#emde-unit

Joliet This image shows a Rock Island outbound commuter train clacking over the ATSF/GM&O tracks at Joliet. This has always been a great spot for rail enthusiasts. The wonderful station here is made from Indiana limestone, but I'm not certain about the make up of iconic tower on the other side. The locomotive is an EMD E8A built for the Union Pacific in 1953.

Amtrak Floridians

Here are two Amtrak Floridians on the Louisville & Nashville, former Monon. The trains are seen crossing over the east fork of the White River, in the span of an hour or less, just south of Bedford, Indiana.

This is during the time where the SDP40Fs were sidelined with a mysterious derailment issue, and before many F40PHs were delivered (hence the luck of seeing the wonderful E-units). Number 402 is an E9A built in 1955, former B&O; number 439 is an E8A built in 1952 for the RF&P. The dome in the first image is Silver Ranch, a California Zephyr car built for the CB&Q.

More from Harrisburg

Here are a couple of Es sitting at the station in Harrisburg. Since they’re pointing eastward, I imagine that they’ve come off the National Limited and will need turning before they head back toward the Midwest on return.

Number 447 is an ex-Pennsylvania E8A that was built in 1952. (Someone told me the hooks on the nose are a give-away to this fact, though I think at least one other road had them.) I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that E-units look darn good in Phase I.

Over the White River

This train, a northbound Amtrak Floridian, is on the former Monon, which was owned by the Louisville & Nashville by the time of the photograph being made. The legacy equipment is looking quite good, six years after the creation of Amtrak.

The line has been abandoned for some years, but I believe the track and bridge deck are still in place. The location is the White River just south of Bedford, Indiana; the locomotive is an EMD E9A that was built in 1954 as UP 943.

Trains of the Hudson Valley

Here are three Amtrak trains I photographed on the former New York Central, just north of Cold Spring, New York. This was part of the railroad’s famous “Water Level Route” between New York and Chicago—which went north along the Hudson River, west across the state, not terribly far from the Erie Canal, and then to follow the shores of the Great Lakes the remainder of the way.

The first image shows a northbound train just north of Cold Spring. The second has a southbound train with Pollepel Island visible in the background (the structure thereon is called Bannerman Castle). The locomotive type in these first two images are the unique EMD FL9.

The trio to complete the set is yet another southbound train in that same vicinity. The quality of these images is not great, which didn’t help me ID the locomotive, but I was very interested in that second E-unit in the consist—which turned out to be from New Jersey Transit.