Photos of some "foreign power"

[Bill Richardson]

   Some people refer to railroads other than Norfolk Southern as "foreign power".  To me, trains are trains.  NS happens to be the dominant road name in this region, so that is about all I see around here.  As I said before, I like to see different names and colors.  I like NS, but I like to see some variety.  Heritage units are a rarity.

   There is a train yard in Fulton, KY.  It used to belong to Illinois Central.  I forgot when, but Canadian National bought out IC years ago and took over that yard.  My wife and I have some family members who live in Fulton, and now and then we go there to visit.  We spent some time there this year, and as usual, I went to the train yards to see if there was anything interesting.  Now and then there is.  I always saw CN engines of course, usually the older ones used for yard engines.  They always have two or four 4-axle engines for yard work, and sometimes one or more 6-axle engines for that purpose.  I have seen two orange EJ&E engines there, and a few other names, including IC.  There use to be two old brick shop buildings from the old IC days.  They are gone now; razed in the last year or so.  I do have photos of them, and have them posted on my Fulton page.  Those buildings were rare, to me anyway.

   I had been there several times and not seen an IC engine.  I asked an employee if any ever came through, and he said now and then one will show up.  One morning I found one out there, but it had some rail cars between it and me, and I was on the east side, the sunny side.  I drove around to the other side and had a clear view, but was on the shady side.  I made some photos anyway, and they are fairly decent.  Later on, at another time, I found two IC engines parked together, hooked.  Both were SD-70 units.  I made a bunch of photos of them.  I had the sun on them too.

021b--Fulton---IC-1035 and IC-1029--both SD70---900px--tg by Bill Richardson, on Flickr

     I always look up older engines I make photos of to see what they are, and to see what other road name they used to have if any.  I did that with a lot of the engines I saw at Fulton, and included links on my Fulton page to photos by other people showing those engines in their former incarnations.  Here is an example of one not on my web page yet, a CN engine that used to belong to PL&E (Pittsburg & Lake Erie) and GTW (Grand Trunk Western).

PICT2360b--CN-5844---GP38-2---former GTW and former PLE--Pittsburg and Lake Erie--850px--tg by Bill Richardson, on Flickr

Here is a link to a photo of that engine with the PL&E paint: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5061555

I have found four or five road names associated with some engines.  To me, it is interesting to see what older engines used to look like.


    In a recent post, I mentioned that I saw a train in Fulton with three engines that had a Tennessee road name, one I didn't now about--Western Tennessee RR.  It also had engines I was not familiar with, GE "U-Boats".  I might have a photo or two of one of that kind, but I'm not sure.  I have photos of some unusual (to me) GE engines in the NS paint.  Here are three photos of those WTNN engines.

PICT2184b--sample--West Tenn RR engines--5517,5543,4072--859px--tg by Bill Richardson, on Flickr


PICT2199b--sample--West Tenn RR--engines at Fulton,KY--5517,5543,4072--849px--tg by Bill Richardson, on Flickr


PICT2197b--sample--West Tenn RR---WTNN-4072--B23-7-- at Fulton,Ky--846px--tg by Bill Richardson, on Flickr

The model numbers, as I call them, are:  WTNN-5517---C30-7;   WTNN-5543---C30-7;   WTNN-4072---B23-7
I read a little on a page about those engines saying that the B23-7 is somewhat rare now days.  Something like that.  I saw one.


   One day I found a train parked by a road just outside of town, on the north side of the parkway.  It was headed by a KCS modern engine, and had an old 4-axle engine among the three units.  It was parked, so I got a few photos.  Here is one.

PICT2348b--sample--KCS-5008 near Fulton,KY--849px--tg--copy by Bill Richardson, on Flickr

     Another day, I found a BNSF engine parked with a train in the same place.  Good place.  The yard is on the south side of the parkway.  There wasn't much going on this past summer, because of the covid I guess, but I still saw some CN engines and a few others, and fed the cameras.  There isn't much going on around here it seems.  We moved, so I don't live near the tracks any more, here in the Stanford/Danville region, and don't hear trains going by like I used to.  We used to live near the CNO&TP lines and I could hear them going by.  I just check the yard at Danville now and then.  I happened to go through Burnside last Thursday, and saw nothing while I was going south, then coming back I saw a train going out from the crew change office area.  I had missed the engines.  Oh well.  Maybe something interesting will turn up soon.