Recent content by jonwray

March 4th, 2026 - UP 4014 and a mixed consist roll west on the Harriman line, Main 3 of the Laramie Subdivision, as a test run in anticipation of the beginning of her 'Coast-to-Coast' tour later in the month.

We're in pretty dire need of updated Canadian Pacific hoppers, eh...

The maiden voyage of UP's SD70M order, featuring units 4000 through 4004 (plus two SP Dash-9s as protect power) lead the hottest train on the railroad at the summit of Sherman Hill on the afternoon of May 24, 2000. Based on a James Hickey photo.

On a muggy summer evening in 1984, a trio of SBD U30Cs - one in Family Lines paint, one in full Seaboard System dress, and one still wearing her as-built L&N livery - hauls a loaded mine run back down the hill towards Conway, KY.

UP 1445 with the LQH29 hauls gondolas of scrap metal down some industrial street running on the south side of Quahog, CA.

Circa February of 2014, as BNSF's C40-8W fleet is running out its last miles in service, three of them are found on point of a low priority Stockton to Barstow manifest climbing out of Caliente, beginning the real assault on Tehachapi. A brand new ES44C4 is shoving on the rear.

An eastbound CPKC grain empty, freshly recrewed at Field, BC, waits for hotshot 149 to complete its descent of Kicking Horse Pass, before beginning its own assault on the grade.

It's often said that Christmas is just another day on the railroad; such holds true for the crew of this westbound grainer assaulting the grade out of Truckee on Christmas Eve, as another winter snowstorm begins to bear down on the Sierra Nevada range.

It's come to my attention that we don't really have any quality Canpotex hoppers in Trainz, despite the fact that they would fit very well on the Canadian Rockies route that is the face of TRS19...

Circa 1979, a quartet of DRGW geeps are leading a hot westbound through Rocky, CO, and are about to begin their assault of Big Ten Curve.

Low-priority manifest M-FRSBAR climbs through the horseshoe curve just west of Bealville with a five pack of SD40-2s on point, circa July 2006.

There usually is something of a gap between contests, they are most likely busy.

476 and 481 lead a northbound passenger train near the NM/CO state line on what would eventually become the Cumbres and Toltec.

An eastbound SP coal train is in the siding at Granby, as westbound California Zephyr #5/Desert Wind #35 pulls in for its station stop, running a few minutes early.

A westbound freight on the Rockland Portside Railway, led by ex-UP GP7 #101, takes the siding in Wiscasset to meet an eastbound RDC set headed for Rockland.