Contributions of the group I Love American Trains

Locomotive and Fence

nobody@ipernity.com (Robert Swanson) — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:02:21 +0000

Taken near the rail yards at Belen, New Mexico. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe use this, primarily to fuel trains. The fences are there to keep us out of these busy yards.

I took this photo near the Harvey House museum, which is just alongside the track.

Some of the trains that stop here are 3 miles long.

Image processed with GIMP.

Fences at Belen Rail Yard

nobody@ipernity.com (Robert Swanson) — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:02:17 +0000

Robert Swanson has posted:

Taken near the rail yards at Belen, New Mexico. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe use this, primarily to fuel trains.

The public (us) is kept away from the active tracks by these fences. I took the photos from the Harvey House museum parking lot.

Some of the trains that stop here are 3 miles long.

Image processed with GIMP.

Maintenance Equipment, Bailey Yard, North Platte

nobody@ipernity.com (Robert Swanson) — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:50:10 +0000

Robert Swanson has posted:

Taken at the Bailey Yard, the largest railway freight-handling yard in the world. Located in North Platte, Nebraska.

Taken from the viewing tower ($$). You need to be high up, so you can get a feel for the huge place. Amazing views.

Image processed with GIMP.

Many Tracks, Bailey Yard, North Platte

nobody@ipernity.com (Robert Swanson) — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:50:13 +0000

Robert Swanson has posted:

Taken at the Bailey Yard, the largest railway freight-handling yard in the world. Located in North Platte, Nebraska.

Taken from their viewing tower ($$), in hopes that you can try to get a feel for the huge place.

Many tracks in the foreground, but there are many more beyond them in the distance.

PiP includes a link to a map of the yards. (Photo taken from tower located bottom center of the map)

Image processed with GIMP.

Map of Bailey Yard, North Platte, Nebraska

nobody@ipernity.com (Robert Swanson) — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 20:35:13 +0000

Robert Swanson has posted:

This is an attempt to show the vast size of the Bailey Yards in North Platte, Nebraska, the largest railway yards in the world. I took a number of photos from the viewing tower that is located at the center bottom of this map. The PiP point to some of the views taken.

The statistics are awesome:

covers 2,850 acres

reaching a total length of eight miles

Put end-to-end, Bailey Yard’s trackage totals 315 miles

Every 24 hours, Bailey Yard handles 10,000 railroad cars.

Of those, 3,000 are sorted daily in the yard

Two hump yards allow four cars a minute to roll gently into any of 114 “bowl” tracks where they become part of trains headed for dozens of destinations.

Together, these two yards have 17 receiving and 16 departure tracks.

The fueling and service center processes more than 9,000 locomotives each month

On-site Car Repair This facility annually replaces 10,000 pairs of wheels

Image courtesy of MapCarta

Screenshot and processing with GIMP

UP 4005 "Big Boy" in Forney Museum, Denver, Colorado

nobody@ipernity.com (Robert Swanson) — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 16:26:55 +0000

Robert Swanson has posted:

This Big Boy is displayed under cover at the museum, so is in excellent condition. The only problem we had was getting the entire locomotive in the camera frame.

Image processed with GIMP

(This is the only Big Boy to suffer an accident, and it was, sadly, fatal to the engineer and fireman.)

Cab of Union Pacific Steam Locomotive #4023 (Big Boy) H.A.N.W.E.

nobody@ipernity.com (Robert Swanson) — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:07:46 +0000

Robert Swanson has posted:

Well, we finally saw all of the Big Boy's that are displayed in static. (Of course, we have shared photos of the operating locomotive 4014).

This unit is located on a hill in Omaha, Nebraska, overlooking the river and interstate. Quite a climb to get up to the viewing area.

The day we visited is was raining on and off, but there was a bit of blue and clouds reflected in the cab window.

Image processed with GIMP.

swansongrp.com/P/p/rail_narrative/x4023_static

Union Pacific Big Boy #4023 (H.A.N.W.E.)

nobody@ipernity.com (Robert Swanson) — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 18:58:51 +0000

Robert Swanson has posted:

Well, we finally saw all of the Big Boy's that are displayed in static. (Of course, we have shared photos of the operating locomotive 4014).

This unit is located on a hill in Omaha, Nebraska, overlooking the river and interstate. Quite a climb to get up to the viewing area.

The day we visited is was raining on and off, but there was just a sliver of blue sky to be seen.

Image processed with GIMP.

swansongrp.com/P/p/rail_narrative/x4023_static

Proctor Yard

nobody@ipernity.com (Joel Dinda) — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 12:25:02 +0000

Joel Dinda has posted:

DM&IR locomotives parked up the hill from Duluth; taken during a Missabe Railroad Historical Society convention in August of 1987. Scanned from TMax 100 film.

A Passing Train

nobody@ipernity.com (Joel Dinda) — Sun, 03 May 2020 10:41:43 +0000

Joel Dinda has posted:

With tractors. Mulliken, 12/23/2017.

EMD G8 locomotive

nobody@ipernity.com (Blue rubber octopus) — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 16:43:23 +0000

Blue rubber octopus has posted:

South of Boulder, Colorado

CN

nobody@ipernity.com (Joel Dinda) — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 00:37:52 +0000

Joel Dinda has posted:

9/365

F9s

nobody@ipernity.com (Joel Dinda) — Fri, 04 May 2018 11:36:51 +0000

Joel Dinda has posted:

"Covered Wagons," the railfans call 'em. At Erie Mining Company, Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota. Photo taken 8/5/2006 during a Missabe Railroad Historical Society convention tour.

Lake Superior and Ishpeming 1608

nobody@ipernity.com (Joel Dinda) — Thu, 03 May 2018 11:53:58 +0000

Joel Dinda has posted:

An Alco RS3 at LS&I's Eagle Mills yard, in August of 1989.

Photo taken during a tour with the DSS&A SIG of the Soo Line Historical and Technical Society. Scanned from a slide.

Proctor Yard

nobody@ipernity.com (Joel Dinda) — Wed, 02 May 2018 13:59:05 +0000

Joel Dinda has posted:

And my brother, Richard. Proctor's up the hill from Duluth.

Photo taken 8/8/1987 during the Missabe Railroad Historical Society's annual convention. Scanned from a negative.

I sometimes call myself a "recovering railfan." The reason most of my rail photographs are old is that I stopped chasing trains in the early 1990s.

Iowa Chicago & Eastern-Dakota Minnesota & Eastern

nobody@ipernity.com (Joel Dinda) — Tue, 01 May 2018 15:36:03 +0000

Joel Dinda has posted:

Depends which locomotive you read....

At Sleepy Eye, Minnesota; photo taken 6/5/2007.

Two Harbors Yard

nobody@ipernity.com (Joel Dinda) — Sun, 29 Apr 2018 11:06:04 +0000

Joel Dinda has posted:

Photo taken 8/4/1990 at a Missabe Railroad Historical Society convention. Two Harbors, Minnesota.

In the Fog on the White Pass & Yukon Route

nobody@ipernity.com (mg1744) — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 23:40:52 +0000

mg1744 has posted:

The White Pass & Yukon Route is the narrow gauge (3 foot or 914mm) rail link between Skagway, Alaska and Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory in Canada, a distance of 107 miles (172km). The summit of White Pass marks the US/Canadian border at an elevation of 2,865 feet (879m). Because the distance from Skagway at sea level is only a little over 20 miles (32km) the grade is a relatively steep 3.9 percent. The WP&YR was built between May, 1898 and July, 1900 to facilitate access to the Klondike gold fields replacing the arduous foot passage known as the Chilkoot Trail immortalized in the famous photo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilkoot_Pass#/media/File:Miners_climb_Chilkoot.jpg) of miners portaging their supplies in September, 1898. Photo was taken from an outbound summit excursion passing another train returning to Skagway.

Submitted to the January, 2018 Contest Without Prize, theme "Lokomotiven (Locomotives)" as entry #41.

On the Trestle

nobody@ipernity.com (mg1744) — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 23:52:19 +0000

mg1744 has posted:

Union Pacific locomotive #5905 is a General Electric model C44ACCTE (AC4400CW) unit delivered on January 8, 2003. This type of diesel-electric unit has a power output of 4400 horsepower and is equipped with C-C trucks (three powered axles on two identical trucks. The locomotive weighs 426,000 pounds (193,000 kg) with a fuel capacity of 5,000 gallons (19,000l) and is ideally suited to long, heavy haul applications. In this case the train is crossing the Cache la Poudre River at Fort Collins heading north, likely to the coalfields in Wyoming. I know from personal experience that such trains average between 75 and 100 cars in length. View is to the southwest.

Submitted to the January, 2018 Contest Without Prize, theme "Lokomotiven (Locomotives)" as entry #8.

Cumbres & Toltec Railroad chase (# 0136)

nobody@ipernity.com (Don Barrett (aka DBs travels)) — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 07:43:32 +0000

Don Barrett (aka DBs travels) has posted: