Steam Locomotive - Germany 1971

Mannheim, Germany 

By about 1960, steam locomotives were a thing of the past here in the United States. But in 1971, when I was stationed in Germany, there was still active steam on the rails and I had the opportunity to photograph steam locomotives in everyday service (don't remember ever riding on one though).

I shot trains in Mannheim and Heidelberg, and I believe this picture was taken in the train station at Mannheim, although my record-keeping from that time is non-existent and my memory is cloudy on things that happened 40 years ago. For that matter, my memory is a little cloudy on what happened yesterday.

Notice the passenger cars behind the locomotive; they looked old-fashioned even in 1971.

Kansas City Southern - eastbound freight

KCS freight rumbles under Cherry Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Boxcars

Vicksburg, Mississippi 

Approaching freight

The "diamond" - Charlottesville, Virginia 

A northbound freight on the Norfolk-Southern mainline approaching the diamond in Charlottesville. The single track crossing the mainline is used by CSX to return empty cars to the coal mines in West Virginia and by Amtrak's Cardinal which operates  between New York and Chicago three days a week.

When this train got closer, I was surprised to see that it was led by a former Conrail locomotive still in its Conrail paint scheme. Norfolk Southern acquired a number of locomotives from Conrail after Conrail was divided up between NS and CSX in 1999. This GE C40-8W (Dash 8), formerly Conrail 6073, was built in 1990. These photos were made in December 2007.

Winter morning

Greene County, Virginia

Tiny house

Trenton, Georgia 

This small house was across the street from a hotel in Georgia where we stayed while traveling to Mississippi recently. The house is not much bigger than a garden shed. It did not appear to be occupied, but someone is fixing it up.

G Cabin - Piedmont Subdivision

Gordonsville, Virginia 


Earlier this week I was on my way to Richmond and stopped  in Gordonsville to take this picture in the early morning rain. For another view of this signal tower (with train) and a little information on the C&O Railroad's Piedmont Subdivision, see this post.