Sometimes the best train watching spots are far away from the tracks. From the top of Mill Mountain, one can see nearly every train through the busy city of Roanoke. Here what looks to be a pair o... (more)

Out of the Blue Ridge Mountains and into the hills of the Piedmont: The Roanoke - Danville, VA fall foliage excursion rolls through a meet with an empty coal train near Goodview.

The final area excursion of the fall season, a round trip to Bluefield, WV, races upgrade back to Roanoke along the rolling hills of southwestern VA just before sundown.

The ex-Virginian line across the southern part of its namesake state is one of the most inaccessible and impressive lines in the region. Trestles and tunnels dot the line built to minimize grades ... (more)

The sun has set, the passengers are off the train, and all that's left to do after today's round trip excursion from Roanoke to Bluefield, WV is reverse the special back into the yard. Note the do... (more)

The 2nd weekend of fall foliage excursions in the area gave passengers another opportunity for riding rare mileage. After a 9AM departure from Roanoke, the special is seen here passing along the s... (more)

The sun streams in through the same break in the ridges that the old Southern Railway uses to escape the Old Fort Loops and head down into downtown Old Fort

All stages of fall foliage development are represented here along Mill Creek as an early morning 162 drags its heels, fighting gravity on the descent into Old Fort.

The whine of 3 NS locos and a manifest freight fighting gravity are muffled by the geography as NS 162 descends from Ridgecrest into the Old Fort Loops on Halloween evening.

About 5 minutes after my previous photo, the NCTM special is now passing the bottom of High Fill in the opposite direction, having lost nearly 100 feet in elevation through the lowest of the loops... (more)

Passengers on the Southern Loops! It's hard to imagine the weather could have been any nicer for the North Carolina Transportation Museum's 2010 fall foliage excursions. This year's rare-milage tr... (more)

Passengers on the Southern Loops! It's hard to imagine the weather could have been any nicer for the North Carolina Transportation Museum's 2010 fall foliage excursions. This year's rare-milage tr... (more)

Looking out from within the steam-era 3 bay engine house of the Aberdeen & Rockfish. For more on the A&R and their vintage EMD roster, check out the article in the current issue of "Locomotive."

New power for the A&R sits outside the Aberdeen shop. For more on the A&R and their EMD roster, check out the article in the current issue of "Locomotive."

The target