40 years of North American photography

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day dawned with a cloudless sky and an early start outside the Hotel saw this 47 year old ex Penn Central SW1001 switcher, still in Conrail colours in transit in a wesbound freight.

 

 

I ventured as far west as Johnstown on what was my last full day in the area, starting first at Lilly.....

 

 

...and then Summerhill....

 

 

From there I continued to a new location for me - South Fork - which is the junction for a line to various coal mining areas near Windber, to the south of Johnstown.

The line can be seen going off to the left in the photo below, whilst an empty coal train waits to move onto the branch.....

 

 

My vantage point was a former bridge abutment that used to take a local Interurban tram route over the PRR main line between South Fork and the town of Ehrenfeld, located where the overgrown slag heaps can be seen in the photo below.....

 

 

The odd Conrail blue loco also put in an appearance whilst I was there....

 

 

Not far down the branch, there was a small yard where motive power seemed to be being swapped on trains coming down the line.

 

 

From there, I took the backroads into Johnstown, discovering this ex Lincolnshire Road Car Bristol double decker (PBE 123) sitting outside a local school in the process....

 

 

After a brief look around the Johnstown area and deciding photo opportunities were rather limited, I headed north through Nanty Glo and then east to finish the day in Altoona to have a look at Juniata Works "from a public place".  This rather tidy looking SW1500 dating from 1973 was parked alongside the main building.....

 

 

...whilst a street at the northern end of the works provided a good view of the shop exit tracks which lead to a turntable....

 

 

 

[pH]

2 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

...whilst a street at the northern end of the works provided a good view of the shop exit tracks which lead to a turntable....

 

Those look like pretty tight curves.

[Johann Marsbar]

48 minutes ago, pH said:

Those look like pretty tight curves.

There's an element of zoom lens use on that shot.   The actual turntable has been rebuilt in recent years, but the current track arrangement is seen better on Google Maps...

https://www.google.com/maps/place/221+N+6th+St,+Altoona,+PA+16601,+USA/@40.5368535,-78.3835117,866m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89cb8dfef51350cd:0xc2004e6c028b8a5a!8m2!3d40.5368494!4d-78.381323

 

They don't appear to have bothered to send the Street View camera car down there though!

 

It would actually make a good basis for a model, with the shop building as a low relief backdrop - particularly for someone who collects loco models.

 

.

Edited June 6, 2022 by Johann Marsbar
extra text added

[Johann Marsbar]

After a fruitless search earlier in the week for any RJ Corman activity on their line out of Cresson, I woke up on the day of my departure from the area to find a pair of locos had appeared overnight and were stabled opposite the Station Inn, namely an SD40-2 and a GP38....

 

 

They acted as a rather useful photo-prop for the couple of hours I spent in Cresson that morning before my departure. This eastbound Intermodal appeared with an ex-SOO, CEFX lease loco in the consist...

 

 

 

Whilst this westbound had an SD 50 still in Conrail blue......

 

 

 

Last shot at Cresson was this eastbound manifest which had come to a halt there to have a pair of helpers attached to the front end opposite the Station Inn - the only time I've been there that I've seen that happen....

 

 

It was then time to leave Cresson behind and I headed off in the car in a south easterly direction via Newry and Entriken - over a very scenic area of high ground - to reach a rather different rail scene to that which I had left 90 minutes earlier....

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Back in 2010 there was no indication that the East Broad Top line would be shutting down operations the following year and then spending the next 9 years in limbo whilst various attempts were made to secure its future. At that stage the operation was still in the hands of the Kovalchick Family, who had purchased the operation for scrapping back in the 1950's.

The line is a Preservation gem and now has a very bright future ahead, including expansion of the operating line southwards as far as Saltillo, a section that hasn't run since the 50's, but in 2010 the trains just operated north from Orbisonia to Colgate Grove, a run of about 3 miles, the section that had been used from the reopening of part of the line back in the early 1960's.

 

 

The regular passenger car in use that day was #8, one originally built for the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn line in Massachusetts as steam hauled stock and later used as an EMU trailer car.....

 

 

The entire train was turned at each end of the route using Wyes, with the Baldwin 2-8-2 #15 seen sitting at Colgate Grove picnic area....

 

 

..and on the wye at Orbisonia where it uses dual gauge trackage shared by the Rockhill Trolley Museum.....

 

 

This preserved Chevrolet truck was parked adjacent to the lines stone built Office building....

 

 

A couple of trams were in use at the trolley museum that day, a former Porto car of 1929.....

 

 

..and this former Johnstown car (St Louis Car, 1925) which I was allowed to have a drive on over the full length of their line as there weren't many other visitors about.....

 

 

A couple of others photographed there were this former Rio de Janeiro crossbench car bult by Brill in 1912....

 

 

..and this York Railways curved side car, built by Brill in 1924....

 

[Mike_Walker]

When I visited the EBT back in 1993 there were already rumblings of closure by the Kovalchick family.  My visit was during a railfan event and there were the predictable calls for the National Park Service to take it over.  I suggested they set up a UK style preservation scheme and Jim Boyd asked if they really wanted another Steamtown - Jim was always a very vocal critic of the way the NPS runs that.  There were hundreds of railfans there that day pouring thousands of dollars into the coffers of Fuji and Kodak but they totally rejected any suggestion that they should divert some of those green backs into a preservation scheme - "the government should fund it".

 

Jim and I both found it depressing and typical of the different attitude towards railfan-funded preservation on both sides of the Pond.  It's probably something to do with the average US railfan ("Foamer" is indeed an apt description) living on Pepsi-and-pizzas whilst their UK counterparts down strong ale which generates fantastic ideas, many of which come to fruition.  You simply get more bang for your buck from a pint of strong ale!

 

Some years ago, I led a party of US enthusiasts on a tour round Bridgnorth yard and shed/works.  It was the day before the September gala was to begin and around half a dozen locos were already in steam in the yard plus, of course, another two out on the road.  Walking down the line, one of the party said he thought he must have died and gone to heaven whilst another said we were very lucky to have a government prepared to fund it all.  When I explained it was largely funded by enthusiasts through shares they could not understand why anyone would buy shares in a company if the couldn't trade them and earn a dividend.  The explanation that seeing your dreams come to fruition is your dividend was completely lost on them.

[Johann Marsbar]

I'm not sure just where the East Broad Top Railroad Preservation Association fits in with the ownership of the rest of the line at this stage.  They were the operating non-profit group who ran the line for its last 3 years of operation (2009-2011) and during the closure period managed to buy the northern section from Mount Union (dual gauge to start with) down as far as Aughwick, but didn't have the resources to buy the rest of the line.

The rest was purchased by the high-powered consortium - The EBT Foundation (totally seperate to the Preservation Association) - that put the finance together in 2020 and are soon to re-open the Colgate Grove to Orbisonia section with steam and then progressively extend southwards as far as Saltillo. That leaves the short section north from Colgate Grove which they own unrestored, where you then reach the EBTRPA owned line to Mount Union !

Not a lot seems to be publicised about the EBTRPA, how many people are actually involved and what is happening with that section. I had seen a report recently that the standard gauge 0-6-0 that's been in a shed at Mount Union since the 1950's is being worked on , but whether that is actually anything to do with the EPTRPA is anyones guess....

The fact that the EBT is going to be extended southwards, tends to suggest that the two operations don't want to talk to each other.

[Johann Marsbar]

After leaving Orbisonia I headed east to Lancaster where I would be staying for the remaining 4 nights of the trip.  My route went via Gettysburg and whilst I didn't have any time to look at the various battlefield sites, I did stop in the centre of town for a short while, where I found this 1933 built Ford bus engaged on Town Tour operations.....

 

 

After checking in to the hotel in Lancaster - conveniently close to the rail station - I walked to the local branch of the Iron Hill Brewery, located in part of the Franklin & Marshall University complex, the walk taking me past the NS Dillerville Yard stabling point....

 

 

The next two days were spent in the Philadelphia area, catching Amtrak into the City each day from Lancaster station. The main task was to try and track down the remaining 1960's built Silverliner II electric units, though some other things, like covering the eastern end of tram route 15, were also part of my programme.

 

At Fern Rock subway depot, this selection of "preserved" subway cars were visible from passing trains....

 

 

They had been used on various fan trips in the past, but by that stage they seemed to be parked up and seemingly unloved, and, as far as I'm aware, they are still sitting in that same siding today.

The eastern end of route 15 was quite photogenic, albeit a bit "gritty" in terms of surroundings, though not as bad as some areas on the subway-surface tram routes.....

 

 

Another target for photos was the bridge over the Schuylkill River on the Norristown High Speed Line....

 

 

...and after walking to Norristown Transportation Centre, this train of Silverliner II cars conveniently turned up on my service.....

 

 

The former Reading RR line to Norristown has a section at Manayunk which has some interesting catenary supports - which just happen to be electricity pylons as well....

 

 

One of the later, 1970's Silverliners is seen at Wayne Junction....

 

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day started with a run up to the Reading & Northern HQ at Port Clinton where, unlike other visits I've made there, very little was on shed, the only photographable loco being this SD38 which was receiving a bit of a wash and brush up....

 

 

They do have some interesting items of railwayana on display there as well....

 

 

An attempted linesiding session at Fleetwood on the NS (former Reading) main line produced zero trains, so I then continued on to the Antique Automobile Club of America museum in Hershey, which is also the location of the "Museum of Bus Transportation" - at that time a seperate body that occupied space in the AACA museum, but which is now (since 2020) part of the AACA set up following a merger of the groups.  The AACA part was mainly cars, with the odd commercial vehicle, the exhibits actually being owned by group members, so they are changed on a very regular basis.

The bus display was my main interest and only about half of the vehicles they own were on display, but included some rather nice exhibits. 

This 1940's Ford bus is on display outside the AACA main entrance.....

 

 

Whilst a few of the pre-WW2 vehicles on display are shown below.....

 

 

 

 

One of their small exhibits did look a bit lost though.....

 

 

After Hershey, a late afternoon visit to the Strasburg RR saw their former narrow-gauge Lancaster, Oxford & Southern railcar dating from 1915 sitting in the sunshine. I've had a couple of opportunities to ride on that vehicle, but still haven't done so!

 

 

The last day of the trip saw a visit to the Harley-Davidson plant in York for one of their Public guided tours (no photography allowed....) and the last rail photo of the trip was this eastbound Amtrak service at Irishtown Road crossing, east of Lancaster......

 

 

By the time I got back to Philadelphia Airport that afternoon I had managed to put just under 1500 miles on the clock of the hire car, which felt like a lot - but it was somewhat less than the over 3500 miles I would end up driving on my next trip to the USA in June 2011.........

[mdvle]

19 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 

 

 

This picture sent me down a nostalgic rabbit hole.

 

Ask most people in North America who took a school bus to school about a "blue bird" bus and they will think of Blue Bird Corporation - the dominant manufacturer of school buses and the company who way back in the past created the standard that school buses would be yellow.  I rode a blue bird built bus to and from school for 10 years of my life.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Bird_Corporation

 

So it was strange to discover their also was a coach line named Blue Bird - and of all places just across the border in Western NY.

 

https://jimmancuso1.tripod.com/thebusterminal/id5.html

 

19 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

By the time I got back to Philadelphia Airport that afternoon I had managed to put just under 1500 miles on the clock of the hire car, which felt like a lot - but it was somewhat less than the over 3500 miles I would end up driving on my next trip to the USA in June 2011.........

 

Yep, any touring in the US/Canada that isn't confined to a single location can quickly result in a lot of miles being driven.

[Johann Marsbar]

Having succesfully managed with the solo car hire in Pennsylvania, including the navigating, given the farly abysmal levels of directional signage in the US once you are off the Interstates, I began to consider options for a longer trip in Summer 2011.  Having studied dates for events that year and various things over there that were on my "must see/do" ist, I eventually formulated a tour programme that would be just over 3 weeks in duration and would cover Two airshows, a Rail Festival, a couple of trips on steamships, historic aircraft flights, various museums, tourist railways and one particular Shortline, though various others would also feature in the trip, not to mention the Mainline rail scene and some general tourism!.

Quite a bit of juggling with the itinerary was needed to get everything to fit in a fairly logical sequence, but once done, I could get on with booking the flights/car hire and the individual hotels/motels, the total mileage that I ended up driving on the trip coming out at 3674 miles when I finally returned the hire car back to Alamo at the airport....

 

Saturday 4th June 2011 saw me at Heathrow to catch the late morning Virgin Atlantic flight to Chicago O'Hare, worked by Airbus 340 "Plane Sailing" (G-VSEA)......

 

 

After an uneventful flight and quick clearance of Immigration at ORD, I retrieved my hire car and headed off to the Hotel at Elgin where I was to spend the first 4 nights of the trip.  As was usual, they hadn't got any "Compact" cars available, so I ended up with a "Midsize" instead - a rather nice Toyota Camry which served me well for the trip and managed a respectable 41.5 mpg (Imperial).

 

The next day saw a visit to the Rockford, IL, airshow, with temperatures reaching 91 F by the afternoon.  I made a point of getting there early to get photos of the static exhibits - a wise choice given the fact it got very crowded later on.  I was hoping that some of the "100 years of US Naval Aviation" historic liveried aircraft would be attending the event, and a few were there....

 

 

...and there were a few slightly more colourful USAF aircraft (tail art at least) in attendance as well.....

 

 

UPS has this preserved delivery van on display at the event....

 

 

The biggest surprise was finding how different the rules for display pilots are in the US compared with the UK nowadays, as you wouldn't get away with flying this low over here....

 

 

I'd picked Elgin as it was reasonably located to get to Rockford, but it also gave me the opportunity to use two different METRA commuter rail lines to get into Chicago, something I would be doing for the next two days.  On the Monday I drove out to Elburn at the end of the UP-West route and caught the train into Chicago Union to spend a day in the City area with a CTA day ticket.

 

One of the METRA MP36PH locos is seen propelling its train into Union that morning.....

 

 

...with a CTA train crossing the viaduct to the north of Union....

 

 

after which I then headed up into the "Loop" ara for some photography....

 

[Johann Marsbar]

A fair proportion of the rest of the day was generally spent riding the CTA Rapid Transit lines around the City, starting with the Yellow Line, which includes the former CNS&M Interurban trackage used by the "Skokie Swift" service.  The North Shore line was shut down in 1963 and this 5 mile section of the route was reopened by the CTA as an experiment in 1964 - the reopening being a big success.

Until 2004 it used overhead current collection (now using the standard CTA 3rd rail system) and the former North ShoreLine gantries still exist over the line for most of its length, as seen in this photo at Skokie terminus....

 

 

..and in this picture taken out the front of a train through a rather dirty windscreen......

 

 

I alighted at North Clyborn and following a visit to Goose Island Brewing for lunch, I then walked to Armitage station where these photos were taken of passing traffic......

 

 

 

Later on in the afternoon I made my way down to the Grant Park area on the Lakefront where a selection of photos of Metra Highliner electric Units.....

 

 

South Shore Line single deck stock.....

 

 

..and the more elusive South Shore double deckers, which generally only get used on the Chicago end of the line, were taken.....

 

 

Then it was back to Union (and the former North Western Station) to observe the evening rush....

 

 

...before getting the train myself back out to Elburn and returning to the Hotel.

 

The following day I travelled in from Big Timber Road on the Metra MILW-W line before taking Amtrak up to Milwaukee for the day. Apart from the travel to/from there I did not observe any other rail activity, as I was visiting the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Museum (well worth a visit) and a couple of local breweries/bars as well as a long walk arouund the City centre.

 

The only significant rail related photos of the day were of the Public Service Building, located Downtown, and which served as the terminal for most of the local electric Interurbans (but not the North Shore Line) up until 1951. It remains in use today as the local Power Company offices - The end entrance doors for the tracks can clearly be seen.....

 

 

 

Since my visit to Milwaukee in 2011, the City has since gained a new tram route, so that has put the place back on the agenda for a future trip to the area.

[roundhouse]

Goose Island at North Clyborn was very good when we visited quite a few years ago. Much better brews than the version of Goose Island over here IMHO although heir Shoreditch bar does often have guest brews from the US brewery. Its way too noisy on weekend evenings though.

[Johann Marsbar]

3 hours ago, roundhouse said:

Goose Island at North Clyborn was very good when we visited quite a few years ago. Much better brews than the version of Goose Island over here IMHO although heir Shoreditch bar does often have guest brews from the US brewery. Its way too noisy on weekend evenings though.

 

Unfortunately the brewery had just succumbed to the attentions of Anheuser-Busch/Inbev just before my visit in 2011, but the actual Brewpub at North Clyborn didn't pass into their ownership until 5 years later.

They had 25 of their own beers on tap when I went there, plus a guest ale and a couple of vintage bottled beers as well.  Amongst the beers I tried, they had a Cask Conditioned Summer Bitter (4.7%) though the Maibock (7.3%) and the Smoked Helles (5.%) were the best!   Felt rather strange to have a Stilton Burger there as well.....

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day saw an early start out in the car from Elgin for a run to Rochelle, IL, and back.  The previous days trip up to Milwaukee on the train had proved to be very warm and the temperature whilst I was there had actually broken their record for June - reaching 97F - but it was actually going to get worse than that today when I was at Rochelle.

 

Leaving the Hotel at 06.30 (It was 77F already...), first port of call was a suitable level crossing to the east of La Fox where I spent a couple of hours and saw 8 trains whilst there (6 Metra passenger and 2 UP freight)....

 

 

From there I headed onto the Elburn area and found several freghts parked up (in inaccessible positions) with MoW work underway preventing any movements.  Thankfully things started moving again fairly quickly, so I positioed myself at a crossing near the local Co-Op for a while....

 

 

There still wasn't a lot of rail traffic about, so I decided to press on to Rochelle Railfans Park, the heat being very opressive by the time I got there and the wind had had become quite strong as well.   This Whitcomb diesel had been put on display in the park since I was last there....

 

...but the rail lines were still rather quiet with only 2 trains on UP in the first hour and nothing on BNSF.....

 

 

It was a Wednesday when I was there and the following weekend the "Rochelle Railroad Days" event was due to take place, so I was pleased to find a couple of UP exhibits had already arrived for display, namely the Boy Scouts liveried loco and the Katy Heritage scheme one, although the Scouts one was difficult to get a photo of.....

 

 

 

The former passenger station on the UP line still exists and is in use as offices for the railroad.

 

 

As the town is on the historic Lincoln Highway, the local museum group have restored this vintage Standard Oil gas station in the Downtown area

 

 

By this stage (13.00) the skies were looking rather threatening and the temperature had just reached 100 F !

 

The rails remained dead until about 13.30 when both UP & BNSF burst into life and the next two hours saw 9 freights passing through the park area...

 

 

I then left Rochelle and returned to the level crossing at La Fox where I managed some more photos of Metra operations out to Elburn before heading back to Elgin for my last night at the hotel.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

After a night of severe thunderstorms and a rather dramatic change in the weather by the morning, I left the hotel at Elgin around 06.30 for a long drive north-westwards to reach my first port of call for the day, The Mid-Continent Railroad Museum at North Freedom, WI, where the weather was damp and 55 F, somewhat different to the previous days 100 F !

 

A museum with a very interesting selection of locos and rolling stock, the passenger service to Quartzite Lake and return was being worked by this ex US Army Baldwin RS4-TC-A1....

 

 

The station area at North Freedom was still in the course of being rebuilt, as can be seen by the platform under construction in the foreground and the freshly erected signal tower, still lacking access steps!

 

 

 

From there I continued westwards and then cut to the north of Minneapolis-St Paul to my Motel for the next 2 nights at Becker, MN.  Not the best example of a Motel 6 that I've ever stayed at, but it was selected for one particular reason, there was a small Park & Ride site (spaces for about 20 cars maximum!) opposite, from which a connecting bus ran to the town of Big Lake, the terminus of the Northstar commuter train into Minneapolis.  The following morning I caught the bus to Big Lake....

 

 

...from where I took this MP36PH-3C worked train to Target Field station in downtown Minneapolis......

 

 

A day ticket on the local public transport network was duly purchased and I set off to cover the light rail line out to Mall of America.....

 

 

That was the only light rail line open at that stage, though the trunk line between Minnapolis and St Paul was under construction at that stage and the works for that were evident from the bus when I headed to St Paul to have a look round there. The original tram route had shut in the 1950's - one of the last lines to survive on the network - the PCC cars from that route ending up on the Newark Subway where they were used until the early 2000's!

 

St Paul produced this pair of Indiana Railroad SD90's parked up near the riverfront....

 

 

as well as this UP local freight move.....

 

 

The original St Paul passenger station is visible in the distance, above the road bridge, and this was under reconstruction at the time I was there and has since reopened as an Amtrak stop - also served by the new light rail line.

After lunch at Great Waters Brewing in St Paul, I returned on the local bus to Minneapolis for a look around the city centre, where the former Milwaukee Road passenger station is now in use as a hotel.....

 

 

The complete train shed (and platforms) still exist here and part of the train shed can be seen in the photo above.     Some time was passed taking photos of the light rail as well....

 

 

...followed by a visit to Town Hall Brewing, before catching a train back out to Big Lake and the connecting bus back to the Motel 6 at Becker.

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day was to be a museum and preservation themed day, so I left Becker behind that morning and headed south to the town of Excelsior.   One of the things I like about driving in the US (as long as you steer clear of Interstates) is finding trunk roads as busy as this at 08.15 on a Saturday morning......

 

 

That road was very close to the Twin Cities metropolitan area as well, not somewhere miles out in the countryside!

 

The first visit of the day didn't quite turn out as planned, as I was aiming for a scheduled tour on Lake Minnetonka on board the preserved steamship Minnehaha - originally built in 1906 for the Twin Cities Rapid Transit Company and operated by them until 1926, when the vessel was scuttled in the lake after the end of passenger services. It was found and raised/restored from the 1980's and ran trips on the lake until 2019, though operations have been suspended since that date.

I found the boat moored and raising steam at a different location to the regular departure point and was offered a ride over to the usual landing stage as a bonus by the crew....

 

 

Once we arrived at the tour departure point, however, there was only one other passenger waiting for the regular run, so rather than do the full trip, they offered a truncated version for free, so we just went out and pottered about for 20 mins or so before returning to shore, passing some interesting maritime traffic in the process....

 

 

The next scheduled trip had a good queue waiting, but I didn't have sufficient time to cover that due to the other 3 places I was heading for, so had to make do with the shortened version instead.

 

Excelsior is also the location of one of the two MInnesota Streetcar Museum heritage operations, where this former Twin Cities car of 1907 was operating....

 

 

Note the similarities with the bodywork on the steamboat, both vehicles being constructed in the Company shops.  

This Duluth car, built in 1893 by the LaClede Car Company is also at the Excelsior location....

 

 

After a ride on the line, I haded east to St Paul to visit the Minnesota Transportation Museum main base at the former Great Northern Railway Jackson Street Roundhouse.  The rail exhibts there were a bit crammed in so not well placed for photography.

This former Northern Pacific SW1200 of 1957 was one of the few presentable rail exhibits outside....

 

 

...whilst this, I believe, is former NP F7A #454-A of 1950......

 

 

They do have an operational tourist line situated well out of the M-StP area which is where several items from their collection are outstationed, but that will appear in a future installment.

 

As well as the rail exhibits, there are a number of preserved buses owned by the Museum, and rides round the local area were being given in this 1954 GMC.....

 

 

and this Greyhound Super Scenicruiser was parked by the roundhouse...

 

 

Last port of call for the day was at the other MSM heritage streetcar operation, the Como-Harriet line to the west of downtown Minneapolis, where this car, built by Twin Cities Rapid Transit in  1915 was in use. It only ran in M-StP for a year, before being sold to Duluth where it ran until 1939.  It then became a cabin, before being fully restored in the 1980's

 

 

 

.

Edited June 19, 2022 by Johann Marsbar
Typo

[Johann Marsbar]

Before leaving the Minneapolis-St Paul area on the Sunday morning I headed off to try and find the large rail yards (BNSF Northtown Yards) that I had passed on the way in to the City on the train on Friday morning. I had noticed then that there were a very large number of locomotives stored there on that day, so thought I'd try and find out whether you could get a good view of them from public vantage points.

Thankfully the area was relatively easy to find by road - helped by a complete lack of road traffic around at 07.30 on a Sunday morning - with two overbridges and a road parallel to the southern part of the yard proving very useful for the 50 mins or so that I spent in the area.

 

There were two yard areas fairly crammed with withdrawn/stored motive power in a variety of colour schemes, plus you also had yard switching moves going on, along with a few passing freight services as well. The variations of liveries/patched paint schemes on a number of the locos in store there certainly would act as a good resource for modellers!

 

A selection of BNSF SD60M's in BN green......

 

 

Remote Control fitted SD40-2 #1913 working the yard.......

 

 

...along with one rebuilt into an SD39-2, #1808 looking as though it had received a repaint fairly recently...

 

 

Back to the lines of stored locos, though some "artist" has obviously got at SD9 #1720 and changed the bodyside lettering to GN !

 

 

ex Santa Fe SD45-2's.....

 

 

The blue SD40-2, ILSX #1344, was ex UP and owned by a locomotive leasing company (Independent Locomotive Service). It seemed to be being used for trials in the area at the time I was there from what I've seen online recently.

 

 

ILSX were also the owners of this fairly elderly SW 1 (1947 ?) that was parked in an area between the Northtown yard and CP's Shoreham Yard.....

 

 

This pair of BNSF C44-9W locos ran north through the yard at one point, with more of the stored locos visible in the background.

 

 

Whilst this NS led manifest passed through southbound.....

 

 

Looking at the yard area on Google Earth yesterday afternoon, there are still several locos store in that area today, though not as many as back in 2011.

[Johann Marsbar]

Leaving the Minneapolis area I headed north-east towards the town of Osceola, the base of the Minnesota Transportation Museums heritage rail operation, a somewhat remote location from their St Paul roundhouse headquarters. On the way there I passed through the town of Stillwater and was rather surprised to find this parked up next to the highway...

 

 

This was the stock that had been used for the former Minnesota Zephyr Dining Train which had run out of Stillwater for about 23 years prior to the operation shutting down in 2009 and consisted of an F7A at each end of 6 passenger cars. Loco #787 was new to the Spokane, Portland and Seattle in 1953 (as #804) and later ended up as Burlington Northern #9756.

At that stage, the whole train was up for sale and the locos evenually ended up with Iowa Pacific, though what has happened to them since the collapse of that Company isn't clear.

 

The MSM heritage operation runs from the station at Osceola.....

 

 

...with either a southbound run to Marine on St Croix, MN, or a northbound run to Dresser, WI.  I don't think they have many people turning up who want to do the runs in both directions, as they seemed rather surprised when I asked for tickets on both trains (actually operated by the same loco + cars).  They were that taken aback, I was asked if I'd like to travel in the loco cab for one of the trips (!) - the run to Dresser and back.  The operation is different to the "normal" US heritage line in that it actually runs on a former SOO rail line that is still operated by CP and is maintained to mainline standards. All the train crews have to be mainline certified and the operational speeds are a lot higher than the usual 15 mph trundle you normally experience over there - being in the 30/35 mph range.

 

There was quite a lot of preserved rolling stock at Osceola, including this former NP Railway Post Office car....

 

 

The loco in use on the passenger services that day was this former BN SD9 #6234

 

 

...as it turned out, a loco I had previously photographed back in 1983 at Longmont, CO......

 

 

Other locos at Osceola were former Great Northern SDP40 #325 of 1966...

 

 

...and Soo Line GP7 #559 of 1951.....

 

 

A view from the cab on the run up to Dresser......

 

 

The station building at Dresser, WI, northern limit of the passenger runs...

 

[jamie92208]

You have some good luck there.  Some good power.  I seem to remember that SD9's were known as Cadillacs by SP crews as they rode very well.

 

Jamie

[Mike_Walker]

The Minnesota Transport Museum's collection also includes GN 400 the first production EMD SD45 which famously carried the "Hustle Muscle" branding on its flanks when new.  Superbly restored it worked a special to Fergus Falls and over the Otter Tail Valley for the Great Northern Technical & Historical Society on `19 July 2005.

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

2 hours ago, Mike_Walker said:

The Minnesota Transport Museum's collection also includes GN 400 the first production EMD SD45 which famously carried the "Hustle Muscle" branding on its flanks when new.  Superbly restored it worked a special to Fergus Falls and over the Otter Tail Valley for the Great Northern Technical & Historical Society on `19 July 2005.

 

 

 

That was one of the locos in the "Black Hole of St Paul" - AKA the Jackson St Roundhouse - when I visited the place, and this was the best photo manageable.....

 

 

...which is why I never bothered posting the photo!

They had some interesting stuff in the roundhouse , such as the Dan Patch Lines boxcab diesel from 1913, but there was so much "Clutter" around and rather questionable lighting conditions, it was a bit of a disappointment in there, to say the least.

[Johann Marsbar]

After an overnight stop just outside Wausau, WI, the next morning I continued on to Green Bay, where I would be based for the next 3 nights.  First port of call that morning was to the National Railroad Museum premises, a place that I found to be a rather strange set-up with a significant number of the exhibits in an unrestored state, several of the diesels apparently being displayed out in the open, which can't do them much good in northern Wisconsin winters.

 

The museum has a demonstration line in the form of a basic oval of track around the site with model railway style curves on which this rather anonymous Alco S2 was hauling a couple of passenger cars. Top speed seemed to be around 10 mph so it didn't produce much in the way of sound effects on the trip and certainly no Alco clag!

 

 

There is one decent display building with a selection of restored exhibits inside, whilst most of the other rolling stock is in a lage barn style building with open ends.

 

Starting off in the display building, the sight of a Big-Boy and a PRR maroon 5-stripe GG1 greets you when you enter the place....

 

 

and there are some supporting road vehicles in there as well, such as this Railway Express van....

 

 

At the time there were a few other steam locos in there - An Alco (Cooke) 0-4-0ST from 1923, formerly owned by W.F. Carey & Company.....

 

 

...this former US Army Baldwin 2-8-0 of 1918......

 

 

.....and (allegedly) their star exhibit, a certain A4 that was painted (along with its two Gresley coaches) in a rather strange shade of green....

 

 

The silver painted rods made it look like like a 12":1 Ft scale Airfix kit.....

As it was June 2011, my visit was prior to it returning here for the "Great Gathering" and receiving restoration work to return it to proper BR colours, though I'm guessing the two coaches are still painted in that "odd" green.

 

A couple of their diesels are seen outside in the sunshine, a former Green Bay & Western Alco C430 of 1968....

 

 

...and a rather rusty former US Army Alco RSD-1 of 1945.....

 

 

A few more photos from the NRM will feature tomorrow.

[Johann Marsbar]

Heading towards the other display building on the NRM site I noticed that a steam loco appeared to be shunting some rolling stock around, which turned out to be a Badwin built 2-8-2 of 1924, originally from the Sumpter and Choctaw RR......

 

 

However, as I got nearer to it, there was obviously something rather "suspect" about it, due to the lack of any smoke/steam eminating from the usual places you would expect, and I then discovered that it had been converted to "tender drive"

 

 

They have incorporated the diesel chassis from a small switcher, less the bodywork, within the tender and this pushes the loco around, a bit like a model loco!    Apparently the costs involved in operating live steam in the US (primarily Insurance , but restoration works as well) meant they came up with this "solution" to being able to operate a "steam engine".....

 

Amongst the other exhibits in the display building were this former Milwaukee Road Fairbanks Morse H10-44.....

 

 

and the GM experimental Aerotrain from 1958 that ended its days on the Rock Island.....

 

 

Whilst the loco end of the Aerotrain looks rather stylish, the passenger cars did not appear to match that standard, with their shortish length and the GM motor bus windows.....

 

 

The rest of the day was spent in Green Bay, which didn't turn out to be the sort of place I was expecting it to be.  Mainline rail activity appeared to be very limited, a drive round the docks/industrial area producing a solitary CN GP40-2.......

 

 

I was also expecting to see some maritime activity as well, given its location on Lake Michigan, but the whole port area was devoid of any shipping, a similar situation to what I found when cruising on the lake a few days later.

My hotel was located Downtown and whilst the area appeared relatively tidy, most businesses had shut, including the local shopping mall !

 

Next door to my hotel, I found the former Milwaukee Road passenger station, now converted to office use with the rails long gone....

 

 

The other station in town, formerly operated by the Chicago & North Western, was, at the time, the base for Titletown Brewing, though they appear to have moved to a different location now, though the station continues in use as a restaurant owned by someone else....

 

 

At least whilst I was enjoying a meal and a few of their beers, this CN freight put in an appearance behind a fairly new ES44DC.....

 

[Johann Marsbar]

For the remaining two days that I was based in Green Bay there wasn't a great deal of rail interest built into the trip, the first of the days being mainly taken up with a visit to the EAA Aviation Museum at Oshkosh.

 

On the drive down to Oshkosh I did do a clockwise circular tour around Lake Winnebago and called in at North Fond du Lac on the way.  Compared with the visit back in 2000 on the Travel Bureau tour there was no evidence of any remaning Wisconsin Central motive power left there, though I was pleasantly surprised to discover that some Elgin, Joliet and Eastern locos, a line taken over by CN in 2009, had been moved into the area and a couple of GP38-3's were present, still in their orange livery.....

 

 

 

From there it was on to Oshkosh and the air museum, where one of the exhibits is this DH Mosquito.....

 

 

The EAA museum has a substantial collection of airframes dating back to beginning of manned flight and even have their own airstrip on site (home of the seriously large Oshkosh Air Venture airshow) with reconstructed and replica historic airfield buildings as part of the museum. They also normally operate pleasure flights in vintage aircraft, so I took the opportunity of a trip in this Travel-Air E4000 biplane dating from 1929.......

 

 

You got quite a good forward view out of the front cockpit....

 

 

...and whilst up there, we even saw a Wisconsin Southern freight, though by the time I had got the camera ready, the lead locos had gone behind the foliage!

 

 

The next day consisted of a cruise from Manitowoc, WI, to Luddington, MI, on board the former C & O Railroad train ferry "SS Badger" (entered service 1953) which now operates a summer only service for road vehicles and is the last coal fired passenger steamer on the Great Lakes.   Unfortunately the weather had changed to a wet and miserable day for most of the voyage, but this shows the ship arriving at Manitowoc in the morning....

 

 

The rails are still present in the ferry deck as can be seen in this photo of an interesting vintage vehicle being reversed on board....

 

 

I was expecting to see some Greal Lakes shipping during the voyage, but saw absolutely nothing other than a vast expanse of water until we neared the Michigan coast.

I should have had over an hour in Luddington before the return sailing, but 25 mins of that was lost en route, so it was a somewhat more hurried visit to Jamesport Brewing, which was under 5 mins walk from the ferry!

 

The return trip is seen departing Luddington that evening .....

 

 

Thankfully the weather improved dramatically by the next day which was important for another flight I was to make a couple of days later....