Cool Chromes -- My First California Trip (Part 2 - Santa Fe Edition)

Cool Chromes is a semi-regular feature that looks at slides that have recently gone through the scanner.

Santa Fe; Tehachapi Loop, Walong, Calif.; May 1991

In last week's Cool Chromes we started a look at my first trip to California in May 1991. In this edition we continue on with that trip. Two railroads that would shortly be merged out of existence were a part of that first trip -- the Southern Pacific, which became a part of Union Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, now a part of BNSF Railway. This week we'll look at Chico's Road, and what better place to start than at that most famous of California locations, Tehachapi Loop. That's the same train up top and underneath in the photo above -- the locomotives crossed overhead left to right, circled away from the camera and then popped out of Tunnel 9 for this photo. Gotta love that SD45u in the lead.

Santa Fe; Barstow, Calif.; May 1991

Next up we're in Barstow where SD40-2 No. 5124 leads a train past the Harvey House located there. Fred Harvey built many trackside hotels/restaurants along the Santa Fe (the most famous perhaps being La Posada in Winslow, Ariz.) This Harvey House was known as the Casa Del Desierto and was built in 1911. When this photo was taken the structure had heavy earthquake damage and its future was uncertain. Today it houses Barstow's Amtrak station and a Route 66 museum.

Santa Fe; Mojave, Calif.; May 1991

Perhaps no railroad paint scheme was as classic as the Santa Fe's red and silver Warbonnet. Applied to its F-units, the paint scheme became synonymous with quality service on passenger trains like the Super Chief. Even though Santa Fe was long out of the passenger business, it revived the Warbonnet as a symbol of quality for its intermodal trains in the early 1990s. Here we see a quartet of locomotives in the Warbonnet leading a train past the windmills outside Mojave (back when windmill farms were a bit of a novelty).

Santa Fe; Yorba Linda, Calif.; May 1991

Southern California was experiencing a huge building boom in the late 1980s, and by 1991 once-rural Santa Ana Canyon had new development built right up to the hills. A Santa Fe train heads through the canyon at Yorba Linda on the dividing line between sprawl and desert.

Santa Fe; Alray, Calif.; May 1991

Cajon Pass, outside San Bernardino, has undergone a lot of change since 1991. A pair of tunnels at Alray, near the summit, have both been "daylighted," with the tops of the tunnels removed leaving a deep cut. Here we have a train emerging from one of the tunnels and about to enter the other.

Santa Fe; Barstow, Calif.; May 1991

We'll finish off this edition with the railroad that almost was. In 1983 the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific agreed to merge; in fact, the two railroads were purchased by a holding company. All that was needed was approval from the Interstate Commerce Commission. Figuring that approval was a formality, SPSF started painting locomotives in a red and yellow scheme, putting either SP or SF on the locomotives (depending on which railroad owned the engines) and leaving room to add two more letters to eventually fill out the SPSF once the merger was official. The ICC ruled against the merger in 1986, and again in 1987. By 1991 only a handful of locomotives from the SPSF could still be found, such as C30-7 No. 8055 next to sister 8107 in the conventional Santa Fe "bluebonnet" in Barstow.

Next week -- more California, but this time with steam.

Pickin' On the Pickens

A gallery of all photos from this day can be found here.

Pickens; Anderson, S.C.; December 13, 2013

Over the last couple of weeks we've been looking at parts of a trip to Florida in December. So far we have spent an evening in Jesup, Ga., and checked out the street running in Augusta, Ga. This time we are going to chase one of those classic southern short lines, the Pickens.

The Pickens opened between Easley and Pickens, S.C., in 1898, and operated just on those ten miles of track for almost a century. In 1991, as part of Norfolk Southern's Thoroughbred Shortline Program, the Pickens added NS's line from Honea Path to Belton; it further added from Belton to Anderson in 1994. Meanwhile, traffic on the original Pickens had dried up, leaving only a locomotive rebuilder in the town of Pickens by 2002. Finally in 2013, the original Pickens was shut down and the rails removed.

Today's Pickens is over 28 miles long. It interchanges with Norfolk Southern in Anderson, and also sends interchange traffic to CSX via the Greenville & Western at Belton. A new shop has been built on the outskirts of Anderson, where a fleet of U18B locomotives are maintained.

On December 13, we chased the Pickens as it performed its daily duties. A pair of the U18B's (built by General Electric and purchased second-hand from CSX) left the shop to work three large industries in the area. The locomotives first ran light to the Owens Corning mill to pull one car out (above).

Pickens; Anderson, S.C.; December 13, 2013

The crew dropped the one car at a (very) small yard not far from the shop, then took off up a branch to pull cars out of the Electrolux plant (above). A Michelin plant is located further up the line, but rather than push the cars from Electrolux all the way up the branch, the crew returned to the small yard, dropped those cars, then headed back up to Michelin to pull cars from there.

Pickens; Anderson, S.C.; December 13, 2013

Once done at Michelin, all the outbound cars were assembled and the train began its run to the Norfolk Southern interchange behind the "Baby Boats." Okay, why are U18B's called "Baby Boats?" When General Electric introduced its "Universal" line of diesels they were given a "U" prefix. As such, the entire line of locomotives became known as U-Boats. While most U-Boats were known as large workhorses, the U18B model was the smallest of the line. Thus, they became known as "Baby Boats."

Pickens; Anderson, S.C.; December 13, 2013

In downtown Anderson the train met the other job on the railroad, the one from Honea Path and Belton, which had a single U18B. The two trains shuffled cars around, with both leaving some cars for the Norfolk Southern and picking up some NS cars. Cars bound for CSX were handed to the Belton job, while the Belton job handed off cars from CSX bound for the industries west of town. Finally, everything was sorted out.

Pickens; Anderson, S.C.; December 13, 2013

The Anderson job headed back west, passing the Anderson Cotton Mill as soon as it left the NS interchange. The mill was built in the 1880s; sadly, it burned in 2007.

Greenville & Western; Belton, S.C.; December 13, 2013

Meanwhile, we headed over to Belton, home of the Greenville & Western. The Pickens interchanges with the G&W, which in turn delivers the Pickens' cars to CSX near Greenville. The G&W runs two immaculate GP9s on its trains, and we had plans to chase these later that afternoon. Unfortunately, the two Geeps were being readied for Santa Claus trips the next day and would not be running. Instead, a GP30 from the Aiken Railroad (a sister road to the G&W) would be going to Greenville, and it would be running long-hood forward -- not good for photography. We did shoot the GP9s being readied for Santa service.

Pickens; Belton, S.C.; December 13, 2013

Speaking of long hood forward, the Belton job on the Pickens -- with the single U18B -- was also returning long hood forward, so we didn't bother chasing it from Anderson. As we were finishing with the G&W, it showed up in Belton to drop cars heading for CSX at the interchange. As it turned out, everything it brought from Anderson was CSX-bound, so only a light engine -- running backwards, no less -- would be continuing on to Honea Path. Faced with chasing one of two backwards locomotives (the Pickens or the G&W), we headed out of Belton with another quarry in mind.

CMC Steel; Cayce, S.C.

CMC Steel in Cayce, S.C., uses a pair of switchers built by the American Locomotive Company. With a little bit of luck, you can shoot both locomotives together from the 12th Street Extension bridge in Cayce. Unfortunately, luck wasn't with us -- a cut of cars on the closest track blocked getting a view of both locomotives. An end-cab switcher was working, and it was possible to get it playing peek-a-boo as it shuffled around behind the annoying string of cars. A larger road switcher was parked further back in the plant, however, and made for a nice shot nonetheless. It wasn't quite what we were after, but it was better than nothing. That put the finishing touches on a busy day. We would do some night photography later on, but that's another post.

CMC Steel; Cayce, S.C.; December 13, 2013

Favorite Photo From Each Month 2013

On my personal Facebook page for the past 12 days I posted my favorite photo I took each month during 2013. For those who saw that, here's a recap. For those that didn't, here they are. And this site also has its own Facebook page and you can "like" us here.

January

New York City Transit Authority; 168th Street, New York, N.Y.; January 29, 2013

We start off with a shot from January 29 on the New York City subway system. Near the north end of Manhattan on the 1-Line are three of the deepest stations on the system, located in the Washington Heights Mine Tunnel. The middle of those three stations is 168th Street which, with its arched ceiling, is considered to be the most architecturally interesting station open to the public (City Hall station, now closed, is certainly tops on the list of architectural interest).

February

Tavares, Eustis & Gulf; Tavares, Fla.; February 9, 2013

February saw a trip to sunny Florida, where a visit to the Orange Blossom Cannonball at Tavares was in order (covered in a post here). After a day of shooting the wood-burning steam locomotive, we did three night photo setups, including this one where we briefly blocked traffic at a rotary near the Tavares depot.

March

Altamont Commuter Express; Alatmont, Calif.; March 7, 2013

In March it was off to California for Winterail, the big railroad photography exhibition in Stockton. On the way there from San Francisco I traveled over Altamont Pass and shot the Altamont Commuter Express with its locomotive in "push" mode heading from San Jose to Stockton. The sun had just set, and a set of strobes were used to provide a hint of fill lighting. The train is on the former Western Pacific; the Southern Pacific also crossed Altamont Pass, but the dirt trail under the bridge is all that remains of the Espee.

April

Norfolk Southern; Falls Mills, Va.; April 8, 2013

A weeklong trip that included visiting Cincinnati and Chicago also resulted in backtracking to the Pocahontas coal fields in between the two cities. Norfolk Southern's heritage units (locomotives painted in classic schemes of the predecessor roads of NS) had been assigned there, and two were found pushing a train up the grade from the coal fields of West Virginia into Bluefield. The colorful unit is painted in the scheme of the original Norfolk Southern, a small railroad that operated in Virginia. The blue unit is painted for the Norfolk & Western, one of the largest railroads to be merged into Norfolk Southern 30 years ago.

May

Nickel Plate Road 765; MG Tower, Altoona, Penn.; May 27, 2013

While I hadn't chased a main line steam trip in several years (preferring photo charters instead), I got out and chased Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 when it made its runs over the former Pennsylvania Railroad on Memorial Day weekend (covered in a post here). The trips ran from Enola Yard near Harrisburg to Altoona and beyond, traversing famous Horseshoe Curve before turning back east. Just beyond Horseshoe Curve on the climb up the Allegheny Mountains is MG Tower that once controlled movements along the line. MG is long closed, but the tower still stands, and getting 765 passing there would be perfect. It's a mile and a half hike uphill to the tower, but it was worth it to getting two icons of railroading together. By the way, two more of Norfolk Southern's heritage units are trailing 765 -- one painted for the Pennsylvania Railroad and the other for Conrail, two of the railroads that at one time called Horseshoe Curve home.

June

Norfolk Southern; Elkton, Md.; June 29, 2013

The month of June was a stay-near-home month, other than a quick trip to Ottawa that didn't see a lot of photography. Towards the end of the month, two more of the Norfolk Southern heritage units headed my direction, this time one painted for Penn Central and the other painted for Illinois Terminal. The pair were leading an oil train from Harrisburg down the Port Road to Perryville, Md., then over Amtrak's Northeast Corridor to Newark, Del., before diverting to the refinery. I set up on Amtrak at the abandoned station at Elkton, Md., at around 8:00 p.m. I then heard from a friend that the train had hit a downed tree on the Port Road and was delayed. Finally, just past midnight, the two came through Elkton.

July

Virginia Museum of Transportation; Roanoke, Va.; July 12, 2013

July started off with a trip to Ohio to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad at the famous roller coaster park near Sandusky. Shortly after that I headed for Roanoke, Va., for a photo shoot at the Virginia Museum of Transportation hosted by Lerro Productions (and covered in this post). From that session my favorite photo is of museum volunteer Charles Hardy dressed as a Pullman porter, looking out the coach window at Norfolk & Western 2-6-6-4 No. 1218.

August

Canadian National; Stony Beach, Saskatchewan; August 27, 2013

August saw not one, but two trips to Ohio -- one for Summerail, a photography exhibition in Cincinnati, and the other back to Cedar Point for more steam and roller coasters -- but the highlight of the month was a trip to the Canadian prairies of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Getting this shot of a Canadian National train passing the classic Saskatchewan Wheat Pool elevator at Stony Beach took some persistence (see the entire story behind the shot here), but it became one of my favorite photos of the entire year.

September

Alaska Railroad; Fairbanks, Alaska; September 15, 2013

No sooner was I back from Saskatchewan than I was back on a plane again, this time heading to Alaska for the convention of the National Railway Historical Society. The convention began in Fairbanks, where I shot a passenger train jointly operated by the NRHS and Alaska Railroad passing a splash of fall color on the outskirts of town. The NRHS had arranged for a locomotive painted in the old black Alaska Railroad scheme to lead the train.

October

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad; Cumberland, Md.; October 22, 2013

With two huge trips behind me, early October was spent close to home looking for fall colors. Later in the month I headed to Cumberland, Md., for two days of photo charters hosted by Lerro Productions on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. The trips included sunset and night photos, as well as plenty of action in daylight, but my favorite shot came just after sunrise on the second day as Western Maryland Scenic 2-8-0 No. 734 (renumbered to 729 for the charter) took water from the spout in downtown Cumberland.

November

Metro North; Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.; November 23, 2013

With the days getting shorter and cooler, November was another month with no long-ish distance travel. Throughout the fall I had been shooting at various locations on Metro North in New York and Connecticut (and presented many of those photos here). The evening of November 23 was a bit overcast, but the air at ground level was clear with no city haze. I spent the cool evening at Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., which provides a nice view looking down the Hudson at New York City. As the sun set, I shot many different trains under different lighting conditions, but my favorite was this scene of an electric multiple unit train heading towards the Big Apple as the last bit of orange peeked under the cloud cover.

December

CSX Transportation; Jesup, Ga.; December 15, 2013

I returned to Florida in December, driving one way and flying back. During the drive down I spent an evening in Jesup, Ga. (covered in this post) shooting Amtrak and CSX trains after dark. My favorite shot from that trip was taken in Jesup, but it wasn't even a shot I had set up for. I was set up for a southbound train to come through town, passing the railfan platform where folks can watch trains. However, before the southbound got to Jesup a northbound was given clearance on the single track through town. Knowing the southbound would be through shortly after the northbound, I knew I wouldn't have time to reposition my strobes between trains. I thus settled for this going away shot of the northbound, using the same light set-up as I would use for the shot I really wanted of the southbound. As it turns out, the shot I "settled" for I wound up liking better than the shot I was after! Not a bad way to wrap up a busy year!

Cool Chromes -- My First California Trip (Part 1)

Cool Chromes is a semi-regular feature that looks at some slides that have recently passed through the scanner.

Union Pacific; Merlin, California; May 1991

I started shooting photos seriously in 1979, mostly near my home in New Jersey. In 1982 I took a plane for the first time, traveling to Denver for the National Railway Historical Society convention. In both 1986 and 1988 I did almost identical loops out of Seattle, circling down to the Columbia River, heading up through the Idaho panhandle and visiting the Canadian Rockies. But it wasn't until 1991 that I visited California for the first time, discovering that the Golden State is, indeed, rail photography heaven in many respects. I needed to see it all on that first trip, and I covered the entire state from the Oregon border to San Diego. In the 23 years between 1991 and 2013 I have visited California no fewer than 20 times (mostly thanks to attending Winterail, the big railroad photography exhibition in Stockton, each year since 1998). But that first trip was oh so special.

We start out with Union Pacific in the Feather River Canyon. Heading east from Oroville in northern California, the Canyon is the former Western Pacific and features around 70 miles of spectacular scenery, most with good road access. The shot above shows an eastbound train near Merlin, across from a rock formation known as Elephant Butt Butte.

Of course, any first time California trip has to include Tehachapi Loop (a bit below Bakersfield). The Loop is one of the best places (if not the best place) to watch trains in the U.S. This first trip was one of the few trips I would make to California before the Southern Pacific was absorbed by Union Pacific. In the shot below, an oil tank train has just circled the loop and is about to enter Tunnel 10; it has just passed through Tunnel 9 (seen near the center of the photo) and looped around to the right. There is no place like Tehachapi.

Southern Pacific; Tehachapi Loop, Walong, California; May 1991

Next up we're just above the Bay Area at Benecia as Amtrak's Coast Starlight crosses Carquinez Strait. Interstate 680 is just off to the right, and in the years since a second highway bridge has been added to the left of the railroad bridge. Across the Strait is Martinez, which in 1991 was served by a handful of trains. Today over 30 Amtrak California trains serve the station.

Amtrak; Benicia, California; May 1991

I had to check out the short lines, too, while there and a stop was made to see the Amador Central in Amador. Trains were not running, but the railroad's Baldwin diesel was outside the shop. The years have not been kind to this railroad, either -- the Baldwin vanished, and ultimately the entire line was abandoned.

Amador Central; Amador, California; May 1991

The reason I was in California in 1991 was to attend Railfair at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. Guest steam locomotives were brought in, including freshly restored Southern Pacific 4-6-2 No. 2472. A large group of fans were waiting at the north end of the bridge in Benicia (see Amtrak shot above) to shoot the SP classic, and just as the train came into sight along Carquinez Strait it came to a halt for a lengthy servicing stop. We were all frustrated as shadows from the highway bridge moved in and messed up our shot. But after the train crossed the bridge we were able to get ahead of it for a shot before it made yet another servicing stop.

Southern Pacific 2472; Benicia, California; May 1991

We'll do more of California from 1991 in next week's Cool Chromes.

The Augusta & Summerville -- A Railroad In The Street

Norfolk Southern; Augusta, Ga.; December 14, 2013

Last month we took a trip to Florida, and over the next couple of weeks we'll be presenting bits and pieces of that trip. We already spent an evening at Jesup, Ga., in a previous post. Today we'll look at at a railroad you probably never heard of -- the Augusta & Summerville.

The Augusta & Summerville was chartered in 1866, but by 1900 it was jointly owned by the Southern Railway, the Central of Georgia, the Charleston & Western Carolina and the Georgia Railroad. Today it is still jointly owned by the successors of these railroads, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern. The railroad is only about three miles long, but its "main line" rolls right down 6th Street in Augusta.

Augusta is situated on the Savannah River directly across from South Carolina. At one time two lines converged at the north end of the bridge over the river -- the Southern and the Georgia & Florida (which later became a Southern subsidiary); the G&F line is now gone. After crossing the bridge the railroads became the Augusta & Summerville; the Georgia Railroad had two spurs branching both east and west off the A&S along the river, with the east line serving a freight house that still exists (all the trackage for both spurs is gone). the A&S wanders down the middle of 6th Street for several blocks, with the street running ending at a junction. The A&S had a line heading northeast here, going to Augusta's Union Station where the A&S ended. Beyond Union Station were two lines, the Georgia Railroad and Charleston & Western Carolina; these tracks are still used by CSX.

Heading southwest from the end of the street running the A&S enters Augusta Yard, and beyond the yard the Georgia & Florida and the Central of Georgia continued on (both now used by NS). Finally, also branching off at the end of the street running and heading southeast is the former Charleston & Western Carolina, now used by CSX. Today the A&S street running serves Norfolk Southern, while the branch to Union Station and beyond is used by CSX.

On December 14 I was joined by my brother Bruce in Augusta to wait on two fairly reliable southbound morning trains, NS trains 155 and 191. The weather was rainy, so we set up for shots that would not be favorable if the sun was out. We got there at about 9:00 a.m., and at 10:30 train 155 showed up, passing the storefronts along 6th Street. The bar says "Vegas Show Girls." We doubted that was true.

Norfolk Southern; Augusta, Ga.; December 14, 2013

At the end of the street running the A&S freight house still stands. The A&S to Union Station diverges at a spot under the overpass and heads off to the left.

Norfolk Southern; Augusta, Ga.; December 14, 2013

About an hour later train  191 made an appearance. Hildebrand's is a combination restaurant/deli/general store.

Norfolk Southern; Augusta, Ga.; December 14, 2013

 After these trains went by we headed over to the Sandersville Railroad to check them out. Alas, it was a Saturday and they weren't running. The rain had picked up throughout the day and we headed into the motel for the night. But about 8:00 the rain moved out and we decided to head back downtown to attempt a night shot in the street. We had no idea if a train was coming, but we figured we'd give it until 11:30 or so.

This turned out to be highly entertaining. First, we got a visit from a local police officer who was the low man on the totem pole and wasn't assigned a regular police car -- he had a glorified golf cart. He was friendly and we had a good conversation. He lamented that whenever there was a call for all available units, he'd zip to the scene of the crime in his golf cart, only to find that the regular cars had beaten him there by several minutes and all the fun was already over. After he left, we had a long visit from a homeless man who told us all about Augusta and James Brown and other interesting tidbits.

About 11:00 we heard a northbound train working the Norfolk Southern yard just south of the street running. This meant a train was indeed coming and also meant our 11:30 curfew was no longer valid. We set up our shot at the Blue Horse Cafe (now closed, as the homeless man explained to us, due to a dispute between the cafe and the state office building that owns the parking lot next to the cafe (and apparently didn't appreciate what the cafe's patrons were doing to the lot at night)). At 1:15 a.m. our train showed up.

Norfolk Southern; Augusta, Ga.; December 14 15, 2013

The next day the sun was out, so we decided to do the street running again. We got there at 9:00 once again and the first train we got was a northbound CSX train swinging briefly onto the A&S down by the freight house.

CSX Transportation; Augusta, Ga.; December 15, 2013

Then came the bad news. We heard train 155 in the yard ready to go south. It had gone down the street earlier in the morning and we missed it. We also heard train 191 come to a stop on the north side of the bridge. At least we'll get that one! He sat for almost two hours, then finally came into Augusta.

Norfolk Southern; Augusta, Ga.; December 15, 2013

Since this was our only train and I had two locations I wanted to shoot, we used 5th Street to motor southward ahead of the train, coming out at the south end of the street running.

Norfolk Southern; Augusta, Ga.; December 15, 2013

And that concludes our 27 hours along the Augusta & Summerville, a railroad you probably never heard about until today!

New Year's Eve On the Trolley

A complete set of photos from this trip can be found here.

SEPTA; Frankford Loop, Philadelphia, Penn.; December 31, 2013

If something you've done twice in a row can be classified as a tradition, then I guess my new tradition is riding the annual New Year's Eve streetcar trip sponsored by the Friends of Philadelphia Trolleys (we did a post on last year's trip as well).

The trip started off at the Callowhill Depot, where our Kawasaki car was waiting. SEPTA operators volunteer their time to decorate some cars for the holidays, and they look pretty sharp. Gary Mason, who was our operator for tonight's charter, decorated car 9104. Just for fun, the car's electronic roll sign had a route displayed that these cars cannot operate on.

SEPTA; Callowhill Depot, Philadelphia, Penn.; December 31, 2013

Once out of Callowhill, we made a passenger pickup at the loop at 63rd & Malvern in West Philadelphia, then headed over the length of Route 15 on Girard Avenue (this route is somewhat truncated right now due to a construction project closing the east end of the line). At the terminus of Route 15 at the the Frankford Loop we did a photo stop at the Sugar House Casino.

SEPTA; Frankford Loop, Philadelphia, Penn.; December 31, 2013

Out of the loop and heading back west on Girard Avenue, we made a photo stop at 2nd & Girard. The heavy volume of taxi traffic on Girard made this shot a little trickier to pull off than we had anticipated.

SEPTA; 2nd & Girard, Philadelphia, Penn.; December 31, 2013

From here it was a matter of finding a spot to pause so passengers could watch the city's fireworks at midnight. Even though the fireworks are launched from near the Sugar House Casino, we found last year that you really couldn't get a shot of the fireworks and the trolley together. This year it was decided to go to an overpass across SEPTA's regional rail lines at 40th Street; this would give a bit of elevation and it was on non-revenue streetcar trackage so we wouldn't have to worry about regular service cars coming up behind us. The fireworks started promptly at midnight; they were a bit easier to see than the photo would indicate (they are visible between the streetcar and the city skyline).

SEPTA; 40th Street, Philadelphia, Penn.; January 1, 2014

From here we followed SEPTA's Route 13 out of the southwest corner of the city and into the borough of Yeadon. A lengthy photo stop (and restroom stop) was made here, providing a number of different photo angles.

SEPTA; Yeadon, Penn.; January 1, 2014

Heading back towards the city on SEPTA's Route 11 we left Yeadon and entered Darby (home of a diamond crossing between the Route 11 and CSX's former Baltimore & Ohio main line). We had seen some police activity throughout the evening at various locations, but just before crossing back into Philadelphia we encountered a bar fight that had attracted police from various boroughs. The volume of police cars blocked our forward progress for several minutes.

SEPTA; Darby, Penn.; January 1, 2014

Once the police activity cleared, we made our way into the Center City Tunnel at 40th Street and proceeded under Market Street to 13th Street near City Hall. Along the way a photo stop was made at 30th Street.

SEPTA; 30th Street, Philadelphia, Penn.; January 1, 2014

Now it was time to wrap things up. We headed out Route 10 back to Malvern Loop to drop passengers, then proceeded back to Callowhill Depot to bring the trip to an end. The Friends of Philadelphia Trolleys have been doing these trips for years -- for them it is a tradition. I guess, though, that I can call my two years in a row of riding a tradition as well.

SEPTA; Callowhill Depot, Philadelphia, Penn., January 1, 2014

Cool Chromes -- Passenger Trains Here And There

Cool Chromes is a semi-regular feature where we look at some slides that have recently come through the scanner.

Amtrak; Spuyten Duyvil, N.Y.; March 1991

In this edition of Cool Chromes we'll look at some old-ish passenger trains. Up first (above) is something you don't see anymore. A southbound Empire Service Amtrak train is swinging through the curve at Spuyten Duyvil, N.Y., on its last leg from Albany into Grand Central Terminal. On the point is a dual-mode FL9 diesel from the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors. In just a few weeks after this March 1991 scene Amtrak would pull out of Grand Central Terminal, instead heading straight south here at Spuyten Duyvil and continuing into Penn Station. All the FL9s would soon be retired, as well.

New Jersey Transit; Harrison, N.J.; December 1981

Let's go back another ten years for the next shot. We're in Harrison, N.J., and New Jersey Transit is still fairly new. Leading the train is GP40P No. 4100, built by EMD for the Central Railroad of New Jersey in 1968. Trailing the unit are former non-air conditioned coaches from the Jersey Central. The train has just discharged it passengers at Newark where they will take an electric-powered train into New York, while this train heads to the maintenance yard. No. 4100 was rebuilt in 1991 and remains on the NJT roster as No. 4106.

Chicago, South Shore & South Bend; Chicago, Ill.; May 1988

Now we're in the Windy City at Randolph Street Station on the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend in May 1988. The Nippon Sharyo electric cars are only about five years old, having replaced the classic interurban cars that served the line for over 50 years. In this scene Randolph Street Station is just beginning to be transformed into Millennium Station, a project that would eventually see these tracks and platforms covered by Millennium Park. Sharp-eyed readers will notice the train in the back carries a sign for a special National Railway Historical Society charter.

Amtrak; Duncannon, Penn.; June 1986

We'll finish off this round of Cool Chromes with what was a fairly common sight at one time -- an Amtrak long distance train pulled by a pair of F40PH locomotives from EMD. We're at Duncannon, Penn., a few miles outside of Harrisburg as the Broadway Limited heads towards Chicago. No passenger cars can be seen -- baggage and express cars are on the head end. The Broadway Limited operated from New York and Philadelphia to Chicago via Pittsburgh. Today, no through Amtrak service operates on the old Pennsylvania Railroad beyond Pittsburgh; the remnant of the Broadway, the Pennsylvanian, is the only train west of Harrisburg. Likewise, the once ubiquitous F40PH's have all been removed from Amtrak's roster, with only a few still in service as unpowered cab cars.