June 26th, 2006 – Blast from The Past – CSXT 9993 leads the CSX Business Train northbound across the Gum Lick Trestle, between Kelly and Crofton, Kentucky, on the CSX Henderson Subdivision on June 26th, 2006.
The “Gum Lick” name comes from the fact that the valley here is named Gum Lick Hollow and it sits between Crofton and Kelly Kentucky where it crosses over the West Fork of Pond River.
Tech Info: Nikon D2H, Sigma 24-70 @24mm, f/4, 1/640, ISO 500.
Gornergrat-Bahn 3071 leads an uphill train as the Matterhorn rises above the line as the two car Cog Railway trainset heads to Bergstation at Gornergrat from Zermatt, Switzerland. Gornergrat Station is the end of the line for the Gornergrat trains and is 3,089 meters above sea level. The base station of the Gornergrat Railway is located very close to Zermatt’s train station
For a while I was the non-commissioned officer in charge of the Air Force’s Electronic Imaging Center stationed at Aviano, Italy, where Combat Camera was tasked to document the Provide Hope operation in 1992.
I was there for six months, and on most weekends, we had time off and on one of them I took a couple days of vacation and took trains from Italy to Switzerland to ride and photograph this train line. It was probably one of my most memorable trips from my railfanning past!
According to Wikipedia: Operation Provide Hope was a humanitarian operation conducted by the U.S. Air Force to provide medical equipment to former Soviet republics during their transition to capitalism. The operation was announced by Secretary of State James A. Baker, III on January 22–23, 1992 and the initial shipment of supplies was sent on February 10, 1992. Twelve US Air Force C-5 and C-141 was carrying an estimated 500 tons of bulk-food rations and medicines into Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Minsk, and Chisinau from Germany and Yerevan, Almaty, Dushanbe, Ashkhabad, Baku, Tashkent, and Bishkek from Turkey.
In total, for nearly two weeks sixty-five missions flew 2,363 short tons (2,144 t) of food and medical supplies to 24 locations in the Commonwealth of Independent States during the initial phase of operation. Much of these supplies was left over from the buildup to the Persian Gulf War.
Tech Info: Nikon F3, Nikon 80-200 @ 200mm, Ektachrome Slide Film
The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) locomotive 3004 heads across the Bridge over the River Kwai, around 1988, as it heads to the Kanchanaburi Station on part of the original 258-mile (415-kilometer) long Thai-Burma Railway.
During WW II, Japan constructed this meter-gauge railway line from Ban Pong, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma. The line passing through the scenic Three Pagodas Pass runs for 250 miles. This is now known as the Death Railway.
The railway line was meant to transport cargo daily to India, to back up their planned attack on India. The construction was done using POWs and Asian slave laborers in unfavorable conditions. The work started in October 1942 and was completed in a year. Due to the difficult terrain, thousands of laborers lost their lives. It is believed that one life was lost for each sleeper (tie) laid in the track.
At the nearby Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, around 7,000 POWs, who sacrificed their lives in the railway construction, are buried. Another 2,000 are laid to rest at the Chungkai Cemetery.
The River Kwai Bridge became famous all over the world, when it was featured in movies and books. The cliff-hugging tracks and the natural beauty of the surrounding mountains and valleys were well captured in the David Lean movie.
This is another scan from a Fuji 6×17 film camera that I’ve shot in the past and on Saturday’s at 5pm CST I plan on highlighting some of these images and others shot on slide film, so check back then to see more images from around the world from my past travels!
Fuji 6×17, Fuji 105mm lens, other exposure information wasn’t recorded back then, shot on Kodachrome Film.
June 24, 2006 – Blast From The Past – Amtrak locomotive #56, leads the Southwest Chief as it passes the signals at MP 604 as it heads west to Los Angeles through the Cajon Pass in southern California at Cajon Junction, CA.
Tech Info: Nikon D200, Sigma 24-70 @ 65mm, RAW, 1/320, f/7,1, ISO 100.
October 20, 2008 – Union Pacific 5411 leads a mixed freight westbound past Mormon Rocks in the southern California’s famous Cajon Pass.
According to Wikipedia: Cajon Pass (/k?’ho?n/; elevation 3,777 ft (1,151 m) is a mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California in the United States. It was created by the movements of the San Andreas Fault. Located in the Mojave Desert, the pass is an important link from the Greater San Bernardino Area to the Victor Valley, and northeast to Las Vegas.
Cajon Pass is at the head of Horsethief Canyon, traversed by California State Route 138 (SR 138) and railroad tracks owned by BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad. Railroad improvements in 1972 reduced its maximum elevation from about 3,829 to 3,777 feet (1,167 to 1,151 m) while also reducing the curvature. Interstate 15 does not traverse Cajon Pass, but rather the nearby Cajon Summit, elevation 4,260 feet (1,300 m). However, the entire area including Cajon Pass and Cajon Summit is often collectively called Cajon Pass. Sometimes the entire area is called Cajon Pass, but a distinction is made between Cajon Pass and Cajon Summit in detail.
Mormon Rocks
In 1851, a group of Mormon settlers led by Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich traveled through the Cajon Pass in covered wagons on their way from Salt Lake City to southern California. This prominent rock formation in the pass, where the Mormon trail and the railway merge (near Sullivan’s Curve), is known as Mormon Rocks.
August 8, 2009 – During one of my many trips over the years to Summer Rail I caught CSXT 154 & 395 as it led a maintenance of way train, with two switches in gondolas, as it crossed over the Ohio River at Covington, Kentucky as it headed south off the C&O Railroad bridge from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Tech Info: Nikon D700, RAW, Nikon 70-300 @ 200mm, f/8, 1/500. ISO 640.
August 1, 2004 – Ohio Central (ex Grand Trunk Western) 4-8-4 #6325 is running at track speed on one of several excursions run in conjunction with the Dennison, Ohio Railfest in 2004. This shot was made on one of the runs north from the Railfest site in Dennison. Ohio Central 6325 and Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 #2613 handled the steam trips during the Railfest weekend.
Tech Info: Nikon D100, Sigma 24-70mm @46mm, f/11, 1/640, ISO 400.
June 26th, 2006 – Blast from The Past – CSXT 9993 leads the CSX Business Train northbound across the Gum Lick Trestle, between Kelly and Crofton, Kentucky, on the CSX Henderson Subdivision on June 26th, 2006.
The “Gum Lick” name comes from the fact that the valley here is named Gum Lick Hollow and it sits between Crofton and Kelly Kentucky where it crosses over the West Fork of Pond River.
Tech Info: Nikon D2H, Sigma 24-70 @24mm, f/4, 1/640, ISO 500.
Blast from the past from February 7, 2016 – All’s quiet on the Willard Subdivision at Fostoria, Ohio for a brief time as all the signals but one are red.
For more information on this fabulous rail park that sees on average 100+ trains a day visit: http://www.fostoriairontriangle.com/railfan.htm
Tech Info: 2.5 seconds | f/4.8 | ISO 100 | Lens: Nikon 70-300 @ 155mm on a Nikon D800 shot and processed in RAW.
May 1, 2005 – Blast From The Past – The conductor on a Union Pacific freight walks past the American Flag on his engine in the yard at Salem, Illinois.
According to the Union Pacific Website: When we added the flag to our locomotives more than a decade ago – at the suggestion of an employee after 9/11 – we followed the tradition of having the Union (the blue field of stars) lead the way, such that on the right-hand side of the vehicle (“passenger side”), the flag would appear reversed.
Further, the flag was painted to convey the motion of forward movement as if it were billowing with the speed of the locomotive. Having the Union forward on both sides is the overwhelming choice anytime the flag is portrayed on a transport vehicle, from NASA space shuttles to Air Force One.
Tech Info: Nikon D100, Nikon 70-300mm @ 80mm, f/14, 1/400, ISO 400.
HLCX lease units 6060 and 6001 lead CSX K810 north on July 15th, 2004, at East Diamond on the CSX Henderson Subdivision on the cutoff at Madisonville, Kentucky.
Tech Info: Nikon D100, Sigma 24-70 @ 24mm, f/5, 1/640, ISO 400.
May 5, 1989 – The crew from a eastbound Santa Fe freight prepare to do a roll-by inspection on a passenger train being led by Union Pacific X8444 at Blue Cut in southern California’s Cajon Pass on their way west to the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Los Angeles Union Station, with E-unit 951 trailing. This was the first Southern California appearance of a Union Pacific steam locomotive since 1956.
Tech Info: Nikon F3, Nikon 80-200mm, Kodachrome Slide, other data not recorded.
October, 1986 – This is pretty much the only train shot I got on two different photo assignments I had while I served in the US Air Force, which took me to China.
This photograph was made at the end of a day on assignment where I covered the crew of a KC-10 Refueling Tanker that flew a group of Chinese Acrobats that had been performing in the U.S. back to their home in China. I documented the trip and on one of the three days our driver and translator stopped by one of the stations around Beijing so I could photograph a train. Unfortunately we didn’t travel on any train and there wasn’t time to explore as we weren’t allowed to travel around on our own.
Tech Info: Kodachrome Slide shot with a Nikon. No other tech info recorded unfortunately!
![Santa Fe 5404 leads 8 locomotives as they climb upgrade through the Tehachapi Pass in central California in during early 1995 passing a caboose parked in a house track. Unfortunately I can't remember off the top of my head where this spot is at or what it's called. Anyone know?
According to Wikipedia: Tehachapi Pass (Kawaiisu: Tihachipia, meaning "hard climb") is a mountain pass crossing the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, California. Traditionally, the pass marks the northeast end of the Tehachapi’s and the south end of the Sierra Nevada range.
The route is a principal connector between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. The Native American Kitanemuk people used the pass as a trade route before the American settlement of the region in the 19th century. The main line of the former Southern Pacific Railroad opened though the pass in 1876;[4] the tracks are now owned by the Union Pacific Railroad and shared with BNSF Railway as the Mojave Subdivision. U.S. Route 466 was built in the 1930s, and the road is now State Route 58. The Pass is also the route of the planned California High-Speed Rail line.
Tech Notes: Nikon F3 Film Camera, Nikon 300mm, f/stop and shutter speed not recorded
#railroad #railroads #train #trains #bestphoto #railroadengines #picturesoftrains #picturesofrailway #bestphotograph #photographyoftrains #trainphotography #JimPearsonPhotography](https://www.jimpearsonphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/WEB-03.1995-SF-5404-in-the-Tehachapi-Pass-1170x762.jpg)
Santa Fe 5404 leads 8 locomotives as they climb upgrade through the Tehachapi Pass in central California with their train in during early 1995 passing a caboose parked in a house track. Unfortunately I can’t remember off the top of my head where this spot is at or what it’s called. Anyone know? – Edit: Several folks have said that this is at Caliente, CA.
According to Wikipedia: Tehachapi Pass (Kawaiisu: Tihachipia, meaning “hard climb”) is a mountain pass crossing the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, California. Traditionally, the pass marks the northeast end of the Tehachapi’s and the south end of the Sierra Nevada range.
The route is a principal connector between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. The Native American Kitanemuk people used the pass as a trade route before the American settlement of the region in the 19th century. The main line of the former Southern Pacific Railroad opened though the pass in 1876;[4] the tracks are now owned by the Union Pacific Railroad and shared with BNSF Railway as the Mojave Subdivision. U.S. Route 466 was built in the 1930s, and the road is now State Route 58. The Pass is also the route of the planned California High-Speed Rail line.
Tech Notes: Nikon F3 Film Camera, Nikon 300mm, f/stop and shutter speed not recorded
A eastbound heavy freight climbs out of Caliente, which is east of Bakersfield, California in the Tehachapi mountains sometime in the early 1995 in this Kodachrome slide scan.
According to Wikipedia: Established in the 1870s, Caliente was originally named Allens Camp for a cattle rancher and settler named Gabriel Allen. Later, the name Agua Caliente, coming from hot springs in the area, was proposed and may have been used. This name conflicted with the community of the same name in Sonoma County. With the railroad’s arrival in 1875, the shortened name Caliente was adopted.
Caliente prospered during Southern Pacific Railroad’s construction of Tehachapi Pass line. For a time, the Telegraph Stage Line and the Cerro Gordo Freighting Co. also ran through Caliente and its full-time population grew to 200. There were approximately 60 buildings, including 20 or more saloons.
The Caliente post office opened in 1875, closed in 1883, and was re-established in 1890. The Caliente General Store was remodeled in 1980 to house the post office which is still in operation today.
The sound of diesel locomotives and railroad horns are present day and night. The community is along the track of the Union Pacific Railroad, Mojave Subdivision. The track loops around the post office as it winds through the local hills. Trains climb toward the Tehachapi summit eastbound or descend toward Bakersfield if westbound.
Tech Notes: Nikon F3 Film Camera, Nikon 800-200mm, f/stop and shutter speed not recorded
A set of Southern Pacific locomotives sit in the during a late spring snowfall in March of 1995 as the conductor makes his way back to the engines at Devore, California, in the Cajon Pass as they work on a tank train during the cold weather.
According to Wikipedia: Devore Heights, or Devore, is a residential rural neighborhood of the city of San Bernardino, California. It is located just north of the junction of Interstate 15 and Interstate 215, about 12 miles northwest of downtown San Bernardino. It is also the last town to pass through before taking the Cajon Pass to reach Hesperia, California.
Tech Info: Nikon F3 Film Camera, exposure not recorded.
![Santa Fe 947 leads the way as it climbs upgrade through the Tehachapi Pass in northern California in August of 1995.
According to Wikipedia: Tehachapi Pass (Kawaiisu: Tihachipia, meaning "hard climb") is a mountain pass crossing the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, California. Traditionally, the pass marks the northeast end of the Tehachapi’s and the south end of the Sierra Nevada range.
The route is a principal connector between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. The Native American Kitanemuk people used the pass as a trade route before the American settlement of the region in the 19th century. The main line of the former Southern Pacific Railroad opened though the pass in 1876;[4] the tracks are now owned by the Union Pacific Railroad and shared with BNSF Railway as the Mojave Subdivision. U.S. Route 466 was built in the 1930s, and the road is now State Route 58. The Pass is also the route of the planned California High-Speed Rail line.
Tech Notes: Nikon F3 Film Camera, Nikon 300mm, f/stop and shutter speed not recorded
#railroad #railroads #train #trains #bestphoto #railroadengines #picturesoftrains #picturesofrailway #bestphotograph #photographyoftrains #trainphotography #JimPearsonPhotography](https://www.jimpearsonphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/WEB-08.1995-SF-947-climbs-the-grade-in-Tehachapi-Pass.jpg)
Santa Fe 947 leads the way as it climbs upgrade through the Tehachapi Pass in northern California in August of 1995.
According to Wikipedia: Tehachapi Pass (Kawaiisu: Tihachipia, meaning “hard climb”) is a mountain pass crossing the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, California. Traditionally, the pass marks the northeast end of the Tehachapi’s and the south end of the Sierra Nevada range.
The route is a principal connector between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. The Native American Kitanemuk people used the pass as a trade route before the American settlement of the region in the 19th century. The main line of the former Southern Pacific Railroad opened though the pass in 1876;[4] the tracks are now owned by the Union Pacific Railroad and shared with BNSF Railway as the Mojave Subdivision. U.S. Route 466 was built in the 1930s, and the road is now State Route 58. The Pass is also the route of the planned California High-Speed Rail line.
Tech Notes: Nikon F3 Film Camera, Nikon 300mm, f/stop and shutter speed not recorded
Southern Pacific locomotive 327 passes the signals in Tennessee Pass, Colorado, in this slide shot from the early 1990’s before Southern Pacific merged with Union Pacific.
According to the Southern Pacific History Center website, On February 1, 1997, Southern Pacific Transportation Company and the Union Pacific Railroad were formally merged. Union Pacific was merged into SPTC and the name was simultaneously changed from SPTC to the new Union Pacific Railroad.
According to Wikipedia: Tennessee Pass elevation is 10,424 ft (3,177 m) and is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States. The pass was named after Tennessee, the native state of a group of early prospectors.
In 1996, UP bought Southern Pacific. UP preferred the Moffat Tunnel for routing traffic. The last revenue train went over the Tennessee Pass on August 23, 1997. Soon after UP ran this last train, UP applied to the Surface Transportation Board for permission to abandon the line.
The Royal Gorge Route Railroad currently offers scenic, tourist rail trips on 12 miles of the Tennessee Pass Line west of Cañon City. No freight has been shipped on the Tennessee Pass Line since 1997.
Union Pacific began actively discussing the sale of the line to Colorado Pacific in 2019, for an amount of $10 million. Colorado Pacific wanted to pay only the $8.8 million that the line was valued at. After a long battle in court, it was declared that they would not force a sale, but if other evidence was found, Colorado Pacific could re-file the report. As of October 2020, Colorado Pacific attempted another forced sale, this time saying they’ll run passenger/excursion service over the route. Union Pacific responded by stating they were in active negotiations for Rio Grande Pacific to operate the line and were opposed to Colorado Pacific’s bid. On December 31, 2020, Rio Grande Pacific subsidiary Colorado, Midland & Pacific Railway Company, announced it had entered in an agreement with Union Pacific to explore reopening, leasing and operating the line for both potential commuter and freight services.
Tech Info: Nikon F3 Film Camera, exposure not recorded.
A lady waits for the arrival of her train at the main train station in downtown Moscow, Russia sometime during the winter months of 1992. This image is from a slide scan that I shot while I was taking part in a military humanitarian called Provide Hope.
For awhile I was the non-commissioned officer in charge of the Air Force’s Electronic Imaging Center stationed at Aviano, Italy, where Combat Camera was tasked to document the Provide Hope operation. I was there for six months, and we flew missions in and out of the USSR. This was on one trip to Moscow where we spent a couple days in the country, documenting the delivery of supplies to an orphanage. Of course, during my off time, I made sure to visit the train station that was just outside our hotel!
According to Wikipedia: Operation Provide Hope was a humanitarian operation conducted by the U.S. Air Force to provide medical equipment to former Soviet republics during their transition to capitalism. The operation was announced by Secretary of State James A. Baker, III on January 22–23, 1992 and the initial shipment of supplies was sent on February 10, 1992. Twelve US Air Force C-5 and C-141 was carrying an estimated 500 tons of bulk-food rations and medicines into Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Minsk, and Chisinau from Germany and Yerevan, Almaty, Dushanbe, Ashkhabad, Baku, Tashkent, and Bishkek from Turkey. In total, for nearly two weeks sixty-five missions flew 2,363 short tons (2,144 t) of food and medical supplies to 24 locations in the Commonwealth of Independent States during the initial phase of operation. Much of these supplies was left over from the buildup to the Persian Gulf War.
Small teams of US personnel from various government agencies (On-Site Inspection Agency, USAID, and USDA) had been placed in each destination shortly before the deliveries, to coordinate with local officials and to monitor to the best extent possible that the deliveries reached the intended recipients (i.e., orphanages, hospitals, soup kitchens, and needy families).
![A Loram Rail grinder makes its way through the Cajon Pass in Southern California in April of 1995.
I spent a lot of years railfanning the pass between 1981 and 1995! It's a great place to catch trains and I've been back several times over the years since then.
In fact I'm headed back again this coming September for a week or so to see how much it has changed since I was last there several years ago. In fact, it was before I had a drone, so I'm really looking forward to railfanning from the air this next trip!
According to Wikipedia: Cajon Pass is a mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains to the east and the San Gabriel Mountains to the west in Southern California. Created by the movements of the San Andreas Fault, it has an elevation of 3,777 ft (1,151 m).[1] Located in the Mojave Desert, the pass is an important link from the Greater San Bernardino Area to the Victor Valley, and northeast to Las Vegas. The Cajon Pass area is on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Cajon Pass is at the head of Horsethief Canyon, traversed by California State Route 138 and railroad tracks owned by BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad. Improvements in 1972 reduced the railroad's maximum elevation from about 3,829 to 3,777 feet (1,167 to 1,151 m) while reducing curvature. Interstate 15 does not traverse Cajon Pass, but rather the nearby Cajon Summit. The entire area, Cajon Pass and Cajon Summit, is often referred to as Cajon Pass, but a distinction is made between Cajon Pass and Cajon Summit.
Nikon F3 Camera, Nikon 300mm lens, f/stop and shutter speed not recorded](https://www.jimpearsonphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WEB-04.1995-LoRam-in-Cajon-Pass-1170x762.jpg)
A Loram Rail grinder makes its way through the Cajon Pass in Southern California in April of 1995.
I spent a lot of years railfanning the pass between 1981 and 1995! It’s a great place to catch trains and I’ve been back several times over the years since then.
In fact I’m headed back again this coming September for a week or so to see how much it has changed since I was last there several years ago. In fact, it was before I had a drone, so I’m really looking forward to railfanning from the air this next trip!
According to Wikipedia: Cajon Pass is a mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains to the east and the San Gabriel Mountains to the west in Southern California. Created by the movements of the San Andreas Fault, it has an elevation of 3,777 ft (1,151 m).[1] Located in the Mojave Desert, the pass is an important link from the Greater San Bernardino Area to the Victor Valley, and northeast to Las Vegas. The Cajon Pass area is on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Cajon Pass is at the head of Horsethief Canyon, traversed by California State Route 138 and railroad tracks owned by BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad. Improvements in 1972 reduced the railroad’s maximum elevation from about 3,829 to 3,777 feet (1,167 to 1,151 m) while reducing curvature. Interstate 15 does not traverse Cajon Pass, but rather the nearby Cajon Summit. The entire area, Cajon Pass and Cajon Summit, is often referred to as Cajon Pass, but a distinction is made between Cajon Pass and Cajon Summit.
Nikon F3 Camera, Nikon 300mm lens, f/stop and shutter speed not recorded
Santa Fe 5262 heads through the Tehachapi Mountains with a mixed freight on their way west along the UP Mojave Subdivision, California, in April of 1995.
According to Wikipedia: The Tehachapi Mountains are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States. The range extends for approximately 40 miles in southern Kern County and northwestern Los Angeles County and form part of the boundary between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert.
The Mojave Subdivision refers to a series of railway lines in California. The primary route crosses the Tehachapi Pass and features the Tehachapi Loop, connecting Bakersfield to the Mojave Desert. East of Mojave, the line splits with the Union Pacific Railroad portion continuing south to Palmdale and Colton over the Cajon Pass and the BNSF Railway owned segment running east to Barstow. Both companies generally share trackage rights across the lines.
Tech Notes: Nikon F3 Film Camera, Nikon 300mm lens, f/stop and shutter speed not recorded