Railroad-Related

After our day's tour on the Cumbres and Toltec railroad, we spent the next day driving along the track area, and stopped at an overlook, waiting. The double-header came through the trees (with fall foliage), working uphill from Chama, New Mexico. Great sight. (looks good on a black background) See: swansonphotos.com/cumbres/cumbres.html

The Folkston Funnel is a section of track where many of the east coast US trains pass. There is a visitors center set up, and you can spend quite an interesting day of train watching.

During our wandering around downtown Fairbanks, Alaska, I came upon this sign, fence, and rails. We have ridden on the Alaska Railroad, quite an experience. I hadn't given much thought about the beginning and end of this rail line. Image processed with GIMP.

Enjoy a rest on the benches at the old Kettle Falls, Washington, railway station. It is now the local Visitors Center. Image processed with GIMP. A photo of the city WELCOME sign, very amusing: www.ipernity.com/doc/2543754/51755992

Soon after I bought the new Panasonic GX85 in Sydney, I spent some time trying out the various settings. One such setting is called "L-Monochrome", which is a Leica-inspired monochrome palette. Anyway, Happy Bench Monday! And Happy New Year, all! image processed with GIMP.

Taken with my new (2016) Panasonic GX85. One of its settings is "L-Monochrome", which is a Leica-inspired monochrome range. I like it. Image processed with GIMP.

We had another opportunity to capture images of this remarkable piece of machinery in action. This time, June 11, 2023, we were at a rural crossing in Nebraska. This is a frame captured from a video being recorded as the train passed. Image then processed with GIMP. This should meet the "historical" Sunday Challenge. These massive locomotives were built during WW II to handle the heavy loads over the Rocky Mountains. The locomotive and tender weigh 1,000,000 pounds, the heaviest locomotive ever built. As steam was removed from the Union Pacific operations in the 1950's these locomotives became obsolete. In the early 1960's, this particular locomotive was donated to a club in Southern California, and was moved to a static location at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona, California. I was living in that town at the time, and as a teenager, I climbed all over this massive machine. There it sat for decades. Recently, the Union Pacific decided to restore one of the "4000" series to operation, and they chose the unit from Pomona. In 2019, this magnificent locomotive again ran on the rails under steam power. For other images and information: swansongrp.com/4014 For other railroad-related images, see: swansongrp.com/P/railroad

We had seen 4014 in Nebraska in 2021, but had another chance this June. The train was headed to Omaha for an event, and traveled through mid-Nebraska, an easier drive. We found a rural crossing near Schuyler, Nebraska, and set up the cameras. The videos and photos here were taken by both myself and my wife, but she did the video composition work. Always an awesome experience to see this 1,000,000 pound machine pass by.

Taken in the port area of Albany, Australia. Lots of commercial activity, and there are fences for each area. Image processed with GIMP.