Refugee Crisis
With the two winners of the great number contest now aboard, they wave goodbye as the KJRY train gets rolling again heading for Cuba.
"Joy"
This image is being submitted as part of the #Flickr21 Photo Challenge, celebrating Flickr's 21st anniversary on February 10, 2025. The theme for the 15th day of the 21 day photo challenge is "Joy." Joy, like many of the other themes of the Flickr21 Photo Challenge, is open to a wide variety of interpretations. There are a lot of ways one could feature joy. A child opening presents on Christmas Day. A dog enjoying its favorite treat. A basketball player hitting the final points to win the game. Or friends being reunited after a long absence. Among so many others myriad possibilities, I chose a more unique way to express joy: being a part of history.
This image is part of a series that documents the final run of the famed Keokuk Junction F-Units, which were being retired after they ran from Peoria, IL to La Harpe, IL one last time. At the time, the KJRY (as it was abbreviated was the last railroad in the entirety of the United States to use streamlined F-Units in regular revenue service. So when it was announced that these classic machines would be retired, needless to say it produced quite a buzz inside the railfan community. Photographers and videographers from as far as Minnesota, Arkansas, and New York came out to witness the end of an era. There could easily have been as many as 300 people giving chase this day, which is more than the population of many of the towns the KJRY went through. All of the images from my chase can be found in the album which tells the entire story of the events of this day. That album can be viewed here:
www.flickr.com/photos/66708125@N03/albums/72177720324046010/
For context though, I will offer this brief summary. I chased this train with two of my railfan friends, Gilbert Sebenste and Bob Bannon. This train was limited to how fast it could go due to track conditions, which made chasing easy, despite the countryside of Central Illinois. For whatever reason, on one of our stops to photograph this train, we were approached by the conductor of the train, Jeff Rhoades, who had been pursuing the train via truck to make sure there were no incidents. He asked us to guess a number between 1 and 20. The two closest numbers would get a prize. Gilbert was the closest, with Bob being second. Thinking we'd get a hat or a t-shirt, we were gobsmacked when he asked if they would like to ride in the cab of the locomotive! At the next siding a few miles ahead, the train was going to pull up to a stop where they could then board.
In this image, Gilbert (left) and Bob (right) have boarded the cab and the train is slowly rolling past me. The sense of joy on their faces is palpable; not only are they a couple of railfans with the rare opportunity to ride in the cab of a locomotive, but they were now part of a significant historical event with roots going back to the 1930s. As it turned out, they would get to ride to Seville through the most scenic parts of the KJRY, crossing over the Spoon River in the process. They would get off as the train backed up to make a photo pass over the scenic Spoon River Bridge. As we continued on with our chase, they still could not properly find the words to describe what they experienced and what they were feeling. Nearly six years later as of this writing, and they still have not been able to properly describe it. Four other people got an opportunity to ride in the cab that day, but Bob and Gilbert did it first and they rode it during the best part.
As an aside to the theme of "Joy," Bob would sadly pass away two and half years later. The cancer wreaked havoc on his body, but the chemo was far worse. So when I look back on images from this day and see him at the peak of his happiness, it brings to mind a different sense of joy, MY joy, of remembering my friend in his better days on our greatest adventure. This image, and many others of him smiling out the cab of the locomotive, were shown during his funeral. Bob may be gone, but will forever be a part of history. And knowing this brings me great joy indeed. Godspeed, my friend.
-----------------------------------------
I will add one more aside: I made a couple of videos featuring many of the images from this album. Both videos are on YouTube. The original video can be seen here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZSIZ36HIGc&t=48s
There is also an extended video with many images not seen in this series. That video can be seen here:
Refugee Crisis
With the two winners of the great number contest now aboard, they wave goodbye as the KJRY train gets rolling again heading for Cuba.
"Joy"
This image is being submitted as part of the #Flickr21 Photo Challenge, celebrating Flickr's 21st anniversary on February 10, 2025. The theme for the 15th day of the 21 day photo challenge is "Joy." Joy, like many of the other themes of the Flickr21 Photo Challenge, is open to a wide variety of interpretations. There are a lot of ways one could feature joy. A child opening presents on Christmas Day. A dog enjoying its favorite treat. A basketball player hitting the final points to win the game. Or friends being reunited after a long absence. Among so many others myriad possibilities, I chose a more unique way to express joy: being a part of history.
This image is part of a series that documents the final run of the famed Keokuk Junction F-Units, which were being retired after they ran from Peoria, IL to La Harpe, IL one last time. At the time, the KJRY (as it was abbreviated was the last railroad in the entirety of the United States to use streamlined F-Units in regular revenue service. So when it was announced that these classic machines would be retired, needless to say it produced quite a buzz inside the railfan community. Photographers and videographers from as far as Minnesota, Arkansas, and New York came out to witness the end of an era. There could easily have been as many as 300 people giving chase this day, which is more than the population of many of the towns the KJRY went through. All of the images from my chase can be found in the album which tells the entire story of the events of this day. That album can be viewed here:
www.flickr.com/photos/66708125@N03/albums/72177720324046010/
For context though, I will offer this brief summary. I chased this train with two of my railfan friends, Gilbert Sebenste and Bob Bannon. This train was limited to how fast it could go due to track conditions, which made chasing easy, despite the countryside of Central Illinois. For whatever reason, on one of our stops to photograph this train, we were approached by the conductor of the train, Jeff Rhoades, who had been pursuing the train via truck to make sure there were no incidents. He asked us to guess a number between 1 and 20. The two closest numbers would get a prize. Gilbert was the closest, with Bob being second. Thinking we'd get a hat or a t-shirt, we were gobsmacked when he asked if they would like to ride in the cab of the locomotive! At the next siding a few miles ahead, the train was going to pull up to a stop where they could then board.
In this image, Gilbert (left) and Bob (right) have boarded the cab and the train is slowly rolling past me. The sense of joy on their faces is palpable; not only are they a couple of railfans with the rare opportunity to ride in the cab of a locomotive, but they were now part of a significant historical event with roots going back to the 1930s. As it turned out, they would get to ride to Seville through the most scenic parts of the KJRY, crossing over the Spoon River in the process. They would get off as the train backed up to make a photo pass over the scenic Spoon River Bridge. As we continued on with our chase, they still could not properly find the words to describe what they experienced and what they were feeling. Nearly six years later as of this writing, and they still have not been able to properly describe it. Four other people got an opportunity to ride in the cab that day, but Bob and Gilbert did it first and they rode it during the best part.
As an aside to the theme of "Joy," Bob would sadly pass away two and half years later. The cancer wreaked havoc on his body, but the chemo was far worse. So when I look back on images from this day and see him at the peak of his happiness, it brings to mind a different sense of joy, MY joy, of remembering my friend in his better days on our greatest adventure. This image, and many others of him smiling out the cab of the locomotive, were shown during his funeral. Bob may be gone, but will forever be a part of history. And knowing this brings me great joy indeed. Godspeed, my friend.
-----------------------------------------
I will add one more aside: I made a couple of videos featuring many of the images from this album. Both videos are on YouTube. The original video can be seen here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZSIZ36HIGc&t=48s
There is also an extended video with many images not seen in this series. That video can be seen here: