After reading the replies to TRNBUF’s excellent shots, I just have to share a few pictures I took during the height of the winter storm in Utica. Grab your muffler…
Amtrak 284 arriving at Utica Union Station (on time!):
Don’t let anyone tell you nobody rides Amtrak - there was another trap boarding as well.
A westbound auto rack came into town while I was on the (covered) bridge. That’s some of the Adirondack Scenic’s equipment on the left - the GP9 that’s playing peekabo is on the south end of the Polar Express train (we run it pull-pull)
I was on the ground when an eastbound stack came through shortly thereafter.
Oh - and by the way, busting through snowbanks at crossings is as fun in the locomotive as it is watching from trackside… (working trackside in knee deep snow leaves a lot to be desired, however…)
I think there might be some hot chocolate over at the diner, for those who now feel the need.
For our tropical Forumites, COLD is when you can’t drive a thumbtack into the ground with a sledgehammer! (Learned about that in South Dakota - and now you know why I moved to Southern Nevada.)
I must confess to have never driven in the snow in my life. But I do appreciate cold after spending two winters in West Germany being all I could be in the US Army.
I’ve always admired and respected the efforts needed to run locomotives across snow covered terrain and mountain passes. That just has to be difficult and dangerous.
Great shots, Larry! I always enjoy photos taken in trying weather. No matter how bad it gets, the railroad keeps going, and it’s nice to see shots that demonstrate that fact.
…Yes, Larry’s photos are showing Winter type weather. I can certainly recognize that.
Looks like that overhead bridge in the background {in the first photo}, is the one seen {in the far distance}, in his photo from the 7th story hotel window…Sure is a nice looking little steamer {NYC}, visible in one of the photos there…
When I lived up north, I spent much of my time taking train pix in Indiana in the snow. Snow and trains just seem to go together for me. These are great shots, Larry. Thanks for bringing back some memories.
Actually we did travel over Donner Pass in the Winter two years ago…on Amtrak. We boarded the train in Emeryville, across the Bay from San Francisco, and had a wonderful trip. It wasn’t snowing very much so no rotaries were seen. But the trip did remind me of my numerous childhood trips to the midwest on Santa Fe’s San Francisco Chief. What a great way to travel.
Cold did not stop me when I was younger. The very first pictures I took with the Argus C-3 that my dad passed along to me when we got him a new camera for Christmas were in January 1969 at a temperature of 10 degrees!
The steamer is reportedly the only NYC steam locomotive left in NY.
The Genesee Street bridge seen in these photos is just out of sight on the right of the hotel shot. The highway bridge you see in the distance in the hotel shot is NYS12/NYS8. Not discernable in that picture is the old truss bridge over the Mohawk River, right before the highway overpass. You’re looking north. These shots are looking east and west.
Not sure we can match you in snowfall amounts, but we’ve had our share of the brutality here. Chicago was pretty much on the north edge of the weekend’s storm, and places to the south of us got more snow than the 5-7" that hit us. Snow was ended by Sunday morning, but then the wind picked up, making life difficult for the RCOs and keeping a couple of maintainers hopping while dealing with power switch failures, etc. No derailments, though.
One little tidbit, I remember having to scoop out the airhorn when it got plugged with ice and snow I see that the airhorn on the Amtrack engine is pretty clear. Does the nearby exhaust have something to do with that?
Cold is when the horsies refused to cross a small stream ford that has been frozen over and you got to haul 60-100 pounds of feed in buckets 1/2 a mile to where they are herded in a circle patiently waiting your arrival with the feed.
