Today's Train of Thought- Merry Christmas!, Dec 25th 2014

With the world seeming as though it's spiraling out of control with each passing day, it certainly is nice to be able to unwind among friends and loved ones around the Holidays where our concerns may be no more grave than getting black olives on the wrong half of the pizza you ordered for everyone or questioning whether or not a gift card could be considered tacky and impersonal.

This Christmas-card worthy scene that you see here takes place in Caledonia County, Vermont, which is a little ways away from Washington County. Yet despite not going through Washington County [which is where Vermont's capital of Montpelier is located- NANESB!], this line is named after Washington County.

Once upon a time, the Washington County Railroad served the quarries and Bombardier plant around Montpelier, VT. In the 1990s, the railway suffered a catastrophic enginehouse fire, destroying their only two locomotives. After operating under a few different interim operators, the Vermont Railway ended up acquiring the WACR in 1999. By 2003, the Iron Road Railways- which had acquired the Bangor & Aroostook, the former Canadian Pacific mainline between Brownville Jct, ME and St Jean Quebec and the former B&M line from Newport, VT to White River Jct- filed for bankruptcy. Most of the original Bangor & Aroostook as well as the newer Canadian-Atlantic railway linking northern Maine to Montreal was reorganized under the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic [which was in turn re-established as the Central Maine & Quebec after the disastrous 2013 Lac Megantic train wreck and explosion bankrupted the MM&A- NANESB!]. However, the Newport to White River Jct line was acquired by the state of Vermont and almost immediately subcontracted to the Vermont Railway [similar to what the Green Mountain state did in response to the Rutland Railroad's 1963 bankruptcy- NANESB!]. The line was operated under the Washington County- or WACR- banner with the original Washington County trackage around Montpelier being referred to as the Granite District and the 100+ mile line threading its way through northeastern Vermont being referred to as the Connecticut River Division.

As you can probably gather from this image, the WACR is in fact affiliated with the Vermont Railway system. In this winter vignette shown above, the crew of this Washington County Railroad plow train appears to have not that much in the way of accumulated snowfall to worry about. NERail photos contributor Richard Deuso caught Vermont Railway GP40-2 #308 leading a Clarendon & Pittsford GP38 through Lyndonville, VT on January 3rd, 2013 with a VTR snowplow on point. Interestingly, the 308 didn't venture too far from its original haunt, since it started out life as Boston & Maine #303 in 1977.

It doesn't look like there's a lot of snow to clear on this bright winter day, so it's possible it's en route to being repositioned elsewhere for future use.

Today's Train Of Thought- Hitting Below the Railbelt, March 30, 2014

Aside from the colloquialism "the wrong side of the tracks", railroads usually don't quite factor into geographic descriptions of a certain area despite many examples of railroads conquering towering mountains, raging rivers and remote wilderness. The Alaska Railroad, which has had to deal with all three plus notoriously brutal winters in it's 100 year history, is proving to be the exception.

While entire European countries can fit into the vast and uninhabited tracts of Alaskan wilderness, the two larger cities of Anchorage and Fairbanks- along with the communities in between are referred to as part of Alaska's Railbelt. The moniker 'railbelt' basically means that the community is accessible by the Alaska Railroad and two of the state's main highways, although even in the more densely populated part of Alaska, this doesn't mean there's a lot of people nearby. Case in point, around Denali National Park, there's nearly 60 miles of track through wilderness that is inaccessible by highway, making the Alaska Railroad one of the last rail lines in North America to operate 'flag stop' passenger service where passengers can flag down a passing train to get on board.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Chad Paulhamus caught Alaska Railroad GP40-2 #3004 heading southbound through Chugiak, AK with a combined work train and mixed freight on March 10, 2012. The 1975-built GP40-2 was purchased new by the Alaska Railroad in the mid-1970s and sent to Illinois in 2008 to be overhauled by National Railway Equipment and given a new paint job. The #3004 is one of fifteen GP40-2s bought new by Alaska and can be seen assigned to anything from yard switcher to the ARR's top of the line Denali Star summertime passenger train.

Today's Train of Thought- Winter Mix, December 17, 2013

Today's Train of Thought takes us to Michigan's Upper Peninsula for weather conditions best described as a 'winter mix' which is mostly snow, sleet and freezing rain all taking place at temperatures below freezing.

Here, railpicture.net contributor John Ryan caught Illinois Central GP40-2 #3110 leading a southbound Canadian National merchandise freight over the Cedar River at Powers, MI on December 28th, 2008. The white stuff is clinging not only to the tree branches, telephone poles and truss bridge, but also the nose of the #3110 and the broom kept on the front of the unit. In the process, the white stuff is also obscuring the 'death star' Illinois Central logo on the nose- a moniker applied to the logo that came with the IC's final paint scheme prior to the 1998 takeover of IC by Canadian National.

Today's Train of Thought- Having a Ballast, September 15th, 2013

Today's Train of Thought takes us to the Final Frontier where the days are longer and the conditions are much harsher than the rest of the country.

Summer doesn't last very long up in Alaska, and the state's largest railroad needs to make the most of the warm weather to get things done. It's during this time of year that the railroad often hires seasonal workers such as ticket clerks, conductors, mechanics, on-board guides, engineers, carmen and track workers. Not surprisingly, this is also the busiest time of year on the ARR. In addition to freight to and from the Lower 48, the ARR also hauls a number of passenger trains carrying cruise ship passengers disembarking in Anchorage to Seward, Denali National Park or Fairbanks.

The warm weather months are also ideal for carrying out heavy maintenance on the ARR right of way since the ballast, gravel and rip rap needed for such projects can be excavated fairly easily. Here, railpictures.net contributor Frank Keller caught Alaska Railroad GP40-2 #3102 snaking its way past Turnigan Arm between Fairbanks and Portage, AK with a ballast train in tow in June 2009. The ballast trains are reportedly one of the few trains on the ARR that still regularly draws a caboose. Riding a few cars ahead of the caboose [look for the little dots with safety vests on- NANESB!] are some crew members who will likely get off a few miles up the line when the train stops to dump some of the ballast.

Today's Train of Thought- Yankee Clipper, April 1, 2013

One might be surprised to learn that despite New York City's status as the largest city in the United States, the five boroughs are served by exactly one class one freight carrier. Norfolk Southern stops at the western shore of the Hudson River in New Jersey, regional Providence & Worcester reaches New York City from Connecticut via trackage rights over the Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, Anacostia Pacific's New York & Atlantic handles freight over the Long Island Railroad and New York New Jersey Rail operates a carfloat between Jersey City, NJ and Brooklyn.

That leaves just the CSX and in turn, the CSX has to deal with something called the Selkirk Hurdle. Since freight trains aren't allowed through the Northeast Corridor tunnel linking Manhattan and northern New Jersey, the nearest crossing of the Hudson River that freight trains can use is nearly 150 miles to the north at Selkirk, NY. That's been the case since 1974, when the former New Haven Railroad bridge over the Hudson River was taken out of service on May 8th, 1974 after a fire damaged the bridge's decking and girders on the eastern approach [the bridge was turned into a state park in 2009].

One example of this problem can be demonstrated when the City of New York reached a 30-year agreement with Waste Management [NYSE- WM] in 2009. The trash is hauled out of Brooklyn by train with a final destination in Virginia- some 300 miles away- has to move north over the Metro North commuter line between New York City and Poughkeepsie, continuing north through Hudson and linking up with the Selkirk-Boston, MA former Boston & Albany mainline before heading south along the west side of the Hudson into northern New Jersey before continuing south- a distance of more than 250 miles to cover 15 miles as the crow flies before continuing to Virgina. Moreover, because of the busy commuter operations on Metro North, most of the freight operations are limited to nighttime.

With that in mind, CSX operations in the Big Apple remain a fairly elusive and seldom photographed affair. But Railfan & Railroad contributor Michael Foley knows his subjects well and has been able to document CSX operations in their Big Apple hub- the Bronx's Oak Point yard.

On Opening Day, Today's Train of Thought offers us a glimpse of the ballpark where the Red Sox and Yankees will renew their rivalry and kick off their respective 2013 seasons. Here, Foley has photographed a mixed bag of second generation EMDs in charge of CSX freight B949-07, heading south past Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on February 7th, 2009. The train was sidelined with mechanical difficulties in the overnight hours, resulting in a fairly rare daylight run to Oak Point. Part of the original Yankee Stadium, which had seen its final ballgame some five months earlier, can be seen off to the righthand side.

For more images of CSX in and around the Big Apple, Foley has a photo gallery of this seldom-seen aspect of CSX operations on display on the Railfan & Railroad website as well as his own online photo gallery, Yonkers Rails.

Today's Train of Thought- As the World Minturns, October 14

Today's train of thought takes us to the Rocky Mountains and the tiny burgh of Minturn, situated along the Rio Grande's Tennessee Pass line.

Constructed as a narrow gauge line to tap Colorado's mineral rich interior from Pueblo, the Tennessee pass line was jointly constructed by the Colorado Midland and Denver, Rio Granfe & Western in 1890 to replace a DRG&W narrow-gauge line that had been completed in 1881. Although once the opening of the Moffat tunnel and Dotsero cutoff in the late 1920s and early 1930s relegated the Tennessee Pass line to a secondary route, the line regained importance with the Rio Grande's 1988 merger with the Southern Pacific. The line was used to bypass the increasingly congested Denver & Salt Lake route as well as the Moffat tunnel bottleneck, giving freight trains a fairly straight shot over the former Missouri Pacific line between Kansas City and Pueblo, Co, over Tennessee Pass before rejoining with the Denver & Salt Lake route and then the Southern Pacific line between Salt Lake City and Sacramento via Donner Pass.

However, this revival lasted less than a decade. With Union Pacific's 1996 takeover of the Combined SP/DRG&W system, the UPRR decided that the Tennessee Pass line was redundant and embargoed it within a year. To this day, the line remains intact, but aside from the frequent ballast train or hi-rail inspection, the line hasn't seen a through train since 1997. Although re-opening the line would alleviate some of the congestion along the Moffat Tunnel and Denver & Salt Lake line to the north, part of the problem is that portions of the former Missouri Pacific line between Pueblo and Kansas City have been abandoned- any UPRR trains using the line would have to traverse the busy Joint Line between Denver and Pueblo.

Here, in happier times, railpitures.net contributor Mark Possin caught an Eastbound train powered by a quintet of SP/Rio Grande GP40-2s passing through Minturn with Rio Grande #3132 on the head end in September 1994. This stretch of the Tennessee Pass line is seen hugging the banks of the Arkansas River as the hard-working EMDs are lugging loads of steel coil behind them- most likely from the now defunct Geneva Steel Works near Provo, UT.

Within three years of this photo, the line would be embargoed by Union Pacific.

Today's Train of Thought- Almond Joy, April 9th 2012

Today's Train of Thought takes us to California- or what some have dubbed the 'Land of the Nuts', although that doesn't necessarily refer to the agricultural output.

Although agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley has taken a hit in recent years due to drought and a court order upholding the US Fish & Wildlife Service restricting deliveries of water from Northern California to protect the delta smelt, the past 30 years have seen California's almond crop more than quadruple. According to the California Almond Board, the almond is the largest tree nut crop in the Golden state and accounts for the top agricultural export for California and the leading US specialty crop export.

Here, the almond trees along the BNSF line in Escalon, CA are in bloom as railpictures.net contributor Jamie Miller snapped GP40-2 #3025 leading a Modesto to Stockton transfer job past an almond orchard on February 27, 2011.

Today's Train of Thought- The Great Train Raid, Feb 24th 2012

Today's train of thought brings us back to the historically significant West Virginia burgh of Harper's Ferry. Among other occurances, the town is perhaps best known for abolitionist John Brown's raid on the US Army's strategically pivotal armory two years before the Civil War.

The town itself changed hands between the Union and Confederacy a number of times due to the importance of both the arsenal and the Baltimore & Ohio line through town that linked Washington D.C. and Baltimore with Pittsburgh, which was already becoming a key industrial center. The Union, obviously, wanted to move materiel and troops along the Mason-Dixon line while the South wanted to sabotage and cut off those supply lines as often as possible.

While the B&O line through town would eventually continue all the way west to Chicago, another line interstected at the Potomac River bridge seperating West Virginia from Maryland and headed south to Winchester, VA. This line was built as the Winchester & Potomac in the late 1830s. During the Civil War, the Winchester & Potomac fell under Confederate control and was used to ferry rebel troops and supplies to try and retake Harper's Ferry and stage raids on the B&O line. In 1861, Confederate Col Stonewall Jackson used the W&PRR to stage the Great Train Raid, the largest seizure of intact equipment and rolling stock by the Confederacy during the war. The captured equipment was moved by Confederate forces to Winchester, VA over the Winchester & Potomac.

After the Civil War, the line changed owners a number of times before falling into the B&O fold. Today, the former Winchester & Potomac is now part of the CSX's Shenedoah subdivision linking Harper's Ferry and the CSX Cumberland Subdivision with Norfolk Southern's former Southern line at Strasburg.

While not as active as the Cumberland/Sand Patch line linking Baltimore and the Capital region with Pittsbugh and points west, the Shenedoah subdivision still sees some local traffic. Here, railpictures.net contributor trainmasterrob catches CSX GP40-2 #6295 trundling across the wooden trestle that traverses the heart of historic Harper's Ferry with CSX train Q751. The train, which also goes by the name 'Rock Runner' is the first train across the trestle since the snow has fallen on the final day of 2009 and is passing under the shadow of the steeple of St Peter's Catholic Church on the hill.

Today's Train of Thought- Fade to White, January 12, 2012

Perhaps better known for the infamous Great Flood of 1889, Today's Train of Thought takes us to Johnstown, PA.

Since the 1999 breakup of Conrail, Johnstown has primarily been a Norfolk Southern town, with dozens of trains storming through town in a daily basis on the former Pennsylvania Railroad mainline linking Pittsburgh with Harrisburgh via Johnstown, Horseshoe Curve and Altoona. CSX reached the Western Pennsylvania city long before the breakup of Conrail, via their former Baltimore & Ohio S&C (Somerset and Cambria) Subdivision.

Compared to the former Pennsy line through town, the S&C line has the feel of a much more sedate shortline or regional railway. The old Somerset & Cambria lines links up with CSX's former B&O line over Sand Patch linking Pittsburgh with Baltimore at Connellsville, PA.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Scooter Hovanec catches CSX GP40-2 #6142 leading local freight D703 towards Connellsville on a snowy January 7, 2011 after picking up empties from the Conemaugh and Black Lick Railroad, Johnstown Wire Technologies and Pepsi.

Today's Train of Though- Fleeting Blaze of Autumn in the Last Frontier, November 29th 2011

Today's Train of Thought takes us to the state of Alaska, where according to railpictures.net contributor David Blaze, the peak fall foliage season lasts all of a day or two.

However, those rather severe limitations on autumnal photography in the Last Frontier didn't prevent him from heading trackside.

With clouds scraping the peaks of the Chugach Range in the background and flanked by brilliant golden aspen trees, Alaska Railroad GP40-2s #3001 and #3011 head north past the lengthy siding at Indian, AK with a 27 car train picked up from the barge at Whittier. The cars are from Canadian National's 'Aqua Train' barge terminal in Prince Rupert, BC and are enroute to the ARR yard in Anchorage.

As a bonus, the lead unit- ARR #3001- is still sporting it's as-delivered 1970s era paint scheme while the trailing #3011 is showing off the latest paint scheme. Apparently since that ARR has no painting facilities of its own, locomotives can only be repainted while being sent to the lower 48 for rebuilding, overhaul or other heavy maintenance.

Today's Train of Thought, September 16 2010- Hope and Change of Scenery

Since it's 1999 takeover of shortline operator RailTex, Rail America hasn't been very shy about mixing and matching motive power between several of their properties. Often, this leads to curious sights like Florida East Coast power on the New England Central in Western Massachusetts and Vermont or Kyle railroad power imported from Kansas on Central California's San Joaquin Valley Railroad.

In 2002, Rail America took over the then-independent Kiamichi Railroad, which had operated some 230 miles of former St Louis-San Francisco (Frisco) track between Hope, AR and Madill, OK, with a north-south branchline running between Paris, TX and Antlers, OK meeting with the main east-west route at Hugo, OK. In 1987, the Burlington Northern decided the trackage through southwestern Arkansas, Northeastern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma that they obtained in their acquisition of the Frisco was redundant and the Kiamichi Railroad was born.

About a decade prior, the Indiana & Ohio Railway got off to its modest start as tourist train and shortline freight hauler in Western Ohio. In 1991, after having already acquired some former Penn Central branches, the ambitious shortline expanded considerably when it acquired the former Detroit, Toledo and Ironton line between Washington Courthouse, OH and suburban Detroit. By the time Rail America acquired the I&O in 2000, it was operating nearly 570 miles of track between Cincinnati and Detroit as well as former Conrail and CSX branches in Ohio and southern Indiana.

Since the acquisition by Rail America, some of the I&O units have made their way as far west as Texas, while the I&O continued borrowing rent-a-wrecks and some SD70Ms from the New York, Susquehanna & Western to augment their own fleet. As for the Kiamichi, there hardly any locomotives from their 1987 start-up remaining on the property, simply engines from other Rail America properties re-lettered for Kiamichi.

On a sunny April 2010 morning, railpictures.net contributor Sid Vaught caught Indiana & Ohio GP40 #4050 and a sibling I&O GP40-2 still in their catchy pre Rail America paint scheme crossing Peacock Drive in Ashdown, AR on their way east to the Union Pacific interchange at Hope. The trailing unit is the only one lettered for the 'hometown' Kiamichi this day.

Today's Train of Thought- Breathtaking Scenery in the Big Dipper State; July 8th, 2010

OK....I'm about a day late with this but on July 7th 1958, the Alaska Statehood Act was passed into law- even though statehood wasn't made official until January 3rd of the following year.

(History Channel)

So besides giving the rest of the USA oil, timber, gold, King Crabs, Native Corporations that subcontract no-bid, set-aside contracts, Sarah Palin, yodeller/songwriter Jewel Kilcher and tomboyish Lisa Kelly, Alaska is home to a one of a kind railroad- which would be none other than the Alaska Railroad. To start off with, the Alaska Railroad has no land connections with other railroads. While it does a robust business hauling sightseers between Anchorage, Fairbanks and Denali National Park, freight cars have to be brought in by barge from the Canadian National at Prince Rupert, BC or BNSF at Seattle, WA. They also have to be retrieved or put on the barge not by the locomotive, but a long string of empty flatcars coupled together that are pushed (or pulled) by the locomotives so they won't redistribute the weight on the barge suddenly or unevenly.

The extreme temperatures and remoteness of the state present its own set of unique challenges to the 470 mile railroad that connect the ports of Seward and Whittier with Anchorage and Fairbanks. In April 2009, a massive rockslide cut off the highway into the town of Whittier AK while the Alaska Railroad line was undamaged. With so many large boulders to clear, it took the Alaska DOT several weeks to clear the highway. In the meantime, the Alaska Railroad offered a free passenger service to shuttle the stranded residents to and from the town. There was also the problem of garbage accumulating in Whittier while they were waiting for the highway to re-open, since the company responsible for doing that was located on the other side of the rockslide. The ARR was able to help out by loading a few garbage trucks onto flatcars before offloading them in Whittier, have the garbage men make the rounds after bringing them in seperately by hi-rail vehicle and then load the garbage trucks back on the flatcars and return to Anchorage.

And while the ARR is fairly small and remote, they have managed to update their motive power, including new EMD SD70MACS and a Colorado Railcar self-propelled DMU. While they purged their roster of the GP49s, MP15DCs and vintage self-propelled Buddliners, they still reatain a number of older EMD GP40-2 and GP38-2s.

A good deal of the ARR's online traffic is aggregates such as gravel and ballast. Much of this is destined for in-state projects and even the Alaska Railroad's right-of-way. Railpictures.net contributor mtgteam2 caught Alaska Railroad GP40-2 #3012 in charge of a work train hauling just such a commodity in some old ARR hopper cars crossing Twenty Mile River at Portage, AK on June 2, 2009. The aforementioned railpictures.net contributor points out that it's not unusual for the ARR to run three work trains a day in the summer months, since it's important to get the major projects finished in the warmer weather.

All that gravel could come in handy when the ARR is constructing it's proposed 80-mile extension from Fairbanks to Delta Jct, AK and the US Army's Fort Greeley, which was given the go-ahead by a federal panel in January of this year.

Today's Train of Thought- June 12th, 2010; Panhandle Anything that Comes Our Way

It may not look it, but today's train of thought is something of a throwback to the Wild West.

The Denver Rio Grande & Western's a railroad with an interesting history. Originally contructed in the 1870s with the intention of linking Denver with ports on Mexico's Pacific coast and points south. Due to the quicker contruction time and lower costs, founders Gen. William Jackson Palmer and William Bell opted to use narrow gauge.

They ran into fierce resistance from the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe when they tried constructing their line through New Mexico's Raton Pass (even to the point where the Santa Fe reportedly hired gunfighters Bat Masterson and Doc Holliday as protection in what was later known as the Railroad Wars). Instead of continuing to fight the better-funded and better-armed Santa Fe, the Rio Grande decided it would use its narrow gauge line to exploit Colorado's abundant natural resources via a line through Colorado's Royal Gorge.

This also sparked confrontation from Santa Fe's hired guns, however, the Fourth Judicial Circut Court would rule in favor of the Rio Grande and Masterson and his men would be forced to retreat to Pueblo, CO in June 1879.

Rio Grande would go on to build and operate a fairly extensive network of narrow-gauge lines throughout Colorado- some of them operating (with steam power) into the early 1980s. However, it's main line between Denver and Salt Lake City was converted to standard gauge in 1889. The line through the Royal Gorge and La Veta Pass in Southern Colorado were also converted into standard gauge.

The Rio Grande was also a holdout in another sense. During the streamliner era. Rio Grande's marquee passenger train was the Chicago-San Francisco California Zephyr, which was jointly operated with the Western Pacific and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. In 1971, the Rio Grande initially opted out of Amtrak and operated a truncated version of the train called the 'Rio Grande Zephyr' which operated between Denver and Salt Lake City. This lasted until the spring of 1983, when a massive landslide at Thistle, UT blocked the Spanish Fork River and submerged the town along with Rio Grande's line. When the line re-opened, Rio Grande turned control of passenger operations over to Amtrak. But that did not mean that the Rio Grande would be out of the passenger business altogether, since they would continue to operate the Denver-Winter Park, CO Ski Train through 1988, when billionaire Philip Anschultz owner merged the Rio Grande with the Southern Pacific.

The Southern Pacific, in turn, was acquired by the Union Pacific in 1996- which brings us back (in a roundabout manner) to today's Train of Thought. From the late 1980s up until Union Pacific's acquisition of the 'Espee', Southern Pacific was perpetually short on motive power and hardly had the opportunity clean the locomotives in its fleet, let alone repaint them. The same held true for the first few years of Union Pacific's operations as well (the UP had almost simultaneously acquired the Chicago & North Western that same year) but by the early 2000s, they had ordered newer locomotives and much of which wasn't repainted from Southern Pacific, Rio Grande or Chicago & Northwestern colors was simply retired or sold off to reigonal or shortline railroads.

That's not to say that all of them were immdiately repainted or left the property, as railpictures.net contributor Kevin Andrusia has shown with this photo. Here, aside from the yellow patch along the cab, he caught former Rio Grande GP40-2 #1445 leading all-yellow former SP GP40-2 #1434 over a small trestle on Union Pacific's Plummer branch at Worley, ID. The train is enroute to excahnge cars with the St. Marie's River Railroad, a shortline in Idaho's panhandle that operates over 91 miles of former Milwaukee Road Pacific Extension trackage to serve a Potlatch Corporation lumber mill. Mr Andrusia thoughtfully identifies the orange and black EMD as former Rio Grande #3129

The date? April 23, 2010. Aside from the renumbering, very little has changed with the 3129 1434 over the last fourteen years.

Today's Train of Thought- Green Mountains Turn To White; Febuary 10, 2010

Today's Train of thought brings us to a craggy rock cut in Cavendish, VT not even a year ago as Green Mountain Railway GP40-2 #304 struggles up the grade between Bellows Falls and Rutland with train 264 bringing cars picked up from New England Central and Pan Am Railways. Railpictures.net contributor Andrew Blaszczyk braved the elements on a cool Febuary 2009 day to make this quinessential New England Winter railroading scene possible.

Today's Train of Thought- Hot & Cold, Feb 4th 2010

Well....that little rodent Punxatawney Phil saw his shadow earlier this week and ran off and cowered like the scared little girl we all know him to be. As you all know, the end result of that highly scientific process means most of the nations is in for six more weeks of winter.

That's ample opportunity for the intrepid photographer to venture out into the winter lansdcape like railpictures.net contributor trainmasterrob did to catch scenes just like this one of CSX GP40-2 #6459 making its way through the freshly fallen powder on the Shenandoah subdivision at Wadesville, VA in January 2004.

Of course, if that idyllic yet snowy scene left you wistfully thinking of someplace warmer- such as Miami or Las Vegas, then here's some imagery of Miss Virginia, Caressa Cameron, on the runway at the Miss America pageant in Las Vegas this weekend. I'm actually a little sorry that I missed the pageant- reliable sources have informed me that not only did I miss Rush Limbaugh (one of the judges) bust a move to Lady Gaga, but apparently Miss Cameron is a talented musician in her own right.

(Getty images)

While not as kick-ass as Katrina Hodge [then again, who is?] we here at Not Another New England Sports Blog! would like to extend our most sincere congratulations to Ms. Cameron.

Today's Train of Thought- Whistling Past the Graveyard; October 30, 2009

Right before Halloween, I thought today's train of thought might be appropriate. However, instead of a creepy, decrepit-looking graveyard in the middle of the night, railpictures.net contributor Nikos Kavoori snapped this image of a CSX local with GP40-2 #6144 as the sole power trundling past the sunny, well-maintained cemetary in Union City, GA on September 30th, 2009.

Today's Train of Thought: Green Mountain Boys- October 29

I'm sure I've said this before, but there's nothing quite like fall in New England. Yet despite the explosion of colors in the forests and hills from northern Maine to southwestern Connecticut and beyond, business carries on as usual. In this case, railpictures.net contributor John Ryan caught the Green Mountain Railroad's Rutland-Bellows Falls turn hustling eastbound over the trestle at Cuttingsville, VT on October 14th, 2009 with GP40-2 #302 on the point. Bracketed by the green and yellow GP40-2s (and looking a tad out of place) is an ex-BNSF B23-7 still in full Santa Fe paint. In 1997, the Vermont Railway acquired a controlling interest in the GMRC.

Today's Train of Thought- Fall Colors in New England; October 13, 2009.

Today's train of thought is a timely snapshot of a shortline hard at work under the changing colors of the fall foliage in the Northeast. Here, railpictures.net contributor John Sesonske snapped this photo of Vermont Railway GP40-2 #307 leading VTR GP18 #801 and VTR GP40-2LW #311 heading south across the Walloomsac River trestle in North Hoosick, NY with a unit limestone slurry train. The train has just crossed the NY/Vermont state line on the former Rutland Railroad 'Corkscrew Line', destined for the Pan-Am Railroad (formerly Guilford/Boston & Maine Railroad) interchange a few short miles away.

Correction- it's just been brought to my attention that this technically isn't an autumnal, pastoral New England scene, since the train- despite having originated in New England and it's final destination being in New England and hauled by a New England shortline- is photographed in northern Rensselaer County, NY....less than 2 miles from the Vermont state line.