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Not Quite as Green

Posted 9 days ago by George Hamlin

During the 1970s one significant railfan photography draw in Chicagoland was the presence of the Burlington Northern’s fleet of green E units (8s and 9s) utilized for the railroad’s commuter service to the western suburbs between Chicago and Aurora, Illinois. In a world where EMD cab units on passenger trains were becoming steadily less common, the fact that a fan could see, and photograph, multiple consists with this equipment was certainly welcome. In addition, following t...

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Less Than a Century in the Making

Posted 24 days ago by George Hamlin

Well, it did take almost 57 years, but I now have ridden on both of the 1948 Twentieth Century Limited’s “Creek” observation sleeper/lounge cars, the signature equipment of the “Most Famous Train in the World’s” post-World War II equipment update. In August 1966, I’d been able to settle into a seat in the rear lounge on New York Central train 25, the westbound Century between New York and Chicago, and partake of some of the wonderful “Wa...

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Observations about Observation Cars

Posted one month ago by George Hamlin

It's about zero degrees F, and I want the shot, but don't have a tripod, or even a monopod. So, I hold my breath; take multiple shots in the half to full second range, and hope that at least one works. VIA's eastbound Canadian waits at Sioux Lookout, Ontario, while a CN snowplow sits in the background, on February 26, 2002. After retreating to the warmth of the Strathcona Park on the rear end of VIA train two, there was a nagging concern that I may, or may not have, succeeded. This wa...

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Gray and Gritty

Posted one month ago by George Hamlin

A half-century ago, this was a typical scene at what New York Central traditionalists still call “Harmon”, but by the afternoon of August 12, 1971, when the photo above was taken, it had been “Croton-Harmon” in the public timetable for the better part of a decade, and for that matter, served by the “Penn Central” for over three years. Located in Westchester County, New York, it was (and still is) a beehive of passenger train activity, punctuated occasional...

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Beat the Clouds at their own Game; Go where they're not Allowed

Posted 2 months ago by George Hamlin

0 Clouds can be the proverbial bane of the railfan photographer’s existence. You pick a spot for a photo with great lighting, and wait (the almost inevitable consequence of taking train pictures). Also waiting, of course, are the clouds. While they might even be something that you want to include in your shot, as of their present position, in reality, they are simply lurking nearby to step in at the last second and ruin what would have been a great photo. Yes, we’...

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Working Harder

Posted 2 months ago by George Hamlin

Back in the 1960s, rental car company Avis pitched itself using the tagline “We Try Harder”, directed at industry-leader Hertz. Not only was it memorable then, but Avis continues to use the slogan today, over fifty years later; you can see for yourself on the web, at: https://www.avis.com/en/about-avis/we-try-harder In a number of respects, this description could have been applied in the railroad business to the Erie Lackawanna. The 1960 combination of the Erie a...

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Gotta Love the Rock

Posted 3 months ago by George Hamlin

The Rock Island, or, more formally, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, certainly wasn’t among the largest U.S. railroads. As a native of the Midwest, although it extended as far as New Mexico, the majority of people in the United States probably had no personal exposure to it, with the exception of freight cars passing through their home territories in interchange service. The one significant geographic distinction that this welterweight pugilist had was that it alone operated ...

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Changes, Visible and Otherwise

Posted 3 months ago by George Hamlin

Since the late 1940s, the scene of EMD E units backing onto a westbound passenger train at Harmon, New York, as depicted here on July 13, 1974, was a familiar ritual. Yes, this is now Penn Central, in terms of railroad ownership and operational responsibility, and the product on offer is that of Amtrak, but in practical terms, it still shows lots of its New York Central heritage. Beginning with the opening of the present Grand Central Terminal in 1913, NYC passenger trains that were n...

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As Time Goes By, Again

Posted 4 months ago by George Hamlin

Helper locomotives, often used as pushers, have a long, and ongoing history on the former Pennsylvania Railroad main line west of Altoona, Pennsylvania. In the early post-World War II era, there was a group of early EMD F3 units that were delivered as class EH-15 specifically for helper service in this territory. Later, the Pennsy’s Baldwin “Centipede” diesels, which proved to be unsatisfactory in their original role as passenger train power, were operated as he...

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Blowing in the Wind

Posted 4 months ago by George Hamlin

Most people have a favorite season; mine is Autumn. In the Shenandoah Valley, where I live now, this is often a beautiful time of year: pleasant temperatures, numerous sunny days, and, of course, fall foliage. The colorful intensity of the latter can vary significantly from year to year, with some annual iterations achieving only a degree of blandness, but a) any fall foliage is worth considering, in my opinion, and b) it may be several years into the future before optimal condit...

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This Can't Last Much Longer, Can It?

Posted 5 months ago by George Hamlin

As of June 13, 1970, this was now Penn Central territory, as can be seen from the black E8 with the PC logo on Empire Service train 75 heading west along the Hudson River (which is just out of the photo to the left) at Manitou, New York. For many of us that experienced happier times prior to both the institution of Empire Service in December 1967, and the formation of the Penn Central in February 1968, this location will live on in our hearts and minds as New York Central territory; the ...

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Weatherbeaten Warrior

Posted 5 months ago by George Hamlin

As I mentioned in my previous TRAINS blog post (September 10), on March 21, 1976, I headed to West Trenton, New Jersey, to intercept and photograph the “Farewell to the Reading” excursion behind a pair of the railroad-made-famous-by-the-game-of-Monopoly’s remaining fleet of EMD FP7 diesel locomotives at West Trenton, New Jersey. Prior to the visit to the Penn Central’s engine facility at Morrisville, Pennsylvania discussed in the previous post, I was at the Reading&r...

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Ten Days Before Conrail

Posted 6 months ago by George Hamlin

On March 21, 1976, I headed to West Trenton, New Jersey, to intercept and photograph the “Farewell to the Reading” excursion behind a pair of the railroad-made-famous-by-the-game-of-Monopoly’s remaining fleet of EMD FP7 diesel locomotives at West Trenton, New Jersey. Conrail was on the way, of course, and would be arriving, appropriately, some wags contended, on April first. Railfans in the Northeast were in high gear photographing the equipment and operations of the...

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Learning Curve

Posted 7 months ago by George Hamlin

My first 35mm camera (as opposed to pure-plastic Brownie “Holiday” and “Starmite” Kodaks), an Argus C-3, arrived in 1964. While it was a definite improvement over the Brownies, attempting to take multiple/sequence photos of moving trains could be maddening. To set up the next frame after a shot required pushing a lever to one side, followed by rotation of the film advance wheel. Nothing happened quickly using this process; if the train being photogra...

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A Long Time Coming

Posted 7 months ago by George Hamlin

Some of you may have read my article “Commonwealth Commitment“, in the August issue of TRAINS, about Virginia’s increasing support for passenger rail services in recent times. Due to space limitations, not all of the information that I obtained in the process of researching the background for this was able to be included in the final product. Since the following puts this in its proper historical context, I’m sharing it here. On January 17, 1970, while I ...

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Coexistence Between Passenger Rail and Freight: Peaceful, or Otherwise

Posted 8 months ago by George Hamlin

Much of the recent news about transportation has focused on the negative side of the ledger, including service cancellations and disruptions; staffing difficulties; long wait times for travelers, etc. To be sure, it is likely that at least some of this is due to ramifications of the Covid pandemic; a “normal” economy, including its transportation component, seems to lie at a yet unknown point in the future. In the midst of this, we have also recently been exposed to th...

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How the Mighty Have Fallen

Posted 8 months ago by George Hamlin

I suspect that I’m hardly alone in the railfan community in terms of “coming of age” in the hobby during the 1960s, and liking Alco locomotives. Although General Motors/EMD products were far more prolific on North American railroads (including Alco-licensed MLW (Montreal Locomotive Works)), the Alco/MLW products certainly had outsized personalities in the diesel locomotive world. After all, weren’t the elegant passenger-service PA models dubbed “honorary ...

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The Present Day "Gateway" to Railfanning?

Posted 9 months ago by George Hamlin

Years ago, railroads had a more universal ‘footprint’ in American life. Large numbers of people rode them to get from one place to another, both near and far. They participated in transporting a great deal of what the populace consumed, as well as being an integral part of the transportation used in the production of basic materials. Central portions of urban areas, particularly in industrial/commercial sections, saw local freights working on a five-day basis, a...

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Chlorophyll Rampant

Posted 9 months ago by George Hamlin

The greatest component of railroad photography, particularly of the action variety? Without a doubt, waiting, which can induce anticipation; frustration; discomfort; boredom; enervation; etc. I’m sure that most readers can name others. On the other hand, it also may offer the opportunity for reflection and camaraderie, since this is often a shared pursuit. As we’ll see, that can include both those came with you and new acquaintances. The latter run the ga...

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Duluth Diagonals

Posted 10 months ago by George Hamlin

Sometimes, pictures almost beg you to take them. Such was the case here, at an overlook on Duluth, Minnesota’s Skyline Parkway, on September 29, 2016. This elevated location provided a wonderful venue for looking down on the BNSF’s Rice’s Point yard, as you can see here. Along with friends Brian and Matt, we had driven up here to see the sights along the Duluth waterfront, and hopefully, to be able to work some railroad viewing and/or photography into the pictu...

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Short-Timer

Posted 10 months ago by George Hamlin

It’s now been fifty-one years since the launch of Amtrak on May 1, 1971, and many of the road’s patrons today have no knowledge of the visceral feelings of loss associated with the many “last runs” of once famous intercity passenger trains that took place on April 30 of that year. In addition to the demise of individual trains, entire routes vanished from the landscape in the process. Some maintained vestiges of their former glory, while others had descended to...

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Waiting Games

Posted 11 months ago by George Hamlin

Today, it’s difficult for railfans and railroaders to interact, especially in the realm of operations. With the exception of passenger trains, there aren’t many places where “civilians” can encounter crew members on a regular basis. Railroad facilities are almost universally off-limits, and modern locomotives seem to have elevated engineers and conductors literally higher above the people that they are passing by on the ground than was the case previously,...

14

Passion and Character

Posted 11 months ago by George Hamlin

By now, I suspect that most, if not all of you, already know this, but for those who don’t, the railroad journalism community has lost one of its finest, as TRAINS editor Jim Wrinn passed away on March 30, 2022. Jim had been engaged in a struggle with pancreatic cancer for the previous fourteen months, and while he gave it his all, and then some, ultimately the disease prevailed. Jim had been editor since 2004, and his tenure of 17-plus years as editor was eclipsed only by tha...

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