Moving Your Freight While You Sleep
Part of what fascinates me about the railroad is that it is a 24/7/365 operation, through snow, rain, heat and gloom of night. Just like the post office, except with big colorful steel machines. And no where does the all-day-every-day culture better exhibit itself than from above a giant freight yard at midnight. Such was [...]
Bridges Over The Calumet
The Norfolk Southern’s bridges over the Calumet River stand tall against the sunset sky in South Chicago, IL. The only span in the photo to still have an active railroad on it is the bridge on the left, which carries NS’s Chicago mainline towards Englewood and the BRC, and is quite busy. From left to [...]
High Green
As the full moon rises over the ancient signal bridge at Verona, IL, the lens blinks to green, beckoning an eastbound train down the rails of the BNSF’s Chillicothe Subdivision toward Chicago. Not long after the green signal went up, a headlight appeared to the west, out of the dusky twilight on the horizon. And [...]
Tangent
Slashing through the Heartland, the former Illinois Central mainline provides a straight shot south from Chicago towards the Gulf of Mexico. The route is fast and straight. And on this foggy night, somewhere out in the country south of the tiny town of Ashkum, IL, a distant headlight is approaching. It’s just another freight train, [...]
Life in the Dead Mountains
During the day, the Mojave Desert is a harsh, unforgiving landscape. But, in the minutes after sunset, the Mojave takes on a completely different look; different hues and shades of colors appear and rapidly fade into the twilight. Sounds carry for quite a ways out there too. Especially the sound of thousands of horsepower lifting [...]
Cruising Up Lakeshore
Hugging Chicago’s lakefront, the original Illinois Central Railroad mainline was built in 1856 and electrified in 1926. Today, it is one of Metra’s busiest stretches of commuter railroad, with hundreds of daily trains carrying thousands of commuters into the Loop at Millennium Station. South of Roosevelt Road, there are also a few freight trains along [...]
Oncoming
Slowly creeping out of a cloud of swirling snow, an oncoming train rolls down the BNSF’s triple track mainline in Riverside, IL with freight from the west coast.
Here Comes the Snow
With a winter storm warning out for tonight and tomorrow here in Chicagoland, I’m bracing for the worst and looking forward to some snow photography shortly. With this in mind, I figured I’d break out an image from last winters never-ending snow.
First Sun
The Mississippi River valley is very quiet early in the morning, with only the occasional boat motor from passing early morning fishermen disturbing the silence. This is especially true when you’re high up on the bluffs over the east bank of the river, in the Mississippi Palisades State Park near Savanna, IL, waiting for the [...]
Freight Yard
I figured I’d put up another photo that I got from my late evening sunset shoot at Union Pacific’s giant Proviso Classification Yard in suburban Chicago. As the sun was setting over the large expanse of tracks, it was almost hard to NOT make a good photo. The light was glinting off of everything in [...]
Locomotive Exhaust
Exploring the countryside on a cool evening in May under starry skies, we found a BNSF freight train getting a new crew on the siding in Shabbona, IL. Opting for the dark side of the train allowed this view, as the exhaust pouring from the GEs was back lit by a few bright sodium vapor [...]
Out of the Mouth of the Beast
For some reason, this photo looks very menacing to me. I think it’s the icicles hanging from the rock cut on the right that appear to be the teeth of some giant monster. In reality, it’s nothing more than Norfolk Southern train X4T struggling upgrade through one of the giant cuts on the “Rathole” near [...]
Above the Cumberland River
The Norfolk Southern’s ex-Southern Railway Second District route passes through some incredible scenery in the south-eastern part of Kentucky. Most commonly known as the “Rathole”, this line once had many small tunnels and curves, snaking through the hard limestone so common throughout this part of the country. However, in the early 60s, the Southern Railway [...]
How to Make Due When Minus a Tripod
It’s no secret that I like shooting at night. Which makes my decision to leave my tripod at home on a recent road trip all the more puzzling. Anyway, when we were on our way back towards Chicago and ran across a Toledo, Peoria & Western freight train sitting in Kentland, IN while the crew [...]
Tiny Tehachapis
I’ve been sorting through old photos from last year, attempting to update my Lightroom catalog a bit, and I ran across a photo that I thought I could maybe help a bit in Photoshop. I know, I know, these tilt/shift things are gimmicky and lame (it’s been discussed…), but I really think they can produce [...]
Railroad Art
More from the Shameless Pandering Department. I figured I’d try to embed one of these Photoshelter gallery slideshows. Please buy a print if you see something you like, framed and matted prints are only $100. All proceeds go to a good cause, mainly me paying my bills. What is really neat about these is that [...]
It’s In The Details
Last week I went out for a couple of afternoons of shooting freight car details. I’m still not really sure why, but I think some of them came out pretty neat. I thought I’d put a few of them really big on here as to bring out some of the gritty, grimy details that I [...]
Fast Moving Trains at Night
As we ventured out to the far western suburbs on Friday night, and the moon began to rise in the east, the Harley Road overpass near LaFox seemed to be an interesting option for shooting a few night shots. As an added bonus, the Union Pacific’s mainline seemed to be getting very busy, with many [...]
