Three Geeps rebuilt into GP38-2's lead 40 stone loads from Annville East through Sinking Spring, PA on New Year's Day 2023. Ex-SOU units bracket an engine which was built for PC before working for Conrail. All units were decently clean by today's NS standards.
Down at the RIP track at Proviso yard in Chicago. Jack Delano photo. April 1943. Library of Congress collection.
Methinks these are not looking the best for such tonnage and track speeds. Hopefully spring thaws and softening roadbeds won't cause some major headaches.
Sad thing is, this is the only Main that is any good come spring. The high line has some marshy stuff that will possibly go out of service if the spring is really wet. Under BN, these ties would have been gone last year, but we are now under the SF, so.......
Yikes! Not quite as bad as a part of the former Montreal Maine & Atlantic (around Farnham QC, IIRC) a reporter visited soon after the Megantic train wreck. At one point he bent down and with his bare hand splintered off a handful of wood from one of the ties... They had basically dried out and started coming apart. Trains ran on this, with a 10 mph slow order. Double yikes...
Grab shot of NS 242 yesterday at Branchville, SC. You know the drill in unfamiliar territory. Hear a horn and in 30 seconds, look where the sun is, run like heck to a spot where you guess might allow some composition and a safe spot to stand, and hit the shutter button. This is one of the oldest rail lines in America, dating from 1828 when the line was completed by the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Co. between Charleston , Branchville and beyond. It was the longest railroad in the world at the time. It was a busy junction in its prime, but today only the mainline between Charleston and Columbia remains.
Very cool catch! Are UP units rare out there? It's not everyday you see a coal train in Minot, as those typically ride the former Northern Pacific line in southern NoDak.
