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The daily CN Gladstone to Partridge siding (Near Marquette, Mi) turn slowly snakes around the edge of Lake Michigan within the Gladstone yard limits. This train is responsible for all traffic moving in and out of the Marquette, Ishpeming, and connecting western branches, as it is the only active route to the area. Other railroads serviced are the Lake Superior And Ishpeming; and the Mineral Range Railroad; as well as CN's L'Anse branch.

On my first two day visit to the KJRY I was greeted by this lashup that slowly worked its way to Keokuk, Iowa and then back towards Mapleton, Illinois. The 10MPH speed limit made for an easy chase. Although the Illinois landscape isn't as scenic, there are plenty of structures, bridges, and curves to give different angles to work with. More photos coming soon.

With the introduction of SD60Ms to the Wisconsin Southern years ago, lashups like these fell into obscurity. The SD60Ms are known for their patched UP paint job and disliked.

Cliff's North Shore Mining is a short railroad that hails taconite to the harbors in Silver Bay, MN. Along CR-3 you'll find a plethora of great angles to shoot NSM trains, including this one, here we see a tailings train working its way to the dump northwest of town, these trains have an SD40-2 on either end with a string of side dump cars in between. Tailings are a byproduct of the ore refining process.

CPKC train 247 makes its way through the Wisconsin countryside, putting up a tough chase! The train has special locomotives in tow, including an ex SOO SD60, patched, but in its original paint; an LTEX GP15; and a CP SD40-3. The train is running on Milwaukee Road's Chicago to St. Paul double track mainline, which was eventually taken over by Soo Line, then CP, and now CPKC. The folks around here miss the orange, and black days of Wisconsin, a time in which I never really got to experience. This lashup is nostalgic of what I saw growing up, which was the rainbow days of Soo Line, CP, and once in a while patched MILW.

WAMX 4180 pulls a short train along the Wisconsin Southern's Prairie Subdivision. The branch was once owned by the Milwaukee Road, evident by the flanger signs that still stand guard at numerous crossings, switches and bridges. The Prairie Sub is the longest branch line on Wisconsin Southern, but its western side doesn't see as much traffic as other routes, nevertheless, this line is getting lots of attention in the form of upgrades and it is unlikely it will ever cease operation anytime soon.

UPY 700 and UPY 705 pull an empty gondola along N Madison St in Rockford, Illinois.

Along railroads everywhere, there are scenes and structures we can't photograph, and may not even know about unless you work for the railroad, this is an example of one. A stone retaining wall sits between a road and the railroad on the west side of Hartland, Wi. My father used to sit on the wall and watch Milwaukee Road freights when he was my age. Drones now allow photographers to capture images in locations that were once impossible to legally shoot. Check out this video and more on my YouTube, Roamin' Around With Roman.

The Illinois Railway Streator branch has been used for storage for quite some time now, which means it only sees a train when storage cars are coming in or out. The last time a train traveled south of Ottawa, Illinois was three years and two months ago, the line is still maintained with hopes to interchange at NS in Streator, but a contract with BN/BNSF prevents this from happening. The Illinois River bridge (Pictured) is sitting on soft ground meaning only one unit can travel the bridge at a time, the bridge is otherwise structurally sound.

One of the last GP60s in Cotton Belt paint sorts cars around in Janesville, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Southern uses Canadian National to link its Northern and Southern Divisions, requiring PTC on any lead unit. WSOR had 10 SD40-2's equipped with PTC to handle the T3/T4 trains over CN, after the SD60Ms joined the roster they moved the PTC from 9 SD40-2s to SD60Ms, leaving only one... 4173.

The DREI seems to be full of friendly crew, on both of my recent trips to the WATCO owned Decatur and Eastern Illinois Railroad I was treated to polite and friendly crews, one of which tossed a water out of the cab window which helped me later on down the road as I almost had to cut out of a chase to pick up more water (Hot day). Anyways... DREI job 300 moves light after working the Charleston branch with an unusual amount of power, a grain train ran down the Charleston sub where this set tied down and ran up the next day, lucky me!

WSOR L867 (Baraboo, Wi- Reedsburg, Wi) makes its way through Rock Springs. This once double track mainline was C&NW's route from Chicago to the Twin Cities. Large sections of the once bustling mainline are now gone, the rest is now operated by either UP or WSOR, the C&NW shifted most of its trackage to what is now the UP Adams sub, built for greater speed in 1910/1911.

L467 works its way along the shore of Devils Lake State park, easily one of the most beautiful spots for railroad photography in Wisconsin.

Ripon, Wi; WAMX 4223, an EMD SD40-2 with an SD45 carbody leads a train on the ex Milwaukee Road Oshkosh branch.