Working the Rails Portfolio

Union Pacific crew checks their train as a Coach America crew van waits at the Altoona yard office.

The local job is done as an Union Pacific conductor walks across the tracks to the Altoona depot as an incoming freight pulls into the yard.

Minnesota Transportation Museum's ex-BNSF 6327 SDP40 is having some wiring repaired for the upper headlamps by Phil Wellman.

The BNSF local out of La Crosse is toughing out the blizzard switching the sand plant in Maiden Rock, WI. A couple of MOW workers arrived early to clean snow out of the switches and stayed to help protect the crossing and anything else that may be needed, with this heavy snowfall and high winds.

A BNSF crew change takes in the middle of a blizzard as a coal train is handed off on the property of Dairyland Power Coopertive.

A broken rail on the BNSF's Orin Sub gets repaired on this cold January morning.

After lining the switch for a reverse move, the conductor grabs a Transport America crew cab back to the Union Pacific yard office in Altoona, Wisconsin.

After lining the switch for a reverse move, the conductor grabs a Transport America crew cab back to the Union Pacific yard office in Altoona, Wisconsin.

Heavy snowfall from a winter storm has caused more work for the crew of Soo 4410 as the switch into Wabasha yard needs to be cleared before the local can be taken off the main.

A traveling Union Pacific track gang spent a couple of months in Western Wisconsin installing new welded rail on the Altoona Subdivision and Wyeville Subdivision. Photo taken in Altoona, WI.

A large Union Pacific hi-rail truck with an automated rail welder in back has just finished welding to long pieces of rail together and MOW workers now knock off the bracket and slag from the new joint.

A Union Pacific MOW work hammers in an alignment pin to align the rail joint for the new bolt in Altoona, Wisconsin.

Locomotives get serviced on a late night at Union Pacific's diesel fuel depot in Rawlins, Wyoming.

The Operation Lifesaver train arrived into Altoona, Wisconsin in a thunderstorm the night before it was scheduled to take three trips to Chippewa Falls for presentations. The crew can be seen working in the rain aligning the switch to put the passenger train onto the east pass with Union Pacific Boyscout Unit 2010 taking up the rear.

Locomotives get serviced on a late night at Union Pacific's diesel fuel depot in Rawlins, Wyoming.

BNSF MOW workers take care of a switch a few miles north of Reno Junction on the Orin Sub.

A Balfour Beatty crew does some track welding on a cold winter day near Donkey Creek Jct. on BNSF's mainline to the Powder River Basin.

BNSF MOW workers take care of a switch a few miles north of Reno Junction on the Orin Sub.

A Balfour Beatty crew does some track welding on a cold winter day near Donkey Creek Jct. on BNSF's mainline to the Powder River Basin.

The Conductor inspects the Wisconsin Northern sand train after crossing the O'Neil Creek bridge in Eagleton, Wisconsin on it's way to Chippewa Falls.

Hoppers get loaded on a side track in CSX's yard just outside of Prince, West Virginia.

A rail gang goes to work on this cold early October morning before the sun rises. This rail crew is replacing all the stick rail in Union Pacific's Altoona, Wisconsin yard with welded rail.

A conductor releases the hand brakes on his train in a downpour in order to get on the move east out of Altoona.

A Norfolk Southern coal train backs up to the Lobata loadout with a NW caboose and crew on the rear protecting the shove move.

A Cat front end loader loads coal in to Norfolk Southern coal hoppers at Superior, West Virginia.

Kisses goodbye are blown towards a passenger boarded on the Amtrak Cardinal at the Prince, West Virginia train station.

The station attendant helps with the baggage on the Amtrak Cardinal at Prince, West Virginia.

A MOW track gang works on replacing ties on Union Pacific's Chippewa Falls Sub. This sub ends at Wisconsin Northern's yard in Norma, Wisconsin.

The conductor jumps aboard the Wisconsin Northern switcher in the Norma yard just outside Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. The towering white building is the new frac sand plant.

An Arcelor Mittal Steel employee lights a fusie as an end of train device before making a reverse movement of red hot slabs of steel.

The Wisconsin Northern conductor has his work cut out for him as the night and snow has started to fall on Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

A rainy day doesn't stop the track work being done in the yard in Altoona, Wisconsin. A Union Pacific worker hooks a piece of equipment to be lifted and moved.

Portrait of an Union Pacific conductor photographed through antique glass with a reflection of a locomotive.

Portrait of an Union Pacific conductor photographed through antique glass with a reflection of a locomotive.

Portrait of an Union Pacific conductor photographed through antique glass with a reflection of a locomotive.

A RJ Corman employee poses for his portrait while rehabilitating the Canandian National line through Cameron, Wisconsin for frac sand traffic.

A RJ Corman employee poses for his portrait while rehabilitating the Canandian National line through Cameron, Wisconsin for frac sand traffic.

Union Pacific Southern Pacific Lines heritage unit 1996 pulls into Altoona on this foggy day. The crew tiesdown the train and head into the depot.