The upper level of my two-level layout is all narrow gauge, depicting a portion of the former Denver & Rio Grande Western’s Fourth Division line in southwestern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
Modern RR Photos
Welcome to the “Modern” RR Photo collection! My definition of “modern” is from the 1990s to the present time.
Prior to the mid-1990s, three major changes occurred in US railroading: significant consolidation of Class 1 railroads from over 100 Class 1 railroads to just the Big Seven that are operating today, the upheaval/disappearance of locomotive manufacturers, with development of today’s look-alike locomotives, the 4,000 and 4,400 horsepower units built by GE and GM, and the development of distributed power units (DPUs), which are wireless remotely controlled helper locomotives. Most of the photos in this collection are of these high-horsepower units. While I still enjoy railfanning, nowadays it is a thrill when a locomotive other than a SD70, SD90, or AC4400 is pulling a train. Yesterday’s “second generation” diesels usually are relegated to mundane switching duty on the Class 1s, or are on the cost-conscious regional and shortline railroads, or have disappeared altogether. Today’s mainline freights are dominated by the high horsepower units, as in this collection.
The identification of locomotive models was done primarily with the help of the Guide to North American Diesel Locomotives by Jeff Wilson (Kalmbach Books, 2017). These photos were taken with an older Pentax film SLR, a digital Olympus SP-500UZ point-and-shoot, or a Canon Rebel T6. The film images were scanned then tweaked as necessary using Photoshop Elements.
I hope you enjoy these modern-day images. Please contact me if you would like more information.