A Sense Of Place
And here is one more Steam Sunday bonus for today sticking with the theme of my recent trip to Texas to chase this beauty 500 miles to the Mexican border.
One thing I really wanted to accomplish was capturing a sense of place to illustrate how far from home this steam engine had traveled and the entirely new and unique territory she was traversing for the first time. The shot at Tower 87 and Englewood certainly offered a nice bit of that as did the shots further east in Beaumont and Liberty but my major goal was something in the heart of Houston, America's fourth largest city. Thanks to Chris Parma who graciously provided me with pins and let me follow him I scored by far THE best light of the trip and captured some of the unmistakable Houston skyline as a backdrop.
Here again is CPKC train B40B, the Final Spike special operating over CPKC's ex Kansas City Southern territory on Union Pacific trackage rights. They are seen here west of downtown as they approach the TC Jester Blvd. crossing at MP 365 on modern day UP's Houston Subdivision, the former Sourhern Pacific (T&NO) Sunset Route mainline.
Dominating the background about three miles to the east are some of Houston's tallest buildings. On the left is the #1 tallest in the city, the JPMorgan Chase Tower. Built in 1982 it is 1002 ft tall and the tallest in Texas, the 21st tallest in the US and interestingly the tallest five-sided building in the world. The shimmering green building to the right is #2, the 992 ft Wells Fargo Bank Plaza built in 1983. Also dating from 1983 and ranked #4 immediately above the locomotive is the 780 ft TC Energy Center with its three segmented tower setbacks, each with a steeply pitched gabled roofline that is topped off with spires. The last building of note, the boxy light colored one is One Shell Plaza. At 714 ft it was the tallest when built in 1970 but now ranks down at #12 in the city's impressive skyline.
Houston, Texas
Saturday May 25, 2024
A Sense Of Place
And here is one more Steam Sunday bonus for today sticking with the theme of my recent trip to Texas to chase this beauty 500 miles to the Mexican border.
One thing I really wanted to accomplish was capturing a sense of place to illustrate how far from home this steam engine had traveled and the entirely new and unique territory she was traversing for the first time. The shot at Tower 87 and Englewood certainly offered a nice bit of that as did the shots further east in Beaumont and Liberty but my major goal was something in the heart of Houston, America's fourth largest city. Thanks to Chris Parma who graciously provided me with pins and let me follow him I scored by far THE best light of the trip and captured some of the unmistakable Houston skyline as a backdrop.
Here again is CPKC train B40B, the Final Spike special operating over CPKC's ex Kansas City Southern territory on Union Pacific trackage rights. They are seen here west of downtown as they approach the TC Jester Blvd. crossing at MP 365 on modern day UP's Houston Subdivision, the former Sourhern Pacific (T&NO) Sunset Route mainline.
Dominating the background about three miles to the east are some of Houston's tallest buildings. On the left is the #1 tallest in the city, the JPMorgan Chase Tower. Built in 1982 it is 1002 ft tall and the tallest in Texas, the 21st tallest in the US and interestingly the tallest five-sided building in the world. The shimmering green building to the right is #2, the 992 ft Wells Fargo Bank Plaza built in 1983. Also dating from 1983 and ranked #4 immediately above the locomotive is the 780 ft TC Energy Center with its three segmented tower setbacks, each with a steeply pitched gabled roofline that is topped off with spires. The last building of note, the boxy light colored one is One Shell Plaza. At 714 ft it was the tallest when built in 1970 but now ranks down at #12 in the city's impressive skyline.
Houston, Texas
Saturday May 25, 2024