Well..another week is here. I had almost as much fun as Wyhog on June 23. But that's another whole story. Here's a few shots from a long day of railfaning.

Odd, we were just talking about the CSX AC60's..and I run into #600 (first of the CSX AC60's) way up in the mountains of West Virginia. No longer in high horsepower high speed service, she has helped three AC44's shove heavy tonnage to the power plant at Mt Storm, WVA.
Here she is, looking a little tired, but evidently still quite capable.



Rounded out the day watching CSX manifest Q317 set out thirty cars for the paper mill at Keyser Yards. The train was led by AC44 129, here's an "artsy" shot of her hi-ad trucks.



What a day it was..low humidity, 72 degrees, blue skies, puffy clouds..yummy.

Ed

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ed Mullan,

Hi there,

Here's a railbarge leaving Whittier.


And a sunrise in Whittier.

Some fun with 425 in Jim Thorpe last Saturday, June 21, 2008.




End of day in Port Clinton:


And the R&N's Steam Locomotive shop and turntable in Port Clinton.

Fires in California are blanketing Nevada with smoke. This was taken east of Winnemucca going to Elko on Monday June 23rd. No manipulation of this image.


This was taken on my trip back from Elko, skies were still smokey and making for more spectacular sunset pictures.

And yes this was the third unit in my consist.

Dennis,

Great shots of the 425.

Greg

One of the reasons I like Midweek photos is that I get to see not only trains, but places I'll never get to see otherwise..Alaska..the great western states.
And, I'll never get to see 425 run, either. Love the blue livery..they did a great job of decoration.
Great shot of the smoke, Greg. A question..is that jointed rail beside the loco consist an opposite bound main..or a long passing siding (that's what I'm guessing it is).

Ed

Greg, thanks for the compliment!

To American eyes, 425's blue may take some getting used to. However, having visited England and seen the riot of blues, reds and greens they do over there, I think 425 looks great. We have plenty of black loco's, why NOT blue?

I spoke with 425's owner, Andy Muller, and he said the color came from the fact that America once had lots of colorful steam locomotives but they were all painted black after they went into freight service. The relocated headlight, he just thought it looked better. He did have a devil of a time getting the hanging bell bracket though. When he finally located one, the owner wanted a LOTS of money for it.

Hi Ed,

The jointed rail is a 2 mile long siding. We were a key train so we held the main to meet a slow rolling east bound.

Hi Dennis,

I like the blue and it reminds me of the B&O for some reason. I think it is a tastefully done paint job and color choice. After all the Southern Railroad had the great green Pacific.

Greg

Was headed to Horton, Kansas about a week ago, and was about 2-3 miles south of Atchison KS when I saw the below engine. On the way back I had time to stop and get a couple quick pictures. Never saw this RR before, but seemed to keep a clean engine. Not even sure if it is operational or just display. But, its different.





And here is one from Katy Heritage Days in Parsons KS from last month -



I have a couple more misc. shots on the photo page.

A few shots from last September - the refurbished Coney Island - Stillwell Av Station:

I live a subway ride away from this and I have yet to go out there myself and see it.

I think that this is an instance where public money was actually well spent. The station looks terrific and inviting rather than the ugly hole it used to be.

Last week at the West Virgina Central

[IMG]<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/thehayslip/TheBestOfTheWVACentral2008/photo#5215269847119271330"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/thehayslip/SGBcS1VZlaI/AAAAAAAADRc/vgPDRil_HHk/s400/DSC_0017.JPG" /></a>[/IMG]

West Virginia Central

Click and look through the album.

Boy that speeder ride looks just great to do!

Anybody has a history on 425.
I'm guessing this is a former Reading G-1.
Dont hate me but if she came down south she would need to be
painted and lettered for the Southern.
She would make a great fill in for a Ps4.

Dennis it is alot of fun. We were hoping to run at Jim Thorpe but they don't have the time for us at the moment. The speeders ran the line quite abit but not recently.

Jamie

S. R. Sean

To quote the Reading Northern news page found at www.readingnorthern.com.
"The 425 steam locomotive is a 4-6-2 Light Pacific Locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia.
Weighing in at 220,000 pounds, the 1928 model originally was used by Gulf, Mobile and
Northern Railroad. In 1984, Reading and Northern purchased the locomotive for use on
its fleet and in 2007, completely refurbished it back to its original condition."

The 1401 in the Smithsonian is of course the only surviving example of the the Southern's famous Ps-4 class.
No. 1401

Back in the 60's, at the height of the Southern' steam special's, the company president, Graham Claytor cast a covetous gaze to Atlanta & West-Point #290 to stand in for a Ps-4 since No. 1401 was embalmed in Washington. He was not allowed to and had to settle on a freight engine, beloved No. 4501 to head the road's steam program.

quote:

Originally posted by Southern Railway Sean:
Anybody has a history on 425.
I'm guessing this is a former Reading G-1.
Dont hate me but if she came down south she would need to be
painted and lettered for the Southern.
She would make a great fill in for a Ps4.

This is what I found on the internet.
http://www.steamlocomotive.com/pacific/gmn.shtml

I knew about SR 1401 and the plans that Mr Claytor had for A&W.P. 290. She was used to pull the Crescent Limited on her home rails so she was build to almost the same spec as the Southern Ps-4 where which where based on the USRA heavy pacific. I didn't know anything about the RN 425.
there not alot of operating mainline pacific's in the U.S. The only one's I knew about where the Penny K-4 and SP 2472. (I think that the number)

L&N 152 in Kentucky and Little River 110 in Michigan. Also SP 2467 was operable but I believe its not up to the FRA regs.