Past Pictures From The Main Page

These are pictures that were previously on the home page.
Hope I made it easier on ya'll that still have phone modems by thumbnailing the pictures.....

For now, Altoona remains on the PL fan's Bucket List.... In this shot taken from the overpass at the Amtrak station you can see dwarf, pedestals, and full size PL signals. This won't be for long, because new color light signals are currently going up numbering the PL's days. Used 11/1/2011 thru 1/13/2012

Safetran's Unilens signals on the south end of a CP Rail siding in New Milford PA, between Binghamton NY and Scranton PA.... off I-81 at exit 223.
This whole line uses the signals. Used till Nov 1, 2011

Two pictures of PRR Pedestal Signals with red lenses, affectionately called "red-eye" or "red snake eye" signals. Taken along Rt147 on the east bank of the Susquehanna River across from Duncannon PA. For some reason, they are only found west of Harrisburg PA.
Photos courtesy South Jersey Mike. Used till 9SEP2011

Great shot in downtown Roanoke Virginia, looking west from the Hotel Roanoke overpass. The close set of CPL's used be mounted on the 1st St NW bridge (in black), but now sit on a new cantilever bridge. Railwalk is to the left, the concrete bridge is 2nd St. used till 9JUN2011
Photo by Mike Falls My Roanoke guide is here

Two pictures of the same signal in Farmington MN, where, instead of using two heads, they used a four aspect head so they could show a red over red with the one head. Photos by Jim S. used till 2MAY2011

Pix of the lunar eclipse last night, the left and center ones are from around 03:40, and the right one was taken around 04:15 eastern time, taken with a Canon SX20IS with the lens all the way out at x80, not too bad for a non-SLR and being basically handheld... we were in Midlothian (Richmond) VA and it was pretty clear in the direction of the moon 21DEC2010
More info at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2010_lunar_eclipse

A colorlight signal in Cumberland MD, I believe on the ex WM.
Notice the mix of old WM heads with the large backgrounds in contrast with a newer Darth Vader head. used till 12/28/2010

It's not very often that my non-train friends send something to me, so this month I'd like to feature a picture by Matt Brock, which he took on a recent visit to the Western Maryland Scenic RR with his son Jason. The WM Scenic runs the only regular steam in Maryland, and runs west out of Cumberland to Frostburg.
A really nice hikey-bikey trail, the Great Allegheny Passage, accompanies the railroad the distance and beyond.... Thanks Matt! used till 11/13-10

Searchlight signals looking northeast from the Dearborn Street crossing at Delray Tower, Detroit MI. Used till 8/5/2010

Appropriate for this time of the year, Tim Vermande captures Chicago & South Shore #17 near Pine Rd. in South Bend in February 1978. See more of his pictures HERE used till 5/2/2010

This cantilever signal bridge is in Roanoke VA, along the N&W main at Park Street, adjacent to the now closed Park St. Tower. This picture shows a small sampling of the variety of configurations N&W signal heads can appear in. This kicks off my new page for N&W signals. 9/09-1/10

This copyrighted photo is courtesy Marcus Neubacher, and is from his webpage that can be found at the link below.
The picture is along CSX's old Clinchfield route between Sevier and Altapass, NC.
The caption for the photo is as follows: A favorite railfan location in the Loops is Camp Two, which is the middle tier of three levels of track that twist through this location. This northbound empty train has just passed through Rocky and traversed a horseshoe curve to arrive here at Camp Two. Still upgrade is Ridge, where the rails pass through Blue Ridge Tunnel, cross the Eastern Continental Divide, and arrive at Altapass, the highest point on the Clinchfield. All of that is approximately seven rail miles "north" of Camp Two, way up on the hillside above this train.
For more of his great photos of this wonderful line, and his N-gauge model railroad,
the Charleston, Roanoke & Eastern Railway, please check out: http://www.kntower.com/5.html

Here is a photo sent to me by Earl Hackett (which someone sent him years ago), taken east of Hinton WV in 1947. The photo is on the internet as "Fales A", and after Earl did some research, we believe the photo was taken by Bruce Fales. The tower looks to be "Cabin A" judging from the "A" on the side of the tower. If you look closely, you will see six signals in the picture. Two high signals for the mainline, two dwarf's (one is a two aspect, the other is a three aspect), a train order signal on the tower, and a dwarf hanging off the side of the near cantilever bridge. The dwarf on the cantilever is Y/G/R. This was apparently a turn around for helpers assisting trains coming out of Hinton. Allegheny tunnel is just west of here, and the tower still stands today. A most interesting photo, Thanks Earl! BTW, the C&O called their towers CABINS, and not towers!...6/29/2008

A Southbound Penn Central train heading into B&P Tunnel in Baltimore,
two E-44's and a GG1 on the lead,
(and yes, this is a train even tho there are no freight cars)
Pennsy PL's way before the change to Amtrak PCL's.
Picture taken in May of 1970

A pair of pictures of a US&S Searchlight signal with a doll post in Lineville AL on an ex-SCL line,
one of which includes a shot of a classic SCL whistle post.
As with many other railroads, they use a high signal for the mainline and a dwarf for the siding.
Photos courtesy John Higginson.
--- 07/25/2007

Griswolds are still alive and kicking (sans stopsign) in Minneapolis MN
This one is on the way from BNSF's Northtown Yard to Minnesota Commercials home in St Paul

A couple of GRS dwarf searchlight signals on the way out of Buffalo on the CSX (ex New York Central) mainline. Nice cantilever bridge in the background.

NB double headed local freight on the Penn Central in Timonium MD, just north of Padonia Rd, with a SB Pennsy PL
Where was I when they were taking these guys down? from Oct 1973

This shot was taken in downtown Roanoke VA in September of 2005. Sometime in the mid 60's (I believe), the Norfolk and Western colorized their Position Lights (PL's) to what you see above. Prior to the switchover, the signals were similar to the Pennsy signals with all amber lenses, and the equipment they use is identical. The signal to the right illustrates one of the advantages of CPL's, where you can still see the aspect is red over red, even with the one bulb burned out.. If the lower lamp burns out, you still have the two on the top head to indicate the most restrictive aspect. The dwarf signal is an interesting adaptation for a CPL. It is supported by brackets to get it off the ground.

This signal protects a private grade crossing, south of Salem and Roanoke VA. Salem is to the left, Christiansburg is to the right.

These B&O CPL's are in south Baltimore, on the main line to DC. Picture taken from Patapsco Ave.

A couple of shots from "yesteryear". The left one above, and the left one below were both taken on the last day of revenue service (1/1/05) before the double tracking project got underway on the north end of the Baltimore Light Rail System. On top, we are looking north from the Timonium station, where the two tracks went into one. They have moved the switch you see to the opposite (south) side (see below) of the station, probably in anticipation of resuming service only to the Timonium stop (for the next few months). Service started 11/1/05 to Timonium. Why couldn't they have placed the signal on the catenary support pole? ----- Below left, is the Joppa Rd. overpass, rebuilt in approx. 1990, again, knowing that someday they may want to put in a second track. Almost every signal south of Warren Rd. went thru some sort of change, they even eliminated some completely, such as the northbound signal about a quarter of a mile south of where I live. The roof to the right of the picture is the old Northern Central Riderwood Railroad station, which sold in early 2005 for $675K (three years earlier they bought it for $275K!) The picture on the right also shows something they should have done on the whole system, and that was to put the pole line down the middle, instead of spending untold millions of dollars putting up a whole new pole line for the second track, making things look twice as ugly.

Two current views from Timonium are above middle (looking north) and right (looks south). The northbound signals are gone, a temporary high-block has put in place, ductwork for the cables has been installed in the center of the tracks, and they moved the crossover to the south side so northbound trains coming into the station could take either side.

The right photo is from the same vantage point as the left, almost a year later. The second (southbound) track is in - trains are running, they removed a pole from the middle, and replaced it with TWO poles... why, who knows? (More stupid engineering as far as I am concerned) The signal(s) on the far side of the underpass are gone, and they placed yet another fence to keep people from traversing the center "embankment" between the two tunnels (there are already two fences at the top, I guess they wanted to make sure!).

Ex B&O station in Aberdeen MD, designed by Frank Furness, built around the turn of the last century. This was almost torn down and has been saved by the Harford Historical Society in 2003. It is supposed to be the centerpiece of a new park or shopping district once moved further away from the right-of-way. Picture taken in July 2003, before a temporary fence was put up around it to keep people like myself away from the building. I spent about 2 hours taking measurements of the building!

Single Aspect B&O CPL at the CSX Locomotive Maintenance Facility in Cumberland MD

Westbound Norfolk Southern freight at Berea OH
I betcha those NS signal posts looked a lot better with semaphores on them instead of the tri-lights!
To the right is a great restaurant to watch trains from - good food, reasonable prices

A B&O dwarf CPL with three markers, on the west leg of Bailey's wye in downtown Baltimore
Photo by Michael Watnoski

New Haven Freight coming off of Hell Gate bridge in Queens, New York City, taken in Oct 1968 - That 6th floor apartment was great for watching trains! Just to the right, off the picture, was a semaphore for the train - never did get a picture of it, and it was there till they took the ironwork down in the early 80's - about a mile and a half up the r-o-w was a semaphore for NB trains - never knew how lucky I was

A NS Dash 9 is headed into a siding under Amtrak PCL's on the Northeast Corridor in Newark DE - from the SEPTA station platform looking north

New York Central eastbound searchlights in Depew NY, opposite the Amtrak station..... very high traffic density, worthwhile spot to stop at, especially since you're almost at the front door of the airport

Picture from pamphlet #1364 - "A Centennial - History of ALSTOM Signaling Inc." 1904-2004
BTW - The CTC machine was installed in 1927