November 2021 - The Railroad Press Railroad Books, Magazines, Clothing and Post Cards

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Norfolk Southern’s Toll Bridge!

Railroad photo of Norfolk Southern Train Crossing Christina River at Wilmington, Delaware, on Shellpot Branch using Bridge 3 — Norfolk Southern Train Crossing Christina River at Wilmington, Delaware, on the Shellpot Branch using Bridge 3

Bridge 3 in Wilmington, Delaware, is a place where modern machinery meets vintage architecture every day. This is Norfolk Southern’s Shellpot Branch (former PRR), which connects the Northeast Corridor with NS and the Delmarva Central lines heading into southern Delaware via the New Castle Secondary, which can be seen diverging off to the right side of the photo. This light engine move, consisting of C40-9W #9333, has just turned on the wye and is about to cross the swingbridge over the Christina River on its way back to nearby Edgemoor Yard. The Pratt through truss bridge was originally built in 1888 and taken out of service by Conrail in 1995 after 107 years of use. Since the Shellpot Branch was a bypass, freight then had to run right through the Wilmington passenger station! Norfolk Southern sought state assistance to rebuild the structure, and it was placed back in service in 2001. To repay the grant/loan NS must pay a toll for every railcar that crosses the bridge until 2021!

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Railroad Maps

When I am planning on traveling to a specific area, the first thing I do is get out the highway and railroad maps that are relevant to the area I’m interested in. I prefer to take a “top-down” approach when determining where I want to go railfanning.

The first book I turn to is the classic Rand McNally Road Atlas to get a general look at the area. Since I prefer to drive, rather than fly, I get a lot of use out of the two-page spread that shows the entire country. Once I get a good look at the area, it’s time to get out the U.S. Railroad Traffic Atlas that was produced by Harry Ladd. The data is dated, but it still holds pretty true to get a general sense of the traffic density in the area. Sometimes I want to find the busiest main line, and other times, I want to explore a lightly used branch line. This interesting book of railroad maps also shows the locations of engine terminals at the time.

After getting the general layout, it’s time to open up the DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer for the state that I’m interested in. This is a book of maps that gives great detail for both roads and railroads. In cities, you might be better using the Rand McNally Road Atlas (or a state-issued map with urban blow-ups), but for all other places, you can’t beat the DeLorme Gazetteer to find and follow the railroads. It shows lots of smaller roads, and many of them are named, although some just show a numerical designation that matches up with the small white plates you see along the road. This is a tremendous research tool, as it shows both a detailed look at both the roads and the railroads together. It is also an invaluable aid in railroad photography, as you can see which way the roads and railroads are oriented in order to get the optimum sun angle. While giving this a good looking over, I might find some interesting rail lines that I am unfamiliar with. Now it’s time to get out the book of railroad maps published by SPV, their Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America, that is split up into different states and regions. Not only does it show great detail, but it also shows trackage rights and previous owners. If I find an interesting line, I will go back to the Railroad Traffic Atlas to get an idea of whether it still sees service, keeping in mind that the information is dated. The SPV atlas might even show some other branches and abandoned lines that I might want to explore, so it’s back to the Gazetteer to see what I can follow.

I’ll admit that I am a big fan and user of maps of all kinds, and using this combination of railroad maps and road atlases has allowed me not only to get some great photos at locations that I would have otherwise never found, they have been invaluable in doing railroad archaeology, where I’ve been able to trace where the track used to be. I’m also able to use them to add locations to older slides that I’ve taken and didn’t write the location on the mount. By looking at the other slides in sequence and figuring out generally where I have been, I can use these railroad maps to pin down the general location and then zero in on the exact location using the DeLorme Gazetteer for that state.

CHECKLIST FOR CAR:

DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer
Rand McNally Road Atlas
U.S. Railroad Traffic Atlas
SPV Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America
State Map (pick up at a rest area)
Amtrak timetable

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Publishing Lost Images

One of the goals of The Railroad Press is to preserve images that have been otherwise lost to time and the environment. We make every effort to present images as the photographer saw them through his camera lens at the time. Pictured above on the left is an example of an Agfachrome slide of a beautiful scene taken by Jay Winn that looked great when it first was developed. It was sharp and was composed very well — but over the span of decades, the slide faded and experienced significant color shifts, plus mold had grown on the film. We cleaned it up and printed it as shown on the right in The Railroad Press Magazine, bringing back the Boston and Maine blue to its original glory! We want to give our best to both the photographers who went to the effort to capture these images and the readers, who have been kind enough to purchase our publications and deserve a high quality product. Through the printed page, we’ve been able to preserve thousands of transparencies so future generations can enjoy them.

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TRP Magazine Index

INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE RAILROAD PRESS MAGAZINE
A-Z
Use this index to find specific photographic subjects!
This only a basic listing and will be expanded in the future… your comments are welcome!

To order back issues, click here

Link to Larger Type A-Z Index

” col” before a listing denotes a color photo, a letter ” b/w” indicates a black and white photo.

ISSUE RR NO……….TYPE………….. ..LOCATION………………STATE NOTES

b/w 60 A&D 105 …….. RS2 …………… FRANKLIN ……………… VA
col 36 A&E 301 …….. GP40 ………….. BUFFALO ………………. NY
col 34 A&E 302 …….. ……………… BUFFALO CREEK …………. NY CLOSE-UP OF CREWMEMBERS ON FRONT STEP
col 60 A&M 44 ……… C420 ………….. MONETTE ………………. MO
col 54 A&R 400 …….. GP38 ………….. ABERDEEN ……………… NC
col 76 AA 7 ……….. S3 ……………. ELBERTA ………………. MI UNLOADING CARFERRY “ARTHUR K ATKINSON”
col 32 AA 20 ………. RS1 …………… ELBERTA ………………. MI
col 76 AA 393 ……… GP35 ………….. ELBERTA ………………. MI CARFERRY “ARTHUR K ATKINSON” MOORED ALONGSIDE
col 36 AA 394 ……… GP35 ………….. ELBERTA ………………. MI
col 96 AA 2834 …….. CABOOSE ……….. …………………….. “FERRY IN THE FOG” SCHEME

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Mountain Thunder — Steam in Western Maryland

For many years, Western Maryland 734 has delighted passengers and railfans with regular excursions from Cumberland to Frostburg. In 2015, the Baldwin 2-8-0 was retired due to mandatory and costly inspections. To replace the 734, the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad acquired Chesapeake & Ohio 1309 from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum.This was the last steam locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for a domestic railroad. Once restored, it will be the largest articulated steam locomotive in regular operation in the United States. For the past four years, however, they have been running with diesels while they get the big articulated locomotive operational. It will be good to see steam back in the Alleghenies again, but until then, they are utilizing two GP30’s painted in Western Maryland colors (the 501 in red and white, the 502 in black and yellow. Not a bad substitute, and the scenery is spectacular! We are looking to the debut of Chesapeake & Ohio 1309 in 2022, and are keeping our fingers crossed!

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Enola Yard Color

Enola Yard is the gigantic classification yard located directly across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1905 and is still in use today. The yard changed ownership in 1968 when the Pennsy merged with the New York Central to form Penn Central. The yard experienced a sea of blue paint starting in 1976 with the Conrail merger and in 1999, it was back to black as Norfolk Southern took over Conrail. Except for PRR passenger diesels and the royal blue Conrail locomotives, nearly every diesel wore a shade of black paint, including PRR and PC’s Brunswick Green.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. February 26, 2017, was a typical Pennsylvania winter day, with mainly deep blue skies and chilly temperatures. I had the good fortune of seeing Norfolk Southern SD9043MAC #7337 in nearly full Indiana Railroad red dress, with minor NS patching. For a railroad dominated with black and white motive power, this was spectacular!!! The “Now Hiring” sign at the employee entrance made an interesting foreground prop. A little later I saw one of the DC to AC conversion AC44C6M’s in a flashy blue, grey and yellow scheme reminiscent of the Delaware & Hudson! Catching two different colorful NS diesels makes for a good day of railfanning… and that was without seeing a Heritage Unit!

Speaking of which, the Enola Yard engine facility gets to see a lot of Heritage Units, since they are the major diesel servicing facility in the region. Norfolk Southern did a very nice job of recreating those classic schemes on their modern diesel fleet. Erie Railroad SD70ACe #1068 fits right in with the other NS units gathered around at Enola on November 12, 2014, including standard-cab GP40-2 #3033 and “Admiral Cab” SD60E #6944.

Norfolk Southern Heritage Unit Roster

EMD SD70ACe

1065 Savannah & Atlanta
1066 New York Central
1067 Reading Lines
1068 Erie Railroad
1069 Virginian Railway
1070 Wabash
1071 Central Railroad of New Jersey
1072 Illinois Terminal
1073 Penn Central
1074 Delaware, Lackawanna & Western

EMD SD45-2

1700 Erie Lackawanna

GE ES44AC

8025 Monongahela Railway
8098 Conrail
8099 Southern Railway
8100 Nickel Plate
8101 Central of Georgia
8102 Pennsylvania Railroad
8103 Norfolk & Western Railway
8104 Lehigh Valley Railroad
8105 Interstate
8114 Norfolk Southern (original)

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Union Pacific Horsepower

DOUBLE DIESELS

I think it’s fair to say that Union Pacific has never been shy when it comes to loading up their trains with plenty of muscle. In fact, some railroad writers in the past have proclaimed that “U.P.” stood for “Unlimited Power!” The railroad’s desire for high horsepower goes well back into the steam days, when they marched 4-6-6-4 Challengers and 4-8-8-4 Big Boys up and down Sherman Hill. They were no less enamored with big diesels, rostering ALCO’s only three Century 855’s produced. They were 5500-horsepower monsters riding on eight axles. General Electric provided a fleet of 5000-horsepower U50’s in six-axle and 8-axle versions. It was EMD, however, who weighed in on top with their 6600-horsepower DDA40X, which Union Pacific dubbed “Centennials” and numbered them in the 6900-series to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad. All of the above-mentioned locomotives featured two diesel power plants under the hood, but in their absence, UP was just as happy to throw eight, nine or even ten or more smaller units on the front of their trains.

BIG TRAINS

Today, the average locomotive produces about 4500 horsepower with only a single diesel prime mover and it rides on six axles. Standardization has replaced the wide variety of motive power rolling out of the construction halls of a half a dozen builders. The magnitude of the trains themselves has increased, with many freight cars carrying 120 tons. Modern operating plans have resulted in fewer trains, but with longer consists and they often tie two trains together. You can now find many Union Pacific trains battling across Wyoming with well over a hundred cars, and engines on the front, middle and end of the train!!!

So, while the days of the double-diesels appear to be gone for good, there is still a lot of high-horsepower railroading to be seen — especially on the expansive Union Pacific system. Below I have assembled a complete list of GE, EMD and ALCO double-diesel road switchers. Union Pacific and Southern Pacific are the only two U.S. railroads to have ventured into the high-horsepower double-diesel market for road freights. There have been thirteen DDA40X’s preserved, with Union Pacific currently operating DDA40X #6936 in their Heritage Fleet. Unfortunately, the other double-diesel models have all been scrapped — there are no surviving examples of those unique U50 rounded cabs.

All-Time Union Pacific Double-Diesel Roster

TYPE QTY Numbers

DD35 27 72B-98B
DDA35 15 70-84
DDA40X 47 6900-6946
U50C 40 5000-5039
U50 23 31-53
C855A 2 60-61
C855B 1 60B

All-Time Southern Pacific Double-Diesel Roster

U50 3 8500-8502 (re# 9550-9552, re# 9950-9952)
DD35 3 8400-8402 (re# 9500-9502, re# 9900-9902)

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The REAL Spirit of the Union Pacific

I had the opportunity to attend an interesting event at Kansas City’s beautiful Union Station and it coincided with the arrival of Union Pacific’s 4-8-4 steam locomotive #844. The railroad was very kind to allow the public to get up close to the vintage steam engine. After taking pictures from the angles that I wanted to, I started watching the visitors. There were lots of people taking selfies with the 844 and there were a many families who had their pictures taken in front of the “cowcatcher.” Of all the people I watched, these two were my favorite. The older gentleman had such a thoughtful look on his face as he was wheeled past the locomotive, and the young man was beaming with pride. I guarantee that these two individuals will never forget this day.

I am a big fan of photographing everyday railroad operations, but have started to appreciate staged events more and more. I’ve seen even the strictest no-nonsense railroad corporations show a warm side that is a real joy to experience. Have a great year of railfanning in 2021! Oh, and thank you to railroad management for offering the public to get an up close and personal look at your interesting operations.

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