Arrival into Phoenix this trip was on Sunday 2-19-95 and then I drove up to Flagstaff for the night.  The next morning, Monday 2-20-95 I was out railfanning the Santa Fe soon after the sun came up.  I drove east from Flagstaff out to the Cosnino area and first train I caught was an eastbound merchandise train at MP 333 behind 913/601/864  (C40-8W/C44-9W/C40-8W) at 0925 AM.

Next train was a westbound general merchandise led by 660/5437/5856/3831 (C44-9W/SD45u/SD45-2u/GP50) at 11:25 AM, again at MP 333.  Nose door open when it wasn’t really that hot out.

Here is a roster of the second unit, SD45u 5437

The 5437 was built as SD45 1806 in 1966, then renumbered to 5509 before being rebuilt to 5437 in 1982.

The next train was identified as the PXKC with 5207/5257/5014/5818/5106/945/694/845  (SD40-2/SDF40-2/SD40/SD45-2u/SD40-2/C40-8W/C44-9W/C40-8W)  Too bad I could not get the entire consist in but the curve kind of kept that from happening.  This train was by MP 333 at 11:33 AM.

Next was a few rosters as the train passed, first was ATSF 5257, former Amtrak SDP40F 622.

Then Santa Fe C40-8W 945

At 11:35 AM some westbound lite power passed by.  They were the 2354/2726 headed towards Flagstaff.  GP30u 2726 I roster shot.

The 2726 was built as GP30 1226 in 1962, later renumbered to 3226.  The 2354 was a GP38u so I think I was happy to go with a photo of the GP30u.

Being as it was around lunchtime it appears I went back to Flagstaff for some fast food.  Seems logical as this set of 10 Warbonnets passed through Flagstaff next led by B40-8W 543.

At 1:11 PM I was at McPhetridge, AZ (MP 336) where local LAZ081 passed under the Route 66 overpass headed east behind GP20u 3010.

Then it was back to MP 333 Cosnino for the rest of the afternoon.  1-197-18 was next at 2:39 pm with 3840/3805/3844  (GP50/GP40X/GP50)

A roster shot of GP40X 3805.  Santa Fe only purchased 10 GP40X’s  (3800-3809) so it made sense to photograph the 3805.

The ATSF 7445 West was next at 3:39 PM with autoracks.  7445/5124/5045 (B40-8/SD40-2/SD40-2) leading the way.  Nice, only B40-8 seen all day and it was leading a train!

Coming the other way at 3:41 PM was an eastbound autorack train with 3823/3808/9556/4019  (GP50/GP40X/SF30C/GP60)

Getting roster shots of the 3808 or 9556 would have been nice but for some reason, no pics of them.

Then it was back to Flagstaff for the night.  I’d spend a few more days around Cosnino before heading for New Mexico and then on to El Paso, TX for some SP action winding things up Feb. 26 before heading back to Phoenix and the flight home..

I recently found this interesting webpage showing this bridge with interesting photos, including my own!

https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2018/08/csxp-1883-munhall-bridge-over.html

We waited awhile hoping there would be a train crossing the bridge and while this auto rack train was going the wrong way, a train is a train.  Up front is CSX 4717/NREX 5957 (SD70MAC/SD60) at 3:21 PM.  The 4717 was built in 2003 and the ex-UP 5957 built as CNW 8026 in 1986.  Oddly enough the 5957 later went to the NS.

After this photo we left for Glassport, PA, roughly 17 miles out of Pittsburgh and still on the former P&LE line.  There we photographed this CSX eastbound with 14/378 (AC44CW/AC44CW) up front at 4:16 PM.

Glassport is an interesting town.named after a glass company.  This info comes from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassport,_Pennsylvania

Finally we headed on to West Newton, PA where we spent a little time around the town.  It was 5:03 PM when I took this photo but now in 2025 I was not really sure of what I had photographed!

Turns out this was part of the 1893 built ex-B&O depot, photo taken up along the roof line.  I have no clue why I did not take a photo of the entire depot.  Only guess I have is shadows were covering all but this part.

At 5:11 PM I took this photo looking down the B&O line from Vine St and thinking how neat it would be if a train were to pass by.  Something about the tracks passing so close between the two rows of buildings on each side.

At 5:15 PM came horns of an approaching train.  No fooling.  How often does something go right?  This eastbound empty coal train is led by CSX 7693/731  (C40-8W/SD70MAC)

And that was the last photo of the day.  So far this was a great way to start this trip.  The trip was in 2004 and I am learning so much about these places in 2025!

At 08:14 AM train #130 departed Appleyard east of Wenatchee with units 6621/2212/1533  (F45/GP30/GP7) headed east towards Spokane and seen here just east of Malaga, WA.

Back at Wenatchee I got some roster shots around Wenatchee’s engine facility.  Here are BN GP9′s 1806/1855, likely laying over from local service for the weekend..

The 1806 is former GN 733.  It was in GN’s simplified orange and green at the time of the BN 1970 merger.  Note the boxy wheel journal covers on the front truck.  My understanding is that older GN FT locomotives were retired and traded into EMD on this order of GN GP9′s.  The FT trucks were rebuilt and reused on the new GP9′s.

BN 1855 is former Northern Pacific 229.

On the caboose track I found a couple of former GN cabooses.  BN 10250 is ex-GN X55.

And BN 10254 is ex-GN X59.

From what I have researched, both the 10250 and 10254 were wearing GN red at the time of the BN merger, neither received Big Sky Blue paint.

At this point I started west towards home in Renton, WA.  It seems that there were no westbounds to follow west over Stevens Pass out of Wenatchee that afternoon.

One of those places was Shirley, MT..  Shirley is mentioned in the 1964 Northern Pacific Railway record album In the song “Shake Hands with the eastern crowd” so naturally the place meant something to the NP to get its name mentioned in a song.  There really is not much to see at Shirley, MT.  Pretty much just a railroad siding.

But first some info on Shirley.  Located on NP’s Yellowstone Division, on the Third Subdivision between Forsyth and Glendive, MT

Note that Shirley is Milepost 59 (59.7 miles west of Glendive) while Forsyth is MP 123.  And in the NP Place Names Eng Dept files:

Shirley [Ainslie, Tilly], Custer County, Montana

The station was originally named Tilly. It was established in 1882. Prior to May, 1883, the name was changed to Ainslie. This name being in honor of Samuel K. Ainslie, who was superintendent of the Yellowstone Division of the Northern Pacific in 1892. The name was changed to Shirley on November 1, 1891. The new name being in honor of Mr. Ainslie’s daughter. It is also said to be from the name of the daughter of a rancher, a Mr. Beffell who lives near Benz. The agent at [Billings has?] information that the station was named after an officer, under General Miles or [General] Custer who was stationed near here for some time. However, [] of the Montana Historical Society writes that no officer named Shirley is listed in the Army Register from 1876 to 1903, which indicates there was no officers of that name in the vicinity during these years. Corresp.

There is pretty much nothing on Shirley, MT on the internet.

While there isn’t much to see or do in Shirley I have stopped by there a few times, including August 4, 2019.

New East Shirley, MT siding switch and BNSF bungalow.  The siding here had been extended further east.

The new east switch at Shirley.

Bridge 57.9 just east of the east switch.

Stormy skies and an old highway bridge east of Shirley.

More stormy skies off in the distance.

BNSF 6547 West at East switch Shirley with a train of  empty flatcars.

Flatcars passing by and the rear of the westbound train.

Another look at the new east switch and signals at Shirley at Milepost 58.0.

I thought this was interesting, a mix of wood and concrete ties.

And finally new and old propane tanks at the east end of Shirley.  The old rusty tank sure looks like it’s been there awhile.

With that it was back to the car and time to continue east headed towards Glendive for the night.  (with a few more stops before arriving there).

Curious about the two mines along the former Northern Pacific between here and Forsyth, MT I asked for information on the Montana Railfans group on Facebook and got this great reply from Mark Meyers which answers a lot of questions:

The Colstrip branch (from Nichols, west of Forsyth) was built by the NP originally to tap coal reserves to power steam locomotives. The Sarpy branch from Sarpy Jct. extends 36 miles south to the Absaloka mine (railroad station name: Kuehn). The mine opened in 1974, and the track was built about the same time. Now owned by Westmoreland coal, the mine shipped its last car of coal in April of this year although the mine is not officially shut down. Originally, the switch at Sarpy Jct. only opened east, but in 2013 a west leg of the wye was constructed to allow loaded coal trains to operate west (to export at Roberts Bank, BC). This business was short-lived, and now the line faces abandonment because the Absaloka mine was its raison d’etre. On the other hand, the track might not immediately be pulled up – the Colstrip branch, for instance, has only been used for intermittent car storage for years – no coal train business. All the coal mined at Colstrip goes to the nearby power plants.

More info from Mark below:

From another source: The Sarpy Creek line was built in 1973, in anticipation of the mine opening in 1974 and didn’t appear in a timetable until the 09/15/1974 Billings Region. One quirky bit of trivia was that the Sarpy Line (the 14th subdivision of the Yellowstone Division) had one intermediate siding between Sarpy Jct. and Kuehn, named “Bob.” Between Sarpy Jct. and Bob, there was an industry track at station “Mike,” and between Bob and Kuehn, an industry track at station “Walt.” Both Mike and Walt had a capacity of only 7 cars (obviously for setting out bad orders), while Bob was a 7,400-foot siding. I can’t remember who these guys were, but I believe they were all BN company officers at the time the line was constructed. Today, the line is BNSF’s Sarpy Line subdivision, and Bob is no longer with us, but Mike and Walt still show as industry tracks. And of course Walt is not to be confused with Walter, a siding installed on the Laurel subdivision near Broadview (north of Laurel) to accommodate coal traffic and from the Signal Peak coal mine. Walter is named for Walter Breuning, who was world’s oldest man. Breuning worked for the Great Northern Railway for 49 years until age 66 and actually saw James J. Hill and is probably one of the few railroaders to get more out of Railroad Retirement than paid in. He was just short of his 113th birthday when the siding was commemorated in 2009, and he passed away in 2011 at age 114, the oldest man in the world, and third oldest person (two women were older).

On my arrival 9-17-83 my first photo was of a loaded coal train at Covington, KY headed towards Decoursey wearing Family Lines painted power up front.  As it slowed to a stop a set of lite Chessie power came up alongside it.  The two units were C&O 3027/C&O 8232

The lead unit was built as C&O GP30 3027in August of 1963 in C&O blue and yellow paint later getting the Chessie paint.seen here.

Second was C&O B30-7 8292 from the series 8235-8298 built in 1981.

The 8292 was later repainted as CSX 5574  First just blue and gray:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4671957

And then the standard CSX blue and gray with a yellow nose.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2109479

At Decoursey yard I found a number of off road cabooses in different paint scheme including B&O bay window caboose 903942

B&O 903942 was five years old being built in 1978 and delivered in this paint scheme.  This was the extent of finding Chessie System at the beginning of the trip.

On my return to Cincinnatti for my flight home I stopped once again at Decoursey and found a Chessie System cab hop departing the yard behind B&O GP9 6669 anc C&O caboose 903295.

B&O GP9 6669 was built in 1956 as Chesapeake & Ohio GP9 6120.  Same blue and yellow as Baltimore and Ohio but with C&O lettering.

The caboose was built as C&O 903295 in 1968 and first wore C&O blue and yellow before the Chessie System paint..

After these photos I then made my way to Cincinnati and the airport for my flight home to Seattle.  I was not expecting to photograph any Chessie this trip but of course now I wish I had spent more time with the railroad that had a “sleeping cat” as it’s mascot.

Here is some interesting and historic information on the Copper Basin Railway from Wikipedia for background:     

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Basin_Railway

I started this trip on 2-20-95 with decent weather and lots of Santa Fe and SP trains.  After 6 days it was finally time to check out Copper Basin.  After arriving on the property and checking in at the office I found the CBRY 204 right off the bat.  It was sitting dead but out in the open.  This was the first photo of the 204.

Next I got a better lit photo from the side.

This indeed was the photo I was hoping to get.  Still I had rest of the day to spend on the Copper Basin and soon found a northbound dump train at Hayden with HLCX 4404/CBRY 205/CBRY 401  (GP40/GP9/GP39)  The 205 pictured here is ex-BN 1822 built as Great Northern 670 in 1954.

And GP39 401

North of Hayden I caught a northbound general merchandise train with CBRY units 402/208/202  GP39/GP9/GP18)  Badly back lit I only roster shot the two training GP9′s.

GP9 208 is former BN 1959, built as CB&Q 274.

CBRY 208 got a little publicity when Country signer Dwight Yoakam filmed the video “A thousand miles from nowhere” on the Copper Basin and the 208 was motive power for the train with many clips of the GP9.

Trailing unit was GP18 202.built as the Rock Island 1238 in 1963.

And a back shot of the 202 going away, much better sun angle this way.

Looking for another photo of the northbound I ended up near Kearney, AZ where I got a grab shot of my rental vehicle and a nearby cactus.  This is Arizona after all!

Soon I heard the train drifting downgrade slowly and got this photo.

And a back lit roster shot of GP39 402..

That was pretty much it for the Copper Basin.  Wish I could have spent more time here, especially after learning there was another ex-NP GP9 on the roster, GP9 207 which was ex-BN 1893 built as NP 276.  But unlike 204 which I photographed as the BN 1704 I never even saw BN 1893 so getting the 204 vs the 207 worked for me.  Still getting the 204 so quickly after my arrival could not have worked out better.

After spending a few hours between Rosebud and Hathaway, MT I drove on eastward to Miles City.  There was not much in the way of trains but my goal here was photos of the ex-NP depot at Miles City.

Here is some info on Miles City, MT from the NP Place Names Eng dept:

Miles City, Custer County, Montana, pop. 7,175

The city derives its name from Brigadier General Nelson A. Mile, who rose during the Civil War from first lieutenant to major general of volunteers. His campaigns against hostile Indians in 1876 and 1877 resulted in the opening up of the Yellowstone Valley to settlement. George M. Miles, a nephew of General Miles, was stationed at Fort Keogh. In 1876, he purchased 1,400 sheep, started raising sheep, and became a leader in the development of this vicinity. The original town of Miles City was on the south bank of the Yellowstone River about 2.5 miles east of the present city. It came into existence early in 1877, and was designated as the county seat of Custer County on June 14, 1877. When the cantonment established by the Army in 1876 on the west bank of the Tongue River was moved west and named Fort Keogh, the citizens decided that the four miles between the town and the fort was too great a distance for protection against the Indians. Therefore, in the summer of 1878, they began to move as close to the reservation as they were allowed, this being at the location of the present city. By early winter the entire population of two hundred had moved. The present town site was platted in July, 1881, by the Northern Pacific. USGS Bulletin 611.

And this link takes to to Wikipedia’s take on Miles City, MT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_City,_Montana

And for specifics on where Miles City is located on the Northern Pacific between Forsyth and Glendive, MT here is a page showing the THIRD Subdivision from an NP Yellowstone Division Timetable dated 1965..

Now back to August 4, 2019.  Pulling up to the Miles City depot I found a large tree at the west end of the station was now gone opening up new photo angles .

.

This is the west end of the station, no longer in service, empty, and falling into disrepair.

Wikipedia has a short piece of information on Miles City station.  I was not aware that it was built in 1924.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_City_station

This is the northwest end of Miles City station.

Center portion of the north side.

Note the Monads on the upper level.  Here is a closer look.

And then the east end of the building, again the north side.

This is the east end of the station and to the left the newer building used by BNSF.

An even closer look at a faded Monad on the station.

Roofing issues at the east end of the station.

The south side showing more roofing issues.

One last look at the center section of Miles City station before I moved on.

Leaving town on SR 59 I paused at the Main street underpass at railroad MP 78.0 east of the station.

A closer look at the Main St underpass, a 44′ girder bridge that is 53′ total in length, built in 1932..  The 1968 NP bridge book states it crosses SR 12 but current maps show Main St is now called SR 59.

From here I continued east for Glendive, MT but I’d be making another stop before I would get there.

However in November 1981 I did make a trip to Southern California with my buddy Robert to visit his family and see Cajon Pass for the first time.  The first two days were spent in Redlands at his parents place and Friday 11-27-81 we headed out to Cajon.  I always thought of Southern California as sunny and warm but this day started out cloudy with rain and cool.

Driving there we caught up to an eastbound UP coal empty with D&RGW SD40T-2′s 5368/5348/5411/5367 and UP cabooses 25668 and 25852 on the rear.  It was a morning photo taken at 08:30AM.

Finally on Cajon Pass I found it was overcast.with a few sun breaks.  We photographed an eastbound Santa Fe freight with units 5160/5648/5904/5311  (SD40-2/SD45-2/F45/SD45) at 09:00AM.

We must have seen more blue sky out towards Victorville as my next photo was of Santa Fe caboose 999955 with a yellow cupola and there was blue sky in the background.

There were also two sets of UP helper units at Victorville, SD40-2′s 3720/3721 and 3722/3723.but no photos of them.  Thinking the sun angle may have been poor plus you see a lot of UP SD40-2′s pretty much anywhere you go on the UP so I passed on these four.  The next train.photographed at Victorville was a UP westbound piggyback train at 10:45AM with, you guessed it, four UP SD40-2′s.

At least they were Fast Forties 8055/8089/8088/8054 with UP caboose 25850 on the rear  Still DDA40X’s would have been a LOT more fun!  After the UP had passed we made our way to Barstow and caught several westbounds leaving.

First was a Santa Fe general freight with 3353/3226/3231/340/3331 and caboose999030 on the rear at 11:20AM.

Nice the front and rear GP35′s were still in Santa Fe pinstripes.

Then a roster shot of GP30 3231.

Next train after that was another westbound UP general merchandise at12:01 PM with four UP SD40-2′s, 3520/3628/3421/3527 and UP caboose 25277 on the rear

Soon after the clouds started moving in and by the time Amtrak #35 Desert Wind with units 523/250 (SDP40F/F40PH) showed up at 1:08 PM it was cloudy again.

We must have lost interest with the overcast skies as that was the last train noted for Friday 11-27-81.  My notes say we also went out the next day 11/28 but it was raining the entire day, no sun at all.  Looks like I picked a bad weekend to visit the LA area but there would be other trips there in later years, with much better results.

First a look at the UP town of Pendleton.  Here is what Wikipedia has to say: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendleton,_Oregon

Pendleton is on Union Pacific’s Oregon Second Subdivision running from La Grande, OR west to Hinkle, OR.  Here is a page showing the location of Pendleton in a 1976 UP timetable, west of the Blue Mountains.

Now to the day trip to Pendleton.  I left home about 08:15AM on Wednesday June 21, 2023 and made a quick non-stop drive.south into Oregon and then east on I-82 arriving at Pendleton around 1030 AM.  The signals at Rieth just to the west were red so I figured no trains were close by.  I looked for the former UP depot and found it parking in a lot just to the east along S. Main Street.  This is the first photo I got facing west looking towards the ex-depot, now a museum.

And a photo a bit closer to the ex-UP depot.

This appears to be an older style of bumper post as compared to others nearby.

South Main Street looking towards Pendleton and the historic Bowman Hotel.

A closer look at the historic Bowman Hotel, built in 1906.  This is some Wikipedia information: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowman_Hotel_(Pendleton,_Oregon)

About 11:30AM finally came horns from the west.  Eastbound UP Z-BRG2 was approaching.  Power was the 9104/2696/7064/7398/7363  (SD70AH/ET44AC/C44ACM/ES44AC/AC45CCTE)

I rarely saw trailers on UP trains in the Seattle area but UP seems to run a lot of TOFC on their Z-trains down here.

UPS apparently pays a lot to get their trailers on this train so these UPS pups should be getting a quick ride to their destination.

I then headed over to SW Frazer Ave to photograph the Bowman Hotel a bit closer.

I then made my way over to KFC to get lunch to go.  Luckily I got it to go as leaving the crossing gates nearby started to come down.  As I was the first car in line no problem shutting off the car and getting out with the camera to catch the eastbound O-T4WV with units 7239/6667/8779  (AC44CW/AC44CW/SD70ACe) at 12:11PM.

The O-T4WV was an empty unit soda ash train from Portland, OR headed to Westvaco, WY.  The location is MP 214.9 in Pendleton.  Actually a very nice location for just a grab shot.  Here are a couple of the covered hoppers on this train.,

The first car, NAHX 516193 was built in 1996 which the TGSX 1294 was built in April 2023.  Quite a difference in appearance!  Nearby along SW Frazer Ave was the Heritage Museum/depot with this rather old windmill outside.

After two hours of no trains I figured there may not be any more for the day but as I was getting ready to head for home I could hear MOW on the scanner talking to a train so there was hope another was indeed coming.  At 3:12 PM came horns from the east signalling a westbound was here.  The train was the Z-G2BR with units 7728/5715/3912/5956 (ES44AC/AC44CWCTE/SD70M/ES44AC) at MP 215.1

UP SD70M 3912 was built in 2003 so being the oldest locomotive seen today was worthy of a photo.

Always on the lookout for Yellow Freight trailers since their future is rather clouded as the company may file for bankruptcy due to debt problems.  The westbound Z did have one I photographed.  I do like the Yellow pups so would be sorry if the line shuts down.

UPS and ABF pups on the westbound Z at Pendleton.

After the train had gone I started west out of town figuring I’d be headed home now but did stop to photograph this sign showing that Pendleton is part of Train Town USA.

While taking these photos I saw another westbound train was approaching!  I got back in the car and headed west looking for a good location to get pics of the train.  West end of Rieth, OR at MP 211 worked though the sun angle was not real good.  The westbound was loaded soda ash with a symbol of O-BGLV and had units 2730/5693/6733 (ET44AC/AC44CWCTE/AC44CW) up front.  The 6733 is former CNW 8831.  The time was 3:48 PM.

Mid-train DPU’s were 8314/7619/8365/8253  (SD70ACe//ES44AC/SD70ACe/ES44AC-H)

And bringing up the rear were another pair of DPU’s, 6752/8208  (AC44CW/ES44AC-H)

Back shot of the DPU’s shows the beginning of UP’s 14 mile Pilot Rock branch line curving away from the main line.

With a two hour drive ahead of me it was now time to start back for Yakima but I’d gotten a good taste of Oregon and I knew I would be back, and soon!