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This week the new office was set up @ Harbor View, and doing so gave me the opportunity to dig through old photos for an image I could blow up and frame for the wall. The result was a trip back into 1996-97, with images collected from print negatives of several trips to the former (sigh) Santa Fe Transcon when Warbonnets still looked good and could still be found in solid sets.

First up, one of my favorites from the Transcon: Warbonnet GP60M #161 rushes east over US36, leading an assortment of 4-axle power between Marceline and Buckin, Mo, in northern Missouri. If only the geeps weren’t sublettered for BNSF….

Next, B40-8W #539, a GP60B and an unidentifiable Warbonnet lead a westbound vehicle train through Marceline.

 

A triplet of 6-axle Warbonnets rush an eastbound stack train through Marceline. This was and still is one of my favorite spots on the former Santa Fe in Missouri.

 

Next, a pair of Warbonnets lead an eastbound manifest freight through Marceline.

A pair of C40-8Ws lead an eastbound stack train through Bucklin in the winter of 1996.

 

Not ATSF, but still a neat shot of CN SD75Is passing eastbound through Carrollton @ sunset in 1997.

Finally, the ATSF signal bridge in Carrollton @ dusk, same day. These signals are now gone, replaced by “Vader” hoods.

 

 

Setting up shop in the new Harbor View office led to digging through old negatives in search of a specific CNW shot. I found that, plus a few more that I found interesting if for nothing else than a look back at the way things were.

First up, Southern Pacific AC4400 # 283 and C44-9W #123 lead a coal train around the curve and past Lenox tower in Mitchell, IL, as a BNSF train waits in the distance. The SP owned this former Chicago & Alton/GM&O/ICG line from St Louis to Chicago in 1996, a line Union Pacific would inherit later that year.

BN 7886 finally gets its turn past Lenox tower, heading down the A&S.

Next, the crew from NS 6151 throws the switch leading to the A&S. Running long-hood forward is just plain neat.

While the BN-led train was passing, a Gateway Western train with Santa Fe power up front passed behind it, headed for Granite City, where we caught up to it.

Finally, the previously mentioned shot of a C&NW train on the Madison sub. First, we caught this freight passing the “castle” grain elevator on the east side of Glen Carbon, led by CNW 6839.

Then we chased it east, catching it again crossing this high bridge somewhere north of Staunton, IL. This was the best shot I took of it crossing the bridge, as my next shot caught the sun’s glare off the cab window. This line is now gone, replaced by a bike trail from Glen Carbon to Worden, IL.