And the city still has the caboose for a welcome mat, View attachment 251305 [/QUOTE] Jeez, somebody put some paint on that "fudgesicle caboose"!
Yeah, but which? I would go for NP, but others would call for the Q. Or BN? So, two more cabeese so you have one in each??
It seems to resemble some I recall from NP days. But I'm a geezer, with fading memories. What was the origin? Anything history, or a plaque nearby? Perhaps RR initials cast onto it's trucks?
A former Soo Line GP38-2 rumbles past the 1905 Soo Line freight house in Minot, ND in a downpour of sleet.
That's not just cool, it's COOOOOOLD. Burrr. Only Jeremy would be out in that kind of weather chasing trains. I am too old for that any more.
April 1980, C&NW bi-level cab car leading a Chicago-bound train crossing the EJ&E at Barrington, IL. That's the J's tower, closed in 2003 and demolished in 2006.
Unfortunately, I don't have many commuter photos with MILW power. The MILW's E's disappeared pretty quickly when new power began to arrive. The top photo was taken at Libertyville, IL on 08/19/1978 and the bottom at Rondout, IL 07/1984. Let me see what else I might have in black & white.
How about this in Austin, years ago (not my picture): In the background, you can see the overhead pedestrian bridge (built in 1895) on which I stood/sat in the sixties, watching the crews switch cars. Doug
That's a place that's as close to Heaven as one gets as a rail fan. I'd probably set up camp there...
Agreed! When I was young, I was always puzzled at some oddly placed old C&NW bridges that paralleled the MILW main while riding the C&NW through Mayfair. Many years later, I researched to find that they were on the route of the C&NW's first freight cutoff around Chicago, a very old line, demoted in favor of a new route to the west of Mayfair at Des Plaines and eventually removed from service. The C&NW freight cutoff is marked "Junction Railway" on this old map and the green arrows mark its route. It came north, crossed the MILW main at Grayland, then curved left to parallel the MILW, crossed over the C&NW main, then turned northeast to eventually rejoin another C&NW main that went north to Milwaukee. All very cool.
From 04/13/1988 at Marion, NC on the former Clinchfield. CSX was the owner by then, but you'd have not guessed it. That's NS's Asheville <=> Salisbury, NC main on the bridge above.
Yup, at 12 - 13 years old, it was like magnetic attraction for me and I would camp out up on that bridge for hours on my bike. I'm sure people passing by thought I was nuts and maybe I was/am but I couldn't have cared less. Doug
