The Railroad Photo Collection Of Sean Diggs

03/26/2026

‘Union Dam’

As the cold winter months begin to “wind down” here’s one from last summer. On a hot August afternoon, the New Hampshire Northcoast (NHN) loaded sand train is roaring southbound towards Dover, NH and eventually Boston, MA on the former B&M Conway Branch.

Following the train from its origin point in Ossipee, NH, the train is seen rolling into the village of Union, NH crossing over the Union Meadows dam just outside of the village. Seen trailing behind the lead unit 3823 is NHN’s “new toy”, 1802 in its fresh paint. The 1802 had been gifted and eventually acquired by the 470 Club which was gifted to them VIA the MBTA.

Fitting the NHN roster as a GP18, the 1802 has become a “sister unit” to the famed 1801 which for a while had been the only “high-hood” on NHN’s roster. The pair together is a great sight to see (another post on that later) as it looks like a call-back to the earlier days of NHN.

[August 2025]

11/21/2025

‘On the Minuteman Trail’

In September the MBTA debuted it’s second commemorative locomotive to the “heritage fleet.” MBTX F40PH-3C #1030 was brought back to the property after getting rebuilt at Erie as part of the MBTA’s refurbishment program and was thrown into the iconic maroon “Minuteman” scheme, paying tribute to New England’s most known railroad, the Boston & Maine Railroad.

Catching the eye of virtually every New England and northeast rail enthusiast, the 1030 quickly made the spotlight, even making it onto local news stations. As a railroad history buff it didn’t take long until I set out on several occasions to photograph this special locomotive. Ending up seeing the 1030 on the MBTA’s Lowell and Fichburg lines with the addition of a rush hour at Boston’s North Station, there’s plenty of shots to go around.

In this photo, the Minuteman is following its namesake trail in Ayer, MA having just left its station stop and rapidly accelerating out of town. This day would be a great day to photograph this engine as lighting was superb and that this set was “trapped” on the Fitchburg line. MBTA trains would only operate between Wachusett in Fitchburg, MA and Porter Square in Cambridge, MA due to track and signal maintenance. So, this lead to seeing the 1030 multiple times a day on one line.

As the Fitchburg line shares the former Pan Am Railways District 3, now G&W Berkshire & Eastern Railroad, I decided to “ditch” the freight traffic as my primary objective was to photograph the MBTA’s new special interest locomotive. It went hand and hand, as B&E’s westbound B101 Ayer, MA-Mechanicville, NY would not run anyways as the counterpart eastbound train B100 would not make it to Ayer the previous night. Both trains are slated to be removed and re-routed over CSX’s Boston & Albany division in the future. However, that’s for a separate post…

Ayer, Massachusetts, September, 2025

07/11/2025

Oscawana Park

Metro North train 843 is seen heading northbound up the Hudson Line. P32AC-DM 207 is seen approaching the portal of this three-tracked tunnel. In the background is the Croton On Hudson Metro North Railroad Croton Harlem facility. The facility services a variety of Metro North’s fleet ranging from dual mode diesels, EMU electrics, coaches and maintenance of way (MOW) equipment. South from Croton On Hudson begins the electrified portion of Metro North’s/Amtrak Hudson Line where you’ll see EMU electric trains relying on third rail power.

Positioned north of Croton On Hudson at Oscawana Park, it’s all diesel power. I would spend the Friday afternoon rush hour here and see a plethora of trains including some special commemorative wraps/paints of Metro North’s heritage fleet.

In terms of history, in 1846 the Hudson River Railroad was created and expanded rail service from Albany, NY to New York City, NY. Construction of this legendary rail line reached the town of Peeskill, NY in 1849. A tunnel was carved (200ft) at Oscawana Island to get the railroad through. In 1851 the railroad’s construction between Albany, NY and New York City was completed.

In the 1860s Cornelius Vanderbilt acquired the Hudson River Railroad and merged it with the New York Central Railroad and by 1867 it became the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad. By 1912 service gained a high success in growing leading for the line to expand to four tracks. The Oscawana tunnel was expanded to fit the additional two tracks.

In the 1950s the Hudson Line began to modernize and materialize in the 20th century. Such upgrades included the integration of CTC or Centralized Traffic Control. Modernization did end the fourth track north of Croton On Hudson to the current three-tracks you see today. In the 1970s, with Penn Central controlling the Hudson Line several changes were made. Including the closure of many stations as well as the Oscawana Island station in 1973 due to low ridership.

In 1980 Metro North assumed operations of the Hudson Line between Poughkeepsie, NY and Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Today the two bores of the tunnels remain side by side, 1849 bore and the 1912 bore spanning 200ft. Both remain active with one bore with one track and the other with two.

June 2025

06/29/2025

Hey everyone, here’s something a little different. I don’t ever recall posting videos here but I’m willing to start doing so if that’s something that peaks the interest. Anyways recently I went on a trip to venture around the Hudson River. No shortage of rail activity. With that out of the way, I spent one day (mostly) on Amtrak/Metro North’s Hudson Line which runs from Manhattan up to Poughkeepsie NY and points beyond for Amtrak. Just a few days prior Metro North would unveil its newest addition to their Heritage Unit Fleet making for 7 commemorative wrapped/or painted locomotives. During my visit I was fortunate enough to see all but one of these heritage units. Spending the evening rush hour at Oscawana Park north of Croton On Hudson, NY, I would get to photograph and video Metro North Railroad’s newest addition to their heritage fleet. This scheme was once seen on the old FL9 locomotives. [June 2025] See full video HERE: https://youtu.be/geEu-D_ktpg?si=KWWmad_ELdxWt2sh

05/11/2025

Happy National Train Day!

Here’s a plethora of recent photos I’ve taken during 2025 (Not in order). Each photo with their own description! (Yes I know I haven’t posted a single photo here in over a year since I apologize).

I will add more in depth posts in the future regarding these trains as well as more outings I have had over the year.

04/14/2024

Amtrak’s Real Heritage Unit Hits The Rails Again!

In 2017 Amtrak’s famous heritage unit 406 made its appearance on Amtrak’s New England Downeaster route and stayed with the service for a couple years acting as a substitute unit for the Downeaster’s aging fleet of NPCUs (Non-powered control unit) or the more common name “cabbage” which comes from the baggage-cab car like operation. In early 2020 406 was pulled away from the Downeaster as its duties as a substitute were fulfilled. Hence leaving many to wonder if the iconic unit would ever return to revenue service again as 406 was sidelined for years in Albany, NY.

Now 4 years later in 2024, 406 has returned. However with a slightly different appearance. The years of this unit being sidelined clearly shows as the elements have taken its course. Sporting two extra numerical units “90406” to evade Amtrak’s Charger fleet which will sport the 400s series. As some find the unit to be “trashed”, it’s certainly nice to see this equipment back in use in 2024.

Like its purpose in 2017 throughout 2020, 406 or excuse me, 90406 is back to substitute for the Downeaster NPCUs once more as critical maintenance is done. However, aside from the NPCU’s the Downeaster itself will be changing in other aspects in the near future.

With the commotion about the legendary return of Amtrak’s icon, I made way to grab a shot, and so I did. Absolutely ripping it southwards through Newton, New Hampshire is train 684 bound for Boston, Massachusetts with 90406 in the lead! Dashing through the slushy snow that had been laid down by a Nor’Easter storm a day prior, this did not feel or look like spring in April.

AMTK 406/90406 is what some may say is Amtrak’s last “true” heritage as it retains the components of Amtrak’s staple icon, the EMD F40PH. However, I say it “retains the components” as 406/90406 has been converted to an NPCU while the shell still keeps all the aspects of what you’d see on an F40PH. There is also no space for baggage in this one. This locomotive had started life built as an EMD F40PHR delivered to Amtrak in the 1970s to do what you’re seeing in this photograph here!

Newton, NH
April 5, 2024

09/20/2023

‘New Brunswick’s Green Gem’

Early September brought the attention of Saint John’s Moonlight Bazaar event that myself and my father would attend. We spent a couple of days in the province of New Brunswick to explore around the area. There wasn’t a day that we were out and didn’t run into anything railroad related as Saint John has no shortage of that!

An excursion west to get out of a stuck marine layer on the coast, we would follow NBM’s New Brunswick Southern Railway line out of Saint John inland as far west as the town of Westfield, NB Canada. A beautiful town nice and snug against the Saint John River. At this point the marine layer was out of reach and the beautiful cloudless-sunlit sky was all that could be seen. When we decided to head back east my father wondered, “it would be funny if we run into that train on the way back.” Epicly, and about 10 minutes into our drive back east, it became a reality as the emergence of three massive green NBM SD70M-2’s raced around one of the paralleling bends and we quickly turned around and raced after them.

These three screaming EMDs were not messing around as they continued west with a train for Canadian Pacific and CSX within the United States. A very wide assortment of freight was on this job from general manifest, automotive and intermodal containers, it’s easy to say that these three big EMDs were necessary.

The train (that I didn’t know what symbol at the time) is New Brunswick Southern RR job 121 which runs from Saint John NB Canada to Brownville Junction, Maine in the United States. Routing in and out of Saint John is the McAdams Subdivision which carries over a vital link to the United States.

Here is NBM’s NBSR job 121 screaming up to Welsford, New Brunswick Canada. These bright green locomotives are EMD SD70M-2s and sport NBM’s railways well. NBM 6411 an EX NS SD70M-2 like pretty much most of NBM’s SD70M-2 roster serves the railroad’s heavy hauls well. Some of their SD70M-2’s were also bought from Progress Rail.

September 2023

Welcome to the page! My name is Sean and this is where I will be sharing my railroad photography!

09/18/2023

‘Detour’

With the events of a washout on the EX Boston & Maine route west of Ayer, MA, no trains can venture west of Leominster, MA. So with this event, Norfolk Southern is detouring its Ayer intermodal trains over CSX’s trackage between Buffalo, NY and Ayer, MA.

With the first detour in a while, Norfolk Southern train 264 made its eastbound journey over multiple CSX Subdivisions including the Mohawk, Selkirk, B&A and Worcester Subdivisions. In addition the first eastbound detour of modern times sported one of Norfolk Southern’s heritage units, NS 8100 the Nickel Plate Road. This lead the 264 through CSX Territory up until Selkirk where it got “capped” with a CSX locomotive, CSXT 8881 for ACSES II PTC purposes as the train would stretch out far enough onto keolis territory in Ayer.

With much congestion, the detoured 264 would not turn to head back west as 265 until two days later. I would head out on a beautiful September Sunday afternoon to eventually run into the train. As it would’ve been cool to see the Nickel Plate Heritage unit lead, the EX PRR/Conrail EMD SD40-2 on point wasn’t a bad touch! South of Ayer in the town of Clinton, Massachusetts I would photograph the train rolling through “new” territory over CSX’s Worcester Subdivision.

As these moves are “rare”, someday sights like these will be a daily occurrence over this line. As the train approached, it was as if I was looking into the future. When CSX acquired Pan Am Railways in 2022 an agreement made by CSX to give Norfolk Southern trackage rights over their much faster and much more efficient B&A/Berkshire Subdivision which rivals the former Pan Am Southern/B&M, now Berkshire & Eastern mainline.

Leading this rare (for now) detour is CSXT 8881 an EMD SD40-2. The 8881 started its life out as Pennsylvania RR 6073 built in 1966. It later went to “big blue”, Conrail and then CSX as 8881. Second in the lash up is NS 8100 a GE ES44AC “GEVO” in the Nickel Plate Road (NKP) scheme in their heritage. 8100 built in 2012 for NS. Third out is an interesting one. The long “retired” Norfolk Southern SD70M-2s have recently have been brought out of their retirement to aid Norfolk Southern’s locomotive power shortage. NS 2768 is one of the many SD70M-2s brought out of retirement. Built by EMD, NS 2768 was built in 2006.

Welcome to the page! My name is Sean and this is where I will be sharing my railroad photography!

09/15/2023

‘Now History’

When the unfortunate announcement that the Rousselot gelatin plant in Peabody, Massachusetts was going to close its doors at the end of 2023, everyone knew that rail service to the plant was now a count down until “doomsday” for the Danver/South Reading branch. With that in mind Railfans throughout the region payed a visit to document the final months of freight service on the North Shore area in Massachusetts, putting a close to 173 years of freight movements.

On a warm April day, I would document the Boston Switcher making its movements along the MBTA’s Eastern Route Mainline as well as the local navigating the Danvers/S. Reading Branch. It was a beautiful spring morning to capture history now in memory! A few hours on the branch, CSX BO-1 would finish its switching at Rousselot and head back west to the MBTA’s Eastern Mainline to return to “Bean-Town”. Closing yet another day of freight operations east of Everett JCT.

Knowing that BO-1 had to runaround it’s train to get the locomotive in the right position to head back as well as to get signal indication by the dispatcher, I made my way over to the west portal of the Salem, Massachusetts RR tunnel to grab what would become my favorite photograph of this train in action. After waiting about 45 minutes at the west portal, headlights would shine a familiar glow through the tunnel walls and it was finally time. The excitement was very real when shine of Guilford Rail System gray and orange paint glittered from the sunshine above as it accelerated out of the tunnel and from underneath the depths of the city of Salem.

As of the publishing of this post, this shot can never ever be recreated. As of early September 2023, CSX local BO-1 made their last run east of Everett Junction on the MBTA’s Eastern Mainline to Rousselot in Peobody, Massachusetts. What you’re looking at is pure history and now in memories. It will be dearly missed by many of those in the New England railroad community but like all good things don’t last forever. What is to happen to the Danvers/South Reading branch now is uncertain but turning it into a rail-trail is a likely outcome but we’ll have to wait and see…

Leading in this now historic photograph is MEC 507 in its “heritage” Guilford Rail Systems livery scheme that was applied in 2020. MEC 507 is a EMD GP40-2LW in its Canadian design. It started its life out as Canadian National (CN) 9472 built in July of 1974.

April 2023

Welcome to the page! My name is Sean and this is where I will be sharing my railroad photography!

09/13/2023

‘Blue Dip Pig Into Millers’

On a very hot summers day I would embark on giving chase to Norfolk Southern train 265 (Ayer, MA - Chicago, IL) with quite the not so common leader. Typically lead by many of Norfolk Southern’s SD60E rebuilds, this day would not sport that. One of the now merged with CSX, Pan Am Railways General Electric’s C40-8 “dash 8” locomotives would be on the leading pin of NS 265 throughout its journey westbound over the old Boston & Maine Railroad Patriot Corridor also formally now known as Pan Am Southern line at the time of this being published.

Coming into Millers Falls, Massachusetts on mainline one also known as “the slow track”, the fallen companies very first painted dash 8 into the Pan Am “blue dip” scheme makes a slow 10 MPH swing into the riverside town. Thrown onto the slow track, they would hold in Montague, Massachusetts for a decent amount of time for their counterpart train Norfolk Southern 264. I would end my chase here in Millers Falls to head back east to grab food as well as searching for Norfolk Southern manifest train 11R (Ayer, MA - Binghamton, NY) with some interesting EX-BNSF EMD SD70MACs now owned by Wells Fargo (WFRX).

At the timing of this published post, Pan Am Southern is no more (in terms of operational standards). As of September 1st, 2023 the newly formed G&W Berkshire & Eastern Railroad operates here now with big changes to come! The Berkshire & Eastern (BERX) is a neutral operator between CSX and Norfolk Southern that was in agreement with CSX Transportation’s acquisition of Pan Am Railways. I’ll definitely be out checking out this new railroad’s operations sometime soon when I have some free time!

About the locomotives in the lash up. MEC 7552, GE C40-8 (Standard Cab) started its time out as CSXT 7552 built in 1989 and has served well on CSX until being casted aside to GECX then shortly after bought by Pan Am Railways in the mid-late 2010s’. Since then 7552 has been reborn into the class II for several years until Pan Am Railways had been acquired by CSX Transportation in June of 2022. Now owned by CSX Transportation once more again lol.