These types of shots have not just a nostalgic value, but also show some great detail for those modeling rights of way.
Coulee, ND has a neat little trestle. Here's a roadside view: The little knob at right gives a very different view:
That sky is beautiful. That's the kind of photo that would have made my Mom get her easel out and start painting...
How about one of my own? Chutes-Ste-Ursule, Quebec. This one was built back in 1910 by one of CN's predecessors, the Grand Trunk. About 1300 feet long and 185 feet high, crossing the former gorge of the Maskinongé River (it flows now behind me in this photo, having eaten its way through some rock to take a short cut down the hill...). Still standing, and regularly undergoing maintenance (as the work platform attests) even as trains rumble across above the workers.
By the way, shortline San Luis & Rio Grande RR that now owns this former D&RGW, SP and UP line seems to own heavy power in the shape of second hand SD9043MAC and B39-8 units.. Dom
"Concrete Jungle: Dead End" In the heart of downtown Minot, a severed spur leads to a grain elevator, now idled. The spur was served by Soo Line.
"SunPrairie Grain" The CHS SunPrairie Grain elevator basks in afternoon sunlight. The virtually empty elevator tracks are highlighted by the sun. Of all the major grain elevators in Minot, only CP serves them via rail.
Those "prairie skyscrapers" that dot a highway next to the tracks. Only way you knew you were getting somewhere on the endless conveyor belt of a hi-way you were driving.....
Here are a couple elevators from my collection with no trains running by. The first belongs to the former owner of the ranch property adjacent to my Armadillo Ranch. He pronounced his name Jupe with a long E (Jupee). This is in Temple, Texas across the tracks from the old Santa Fe depot. These are in Roders, Texas, about 12 miles down the same tracks shown in the photo above.
And here is an old cotton gin that has been repurposed by the town of Bellville, Texas as a garage for their utilities trucks. On the same old ATSF line further south.
Yes, as Bellville was the county seat of Austin County, state law at the time in the 1880s required any railroad built, to pass through the county seat of each county it went through. (That law did not last long) The Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe built a division point there complete with a yard, engine facilities and a turn table. The bulk of it would have be behind me from where I took the photo. Most of it was pulled up by the ATSF in the 1980s leaving only the main line running through town.
A morning movement on the Northgate Branch promised some eastern side of the tracks views, and decent light, so I boogied west to Aurelia to shoot the farmstead. I got distracted by a CP 498 train, and it cost me my shot. I didn't leave Aurelia emptyhanded, though, grabbing a shot anyways.
Much more substantial than most farm community structures. I wonder about the history behind this building...