Cass Scenic Railroad

I really like the one of the volunteer and the last one, Michael. Really looks like the train is going on forever. ; Do you know how many cars '6' would typically pull when it is/was working?

Between the pictures you and Dennis' have been contributing, I now wanna go out to my local yard and see if there would be anything fun to shoot!
 
deniz, you are living in one of the greatest railfan locations in the us, just take the metra out to lagrange, get your self a yuppie coffee and sit back and watch the steady parade of bnsf and up plus metra go on by
stay away from yards, they are usually in questionable at best neighborhoods, and since 9-11 the roalroad police are not friendly towards trespassers, and about every other month someone posts to one of the railfan forums about police that are not knowledgable about civil/photographer rights being less than railfan friendly
Ie, it's against the law to photograph trains, well mr police, not from a public roadway, well i said it is, well officer can i have your name and badge and your supervisor's name, and it goes downhill from there,
 
Thanks Deniz!

I couldn't find any data on how many cars Bix Six pulled when she was working on the Western Maryland. ; She was built to pull coal cars up the 9% grade on the Chaffee Branch in Garrett County, Maryland. ; If I had to guess, I'd say that she would have pulled somewhere between 8 to 12 coal cars.

I'll second what Dennis said about the railyards... you really don't want to go there. ; If you like steam engines, NKP 765 is pulling passenger trains this weekend for the first time since 1993. ; They are running 3 excursions a day from North Judson Indiana to LaCrosse Indiana. ; Here's the schedule: ; http://memorialdayweekendexcursions.eventbrite.com/ They're going to pull more excursions there on June 20th and 21st for the Mint Festival in North Judson

SP 4449 will be traveling through Chicago on the way to Train Festival. ; Here's the schedule for that: ; http://www.sp4449.com/trainfest.html ; It looks like they're going to have an overnight layover July 18-19th on the way to Owosso. ; On the way back, they will arrive in Chicago on July 31st, the locomotive will be on display in Chicago on August 1st and will depart for Milwaukee on August 2nd.
 
oops--sorry Michael, I didn't mean to send you off on a mini-research trip! ; But thanks for finding out; it is really interesting to piece together history through the lens of transportation, and even more interesting when the subject is just so cool looking!

I hear both and accept you and Gary on the yards. ; I actually live ; in south chi., so I am used to always having to question exactly which block is appropriate to walk down; I can see how around the yards would be a blanket ban. ; Not that I don't remain curious, but def not something to be undertaken alone.

So... I am def going to take you suggestion Gary and go to LaGrange. ; I also really want to go out the 765 event this weekend in Indiana, but it appears that (ironically or sadly depending on your take) there is no public transportation down to North Judson (or LaCrosse), which is really a shame. ; I guess I'll just have to wait!
 
Here's two more...

#11 pulls the log train over the culvert at Sugar Grove, about to attack the 8.7% grade to Whittaker Station:

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Big Six approaches the emergency water tank on the way to Bald Knob:

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More great shots, Michael.

Deniz (and anyone else who's interested), I found some useful links regarding train watching, both in Chicago and other places.

http://members.trainorders.com/n8oay/RailfansWelcome.htm is a list of places around the country that are safe and friendly to train watchers. ;

http://forums.railpictures.net/showthread.php?p=84679 is a discussion thread with information about good train watching spots around Chicago that are accessible via public transit.

There are some train exhibits at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
 
here is a link to a railfan guide to using metra for train watching/photography

http://sbcglobalpwp.att.net/w/i/willvdv/tipmetra.html

that $5.00 weekend pass is a railfans delight
 
I was at Cass last Thursday and was able to get a cab ride on the train to Bald Knob. ; Here's a photo of the fireman raking the coals.

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I'll try to post a couple more over the weekend.
 
Wow.

That sharpness reminds of me of a feeling I haven't felt since I used the 14-24.
 
Here's a couple more cab photos:

Engineer Danny keeps an eye on the tracks ahead and and a hand on the break as we drift down grade just past the first switchback:

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Fireman Chris getting his workout for the day:

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Oil cans:

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