On this lovely mid winter day CSXT's daily Rigby to Selkirk manifest M427-15 was running a bit late making for some opportunities for perfectly lit shots as they headed west from Ayer to Worcester. The next spot on the chase south (which is much harder now with the speeds raised to 25) was just beyond the end of main track where they enter other than main track for the last mile and a half down the Barbers and the junction with the Providence and Worcester Railroad's Gardner Branch.

The Selkirk based road crew has slowed to restricted speed as they enter the Greendale section of Worcester curling through the rock cut as seen looking down from the West Boylston Street overpass at about MP WOR21.5 (the new CSXT milepost) on the former Pan Am nee Boston and Maine Railroad Worcester mainline.

Worcester, Massachusetts
Friday February 16, 2024

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Reading and Northern train PNPV (Port Clinton to Pottsville) is doing a bit of switching in West Cressona Yard at about MP 1 on what is now known as the RBMN's Minersville Branch.

The rails through here are among the oldest in the country having opened around 1831 as the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven Railroad. Built to haul caul from above Minersville to a connection with the Schuylkill Canal it was animal powered until 1847 and then ultimately fell into the fold of the expanding Philadelphia and Reading in 1864. For the next 112 years this was the property of the Reading until that bankrupt road was folded into Conrail which operated this trackage for 14 years until selling it to the expanding Reading Blue, Mountain and Northern Railroad in 1990.

The town of Cressona was laid out as a railroad town in the 1840s and remains an important hub of operations for the RBMN to this day. Leading the train are two EMD end cab switchers from decidedly different eras, RBMN 803 (SW8 blt. Sep. 1951 as Lehigh Valley 270) and 1542 (MP15DC blt. Apr. 1982 as Southern 2426). And at right is the power for the WCGS 'Good Springer' job that will head out a bit later with this nice SD40-2 and SD38 pair.

Cressona, Pennsylvania
Monday July 3, 2023

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BNSF Auto Train V-RICBIR3-13A heads southbound through New Albany, MS. with BNSF C44-9W #4705 leading the way.

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BNSF Auto Train V-RICBIR3-13A heads southbound near Myrtle, MS. with BNSF C44-9W #4705 leading the way.

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BNSF Auto Train V-RICBIR3-13A is seen tied down in the siding at Myrtle, MS. waiting for a crew to take it south to Birmingham, AL.

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