Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: top20rrpix

Not quite a ghost town, but nearly so.... Thurmond, deep in West Virginia's New River Valley, was long the busiest point on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, but those days are long past and it's now a not-quite-ghost town. On any given day, you'll see a few trains rumble through, and a few railfans taking pictures. I've got all those pictures; you'll likely see more from time to time. A fascinating place, stuck in time. Photo taken in July, 1997.

Lake O's tiny railroad station was built by an ancestor of the Pere Marquette line in 1888. A century later it was dwarfed by the grain silos along the tracks, and PM's successor Chessie donated (or perhaps sold) the building to the local historical society. So the building was moved away from the tracks to its present location near the fairgrounds. There's a bit more information, including some fine speculation about the architectural details, here . A gorgeous building.

...or maybe Iowa, Chicago, & Eastern. Depends on which locomotive you read. Sleepy Eye, Minnesota

At the Cliffs-Erie (former LTV) complex, near Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota.

This is the CN line--the old Grand Trunk mainline--at Schoolcraft, Michigan. Photo taken Thanksgiving Day, 2006. Best LARGE . As I've said before, I'm a recovering railfan. Sometimes the addiction strikes, and I can't resist...

Part of a work train parked on the edge of Erie Mine, Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota. Taken an a tour with the Missabe Railroad Historical Society. Didn't deliberately overexpose this one--in bright light, framing a photo with the F10 is guesswork, and exposure's pretty much outside your control--but it came out nicely....

Explored! #477 on Friday, October 19, 2007, but no longer in the top 500. Thanks! The Narrow Gauge Trail at West Virginia's Babock State Park, in the New River gorge. The tracks were pulled up decades ago, and the trestles have collapsed, but the ties remain.... The Babcock Coal and Lumber Company's Manns Creek Railway carried coal down to the Chessie at the bottom of the Gorge, and lumber to the mill at Landisburg. This track was the coal line from Clifftop; the lumber mainly travelled on the higher track. Photo taken in September, 1998, with my Nikon N90s.

Explored! #184 on Friday, January 18, 2008. Thanks! Both the taconite processing plant and the F9 (Covered Wagon) are apparently functional, but unused, near Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota. This photo posted just to make my brother jealous.... We're back from vacation. More tomorrow.

A very different view of the loader at Soudan Mine Underground State Park, Tower, Minnesota. The Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range railroad line ran beneath this structure; these tracks moved the ore from the crusher to the loader. Really a marvelous artifact. Photo taken in 1990 with a Minolta Freedom 100.

One last Two Harbors photograph, for now. I have many more from this visit, and will post them at a later date. This is the usual view of the harbor at Two Harbors, Minnesota. The Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range docks dominate the view. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100. 1990.

That's what Missabe did. Folks call the dirt "ore," but it's dirt all the same. Still what they haul, actually, but now they're a division of CN. Locomotive 312 , again; up close and personal. Shot with m' Freedom 100; 1990 at Two Harbors, Minnesota.

Two Harbors, Minnesota; August 1990. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100

This was the New York Central depot in Springport, Michigan. This photograph continues my exploration of the LS&MS Lansing line ; there will be more photographs as I locate and/or take them. It also begins a brief exploration of Springport, which I visited one afternoon in 1988. According to this article by Frank Passic of Albion, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern tracks from Jonesville to Lansing were laid in 1872. The tracks north of Springport were removed in 1940, which made this little building a terminal until the southern tracks were removed in 1968. This building has been restored , and now looks like this . Certainly appears that it was being maintained in the 80s. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100 ========= This track was built by the Northern Central Michigan Railroad Company, which was a front for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. The LS&MS was, in turn, a captive/component of the New York Central. You've likely noticed that I care about this built by/owned by/merged with/trackage rights detail. Many railfans talk this way. History majors generally like checking this stuff out....

The Grand Ledge, Michigan, railroad trestle from the Ledges Trail along the Grand River. Have a good year, everyone. Blessings.

The CSX (originally Pere Marquette) railroad trestle across the Grand River in Grand Ledge. I've shown you this bridge before. Among other things, it defines the boundary of GL's Fitzgerald Park. Another shot from the Ledges Trail this afternoon. Terrific light, but an ill-chosen camera setting washed out the sky. I gotta pay more attention to this stuff.

The best photo I took on our "accidental" visit to Port Huron's Desmond Landing. This tank was left behind when the Ferry Yard was abandoned. I presume it contained fuel for the switcher, but that could (of course) be all wrong....

This is the ferry slip in Port Huron, Michigan, taken from the park they've built at Desmond Landing . CSX used to have a busy yard, just south of the Black River, whose purpose was to handle rail traffic which crossed the US/Canadian border on barges. That traffic has migrated to the new St. Clair tunnel (now named for Paul Tellier ), which opened in 1995. That's Sarnia, Ontario, in the background.