YardGoatImages

05/19/2026

05/09/2026

A legendary homecoming 70 years in the making! 🚂 We are thrilled to welcome back the former D&RGW steam Locomotive No. 340 to its home rails for a very limited series of trips June 5th and June 6th..

Built in 1881 and a crown jewel of Knott's Berry Farm for decades, No. 340 has returned to the San Juan Mountains after a major rebuild in our Durango shops. Don't miss this rare chance to see a 19th-century "Consolidation" steam engine pulling vintage coaches through the Animas Canyon once again. 🏔️✨

05/09/2026

04/14/2026

Why would a group called North East make a post about a south east railroad? Surprise!

North East Narrow Gauge Railroad Society has acquired the equipment of the Sam Werner Lumber company out of Tracy City Tennessee. Including 3’ gauge locomotive 701, originally MP Mcgarth of Bayonne NJ later NC&STL 701. Built by Vulcan in 1910, the only remaining Billmeyer & Smalls of York, PA two axle freight car in original condition. Plus a 3’ gauge track cart and arch bar trucks. This was part of a deal struck with the Sam Werner Military Museum in Monteagle TN.
As of writing this, the equipment is eastbound and down or it's 900 mile journey to Ralston, PA and the Loyalsock Valley Antique Machinery Association.

04/13/2026

04/10/2026

04/09/2026

Iconic train in an iconic spot! I made the run this morning to catch the ... the largest operating steam locomotive on earth, currently on the west coast end of its 2026 nationwide tour. This is the spot I didn't make it to the last time the Big Boy was in the area. This is the Keddie Wye; a pretty famous feat of railroad engineering that is well known to rail fans. It's the only "wye" in the world with two legs on bridges that meet in a tunnel. The tunnel (Tunnel No. 31) is just out of frame to the right in this photo. That's Spanish Creek down there below, on its way into the Feather River.

According to Wikipedia: "The Western Pacific Railroad (now part of the Union Pacific) built the tracks along the Feather River in 1909 to complete a route from the San Francisco Bay Area to Salt Lake City, Utah, providing an alternate to the Southern Pacific's route over Donner Pass. Keddie was the site of the "last spike" ceremony held on November 1, 1909.
Construction started on the branch running north to Bieber in 1930 and was completed in 1931, along with the north and southeast legs of the wye. This allowed the Western Pacific to diverge from its east-west route (along the west leg of the wye) and go north to an interchange with the Great Northern Railway (now BNSF Railway) and its traffic from the Pacific Northwest."

We were not alone in this spot today obviously... I'd guess there were between 75 and 100 people waiting for the Big Boy here this morning. I took this photo with a DJI Mavic 3 Classic drone, which allowed me to get a unique angle compared to the usual view at this location.

For the railroad fans: yes! I do make and sell my own prints, it's what I do. Fine art paper, canvas, and metals. I'll put a link to my website in the comments if anyone is interested in a print.

02/06/2026

Packing snow in a refrigerated rail car to send to Florida, February 20, 1967. Desperate for places to put the stuff, the city dumped it in vacant lots, Park District land, neighborhood lots, even the Chicago River. The Chicago rail yards came up with their own solution for snow that built up in their depots. They loaded it on freight trains already heading south. The warmer weather would do the job, melting the stuff in transit.

The story of shipping snow by train was picked up by national television, and eventually reached the ears and eyes of a 13-year-old girl in the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida. She wrote a letter to William Quinn, the president of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, asking him to send her some snow because, as a Floridian, she had never seen any.

And so he loaded some in refrigerated cars and sent it on down to Florida. Thirteen year old Terri Hodson became a local hero and a national celebrity. She appeared on talk shows and was quoted in papers across the country. The town of Fort Myers Beach even held a special ceremony for the occasion, in which a local hardware store gave her a sled that was shipped to them by mistake. (She still has that sled, by the way.)

When the snow got to Florida, they unloaded it and kids played in it. They made snowmen, snow angels, and had snowball fights. The snow melted pretty quickly in the 80 degree weather, but it was still a day to remember for kids that had never seen snow!

01/21/2026

Shay #12 is coming home to California!

On Tuesday, January 20th, a successful hydrostatic test was performed on Shay #12 and it passed with flying colors under the supervison of Bob Becker with the State of Colorado. Thank you to the team at the Colorado Railroad Museum for their assistance in the shop.

The locomotive is being prepared to move to Fish Camp to join her West Side sisters #10 & #15 at the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad. A complete restoration will be done to return her to active service. A special locomotive house is being constructed to care for the engine.

A special thank you goes out to the people behind the scenes to make this happen, Lindsey and Rosa Ashby, Mark Greksa, Phil Johnson, and Jeff Taylor. You are all part of our railroad family and we appreciate your efforts to make this a reality. We look forward to welcoming Phil Reader, Jeff Badger, and Steve Butler this spring when the restoration effort is underway.

Shay #12 was built in April 1926 for the Swayne Lumber Company and eventually ended up at the West Side Lumber Company. It is a superheated three truck Shay with a weight of 60 tons. It is our hope to have #12 in service this season to help celebrate her 100th birthday!

We look forward to see you this upcoming season when we reopen on March 28th.