Built in December of 1969 and having outlived two mergers so far, this Ortner woodchip gondola still rides the rails under the Great Northern banner. Wearing that fallen railroad’s Big Sky Blue... (more)

Spikes
When a tie replacement is under way, one of the other fundamental things being replaced other than ties are spikes and lots of them as evident here. An original Atlantic Coast ... (more)

Red gold
Labeled as calcine or iron oxide, this byproduct from the heydays of smelting at Copperhill, Tennessee has now found new way to get to metal producers overseas; that is by usi... (more)

MoPac Still Delivers
To the casual observer it looks like the Missouri Pacific is alive and well as a number of its 65’ mill gondolas are seen in Pueblo this day.

The sky blue color of an Oregon Steel Mills Thrall gondolas shows the abuse that one expects from a car used to haul either scrap steel or finished products from the famous steel mill in Pueblo.

Southern serves Woodchips
As the fallen railroad’s logo still holds onto the side of this 1980 built wood chip gondola from Ortner, this class of car represent a rarity for the Sout... (more)

31 years after the merger, you can still find remnants of the Norfolk and Western. This gondola is still in use as MoW equipment.

Work crews unload the first of 3 panel switches to be used as replacements in Kenwood Yard. The switches had been salvaged from unused sidings on the North End of the D&H.

Renewable
Couplers from scrapped railcars head into the BNSF yard where they’ll most likely be sent to a foundry that manufactures this railway component so their metal compositions ... (more)

Remnants of the Missouri Pacific still ride the rails.

Even after all these years you can still find remnants of the Penn Central riding the rails.

a loaded gondola of new ties for the Caramat Sub was set off by a 313 earlier in the week. The auto carrier next to it didn't want to let go!

Light Weight
The weight of empty aluminum coal gondolas show their rail bending capabilities as they sit atop 90 lb rail rolled only miles east of this location at the more)

While these mating worms have lasted longer than the parent railroad they represented, their deterioration is a good example of how tough life got on that railroad in the mid-70s.

Beginning in 1992 by NS as a program to remanufacture its aging coal hopper fleet into higher capacity assets, the Top Gon rebuilds were constructed for NS by the Roanoke East Shops to a tune of 1... (more)