RailRoadFan.com

Saturday December 3rd was the day me and a few friends chased the Pere Marquette 2-8-4 Berkshire #1225 from Owosso to Cheasning on the Polar Express! Enjoy these shots!


1225 sitting in the Steam Railroading Institute/ Tisby yard.


1225, after moving down the stub end track to load it's passengers, breaths steam and smoke into the extremely cold morning air.


After leaving the yard and running a few miles north, 1225 picks up speed as she aproaches the first crossing we caught her at.


Perhaps my favorite shot I ever took, 1225 tunders by in a cadence of smoke, steam, and power. It helped that there was snow on the ground, it only added to the awesomeness of the chase.


1225 at another crossing.


Notice how once they clear the crossings they stop making all that smoke. They must do it just so us railfans can get nice shots. Thanks 1225 crew.


Shrouded in steam, 1225 simmers at the fair grounds after a sucessful run.


Awesome!


The TSBY 2681, a high hood GP35, followed the train up and would pull it back to Owosso.

More shots can be viewed at http://www.railimages.com/gallery/jonathonleese

Nice Pics!!!!!!!!!!
Looks like you had a great day railfanning.

was this picture,

taken just north of oakley? I'm headed out there on the 10th...going to ride at 10am, chase at 4pm..i'm sure the light isn't going to be all that great for the 4 pm chase..low light at least, but still fun.

AWESOME! That just got me a lot more excited about our (Zack and Patrick are riding with me) trip this weekend.
NOTHING like Steam in the snow!

Thanks for posting those!!!

Great pics! I was the Engineer Dec 3rd and 4th. Have to laugh, the reason you don't see as much steam past the crossings is that the whistle itself creates a lot of steam if the wind is blowing just right. In your case, that day the wind was blowing everything to the other side of the locomotive. I had a really hard time seeing anything for most of the trip to the "North Pole" that weekend.

So you were the hogger that day, huh? Thanks for putting on a great show! Must be awesome to run a steamer. Hey, does SRI still have their junior engineer program? How old do you have to be for that?

Hey, does SRI still have their junior engineer program? How old do you have to be for that?

That program is called Engineer for an Hour. You must be 18 or older to participate in it. The last time they did it was in 2004. They've been too busy since that time to do it again, but It will probably come back in the future.