Today's Train of Thought- Dragon by the Tail, July 19, 2012

Today's train of thought takes us to the coastal waters of Maine. Although better known for operating passenger excursions between Brunswick and Rockland, ME the former Maine Central line also hauls cement, steel, sand and perlite. One of the biggest customers for the Maine Eastern has been the Dragon Cement terminal at Thomaston, ME. Dragon holds the distinction of being New England's only cement manufacturer.

Maine Eastern's parent company is the New Jersey-based Morristown & Erie, the company also operates lines in northern New Jersey as well as the Stourbridge Line in the far northeastern corner of Pennsylvania. Curiously, although the M&E has demonstrated a preference for operating with more venerable ALCo diesels, the Maine Eastern is a primarily EMD operation.

Most of the Maine Eastern's motive power can trace their roots to Amtrak. In addition to a pair of newer former Amtrak F40PHs, the MERR also has a pair of streamlined former New Haven FL9's that saw nearly 30 years of service on Amtrak. The FL9s and F40s typically handle the excusrions that ramble along the coast on the MERR while freight duties are split between a former Canadian National MLW M420 and a high hood GP9. Although originally built for the Union Pacific, Maine Eastern #724 found its way to Amtrak as a Maintainence of Way unit, often powering work trains along the Northeast Corridor.

Amtrak sold off the #764 to the Morristown & Erie sometime in 2005, where she was painted into a snazzy new green and white color scheme in New Jersey before being shipped off to Maine.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Thomas Mik caught the #724 trundling along the coast through Wiscasset, ME with cement cars for Dragon Cement near the eastern end of the line at Thomaston, ME. The eastbound train was photographed along the shores in August 2007.

The former Amtrak units may be seeing more of their bretheren soon enough. Trains from Amtrak's Downeaster service could be operating from Portland to the eastern end of the MERR at Brunswick by this fall.

Today's Train of Thought- Electric Orange: July 29, 2011

Today's train of thought brings us to the side of the street at a quiet residential neighborhood in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

Genesee and Wyoming's Portland & Western features a cluster of secondary and branch lines of Southern Pacific, Spokane Portland & Seattle, Northern Pacific and Oregon Electric Railway lineage that were systematically acquired in Western Oregon via lease or purchase throughout the 1990s.

The Oregon Electric started out life a little over a century ago as an interurban running between Portland and Salem, OR. Not even three years after it began operations, the OER was purchased by the Spokane, Portland & Seattle and extended further south to Eugene, OR to compete with the parallel Southern Pacific line. Like many of the interurbans that sprouted up throughout the country in the early part of the 20th century, they went into decline shortly after WWII. Although most of the electric equipment was retired, the SP&S continued freight and passenger operations on the line until rail travel was eclipsed by the advent of commercial flights and the opening of interstate 5 parallel to both the Southern Pacific and Oregon Electric lines.

Along with the Northern Pacific, Great Northern and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the SP&S was merged into the Burlington Northern in 1970. About 25 years later- just before the merger with Santa Fe formed BNSF- the Burlington Northern divested itself of the remaining OER line between the Portland area on south to Eugene- The new operator would be G&W's Portland & Western Railroad.

Even though entire interurban and trolley systems were abandoned, torn up and dismantled throughout the country, a surprising amount of the Oregon Electric remains intact. In fact, the 100-mile stretch of track between suburban Portland and Eugene is referred to as the 'Oregon Electric Division' by Portland & Western. In and around Portland itself, the Tri Met's MAX Blue line between Portland and Hillsboro uses what was once OER right of way, the line having gone full circle back to a people-mover.

To the south, the Portland & Western's OE Division still provides the regional with all sorts of online traffic- mostly lumber and paper products. Here, railpictures.net contributor Kyle Weismann-Yee caught Portland & Western GP9 #1803 trundling down 4th St in Harrisburg, OR with a few cars it's picked up after switching local industries on its way back to Eugene in Feb 2006. Towns along the old OE line such as Harrisburg, Junction City, Albany, Hillsboro, Salem and Independence still feature street running trackage.

And what would a post featuring 1st generation motive power be without a gratuitous mention and image of actress/poker player Jennifer Tilly? Again, both are products of the 1950s and both are still looking pretty damn good to this day.

The #1803 came over from sister Genesee & Wyoming railroad Louisiana Delta in the late 1990s and was purchased secondhand from the Southern Pacific shortly after the GWRR venture in that state started up. Although bigger power such as SD45s or GP39-2s are the go-to power for Portland & Western's bigger freights, the Portland & Western still roster a number of largely unmodified GP9s and SD9s- a few of them even repainted into Southern Pacific's 1950's vintage 'black widow' paint scheme.

Today's Train of Thought- The Forestry for the Trees; April 5, 2010

Today's train of thought takes us to Idaho along the remnants of one of the last transcontinental railroads- the Milwaukee Road's Pacific extension between Minneapolis, MN and Seattle, WA.

Construction began on the pacific extension in 1906 and was completed just over three years later with a Golden Spike ceremony at Garrison, MT. Because the line was built so late, the Miwaukee Road had to expand westward by acquiring smaller railroads and purchasing individual parcels of land. However, thanks to abundant hydroelectric energy and available copper from western Montana, the Milwaukee Road became a pioneer in electrification- with much of the line between Harlowtown, MT and Tacoma, WA featuring overhead wire.

But the fact that the line bypassed populated areas out west proved to be its undoing and by 1974, it had removed all signs of electrification [just in time for the OPEC-induced oil crisis! -NANESB!] and in 1979, with much of the Pacific extension suffering from deferred maintenance and 10 MPH slow orders, the Milwaukee Road decided to abandon all lines west of Terry, MT- more than 1100 miles total.

A few remnants of the Milwaukee Road Pacific extension and the branches that fed into it are in use today. Notable examples include Washington State's Pend Oreille Valley Railroad, the appropriately named Tacoma Rail, Montana's Central Montana out of Lewistown, MT and the 71-mile St Maries River Railroad in Idaho. The St. Marie's started up in 1980 on a stretch of former Milwaukee Road Pacific extension between Plummer, ID and Avery, ID (although the line to Avery was eventually condemned and shut down by the federal government).

For the first 30 years, the line was owned and operated by the Potlatch Corporation. However, in 2010 the line was sold to the Williams Group out of Missouri- which operates another railway (the Bountiful Grain and Craig Mountain) further South. Like many other railways, the Saint Maries River found themselves a reliable workhorse in EMD's GP9, which had been with them since the beginning- albeit in a chopped hood variation.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Matt Adams catches GP9s #102 and #101 trundling across the spindly trestle at Lake Benewah, ID with 9 cars bound for the Union Pacific itnerchange at Plummer in July 2008. Not surprisingly, the primary source of traffic for the line is lumber and forestry products. Interestingly, both the track and locomotives come from the Milwaukee Road.

The St Maries also occasionally uses a couple of former MILW cabooses to assist in lengthy backup moves.

Today's Train of Thought- Hoosier Gonna Call; March 20, 2011

In keeping with the snow theme while there's still some on the ground in various parts of the country, today's Train of Thought brings us to the Hoosier state and the all-EMD shortline Indiana Northeastern.

The Indiana Northeastern- not surprisingly operates in the northeastern corner of Indiana as well as the far northwestern corner of Ohio where it connects with the Norfolk Southern at Montpelier, OH and the former Hillsdale County Railroad (nee New York Central) trackage between Jonesville and Sturgis, MI where it connects with Pioneer Rail corp's Michigan Southern (and onto another connection with the NS line between Elkhart, IN and Kalamazoo, MI currently being leased to WATCO's Grand Elk Railroad at White Pigeon, MI). Besides agricultural products such as corn, soybeans, wheat and flour, the IN also hauls coal, lumber, glass and chemicals among other commodities.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Aaron C Schlegel caught a Northbound Indiana Northeastern freight ducking under the Fox Lake Rd bridge in Angola, IN with a lashup of power that prominently features first generation power- the two lead units are largely unmodified GP9s. According to the Diesel Shop, the lead unit- Indiana Northeastern #1601 started out life as Reading #606 in August 1952 while Indiana Northeastern #1602 was built in April 1957 as Great Northern #693 and bringing up the rear is the only slightly newer 1963-built GP30 #2230, which was built as Pennsylvania railroad #2230.

Both the 1601 and 1602 retain their classic as-built high hoods- and it's entirely likely that each unit was ordered to replace the last of the serviceable steam locomotives on their respective railways (Reading & Great Northern).

Jennifertillyfan.com

Like the 2 lead units, another worthwhile product of the 1950s would include actress and World Series of Poker participant Jennifer Tilly. I know I've mentioned this before, but even though I don't regularly follow Poker tournaments or the latter day entries in the Child's Play series of movies, I still continue to be impressed at how Tilly continues to be easy on the eyes just past the half-century mark [I know I can't be the only one- NANESB!].

Today's Train of Thought: Ice Castles- October 11, 2009

Today's train of thought features yet another unmodified GP9 still hard at work in 2009 (no accompanying images of Jennifer Tilly this time- sorry).

Railpictures.net contributor Bo Gray braved the aftermath of the ice storms that slammed into Kentucky earlier this year to catch RJ Corman Kentucky Lines GP9 #9003 heading up this local as the crew cautiously makes their way through the ice-slicked landscape in Lexington, KY towards the end of January 2009.

RJ Corman Railroad group is a holding company that owns and operates about nine different disconnected shortline railways in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Tennesee. They have also made some unique moves in terms of motive power, such as the purchase of an operating 2-10-2 'QJ' Class steam locomotive from the People's Republic of China, an annual Kentucky Derby office car special and the purchase of Quebec-based genset locomotive manufacturer Railpower Technologies in June of 2009.

Today's Train of Thought: Classic Lines- October 10, 2009

(Photo at right- Will Ragozzino/Getty Images)

Today's Train of Thought is a celebration of things that still look pretty damn good at the half-century mark- Which in turn is a completely gratuitous opportunity for me to post some accompanying images of actress/professional poker player Jennifer Tilly. To start off with, railpictures.net contributor Christopher Blaszczyk caught this image of Winchester & Western GP9 #811 cautiously making it's way through central Millville, NJ with a local on a brilliant August day while a somewhat newer John Deere tractor waits at one of the grade crossings.

As it turns out, Winchester and Western #811 came into the world around the same time as Jennifer Tilly did. The last time I actually saw her was in movies like Bound and The Getaway. Ever hear an entertainers name mentioned and say 'Oh yeah- whatever happened to so-and-so?'...I was aware of her recurring role as one of the neighborhood wives on Family Guy, but wondered whatever became of her after the show went on hiatus. A fairly quick internet search turned up images like these- apparently taken after her 50th birthday (and when she wasn't on the World Series of Poker circuit). Looks like she's also reprised her role now that Family Guy is back. To say that she's looking pretty good would be the understatement of this fairly new 21st century.

As for the #811, it actually started out life on the Nickel Plate railroad before becoming Norfolk & Western property after the 1964 merger w/Nickel Plate. Although not as famous as some of the streamliner diesels of the era, locomotive manufacturer Electro Motive Division (EMD for short) began production of their General Purpose line of roadswitchers in 1949, starting with the 1500 HP GP7. Some five years later, production began on the 1750 HP GP9. The General Purpose series of diesels could serve in a variety of functions- passenger, local freight, yard switcher. These made them much more practical and versatile than the iconic streamliners of the day. In fact, some railways- like the Norfolk & Western- didn't even bother with the streamlined diesels and replaced their steam locomotives (such as the ones famously documented by O Winston Link) with GP7s and GP9s. In this instance, the #811 retains it's as-manufactured high hood, but there are plenty of examples of a 'chopped' shorter hood being applied to both the GP7 and GP9 to improve visibility from the cab.

So here's to classic lines (and curves) that have withstood the test of time!