Forgotten Images My favorite photos never put online

4710.jpg  Boone was notorius for its small fleet of CNW locomotives that could be found on any given day even four years after the merger.  One of the last locomotives to survive the "patchman" was the CNW 4710.  It was no big deal to photograph the engine back then, but now that all the yellow and green has disappeared, I wish I had photographed it more!               
8828-away!.jpg  Today, AC4400s are assigned ONLY to coal or grain.  Before things were so tight, you could catch this AC4400 leading MDMSS out of Des Moines.  I believe 8828 is one of the few remaining units today.       
clouds-6847.jpg    In the glory days of the Rock, the main line in Short Line Yard at Des Moines was kept open for through main line traffic.  Today, however, the main line, or "track 66" is an outbound staging track for the UP.  Here, CNW 6847 waits to depart as "MDMPR" with some interesting spring clouds overhead.     
cnw6811.jpg Just a month before being renumbered to UP 2980, CNW 6811 was leading a train at Ames Yard.  Light power from a grain move passes by to the right, while another CNW engine passes by on the local wayfrieght.           
cnw6811xing.jpg   Can you spot this location?  CNW 6811 trundles along slowly, but not slow enough for the gates to move all the way down...  Today, this road is paved on the west end of Ames Yard.  And, of course, this engine is now UP 2980.     
cnw6877.jpg  CNW 6877 and CNW 6858 are about to attach to MPRDM after a pick up at Marshalltown.             
grounded.jpg   Sometimes the branch lines around Des Moines can get so overgrown, that you wonder if there are any tracks under there at all.  Here the Ankeny job pulls some flats out of an old storage track that was once part of the Fort Dodge, Des Moines, and Southern.       
traffic.jpg    Here's another shot of John Findley driving his switch engine through the intersection of 2nd Ave and Ordinance Rd.         
up116.jpg     One of the best consists I have seen was on this train from Eagle Grove.  An old "Dash 7" with limited time leads MEADM down Kansas City Junction, followed by a CNW GP38-2, and an SP four axle.  If only the CNW unit had been leading....         
up3028.jpg   The only SD40-2s in CNW paint have all been renumbered.  Here is the former 6858 in Des Moines with some really nasty looking silver patches over the old classification lights.  Was the mismatched yellow worse, or just no paint at all?          
woodward-bridge.jpg    I had taken so many photos similar to this one that I never put this shot of "one of the last" Woodward trains crossing the Madrid high bridge.  Now that the tracks are ripped up, there will be no more train traffic over this Milwaukee Road mainline bridge.
woodward-elev.jpg  Zito yellow switches out the old Woodward elevator.  By now, this elevator has switched to shipping exclusively by truck.