Photographed at Old Moor yesterday afternoon after the sun made a much welcomed appearance.

Tags:   Reed Bunting Old Moor

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Amboy, California. May 1995. Buster Burris may have still been around? Dunno. I never met him.

Tags:   Amboy California Route 66 Pentax 6x7 Fujichrome

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CP's daily Honda job heads east through the neighbourhood, returning from Spence Yard near Alliston, Ontario with a train full of new Honda's for delivery. This guy had air pressure issues at Weston on the Mactier Sub which held the train up for a few hours, leading to me shooting him at dusk as opposed to the middle of the day with better light. Good to see SD60M's still earning their keep in 2025.

Tags:   Canada Ontario toronto summerhill canadian pacific freight train autorack winter sony alpha outdoors photography

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Norfolk Southern local H66 is on their way back south to Allentown after making a turn up to Hazleton with their pair of homely SD60Es as they cross the Lehigh River at Glen Onoko, MP 125 on Norfolk Southern's Lehigh Line maine. They are on what was once Main 2 of the former Lehigh Valley Railroad mainline while Main 1 at right is now the property of the Reading and Northern. When Conrail sold the upper Lehigh Line from Lehighton to Mehoopany to the RBMN in 1996 they retained one track as far as Penn Haven and the junction with their Ashmore Secondary in order to continue to serve the Hazleton market which successor NS continues to do to this day.

The LV passed to Conrail in 1976 which continued to use this as a thru route until 1993 and then three years later sold the middle of their Lehigh Line from Penn Haven to Mehoopany (and one of the two mains from Penn Haven to Lehighton as described above) to the expanding RBMN system. Even after that date, however, thru freights operated by the Delaware and Hudson and successor CP continued to travel this way on a route via trackage rights ultimately to Philadelphia and Washington which they were awarded upon the creation of Conrail. Interestingly, after the Norfolk Southern purchased half of Conrail they brought through freights back to this route, and as late as 2015 one pair of NS and one pair of CP trains could be seen here. Alas when CP sold half of the D&H to NS their trains disappeared forever, and then in 2019 NS rerouted their last thru train when the Allentown hump yard was shuttered during the draconian cuts of the PSR era.

For the last five years the upper Lehigh Line has seen nothing but local freights, and north of Lehighton those have operated almost exclusively at night. However a recent schedule change has seen NS running local H66 in daylight on Sundays making a late morning turn north from Allentown to Hazleton and back which was the other major goal of this weekend trip other than 2102 of course!

Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
Sunday September 6, 2024

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It's warm in the cab of former Denver and Rio Grande Western K-36 No. 481 as fireman John Hillier shovels another scoop of coal into the belly of the beast.

It's March of 2024, and the end is nigh for coal power on The Silverton... A changing climate has made it nearly impossible to run coal in this drying world. In fact, 481 would still be waiting to return to service this winter season (2025) if it was still a coal burner as no signifigant snow has really touched the lower San Juan Mountains as the American Southwest is year 25 of a long term drought.

In fact, this shot was only brought on by a much needed storm, and the addition of the railroad's DL-535 diesels from the White Pass and Yukon to help ensure no lineside fires would be sparked.

Tags:   Steam Locomotive Steam San Juan Mountains Silverton Steam Train Steam Engine D&RGW Durango Durango and Silverton Durango & Silverton Durango Colorado Denver and Rio Grande Western Locomotive Railroad Railroading Railway Train

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