The last two remaining Pere Marquette 2-8-4 Berkshire's, #'s 1225 and 1223.
And an unusual FRA Track Inspection car on CSX in Grand Rapids, MI.
Last weekend I stayed with my parents in Nunspeet here in the Netherlands. Sunday was the yearly second hand book fair in the city of Deventer (some 6 km of stalls full of books....). To get there from Nunspeet I changed trains in Zwolle. That city has a railroad maintenance shop. On one of the tracks I saw a trainset which started out as a TEE (Trans Europ Express) passenger train traveling between the Netherlands and Switzerland in the 1950's. Then it was sold to the Ontario Northland. That company changed out the power cars for FP7's. It was of course without power car or locomotive. Apparently some Swiss people bought this set of cars and wanted to restore it. They probably couldn't find the money and now it is in my country awaiting its future.
To top it of, in Deventer there was a steam train from the nearby preservation society VSM with former West-German steam locomotive 23.071, 5 coaches and diesel 2530 (Alsthom 1950's).
Needless to say I had no photo equipment with me. Argh.
greetings,
Marc Immeker
Not necessarily that 'Rare' but, a Tripleheader with Diesels on a CPR Time Freight to get Power, and the Freight to Agincourt Yard in One Move.
CP 8921 RSD17-Alco-GE S2-RS18, the latter the Road Engine on the Freight. No MU on the Switcher, all going about Thirty 30 MPH between Leaside and Don, way back in the Sixties.
CP 8921 had just come up from Hochelaga in Montreal, it being replaced by a Series of CLC Train Masters from the West. Montreal fans were thus torn between the TMs and the D&H PAs, which were still 'New.'
Later, CPs Lone Remaining MLW ( Not Alco-GE ) RS2, 8407 migrated to Hochelaga for the Faithful.
I saw FM say he liked BNSF....honest...FOFLMAO...
His lips were moving...LOL...
LC
An SP H12-44 pulling 150 cars out of the Santa Clara yard bowl. Yes that was ONE 1200 hp switcher. my friend Bob and I counted the cars as we put our jaws back in place. She must have been going 2-3 MPH and smoking like a steamer, but got them on the main. Pushed em back into the yard too. The SP bicentennial U25B at the Santa Clara roundhouse.
Lots of things, but the rarest thing is probably that old CN MLW M420 taken out of track and put in the middle of a street to provide commercial power to a Montreal area community centre during the infamous ice storm of 1998.
Also, I've seen the cab of the CPR Empress 2816 Hudson, most of the Minnesota Commercial raraties, a leased Illinois Central SD40-2R operating on the SLR to/from Portland, ME, F40PHRm running freights between Montreal and Bangor,ME, a FP7A hauling a freight, Via Rail LRC engines in action, a NdeM E60C electric commuter engine in Canada...
4884bigboy wrote: And an unusual FRA Track Inspection car on CSX in Grand Rapids, MI.
I see the Armour Yellow paint isn't showing-up yet (E4C)...or is it a Plasser copy? (E5C)...
My nominations:
FRA 110 (before and after, that "thing" was an SP sd45-X?)
RSD-1 (2 of 'em)
NW-5 (6 of 'em)
FT(B) Sou F3A (BN) F38 (EMD F9m)
A working steam big hook
GM-6-C in Colorado (along with 2 E60-C's)
U25B,U25C and U33C running
The rarest thing I've seen not in a museum: GREX "slot machine"in Wyalusing state park (BNSF). It's backhoe, which was moving around inside the articulated gondola, was clearing debris from a 7" rain shower that dumped large rocks, etc. along and on the right-of-way.
Dealmeout,
Wish you had pictures of that or knew where I could find some!
Rarest I've ever seen was as a boy in late 50s, 60s, riding Low-Vs on 3rd Ave El in Bronx
.....I'm not sure if this, I will relate is the "rarest thing" I've witnessed on the rails but this is a memorial in my memory. Kinda sad too....
Back about '94 the CSX line ex. C&O from Cinn. to almost Chicago was removed. The work crews and big line of machinery and rail carrying train that accomplished that was quite a show....
On the very back end of all this machinery was big angled rooter like arms slicing under the rails pulling them up from the ties and in some manner...{don't remember exact sequence}, loaded the rails on to the coupled rail carrying cars...{It was CWR}. Have photos of the whole connected equipment as it stopped here in Muncie overnight at the end of their work day. But they are not digital.
To me it was sad to see it ripped up as that was the end of the once busy railroad thru here. Amtrak's Cardinal used this route for quite a few years on it's way to Chicago.
But since, that route has become our beautiful bike and walking Trail and smoothly paved. At least the ROW is still in position.
And....Our former passenger station was completely restored to it's original appearance...Including new {real}, clay tile roof....All $800,000 of restoration and now it servers as the Trail Head...{offices, etc}, and the former waiting room has railroad artifacts on display....I personally donated an item for it. Our trail is nice and a busy assest to the community. Again I'll say, I hated to see the railroad leave.
Quentin
I GOT TO RIDE ON AN ALCO RSD-15 WHEN I WAS LIVING IN PLACENTIA,CA. IT WAS REAL COOL AS THIS UNIT WAS ON A LOCAL FROM SAN BERNARDINO. THEY WERE BRINGING IN REEFERS FOR THE ORANGE PACKING HOUSE'S. THERE WERE THREE UNITS AND THIS WAS IN THE LEAD COMING WEST. THEY HAD ABOUT A HUNDREDE REEFERS IN TOW,THEY FILLED EVERY AVAILABLE SIDING IN TOWN. IT WAS THE START OF ORANGE PICKING SEASON. IT WAS IN 1969. I ALSO GOT TO SEE THE TURBO TRAIN HEAD SOUTH TO SAN DIEGO OUT OF FULLERTON. I ALSO SAW THE FIRST UNIT REPAINTED INTO WARBONNET (BLUE/YELLOW) AS IT SPED THRU TOWN ON ITS WAY TO L A. I BELIEVE THAT WAS THE SD-45 5624.
LONG LIVE CHICO!!
Very first eastbound Desert Wind routed through Fullerton.
I was out in Yorba Linda by "horse shoe curve" back when it was only a single track line. First time a regularly scheduled passenger train had been on the line since the last Grand Canyon.
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
wctransfer wrote:Wow, i never knew you worked for the WC Randy! You ever remember a few names?Randy Hansen,Dennis Holmes (homer),Marty Carlson,Ed Patten,Charlie McDade, Steve Weber, Steve Anderson. Any of those a ring a bell?Oh, and Paul Julliet (sp?)Alec
Dave Schultz, Kent Rengo, Dave Bruns, and this one other guy who is now called out of Superior that I cant for the life of me remember....
Mechanical Department "No no that's fine shove that 20 pound set all around the yard... those shoes aren't hell and a half to change..."
The Missabe Road: Safety First
The rarest items I have seen?
a plasser undercutter on Conrail in 1982 in Ohio...spent the whole day taking lots of pictures of this machine working...must have 100+ pictures!
a steam wrecking crane being rebuilt(now done) at Ely, Nevada nov. '05 at the Nevada Northern Railway. lots of other great railroad stuff there also!
A whole srting of solar powered hopper cars at Perry, OK about 2 monthes ago.
A string of old Illinois Central heavy weights hauling passengers from the IC Electric's stations south of Kensington to the Roosevelt Road station. This was a substitute service on a day when a train split a switch just north of the Kensington Station and knocked down a support bridge for the catenary taking the wires down. "Push-Pull" with Geeps on each end.
The Pioneer Zephyr on its last trip hauling passengers (Lincoln, NB to Galesburg, IL) on its final run to Chicago to be trucked to the Museum of Science and Industry. We were able to walk up through the engine room to the head end while moving. Nice view.
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics
mudchicken wrote: Southern San Luis Valley RR one of a kind locomotive D-500 running at Blanca, Co....CopCarss: Have you seen it? (for the rest of you folks.....neener, neener!)
CopCarss: Have you seen it? (for the rest of you folks.....neener, neener!)
Well, when MC originally posted this, I hadn't seen the home brewed loco. Not long after that I did, though!
Of course, I never saw it running...but at least I caught it before some untimely fate gets her!
-ChrisWest Chicago, ILChristopher May Fine Art Photography"In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration." ~Ansel Adams
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