October 26, 2018 – Amtrak 391, the Saluki from Chicago, Illinois, heads into it’s final station stop at Carbondale, Illinois on the CN Centrailia Subdivision, after passing the coaling towers that were built for the then Illinois Central Railroad in 1949. – #jimstrainphotos #illinoisrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #amtrak #saluki #carbondale
October 17, 2018 – Dust flies as Canadian National 2985 leads a loaded coal train under the old Illinois Central Coaling tower at Reevesville, Illinois on its way south on CN’s Bluford Subdivision, the Edgewood Cutoff.
According to Wikipedia: A coaling tower, coal stage or coaling station was a facility used to load coal as fuel into railway steam locomotives. Coaling towers were often sited at motive power depots or locomotive maintenance shops.
Coaling towers were constructed of wood, steel-reinforced concrete, or steel. In almost all cases coaling stations used a gravity fed method, with one or more large storage bunkers for the coal elevated on columns above the railway tracks, from which the coal could be released to slide down a chute into the waiting locomotive’s coal storage area. The method of lifting the bulk coal into the storage bin varied. The coal usually was dropped from a hopper car into a pit below tracks adjacent to the tower. From the pit a conveyor-type system used a chain of motor-driven buckets to raise the coal to the top of the tower where it would be dumped into the storage bin; a skip-hoist system lifted a single large bin for the same purpose. Some facilities lifted entire railway coal trucks or wagons. Sanding pipes were often mounted on coaling towers to allow simultaneous replenishment of a locomotive’s sand box.
As railroads transitioned from the use of steam locomotives to the use of diesel locomotives in the 1950s the need for coaling towers ended. Many reinforced concrete towers remain in place if they do not interfere with operations due to the high cost of demolition incurred with these massive structures. – #jimstrainphotos #illinoisrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #cnrailway
August 30, 2018 – CSX Q588 (Nashville, TN – Avon, IN), with CN 8102 and UP 2513 leading, pass loaded coal train N319-29 (Evansville, IN (EVWR) – Cross, SC), with 3268 & 253 at Romney, just south of Mannington, Ky as both trains make their way along the Henderson Subdivision. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #csx #csxrailroad
August 2, 2018 – Canadian National 2269 heads up local L513 as it waits for a signal to pass the DPU end of a loaded BNSF coal train at CN’s P&I Junction at Paducah, Ky after performing interchange work with the Paducah and Louisville Railway. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #cn #pal
August 2, 2018 – Canadian National 2269 leads local L513 around the curve leading out of the Paducah and Louisville Railway yard after doing interchange work. The trailing engine is PRLX 240. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #cn #pal
July 12, 2018 – Canadian National 6225, 9600, BNSF 9153 and Citirail CREX 1434 lead a local freight as it approaches the CN P&I Junction, on it’s way to do interchange work at the Paducah and Louisville Railway at Paducah, Kentucky. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #cn #cnrailway
August 2, 2018 – Canadian National 2269 leads local L513 passes the DPU end of a loaded BNSF coal train at CN’s P&I Junction at Paducah, Ky after performing interchange work with the Paducah and Louisville Railway. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #cn #pal
May 26, 2018 CN 3024 leads an empty coal train approaches the south end of Central City, Ky as it heads south on the Paducah and Louisville Railway as it makes it’s way to pickup a load of coal at Armstrong’s Midway Mine in McHenry, Ky. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #cn #cnrailroad #pal #palrailway #paducahandlouisvillerailway
May 26, 2018 CN 3024 leads an empty coal train across the Rockport drawbridge as it heads south on the Paducah and Louisville Railway at Rockport, Ky. The train is on it’s way to pickup a load of coal at Armstrong’s Midway Mine at McHenry, Ky. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #cn #cnrailroad #pal #palrailway #paducahandlouisvillerailway
May 8, 2018 – CN 3110 approaches the highway 62 overpass at Dawson Springs, Ky as it pulls a loaded coal train south on the Paducah and Louisville Railway. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #csx #csxrailroad
May 8, 2018 – CN 3110 pulls a loaded coal train south across the Tennessee River on the Paducah and Louisville Railway, with PAL UofL 2013 trailing, at Gilbertsville, Ky. Just below the train is Kentucky Dam. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #csx #csxrailroad
May 5, 2018 – Canadian National 2816 leads a empty coal train (C729) under the belt at Cimarron Mine, on the Paducah and Louisville Railway as it approaches the crossing at Pond River Colliers Road in Madisonville, Ky, on it’s way to Armstrong Coal in McHenry, Ky to pickup a load. PAL will be running these unit coal trains off the CN for the next few weeks from Fulton, Ky up to McHenry Ky for loading. These movements are destined for a marine terminal in Convent Louisiana, where the coal will be loaded onto barges and ships. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #cn #cnrailroad #pal #paducahandlouisvillerailway #canadiannationalrailway
February 24, 2018 – Crews on board “The J,” ex-Elgin Joliet and Eastern, EJE 703 EMD GP38-2 work on building a train at the Canadian National Yard in Fulton, Kentucky.
According to Wikipedia, The Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway (reporting mark EJE) was a Class I railroad, operating between Waukegan, Illinois and Gary and Porter Indiana. The railroad served as a link between Class I railroads traveling to and from Chicago, although it operated almost entirely within the city’s suburbs, and only entered Chicago where it served the U.S. Steel South Works on the shores of Lake Michigan. Nicknames for the railroad included “The J” and “The Chicago Outer Belt Line”. At the end of 1970, the EJ&E operated 164 miles of track and carrying 848 million ton-miles of revenue freight in that year alone.
On September 26, 2007, the Canadian National Railway announced that it planned to purchase a majority of the EJ&E, leaving a portion of the line in Indiana to be reorganized as the Gary Railway. The purchase was approved on December 24, 2008 by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, and the deal was consummated effective February 1, 2009. In the years immediately following the merger, the railroad existed as a subsidiary of Canadian National, and EJ&E locomotives that were repainted into CN colors were sub-lettered for the EJ&E.
On December 31, 2012, Canadian National announced that the merger of the EJ&E into Wisconsin Central Ltd. (Another railroad subsidiary of CN) had been completed, and would take effect the following day. On January 1, 2013, the EJ&E effectively ceased to exist.
February 24, 2018 – “The J,” ex-Elgin Joliet and Eastern, EJE 703 EMD GP38-2 works in the Canadian National Yard at Fulton, Kentucky as a CN freight pulls to a stop in the background and a partially obscured Grand Trunk Western 6224 sits tied down behind a yard office.
February 24, 2018 – CN 2190 cuts away from Grand Trunk Western locomotive 6224 in the Canadian National Yard at Fulton, Ky.
According to Wikipedia, the Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company (reporting mark GTW) is an American subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway (reporting mark CN) operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
Since a corporate restructuring in 1971 the railroad has been under CN’s subsidiary holding company the Grand Trunk Corporation. Grand Trunk Western’s routes are part of CN’s Midwest Division. Its primary mainline between Chicago, Illinois, and Port Huron, Michigan, serves as a connection between railroad interchanges in Chicago and rail lines in eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States.
The railroad’s extensive trackage in Detroit and across southern Michigan has made it an essential link for the automotive industry as a hauler of parts and automobiles from manufacturing plants.
February 24, 2018 – “The J,” ex-Elgin Joliet and Eastern, EJ&E 703 EMD GP38-2 works on building a train at the Canadian National Yard in Fulton, Kentucky.
According to Wikipedia, The Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway (reporting mark EJE) was a Class I railroad, operating between Waukegan, Illinois and Gary and Porter Indiana. The railroad served as a link between Class I railroads traveling to and from Chicago, although it operated almost entirely within the city’s suburbs, and only entered Chicago where it served the U.S. Steel South Works on the shores of Lake Michigan. Nicknames for the railroad included “The J” and “The Chicago Outer Belt Line”. At the end of 1970, the EJ&E operated 164 miles of track and carrying 848 million ton-miles of revenue freight in that year alone.
On September 26, 2007, the Canadian National Railway announced that it planned to purchase a majority of the EJ&E, leaving a portion of the line in Indiana to be reorganized as the Gary Railway. The purchase was approved on December 24, 2008 by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, and the deal was consummated effective February 1, 2009. In the years immediately following the merger, the railroad existed as a subsidiary of Canadian National, and EJ&E locomotives that were repainted into CN colors were sub-lettered for the EJ&E.
On December 31, 2012, Canadian National announced that the merger of the EJ&E into Wisconsin Central Ltd. (Another railroad subsidiary of CN) had been completed, and would take effect the following day. On January 1, 2013, the EJ&E effectively ceased to exist.
February 24, 2018 – The rain pours from the sky as the conductor from Amtrak 391, The Saluki, stands beside his train at Carbondale, Illinois after arriving from Chicago via the CN Centralia Subdivision. One of the hardest things about shooting in the rain or other bad weather is just getting out the door! Many times it’s really worth it though! I always keep a golf umbrella in my SUV for times like this!
February 14, 2018 – From left, BNSF 4151 and 758 pull a mixed freight south into the CN Yard at Fulton, Ky from CN’s Cairo Subdivision, as an empty coal train heads north on the Bluford Subdivision while another mixed freight pulls south into the yard.
February 14, 2018 – A Canadian National Railway freight, headed up by CN 2156, makes its way up track 2 approaching the north end of Buda at Fulton, Ky, as it heads north on the Cairo Subdivision in a light rain.
February 14, 2018 – During today’s visit to the Fulton, Ky area I caught CN 2465, IC 1024, GTW 79197 Caboose and CN 5416 tied down in the Canadian National Railway yard at Fulton, on a gloomy, overcast, rainy Valentines day. Hardest thing about photographing in bad weather is getting out the door! Bringing along a large golf umbrella helps a lot as well! LOL –
February 14, 2018 – BNSF 4151 and 758 pull a mixed freight onto track 2 at the north end of Buda, as it heads south on CN’s Cairo Subdivision at Clinton, Ky.