Back on 10-7-04 a friend and I made an Autumn trip to Pennsylvania landing at Pittsburgh that morning. After getting the rental car we started east and stopped about 6 miles out of Pittsburgh at Homestead, PA where we found an impressive bridge crossing the Monongahela River between Rankin and Homestead. This is the CSX (former P&LE RR) bridge that was once double tracked. In 1968 the bridge was single tracked, note the wide piers the bridge rests upon.
Author Archives: briannpman
July 7, 1979 and Wenatchee, WA
On Saturday 7-7-79 I made a drive to Wenatchee, WA to catch some BN on the former Great Northern main line. First thing photographed was BN GP7 1538. The 1538 is former Great Northern 638 and was working Wenatchee as a yard switcher.
A look at Shirley, MT 8-4-19
Back in February 2024 I had written about a trip I made through Miles City, MT on my way to Glendive. I was actually on my way to Mandan/Bismarck, ND to get photos of the former NP Missouri River bridge. It took me a few days to get there from Billings, MT but there was a LOT to see and places I wanted to stop and visit.
Mines of Montana – the Sarpy and Colstrip branches
BNSF 8258 West with units 8258/9260/9255 make the turn from the former Northern Pacific main line at Sarpy Jct, MT heading to the mine for reloading on 7-11-06.
Chessie System – Decoursey, KY
In September 1983 I made a trip to Kentucky to check out Seaboard System and search for former L&N U25B’s. During that trip I would basically stumble onto Chessie System power on transfers ariiving and departing the Decoirsey, KY SBD yard which was former L&N.
Copper Basin Railway – 1995
Back in February 1995 I planned a trip flying into Phoenix, AZ with plans to spend around a week near Flagstaff on the Santa Fe, El Paso, TX on the Southern Pacific and finally a day at Hayden, AZ on the Copper Basin. Easy to understand the first two but why Hayden you ask? My goal there was to try and find a GP9, a former Northern Pacific GP9. The Copper Basin had a GP9 numbered 204 that was ex-BN 1704, built as NP 204. The 204 was purchased to work the joint NP/UP Camas Prairie lines in Idaho. Nice CBRY renumbered it back to its original NP number!
Miles City, MT August 4, 2019
This is a continuation of a post I made way back on 4-22-21 of a trip to the ex-NP in Montana east of Billings in August 2019. Three parts from Billings as far as Hathaway have already been posted so here is a continuation of that story.
Cajon Pass – November 1981
It seems that I do not make November trips out of Washington state that often. Perhaps to Montana but that is pretty much it. Bad weather and shorter daylight probably has a lot to do with that.
A visit to the UP at Pendleton, OR
From my home in Yakima, WA it a little over two hours to drive to Pendleton, OR. My cousin Michelle was born there so that’s my tie to Pendleton but I never really stopped long enough in all my trips to the Blue Mountains to take a look at the town on my way there. On 6-21-23 I finally made a trip to Oregon, however not to the Blue Mountains but to Pendleton to take a look at what I had skipped for so many years.
Gordon Lightfoot – remembered
Straying just a bit from the USA Railfanning theme here to mention the passing of legendary Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023) who passed away at age 84 in Toronto, Ontario Canada this past Monday May 1, 2023.
