I think the most interesting was this situation (in the spring of 1977):
This isn't one of my pictures of it, but it gives you some of the flavor.
In the mid-70s, caught the Lehigh Valley bicentennial caboose stopped on a train in Buffalo. Never saw in passing nor photographed a bicentennial diesel.
In the early 70's I got a shot of one of the last trains to run the
Valley&Siletz, a small logging railroad in Indepedence, Oregon.
It had two GE 70 ton units. The line ran from the Willamette Valley
to the top of Oregon's coast range mountains.
i am very new here but wanted to get my feet wet, Probably not as interesting as what you saw but i was in Petersburg, WV last weekend and was able to watch as they replaced some ties and were removing one of the three sets of rails from the siding there, no longer needed i guess, but as i walked down the passenger siding side of the tracks i picked up enough old rail spikes to keep me on Pinterest a little longer. It was just a peaceful day watching them work on the tracks. The tourist passenger train only goes thru there on certain days and i just happended to pick a day it did not come thru. So we just enjoyed the Senneca Rocks jutting up into the sky and the warm sunshine.
I think that perhaps rattlesnakes were more common in Michigan at one time than they are now. I remember hearing (but not seeing) them south of Grand Haven when I was younger. And sunning themselves on the tracks would fit right in with my experiences.Lots of folks here are going for the rare locomotives in their lives. Having grown up in an area where BL2s prevailed, I thought they were common. By the same token, when my family would take trips to Chicago, I'd go back home with tales of the Lima road-switchers I'd seen on the NYC...nobody would believe me, because those were among the rarest of the rare. But yes, I was accurate in my sightings.Locomotives today don't present as much of a challenge. I guess I would consider sightings of NS heritage units as the good find on any given trip (last one I saw was the Southern heritage unit on the CP, west of O'Hare).For most of my adult life, I've appreciated the sightings I get of rare freight cars. That could be anything from a very unusual paint scheme (like, in 1979 when a friend and I saw a UTLX tank car lettered for Baker's Chocolate, in a paint scheme that would have fit right in 30 years before that), to a one-unit roster (MISX 235731 was the only tank car that Milwaukee Solvents and Chemicals owned for three years; I saw it several times). I remember a couple of trips past the Winifrede Railroad in West Virginia to take note of the ancient hopper cars they used--former C&O and N&W cars of types that had long vanished from the rosters of their original operators. The area around Ludington and Scottville, Michigan, used to be home to many rarities in connection with the Richter Vinegar Company, including a couple of wooden vinegar tank cars that survived into the 1980s and some old General American milk tank cars, complete with sides rounded at the bottom to better fit in with the passenger trains they once operated on.With carload freight business dwindling, these one-off cars have also disappeared for the most part. Just recently, though, I saw an ATW box car that had a number from its days on the Mississippi Delta Railroad, and remnants of its original paint scheme for the Detroit & Mackinac Railway. It turned out to be the only car left in that series (the others may be around, but I haven't figured out where they are yet). So rare sightings are still possible, and keep me going--or, on this rainy day, longing to go--trackside.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
I caught two rare cars. one was a schnabel car with a reactor vessel and the other was the old helium tank cars in grey paint marked USNX (US Navy). Saw these twice.
This is a tough one to answer, especially since the context changes over the years. The first one was in 1969 when I got a bunch of ex-PRR Baldwin and FM switchers, a C&S E5 and ATSF 51 in the scrap line outside of Pielet Bros and EMD. In 1981, I got ex-NYC RS32's on C&NW in Green Bay, not knowing that they were just re-assigned to that location. In 1982, I shot rush hour at Jamaica on LIRR, simply overwhelming. In 1988, I ran over to Clyde to shoot a CDOT FL9 in NH colors. And just last month, I caught a BNSF local freight at King Street Station with two 737 fuselages, totally unexpected.
My husband has 4 pics. One is of a GP7 mated up with a set of GP60M's on a Hot pig train on the old Santa Fe in the mid 90's before the merger and the GP7 was throwing sparks. His second is of Santa Fe's only GP40 before it was wrecked. Another one of his is Santa Fe 7200 the only SF30B built. His last one he is the most proud of however is Amtrak 450 and 451 their experimental AC units pulling the SW Chief thru here.
The best I got was three trains going through the interlocking at Alliance Ohio at the same time.
Mine was similar. I went for a day of watching/riding Metra in Chicago and started with the morning (inbound) rush at Brookfield (on the BNSF's three tracked ex-CB&Q mainline). Plenty of trains, including an outbound and inbound local scheduled to stop just a minute or two apart. Well, one was late and/or the other was early and the two outbound ends of the train lined up in a perfect match-just as an inbound express came through between them on the middle track! It simply could not have been timed better if we had practiced it for a month.Of course, I didn't have a camera...
Trainwatching at the station in Burlington, Ontario: on the outside track of 2, a headlight appeared, then soon another on the inside track...the outside turned out to be a freight moving at track speed, a formidable clip, the inside was a VIA passenger with Alco/MLW FPA-4's flying at 79 mph track speed...watched as the FPA-4s gained on the freight and both were dead even simultaneously right in front of me there as I stood. The station was closed at this point, no longer used as such. That was amazing.
While driving by Taylor Yard in 1977, saw a Chessie and BN Geep's bookending an SP DD35. Wish I had a camera ready for that.
I just saw UP 2010 a few minutes ago. My proudest one, though, is probably the BNSF Golden Swoosh unit.
U.P. #844... actually not a surprise to see it, I knew it was returning from a National Railway Hysterical Society meeting in Chicago and I was waiting for it, but the surprise was that I was expecting to see it hauling the passenger cars that it took to Chicago, but instead it was pulling a short "General Freight" of random freight cars and looked like my old Lionel trainset... LOVED IT! I hadn't seen a steam hauled freight since my childhood and so it was quite special to see this!
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
The three Hamersley Iron C36-7 units on an empty Iron Ore train at Mount Tom Price in Western Australia in 1977. They were still on trials. They were rarely together when in general servce.
All three came to the USA owned by NREC but didn't find a home together like the five SD50s on the Utah.
M636C
Murphy SidingIn southeast Michigan?
Why not? We get them in northern NY. In fact, the Cicero Swamp, just north of Syracuse, is one of two known remaining habitats of the Massasauga rattler.
Can't think of any really significant catches. Usually what I see is just locomotives (or cars) well outside their natural habitat, or perhaps with fallen flag markings still visible. Like the Soo and Wisconsin Central locos that came in occasionally to the cogen plant at the fort.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Norm48327 My rarest was a Rattlesnake sunning himself on the base of the rail. Don't see many of them where I live. He posed for a photo.
My rarest was a Rattlesnake sunning himself on the base of the rail. Don't see many of them where I live. He posed for a photo.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Without your picture it didn't happen.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Norm
As of now, i aleardy saw plenty of things on the railroads, i saw cabooses, work trains, and even a transCAER training tanker, but i think my best catch was CN's inspection RDC, since they are quitte rare on my line, my second best catch would probably be a long Herzog ballast train with 2 engines on the lead and 2 engines helping on the rear (DPUs are a very rare thing where i live) and my third best catch is probably that training tank car. What about you?
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