. The branch was used as an overflow around the single track Sunset main through Ro... (more)

This eastbound rock train is huurying to clear the Sunset main at the tower so that the westbound AVAXT can come off the Eagle Lake branch (to the right of the train) and head west.

Gaylord was the center of my consulting career during this time, and my first month of encounters with the D&M were around Grayling-Gaylord-Alpena. I had heard this guy on the radio, but went bli... (more)

The 3PM Tilden Job brings another train of pellets to the yard at Eagle Mills, where the train will be yarded and combined with other cuts for the Hill Job to take to the docks in Marquette.

Eerily reminescent of the late 70s; it was not far from this spot where you couldn't buy a spot to watch the cabhops to and from Hardy Street and see the railroads of the east. SCL U-boats were a... (more)

The 3PM Hill Job is returning from Marquette after dropping off loads and picking up empties, easing past the AEI scanner and about to cross the Morgan Creek bridge. Don't ask me how I got across... (more)

On the complete opposite end of the beauty scale from the U25C is the BQ23-7. Being a GE fan does not prevent the feeling that this is perhaps the ugliest locomotive ever built. But you can hard... (more)