A Morning At The Shops. A towering face of concrete and glass begins to warm in the morning sunlight as a new day begins in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Having stood its ground here for close to 100 years, the original shops of the Atchison Topkea & Santa Fe Railway still stand today, now years past their last year of service to the railway that built them. Completed in 1925, the shop grounds saw everything from a roundhouse, turntable, machine and erection shop, boiler shop and so much more. At it's peak in the 1940's, the Santa Fe shops saw roughly 1,500 people employed here as they worked in shifts around the clock to service, repair or completely rebuild steam locomotives in the company's growing fleet. Venerable Santa Fe steam locomotive's known today by their numbers, 2926 and 3751, were both serviced here many times during their career, with 3751 specifically being rebuilt here in 1941. Today, "the shops" as they are more commonly known by now await an uncertain future...but still continue to see the passage of active passenger and freight trains by them, like Rail Runner Express Train No. 702 this morning.
Not
just heritage schemes, not just commemorative schemes - this album is devoted to some of the world's most interesting paint schemes, past or present.