The nearly abandoned town of Thompson Springs, Utah, had at least two things going for it: a cool neon sign for the Silver Grill Café and the former Rio Grande mainline. In April 1996, the late a... (more)

Three SP AC4400s are having no trouble going up the 1.1 percent grade of Thompson Hill with what I now think is iron ore for Geneva Steel.

Looking more like an alien planet than a lonely railroad branch, the lower end of Union Pacific’s Cane Creek Subdivision near Moab offers a spectacular combination of slickrock, steel rails and ... (more)

You’re in the cab of Rio Grande SD45 5321 at Avon as a westbound runs around in the siding. A friendly engineer invited me up into the cab after seeing me setting up to get a picture of the meet... (more)

A westbound Rio Grande train rolls across the Eagle River bridge at Wolcott. Look carefully and see the remnants of the words "Royal Gorge Route" in faded white letters spelled out on the bridge.

The hum of dynamic brakes interrupts the morning quiet after a snowstorm the previous night on Tennessee Pass. DRGW 5404 leads a westbound doublestack downhill at 9 a.m. at the overpass just east ... (more)

D&RGW 5508 leads an eastbound as it crosses the Eagle River two miles west of Minturn.

DRGW 5401 leads the helper set as it eases back to Minturn. The helpers are crossing the Eagle River at the east end of Belden, near the town of Red Cliff on a glorious fall day. Nothing could bea... (more)

DRGW 5352 West eases downgrade as it passes under U.S. 24 as it nears Belden siding.

Mallard ducks ignore the train on a cold autumn afternoon at Falls Park. Dakota & Iowa GP50s 2512 & 2513 ease across the Big Sioux River with a long string of empty gons and hoppers heading back t... (more)

Twenty street crossings in less than two miles on 100-pound rail dating to 1927. That’s today’s Ellis & Eastern grinding away on a former Chicago & North Western branch through the residential... (more)

The newest member of the Ellis & Eastern diesel fleet hits a dip in the track as it exits the bridge crossing the Big Sioux River in downtown Sioux Falls. The engine is a GP38-2. The bridge was bu... (more)

In a late afternoon sun, a D&I empty rock train crosses the Big Sioux River at Falls Park on its return trip from Sioux City to Dell Rapids.

D&I SD39 4027 leads an all-EMD quartet charging up a 1 percent grade out of the Big Sioux River Valley in Sioux Falls. The train is hauling rock from the quarry in Dell Rapids. It has a BNSF track... (more)

Ellis & Eastern number 37, a GP10, leads the morning run across residential Phillips Avenue in Sioux Falls.