In this week’s Saturday Infrared Photo, we catch CSXT 7201 as it leads hot intermodal I025 south through the cut approaching the Cavanaugh Road overpass just north of Kelly, Kentucky, on April 13th, 2024, on the Henderson Subdivision.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24 @ 20mm, f/5.6, 1/450, ISO 400.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared Photo, we find The Valley Railroad Company #97 at it steams along the Connecticut River around Haddam, Connecticut with a passenger train on October 9th, 2024, as part of a two-day photo charter conducted by Dak Dillion Photography.
According to Wikipedia: The Valley Railroad, operating under the name Essex Steam Train and Riverboat, is a heritage railroad based in Connecticut on tracks of the Connecticut Valley Railroad, which was founded in 1868. The company began operations in 1971 between Deep River and Essex and has since reopened additional parts of the former Connecticut Valley Railroad line. It operates the Essex Steam Train and the Essex Clipper Dinner Train.
Valley Railroad #40 is an ALCO 2-8-0 that was built in 1923. It was built as Portland, Astoria and Pacific No. 101, but never used there; transferred to Minarets and Western Railroad in 1921, later to Southern Pacific, then to the Aberdeen and Rockfish Railroad. Purchased by the Valley Railroad in 1977.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24 @ 10mm, f/5, 1/250, ISO 400.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared photo, we catch East Broad Tops M1 motorcar pulling into the engine house over the pit at Rockhill, Pennsylvania, on October 6th, 2024, under the watchful eye of the conductor.
According to their website: Built in 1927, the M-1 is the only original narrow-gauge gasoline electric motorcar still in existence in the United States. Constructed in the EBT’s very own shop complex, this one-of-a-kind piece of railroad history has been painstakingly restored and still runs using many of its original parts and components over the same railroad it was built to serve over 96 years ago.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24 @17mm, f/4.5, 1/8, ISO 800.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared Photo, we find The Valley Railroad Company #40 steaming through the the area referred to as “the ladder” by the railroad, with a rare mixed freight move out of Essex, Connecticut on October 8th, 2024, as part of a two-day photo charter conducted by Dak Dillion Photography.
This section of trackage isn’t normally seen on the railroad’s regular operation as it’s south of the depot.
According to Wikipedia: The Valley Railroad, operating under the name Essex Steam Train and Riverboat, is a heritage railroad based in Connecticut on tracks of the Connecticut Valley Railroad, which was founded in 1868. The company began operations in 1971 between Deep River and Essex and has since reopened additional parts of the former Connecticut Valley Railroad line. It operates the Essex Steam Train and the Essex Clipper Dinner Train.
Valley Railroad #40 is a ALCO 2-8-2 that was built in 1923. It was built as Portland, Astoria and Pacific No. 101, but never used there; transferred to Minarets and Western Railroad in 1921, later to Southern Pacific, then to the Aberdeen and Rockfish Railroad. Purchased by the Valley Railroad in 1977.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24 @ 24mm, f/5, 1/1000, ISO 400.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared Photo, we find The Valley Railroad Company #97 steams along the Connecticut River around Chester, Connecticut with a passenger train on October 9th, 2024, as part of a two-day photo charter conducted by Dak Dillion Photography.
According to Wikipedia: The Valley Railroad, operating under the name Essex Steam Train and Riverboat, is a heritage railroad based in Connecticut on tracks of the Connecticut Valley Railroad, which was founded in 1868. The company began operations in 1971 between Deep River and Essex and has since reopened additional parts of the former Connecticut Valley Railroad line. It operates the Essex Steam Train and the Essex Clipper Dinner Train.
Valley Railroad #40 is an ALCO 2-8-0 that was built in 1923. It was built as Portland, Astoria and Pacific No. 101, but never used there; transferred to Minarets and Western Railroad in 1921, later to Southern Pacific, then to the Aberdeen and Rockfish Railroad. Purchased by the Valley Railroad in 1977.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24 @ 10mm, f/5, 1/250, ISO 400.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared photo, we catch a loaded Strasburg steam locomotive 89 as it pulls a passenger train out of Strasburg, PA on October 7th, 2024. Strasburg has a pull-push operation, where on the outbound trip the engine pulls the train in reverse and on the return move it leads the train, after running around it in a siding at Paradise, PA.
According to Wikipedia: The Strasburg Rail Road (reporting mark SRC) is a heritage railroad and the oldest continuously operating standard-gauge railroad in the western hemisphere, as well as the oldest public utility in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Chartered in 1832, the Strasburg Rail Road Company is today a heritage railroad offering excursion trains hauled by steam locomotives on 4.02 mi of track in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, as well as providing contract railroad mechanical services, and freight service to area shippers. The railroad’s headquarters are outside Strasburg, Pennsylvania.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24 @12mm, f/4.5, 1/500, ISO 200.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared photo, we catch East Broad Tops M1 motorcar sitting in the engine house at Rockhill, Pennsylvania, on October 6th, 2024.
According to their website: Built in 1927, the M-1 is the only original narrow-gauge gasoline electric motorcar still in existence in the United States. Constructed in the EBT’s very own shop complex, this one-of-a-kind piece of railroad history has been painstakingly restored and still runs using many of its original parts and components over the same railroad it was built to serve over 96 years ago.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24 @17mm, f/4.5, 1/8, ISO 800.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared Photo, we find The Valley Railroad Company #40 steaming along the Pratt and Post Coves Preserve as a kayaker watches from the water at Deep River, Connecticut on October 9th, 2024, as part of a two-day photo charter conducted by Dak Dillion Photography.
According to Wikipedia: The Valley Railroad, operating under the name Essex Steam Train and Riverboat, is a heritage railroad based in Connecticut on tracks of the Connecticut Valley Railroad, which was founded in 1868. The company began operations in 1971 between Deep River and Essex and has since reopened additional parts of the former Connecticut Valley Railroad line. It operates the Essex Steam Train and the Essex Clipper Dinner Train.
Valley Railroad #40 is an ALCO 2-8-0 that was built in 1923. It was built as Portland, Astoria and Pacific No. 101, but never used there; transferred to Minarets and Western Railroad in 1921, later to Southern Pacific, then to the Aberdeen and Rockfish Railroad. Purchased by the Valley Railroad in 1977.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24 @ 16mm, f/5, 1/500, ISO 400.
This week’s Saturday Infrared photo is of Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad steam locomotive 2102 as it pulls through the Nesquehoning Tunnel at Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania on October 5th, 2024, during its first day of the year of pulling Fall Foliage Excursions.
According to their website: The Reading Company T-1 class #2102 was built in the Reading’s own locomotive shops in 1945. With drivers of 70” diameter, it weighs 404 tons, and its tender holds up to 26 tons of coal, and up to 19,000 gallons of water. After the Reading Steam era was over, the Reading Company used 2102 for the Reading Rambles on several different excursions. The 2102 has had many different owners since it was retired by the Reading Railroad. It is one of only four to survive. The other remaining locomotives are the 2100, 2101, and 2124.
The Blue Mountain and Reading Railroad purchased the 2102 in 1987, and it ran on the Temple to South Hamburg line into the early 1990’s. Once the Blue Mountain and Reading Railroad became the Reading Blue Mountain & Northern, the 2102 ran over Reading & Northern’s rails for a short time before it was removed from service in the early 1990’s.
In 2022, steam locomotive 2102 reentered service on the Reading & Northern. The locomotive has been used actively to pull both passenger excursions and revenue freight trains.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24mm @24mm, f/4.5, 1/500, ISO 800.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared photo, we catch a loaded BNSF freight as it starts the climb up the grade in the Cajon Pass from Cajon, California on September 24th, 2024.
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). 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 (SR 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 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.
The California Southern Railroad, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, was the first railroad through Cajon Pass. The line through the pass was built in the early 1880s to connect the present-day cities of Barstow and San Diego. Today the Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway (the successor to the Santa Fe) use the pass to reach Los Angeles and San Bernardino as part of the Southern Transcon. Due to the many trains, scenery and easy access, it is a popular location for railfans, and many photographs of trains on Cajon Pass appear in books and magazines.
The Union Pacific Railroad owns one track through the pass, on the previous Southern Pacific Railroad Palmdale cutoff, opened in 1967. The BNSF Railway owns two tracks and began to operate a third main track in the summer of 2008. The railroads share track rights through the pass ever since the Union Pacific gained track rights on the Santa Fe portion negotiated under the original Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 24-70 @28mm, f/4.5, 1/500, ISO 200.
September 18th, 2024, In this Saturday’s Infrared photo I caught BNSF 6965 leading an Northbound intermodal train past the rising moon out of Tehachapi, California.
Tech Info: Fuji XT1 converted to Infrared, RAW, Nikon 24-70, @39mm, f/4, 1/500, ISO 200.
In this Saturday’s Infrared photo I caught BNSF 7904, 7853 and 2167 leading an eastbound train through the famous Tehachapi Loop on the Union Pacific Mojave Subdivision at Keene, California, on September 18th, 2024.
According to Wikipedia: The Tehachapi Loop is a 3,779-foot-long (0.72 mi; 1.15 km) spiral, or helix, on the Union Pacific Railroad Mojave Subdivision through Tehachapi Pass, of the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, south-central California. The line connects Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley to Mojave in the Mojave Desert.
Rising at a steady two-percent grade, the track gains 77 feet (23 m) in elevation and makes a 1,210-foot-diameter (370 m) circle. Any train that is more than 3,800 feet (1,200 m) long—about 56 boxcars—passes over itself going around the loop. At the bottom of the loop, the track passes through Tunnel 9, the ninth tunnel built as the railroad was extended from Bakersfield.
The line averages about 36 freight trains each day. Passenger trains such as Amtrak’s San Joaquin are banned from the loop, although the Coast Starlight can use it as a detour. Its frequent trains and scenic setting make the Tehachapi Loop popular with railfans. In 1998, it was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. It is also designated as California Historical Landmark #508.
One of the engineering feats of its day, the Loop was built by Southern Pacific Railroad to ease the grade over Tehachapi Pass. Construction began in 1874, and the line opened in 1876.
Tech Info: Fuji XT1 converted to Infrared, RAW, Nikon 24-70, @24mm, f/4, 1/1000, ISO 100.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared photo, we catch Nickel Plate Road 358 as it brings up the rear of the Victory Train being pulled by Nickel Plate Road steam engine 765 as they head toward Angola, Indiana on August 31st, 2024. I love how the steam from 765 makes it look like it’s coming from 358, which will be used to pull the passenger train back to Pleasant Lake, IN on their next run.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 70-300 @210mm, f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 210.
This week’s Saturday Infrared photo is of Nickel Plate Steam locomotive 765 pulls the Victory Train as it heads through the countryside on the way to Angola, Indiana as part of Rolling Victory which was a three-day living history event celebrating American military, railroad, and home front history featuring vintage train rides, World War II reenactors, battles, a big band orchestra, and an immersive and educational experience for all ages in Pleasant Lake, Indiana.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 70-300mm @240mm, f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 200.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared Photo, we find Norfolk Southern 1214 leading a westbound Triple Crown train NS 251 as it heads through downtown Lafayette, Indiana, on the NS Lafayette District on August 30th, 2024. This train and its counterpart NS 252 have replaced the RoadRailer trains that used to run through here.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 70-300 @ 225mm, f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 200.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared Photo, Norfolk Southern 4723 heads up a westbound freight as it sits in the yard at Frankfort, Indiana on August 30th, 2024, as the sun begins to rise in the east as it waits for a crew to take it west on the NS Frankfort Branch.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24 @ 10mm, f/4, 1/4000, ISO 200.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared Photo, I caught Steam locomotive Nickel Plate 765 as they prepared to pull up to the station in Pleasant Lake, Indiana before heading to Angola, Indiana for their first load of passengers during Indiana Rail Experience’s Rolling Victory Weekend.
According to their website: Rolling Victory was a three-day living history event celebrating American military, railroad, and home front history featuring vintage train rides, World War II reenactors, battles, a big band orchestra, and an immersive and educational experience for all ages in Pleasant Lake, Indiana.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24 @ 24mm, f/4.5, 1/30, ISO 200.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared Photo, caught Steam locomotive Nickel Plate 765 as they prepare to pull up to the station in Pleasant Lake, Indiana before heading to Angola, Indiana for their first load of passengers during Indiana Rail Experience’s Rolling Victory Weekend.
According to their website: Rolling Victory was a three-day living history event celebrating American military, railroad, and home front history featuring vintage train rides, World War II reenactors, battles, a big band orchestra, and an immersive and educational experience for all ages in Pleasant Lake, Indiana.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-24 @ 10mm, f/4, 1/30, ISO 200.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared photo I caught these two Norfolk Southern freight trains meeting at the WABIC Diamond in Decatur, Illinois on August 24th, 2024,on the NS Lafayette District.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Nikon 10-25 @15mm, f/4, 1/800, ISO 200.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared photo, we catch L391 as it heads south through the north end of Kelly, Kentucky, on August 13th, 2024, on the CSX Henderson Subdivision.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Irex 11mm, f/4, 1/500, ISO 200.
In this week’s Saturday Infrared photo, we catch L391 as it heads south through the S curve at Nortonville, Kentucky, on August 13th, 2024, on the CSX Henderson Subdivision.
Tech Info: Fuji XT-1, RAW, Converted to 720nm B&W IR, Irex 11mm, f/4, 1/50, ISO 200.