Pere Marquette 1225 puts on a spectacular show passing through Henderson, Michigan with the North Pole Express under clear skies in 12-degree Fahrenheit temperature on December 20, 2008.

 

Photo by Timothy Lab, used with the photographer's permission:

 

 

Edit: Beautiful video clip from the same photographer. It comes on loud, so turn your audio down before playing:

 

http://gallery.me.com/timlab/100000

Christmas Card Shot! Nicely composed.

Wow, that's a spectacular winter shot. 

 

This is some kind of weekend live steam excursion train in Knoxville, TN in summer 2006.  This is the Tennessee River at downtown Knoxville with the UT campus off to the right.

Good vantage point; Tennessee is so beautiful!

 

That may have been an excursion run by Tennessee Valley Railway Museum, at Chattanooga. I'm not familiar with all their collection, but from what I can make out, that might be former Southern Railway locomotive 4501. Before NS cancelled their steam program, it came through Fort Wayne a couple of times.

gorgeous photos - thx!

I have quite a few more of my own photographs to post after we get through the holiday humbug, and after I resolve some weather-related damage issues on my rental house.

 

Here are a few of Nickel Plate Berkshire 2-8-4 locomotive 765 on display August 19, 2007 at the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society's facility. NKP 765 was built by Lima Locomotive Works, Lima, Ohio, in 1944:

 

 

 

You might be interested to know that the sister to the above locomotive is being restored at the Ohio Central shops at Coshocton.  Former OCRR owner Jerry Jacobsen purchased the #763 from the Virginia Transportation Museum earlier this year.  Good to see some Lima-built products survive and operate.

That's good news. Ohio Central's restoration work is top-notch both in function and in appearance.

 

 

Yup...they're first-class in their work.

 

BTW: Check out the work of the photographer who took the photo of the 763.... Marica Colleli.  Here's a link to her gallery of train photos.  She's got a great eye for someone who just picked up a camera a few years ago.

 

http://www.pbase.com/mcolelli/trains

Colelli is great!  763 looks like an old bison standing on the prairie.  (If you ignore the deciduous eastern forest in fall colors behind it.)

Exactly my thought the first time I saw this photo....like an old derelict dinosaur left to rust away.  But when the Ohio Central gets done with the restoration, it will look entiely different...and better.  They stripped it of anything that could be easily stolen and stored the parts, given the unfortunate tendency of either scrap metal thieves or overzealous railfans ("foamers") to grab stuff and walk away with it.

 

Marcia's a very good photog.  Check out the rest of her galleries and leave a comment.  She's very appreciative of any feedback.

I need to come up and see this!

Fantastic shots!

Edited the first post in this thread to add a link to a beautiful video clip by the same photographer.

aww, how cute, the little train that could on the back. 

NKP 765 headed west on the former Wabash main line out of Fort Wayne, en route to Peoria IL for its first public excursions, between Peoria and Keokuk IA. The date is May 2, 1980.

 

The Pere Marquette 1225 was the locomotive actually used as the model for the computer-animated locomotive in the movie "Polar Express".

 

Great video clip.

Watch this! It gave me chills, in a very good way!

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7865518.stm

Man, that is encouraging!!  And impressive!

I've posted a couple of photos from this set earlier in this topic, but there are many more. In the 1980s I volunteered with Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society Nickel Plate Railroad locomotive 765. Those were the days when there were mainline excursions with big power, at speed. All-day excursions with 500 or more seats often sold out both days of a weekend.

 

NKP 765 is headed to Chicago in 1985 with one coach and a freight train to drop off at the EJ&E interchange. The engine will power a series of excursions on the Northwestern. Here 765 waits in a siding in 1985 as a Norfolk-Southern freight train passes. The photo below is a link to a large set of NKP 765 shop and excursion photos on my web site:

 

HeHe! I was feeling up to some sh*t and I just couldn't help myself!  :-D

 

Sorry! :wink:

High-quality video of

, last summer's event in Owosso, Michigan.

 

Found in the related videos; Cleveland's

at work.

 

 

I think they may have some interesting stuff there, but it's been a long time since I stopped. I never had the good fortune to get there when they're open, and had to content myself with peering through the chain-link fence. See if you can find a web site that has their hours, before you go.

 

The Norfolk Southern railyard at Bellevue is vast and busy, but I don't know how much you can see from off the property. NS is very testy about trespassing, and their company cops are armed.

High-quality video of

, last summer's event in Owosso, Michigan.

 

Found in the related videos; Cleveland's

at work.

 

 

 

That video is so awesome.  At the model railroad club, it's so fun to use a double header steam for longer trains.  I love seeing trains like that.

This video is so great!  Steam locos are the best.

Watch this! It gave me chills, in a very good way!

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7865518.stm

 

 

This whole thread brings back a flood of childhood memories.  Great idea.