Cowls – EMD Design at its Finest (IMHO)

Electro-Motive built F45 diesels for Great Northern / Burlington Northern and Santa Fe. Perhaps it is my southern California bias, but the ... (more)

As 1974 Winds Down…

Santa Fe U36C 8746 leads a trio of of SD45s (all still in the pre-Yellow Warbonnet scheme) as a westbound freight approaches Blue Cut, in southern California’... (more)

Historical Family Connections

A Southern Pacific freight, led by Cotton Belt SD45T-2 9165, passes through the Shell Oil Refinery (where my father worked during World War II) as it ro... (more)

Green and Yellow Foliage and Diesels

On a pleasant August afternoon, a Union Pacific automobile train heads west behind Chicago & North Western GP50 5074, UP SD40 3052 and C&NW SD40-... (more)

First Generation Quartet

A westbound Burlington Northern freight passes through Arapahoe, Nebraska, on August 5, 1985. SD9 6167 (the former Chicago Burlington & Quincy 365) leads a ... (more)

Sunday in the Park with Doyle*

How I spent my third anniversary: Southern Pacific GS-4 class 4-8-4 4449, with SP SD40E 7342 as a helper, crosses Stenner Creek Trestle as it blasts i... (more)

New Way Cars? No Way!

In 1974, the Santa Fe Railway took delivery of their first new cabooses in twenty-five years: Five Ce-6 class way cars (as Santa Fe called their cabooses) numb... (more)

Twenty Cylinders, No Flares

Heading west on Santa Fe's Third District is a short freight (not unusual on the Santa Fe in the 1970s) of primarily piggyback cars. Lead engine 5672 is ... (more)

Change at Jamaica

A westbound Long Island Rail Road train threads its way through the maze of trackage at the railroad's large Jamaica Station in Jamaica, Queens, New York NY. This ... (more)

Long Beach Branch in Lynbrook

A Long Island train from Long Beach, headed to Atlantic Terminal, approaches the Lynbrook station in Hempstead, New York, on January 25, 2017. (Lynbroo... (more)

Red Locomotives and Red Signals

A westbound BNSF Railway intermodal train (consisting of single-stack containers) heads into the setting sun as it rolls through the passenger station... (more)

It Sounded Great!

In a scheme repeated thousands of times in the 1970s and 1980s, a westbound Southern Pacific freight grinds upgrade on the Palmdale Cutoff, SP's shortcut between Bl... (more)

Basta History

In June 1974, a trio of SD45s leads a Santa Fe westbound freight across Commonwealth Avenue in Fullerton, California. ATSF SD45 5513 is the former ATSF 1813, built in ... (more)

On November 17th, 2014 the final chapter of Union Switch & Signal searchlight signals on Tehachapi was closed when the last signals between Warren and Mojave, on the eastern slope, were retired in... (more)

A powered up westbound hotshot sails across BNSF's Needles Subdivision east of Lavic with the vast and rugged Mojave Desert as the backdrop.