Recent Digital Photos
by Mike Condren

50 Years of Railroad Photography
1960-2010

Our Train Day started at the Louisiana Steam Train Association exhibit along Jefferson Highway in Metairie, LA.

Virginia and Shawn get a tour of the LASTA caboose.

At Central Ave. we found this NOPB Geep.

This BNSF stack train was stopped at the east end of the Huey P. LOng Bridge.

It was then decided that Virginia and Shawn should celebrate National Train Day by riding the City of New Orleans from NOLA to Hammond, LA with the Condrens chasing and photographing. We first photograph the train at Central Ave. in Metairie.

We then jump in our car and head back to I-10 and our chase. We catch the train as both the railroad and I-10 go onto their respective causeways.

We then race the train along I-10, I-55, and old US 51 to Manchac.

With its 79 mph authorized track speed, the "City" beats us to Hammond and is pulling away from the station as we arrive.

May 11, 2010

Ponchatoula, LA Illinois Central station

IC caboose #9956 sits behind the station at Ponchatoula, LA.

IC RPO-baggage-combine #402 sits behind the station at Ponchatoula, LA.

This is an aligator in a pen on the station grounds along the CNIC mainline, visible from Amtrak City of New Orleans.

Louisiana Cypress Lumber Co. 2-8-0 #3 sits across Pine Street from the IC station in Ponchatoula, LA.

What is it?

A little preface to the action pictured below. I was at Central Station on Friday morning May 14, 2010 to deliver my son Matt to the train. While waiting for the train, I notice a UP freight inbound on Broadway crossing the "IC" at CN Jct. When I heard a loaded BNSF unit coal train coming off the bridge, I took a photo, even though the BNSF was blocked by the UP freight. Before either of these trains cleared, a third train appeared on the BNSF as an empty unit coal train. Three trains crossing the "IC" at the same time. Because the van was packed with stuff for the move, including my telephoto lens, these photos were taken from a couple of blocks away with a normal lens.

The loaded BNSF loaded unit coal train is seen beyond the UP freight, looking through and above the freight.

The freight has finally cleared enough to get this shot of the units in the lead of the empty BNSF unit coal, the second shot "crossing Kentucky Stree".

Next we just see the tops of the three DPU units of the loaded unit coal train working very hard and sounding great, the cars of the empty train and then the last cars of the freight blocking a good view.

The freight and loaded unit coal trains have both cleared the crossing by the time that the single DPU on the empty unit coal train appears.

The "City of New Orleans" finally appears 1 hour and 6 minutes late.

After trading cars and getting the windshield gasket reseated, I started west with a van loaded with much of my slide collection for storage in Crawford County Storage in Alma, AR, a climate controlled facility. While crossing the "Lake Mississippi", the river swollen from levee to levee, I spot an empty BNSF unit coal train at Bridge Jct. I take the Mound City Road exit to track side. I could not ID the equipment working the mainline.

After making some purchases at "One Track Mind" (Best Hobby Shop in Memphis) in Mableville, AR (suburban SW Little Rock), I hear this UP freight restarting its trip north. My luck continues as a southbound UP blows by, caught over a gondola.

May 15, 2010

Here we see the DPU on the rear of a loaded unit coal train pulling into the OG&E Muskogee Power Plant over the former right-of-way of the Ozark & Cherokee Central, Muskogee Branch of the Frisco, in Ft. Gibson, OK.

May 16, 2010

Former RI Lonoke, AR station

Former RI station Carlisle, AR

Former RI station Hazen, AR

Former joint RI/Stl-SW Station in Brinkley, AR which now serves as the Cenral Delta Museum.

This former Missouri Pacific station is located on the grounds of the Museum. It was moved here from Monroe, AR.

This R J Corman engine is parked in an industrial park west of Tennessee Yard.

May 22, 2010

Clinton Presidential Library area in Little Rock, AR

This station served the Rock Island line from Memphis, TN to Tucomcari, NM. In the 1950s and early 1960s, one car trains, called Rail-Diesel-Cars or RDCs, operated a train each way a day. This was the longest route in the nation for such trains. From Little Rock to Memphis, when traffic warrented it, a trailer round-end observation was added. There was also a conventional passenger train on this same route which lasted until 1967.