Famed rail photographer Emery Gulash once said “to be a railfan in the mid 1950’s in or near Chicago was a double barrel dream”. If that’s the case, being a Chicagoland railfan in the early 1990s meant capturing the great railroads before they were gone. Dennis Jenko caught these soon to be fallen flags: ATSF, BN, CCP, CNW, CR, CSX, EJ&E, IHB, SOO, and WC.
When Amtrak first rolled into Milwaukee, things had changed. Milwaukee Road’s Hiawatha and C&NW’s bi-level Streamliners were out, but Amtrak’s Empire Builder was in.
In this program, you will see Canadian Pacific and Soo Line GP38-2’s and GP 40’s in charge of trains climbing Short Line Hill past famous landmarks as Dayton’s Bluff, Fordson Junction and St. Paul’s Summit Brewery. Plenty of switching action is captured at Ford Yard.
The Soo Line was a classy Midwest Class One operating from Portal, North Dakota to Sault Saint Marie, (The SOO in Soo Line) Michigan, along with many branch lines throughout its system.
Classic early diesels and Soo Line cabooses in classic Soo Line red and white colors abound. Mix in post merger power of Milwaukee Road units and cabooses, and you get a colorful array of locomotives.
From the 1980s, you’ll see aging Soo F units, Alco’s and early Geeps. Second generation power includes the EMD GP30, GP35, GP40 and SD40, transitioning into the later series of GP38 and SD40 “dash two” series locomotives.
Volume 3 wraps up the Clear Block series by following the Soo Lines former Milwaukee Road lines from Kansas City to Chicago and Terre Haute, Indiana to Louisville, Kentucky.
Part 2 of Clear Block’s three part series on the Soo follows the original mainline west of the Twin Cities to Portal, North Dakota and Noyes, Minnesota. This line taps the rich farm lands of this area.
Big steam locomotive power ventured onto the high iron during the summer of 1998, and Pentrex was on the spot to capture the excitement . Join us for a look at steamers 261, 587, 4449, 844, 328, 2719 and 1003.
Winter action on the rails of the Soo Line; Burlington Northern; Chicago & North Western; Chicago Central; Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern; and the Green Bay & Western.
Visit Kansas City, the nation’s second busiest rail hub, in the early 1990s. Most of our major railroads run into the city, the names may be changed due to merger, but the trains are still there!