Train Photography

[sparky]

Conrail caboose

[sparky]

Metrorail, old style colors

[sparky]

Metro rail, new color scheme

[sparky]

Norfolk Southern 4616

[sparky]

Some sort of track maintainance vehicle.

[sparky]

If anyone knows what these are, let me know. They were near where they were taking up the rails. Don't know what they are, but I like the jet engines!

[sparky]

Last one, I think its a plow, a very large one. Not getting much use at the moment up here.

Hope you found these interesting.

[Guest]

That plow is huge. I would like to see it in action!

[jmp883]

It's a 3-way tie as to what is my favorite hobby. Obviously fire apparatus photography is one of them. Trains, both real and model, and amatuer radio/scanning are the other two. That being said here is a sample of my rail photography from 2006. I was fortunate enough to be a train dispatcher for a year on a major east coast commuter railroad. Having a good friend who was an engineer, conductor, and is now train dispatcher himself, as well as one hell of a good railfan, makes it a lot of fun to go shooting trains.



First up is a shot of the now-abandoned DB Drawbridge on New Jersey Transit taken back on 7/26/05. This was part of the Erie Lackawanna (former Erie) Greenwood Lake Division.

[jmp883]

Still in the Jersey Meadows, here is the lift bridge known as Lower Hack. This picture was taken on 7/26/05. This is on NJT Main Line (former Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western). This single-track bridge was built in 1958. Pretty impressive looking structure. We would have to open this one, as well as HX Draw on the Bergen County Line several times a day. I was never fortunate enough to see either bridge in the process of opening or closing.

[jmp883]

The weekend of 5/20/06 we headed north to Sussex County, NJ and caught a speeder trip on the NYS&W RR's mainline (former Lehigh & Hudson River RR). There must have been at least 20-25 speeders.

[jmp883]

A few more speeders from that trip......this one marked for CN Railways

[jmp883]

This speeder is marked for the Erie Railroad.

[jmp883]

And finally one from the 'host' railroad....the NYS&W RR (also known as the Susquehanna).

[jmp883]

Time to jump over to the mighty Hudson River in the area of Bear Mountain, NY. While there are rail lines up each side of the Hudson River I'm partial to the former NYC River Line, now owned and operated by CSX. From Rockland County all the way to Selkirk Yard in the upper Hudson Valley there are numerous excellent photo locations. The next few are from my favorite spots around the Bear Mountain Bridge area. First up is the CSX #8595 southbound on 5/24/06 at Iona Island, NY

[jmp883]

Next up is the CSX #5253 leading a southbound general freight at Iona Island, NY on the morning of 5/29/06.

[Guest]

[quote name='sparky' post='63044' date='Dec 30 2006, 23:08 ']If anyone knows what these are, let me know. They were near where they were taking up the rails. Don't know what they are, but I like the jet engines![/quote]



Those are snow removal units powered by a jet engine.

[jmp883]

Jumping back to just a few miles from my residence. We are in Butler, NJ on a rainy Saturday, 6/3/06. The train is SU-99, NYS&W's daily westbound freight train between Little Ferry, NJ and Binghamton, NY. This day they ran 2 SU-99's and this is the first one. Things aren't going so good for the train and her crew. Rain, slippery rail, and questionable motive power made the train stall. They finally got her moving, at little more than walking speed, and she crawled right by the Butler station and kept right on going. Who says you can't get dramatic photos in the rain? <img src='http://www.firepics.net/groupboards/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' />

[jmp883]

Back to the sunshine and the Hudson River. It's 8/21/06 and the CSX #8343 is leading the Q-254 southbound on the River Line at Iona Island, NY.

[jmp883]

4 days later, 8/25/06, and we see the CSX #5229 heading southbound with a stack train just north of Iona Island, NY.