Les pommes du pommier sauvage (ou Malus sylvestris) ne sont généralement pas cultivées pour l’Homme, mais plutôt pour les oiseaux. En effet, cet arbre rustique garde ses fruits une bonne partie de l’hiver ! Ses petites pommes, pas plus grandes qu’une cerise, permettent aux oiseaux de se nourrir lorsque la nourriture se fait rare.

the apples are cherry size, (1 à 2cm ) ,for the birds

Milkyway Core rising above Toodyay

The Milky Way core starts to clear the church doors in a typical Wheatbelt Church setting. The image is from later in the night and you can clearly see in these dark Bortle 2 skies the Small Sagittarius Gas Cloud just above the roof of the church. Also you could clearly see the dark nebula areas such as The Norma region. This image is a stitched pano of two panels three frames per panel.

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Foreground f2.2 60s ISO800

Sky tracked f2.2 60s ISO800

Camera 📷 Nikon Z6ii

Lens Nikkor 20mm 1.8S

New Year's fireworks, 1st January 2023

CSX 4555 leads southbound train B627 under the long-disused coal tipple at Collco just south of Haysi, Virginia, on the former Clinchfield Railroad. The fresh SD70mac was a nice surprise to roll up to early in Shelbiana, KY, that morning. This train was the second of 5 southbounds called out on the scenic north end of the Clinchfield from 10 to 10 this day. Collco was one of many small coal loadouts that used to dominate this section of the railroad. Now only the massive McClure Prep Plant loads on this end, albeit in massive volumes. This was a great day on what was a great spring trip up in the mountains.

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Stockweiher Lake, Neuhaus, Wolfegg

Three CSX EMD GP40-2's howl up the steep Cumberland Mountain grade in southeast Tennessee with the M780 local in tow. 780 is bound for home base in Tullahoma with 39 loads of limestone on the drawbars from Anderson, Alabama, at the base of the grade. This version of the local is so heavy that the Cowan, TN, based helper engines have been called over the mountain to shove the train up the incredibly steep east grade to the top at Cumberland Mountain tunnel. Even with helper on the rear, and all 17,000 combined horsepower wide open uphill, this train is barely clearing 15mph on the climb. The grade here exceeds 2% climbing up the east face of the mountain. The Nashville Chattanooga and Saint Louis railroad blasted several huge rock cuts through ridgelines that stood in their way towards the summit during construction. These cuts are some of the tightest, and most impressive on any class one railroad in the east. Getting here is not something anyone should attempt alone, and I'm grateful I had the opportunity to experience it firsthand. The roar of a loaded train ascending the grade is a deafening, but awesome experience to take in here...

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Im Hintergrund ist der Dobratsch mit Sender zu sehen

Stockweiher Lake, Neuhaus, Wolfegg

waiting for the night

Trying out my new camera. Actually found a few flowers still alive at Pt. Defiance

Tired Norfolk Southern C44-9W 9424 leads empty coal train S0N over the Trace Fork trestle in Amanote, VA. With mere moments of sunlight left the empty Weller, VA, bound coal bucket cruised downhill over the massive Norfolk and Western built trestle in beautiful golden sun. This bridge flies the NS Dry Fork branch to Iager, West Virginia, from Richland VA, way above the tiny Trace Fork creek. The remote branch line the train is seen running on gets a handful of trains per month these days. A far cry from a few years ago when daily 8-10 movements would ply these rails ferrying Appalachia coal in all directions.

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Discovered on a small bushwalk at Werriberri

It's a beautiful afternoon out at Manchac Pass in Akers, LA. The daily thunderstorms are building out over Lake Ponchatrain, and the Canadian National mainline is bursting at the seams with the usual afternoon rush of rail traffic. In this view daily Geismar, La, to Memphis, Tn, train A419 is cruising north over the Manchac Pass Bridge. Two beefy SD70M-2 locomotives are in charge of nearly 16,000 tons of heavy northbound chemical loads. At 9900 feet long nothing much would be getting in 419s way north of the Mississippi border. For now though they cruise north at track speed through the swamps of Louisiana...

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Cichorium intybus

Chicory or roadside chicory is a perennial herb in the basket-flowered plant family with light blue flowers. In Skåne (south Sweden) dialectally called blåbinkegräs[1] and blåblinka. An older regional name form is Jernört. It has historically been used, among other things, as a salad, coffee substitute and as a remedy for gout.

The low hanging sun illuminates the flanks of an early returning KCS local train along the Bonnet Carre spillway in Norco, La. The consecutively numbered KCS SD40-2's 3205 and 3206 held this job down for the better part of a calendar year here. A healthy train of west yard bound cars trails the power on a bitterly cold afternoon along the Mississippi River Valley. The permanent ten mph restriction for trains on this bridge will be done away with soon as CPKC plans to build a brand new structure across the length of the floodway here. In years of heavy flooding this normally dry and wildlife filled lowland will be flooded with excess Mississippi River floodwaters that will find a new home in Lake Ponchatrain, and an additional later exit through the Rigolets Pass into the Gulf of Mexico. On this beautiful winter day it is business as usual however as the KCS Baton Rouge turn heads for an early quit in New Orleans just ahead.

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KCS 3205 and 3206 have been the usual power for the Baton Rouge turn on the KCS New Orleans Subdivision this year. I've probably shot more trains at this location in the past two years than anywhere else, but last Friday was easily the best shot in 2023, and it barely made it. After getting skunked by an awful consist on Canadian National freight A420 up at Manchac Pass to the north we flew down towards the returning KCS LL60 job thinking for sure the train was already almost into New Orleans after rolling up a track warrant nearly 20 minutes ahead of our arrival. To my surprise they were just stepping onto the 10mph spillway bridge as we pulled up... With about 5 minutes to spare before the light left they crept across to the east end of the spillway bridge in perfect golden light... A top moment of the year!

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Wasserfali Arzino in der Nähe von Pozzis

The fourth to last General Electric ET44AH produced for CSX leads Eastman Chemical empties through Natural Tunnel, Va, on their way to load at JRL Coal's Creech loadout in Merna, VA. The train is operating as NS KH01 on trackage rights before they reach home rails at Big Stone Gap, VA, a few miles up the road. This coal train makes a few round trips a week ferrying coal from Eastern Kentucky and Southwest Virginia coal mines to Eastman Chemical's giant facility in Kingsport, Tennessee, just over the state line to the south.

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Georgia Central L782 is westbound over the Oconee River in Dublin, Georgia, as they slowly head west to tie down for the day on the west end of town. The railroad on this particular day was a total mess after storms brought down several trees that blocked the main over the course of the previous two days. Thankfully the sun played nice after a day of both sun and clouds starting out.

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CSX Eastman Coal Gas coal loads roll compass east, but railroad north, through the fields of Olinger, Virginia. These coal loads are the bread and butter of rail traffic on the far east end of the former Louisville and Nashville Railroad's sprawling Cumberland Valley subdivision and associated branch lines.

The C090 pictured here is shuffling the second half of a 90 car loaded train over to Kingsport for unloading later in the day. This segment of the CV main was hosting well over a dozen moves a day even into the mid 2000s. A precipitable drop soon followed and now the train count averages 2-4 a day, which incredibly, is up from the once a week traffic totals from a few years ago.

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Matched KCS SD40-2's bring CPKC train LL60 across the Bonnet Carre' Spillway, and into Norco, LA, on a sunny summers evening. After years of being assigned a pair of KCS SD70macs the New Orleans to Baton Rouge turn drew a pair of SD40-2s, and consecutively numbered ones at that. KCS 3205 and 3206 have 29 inbound New Orleans cars well in hand as they crawl across the massive, wooden, spillway bridge at 10mph. The spillway is usually dry, but in dire circumstances is opened to allow Mississippi River water to flow into Lake Ponchatrain, a few miles to the north. After a stormy afternoon threatened sun it was nice to see it pop out for their appearance. Years after their disappearance it is nice to see the old KCS 40-2's getting out on the road once again.

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KCS B-KCLR has just stopped in the small town of Ashdown, Arkansas, to let a few people off, and is now floating along at 60mph leaving town. The combined KCS and CP business train was in the middle of a multi-day run to show chief executives of Kansas City Southern and Canadian Pacific Railroads the main line from Kansas City, Mo, to the border crossing with KCSM at Laredo, TX. David Perkins and I followed the train from Heavaner, Oklahoma, to Sugar Land, Texas over two days this past week. On the way north we saw this stretch of track and David suggested pacing may be a good idea through here. He was right... We both ended up with some great shots of the business train as they left town, and quickly got back up to track speed. Thanks again to David for taking us up. This was one for the books with the beautiful KCS business train down the line.

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Dawn begins to break in Central Louisiana as the KCS Christmas train races south at 50mph through the small hamlet of Gilgal, Louisiana. The vintage trainset is flying south along the former route of the Southern Belle through the state towards New Orleans looking just like the train would have decades ago. This was the first real look at what would be a fun, but difficult, chase through the state to LaPlace later in the afternoon.

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Mangart und Jalovec in den Julischen Alpen

A westbound Norfolk Southern freight is photographed crawling up Christiansburg grade in Shawsville, VA, on a beautiful fall evening. I'm at the often-photographed location of Shawsville taking in a busy afternoon for the NS in the area. This scene is well-represented by many area photographers, but I was glad to get a look at it. The westbound here is working out of Roanoke for a crew change at Bluefield, WV, down the line. The Christiansburg district is one of NS' two heavy haul mains in the area into Roanoke. While this train was working west 5 other eastbound trains were taking the parallel former Virginian mainline into Roanoke on the easier grade.

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A fresh CSX in-house SD70 rebuild framed through the woods at 1/10th of a second. This engine was only a month out of rebuild in Huntington, Wv, at the time, and looked fresh on the point here.

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It is a frosty late December night in Gulfport, Ms. There is no such thing as a global pandemic, and Keith Creel of CP has yet to ask Pat Ottensmeyer of Kansas City Southern out to the lunch that would get the merger ball rolling. KCS 3162, a former Seaboard Coast Line SD45 Big Jack, is sitting idle after an all day run to Hattiesburg, MS, and back. The big SD45 is wearing week old paint at the time; and was one of many new "Belle" repaints coming out of Deramus Shops in Shreveport, LA. Stablemate 2957 is a former Milwaukee Road GP40 long since removed from its predecessor owner. The GP40 is idling after an easy day out working around Gulfport and the Dupont Line west of town. When I photographed this scene I knew I was getting a glimpse behind the curtain of the last best place on this, or really any, class one railroad. GP40/38s and SD45's/40-2s were, and for the time being, still are the sole motive power on this island of a KCS mainline. This night the future seemed bright, and all was right in the world. Soon afterword Covid would run amok, and merger talks would begin. 9 months later when I was finally able to return change was afoot. I am incredibly grateful for all I was able to document of this last holdout for the old and outdated on KCS....

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CSX 8383 leads G933 up the former Atlantic Coast Line Main to Montgomery, Alabama, on a spotless early spring afternoon. This rare SD40 leader was a great surprise coming north. We had followed a train down to the siding in Dillard, Alabama, from Montgomery most of the day, and when this appeared on the other side of the southbound we were ecstatic. This shot is just south of the town of Brundidge, Alabama. With no meets in the way until Scott siding some ways north G933 would make a perfect target all the way thru sunset...

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It's not classic U23B's at this location, but it's still pretty nice. Georgia Central L782 west rolls along towards Macon quite quickly at the popular Snows Pond shot with the usual trio of hand-me-down B32-8s leading the way. This days train was absolutely massive and you never worried about hearing the train sneaking up on you. The B32 trio was barking with every small hill trying to keep track speed up towards Macon.

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Looking at the sun

Storm Light in Bridge City.

A BNSF HCSXLAL (CSX Gentilly Yard New Orleans-Lafayette, La) mixed freight train is seen stepping down the massive Huey P Long Bridge in Bridge City, LA. This bridge carries 6 lanes of highway traffic, and two mainline railroad tracks, up and over the Mississippi River just west of downtown New Orleans. While the highway takes more of a short and steep approach up and over the river, the railroad does not. To allow for a lesser gradient the railroad stays vaulted high above US 90 well after dry land on both sides of the river. The railroad portion of the superstructure is over 22,000 feet end to end. The Huey P carries a substantial portion of west to east coast railroad traffic over the river year to year. On the west bank western railroads like Union Pacific and BNSF (photographed here) make up and receive trains from eastern railroads like CSX, Canadian National, and Norfolk Southern, across the river on the east bank. The New Orleans Public Belt Railroad actually owns and operates the bridge, although, its intercity trains rarely need to use the structure. New Orleans is a bustling city for railroads, and without this bridge it all goes away. As a final note of interest: one may would be surprised to find out that the bridge supports do not lock down into bedrock. With bedrock being nearly 1000 feet below surface around New Orleans it was decided to sink the bridge piers into a fine layer of sand 170 feet below the surface. It is said that the supports simply rely on their size and mass to stay in place without true anchors.

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225d 11 - Z62_9648 - lr-ps-wm

CSX AC4400 262 rolls Eastman Coal Loads thru Natural Tunnel, VA, as seen from Lovers Leap. The lead YN2 AC4400 is a rescue engine for the C090 train after their lead engine died coming uphill in East Stone Gap up the line from here. They were catching the last bit of useable light in the tunnel portal before the afternoon shadows covered the tracks. The train shortly will roll through Glenita, Speers Ferry, climb the hill into the siding at Watkins, and eventually roll around the ridge into Yuma, VA, before crossing the TN state line into Kingsport. These C090 trains ferry 45 coal loads a few times a week between Eastern Kentucky mines and Eastman Chemical's Coal Gas plant in Kingsport.

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This is something you've probably seen from me before. I recently went through and combed through some older photos from this year looking for a particular scene, and while doing so I came across my shot of the KCS business train on Rich Mountain in Arkansas last year. In passing I decided to overhaul my edit after noticing several things I didn't like with it. This is my re-edited version that I feel like represents the scene much better than what I had before. To be on Rich Mountain that morning was something not even a few days beforehand I thought possible. For me personally the KCS Business train is the top of the food chain in the railroad world; and Rich Mountain is the scenic highlight of this trains operating territory. Some people would complain about the lack of sun for this morning southbound. I, however, loved the stormy weather we had. There's something to be said about rainy weather and the mountains. With the upcoming CPKC merger this trainset is on extremely borrowed time, and getting out for it is a real treat. Thanks also to David Perkins land clearing services for the tree trimming project the prior day. Your spotter, and everyone who got this shot thanks you...

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Your average southern summer frog strangler is drenching the Mississippi Export Railroad's daily southbound freight near Agricola, Mississippi. The freshly painted GP38-2 67 leads GP50 68 on what is a now typical Saturday AM run for this train. The rainy conditions made a shot that is often on the wrong side of the sun attainable this day.

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KCS Manifest Freight CXSH from New Orleans to Shreveport, LA, is seen here at sunrise descending the Huey P Long Bridge superstructure into Lobdell, Louisiana. A lucky pick-up of a track warrant from North Baton Rouge Yard to Simmesport up the road tipped me off to the trains location in Baton Rouge. When I arrived at East Bridge Junction on the East side of the Mississippi River, that this bridge crosses, his lead engines were stepping onto the big climb to the top. I easily overtook the train and settled in on the west bank for a sunrise look. Getting any KCS train on this bridge is a challenge as the SHCX is nocturnal and the CXSH is oftentimes out of town early enough to beat sunrise. For your troubles Union Pacific runs a daily MLILI from Livonia to Baton Rouge that does make it over in daytime. We'll see that train in a few postings from now.

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In this image we are overlooking the Manchac Pass in Akers, Louisiana. CN 5273, an exceedingly rare widecab SD40-2W in Canadian National Railroad's old "Zebra" paint scheme, is seen leading train O498 southbound. The train is passing over the photogenic Manchac Pass bridge while a storm rages on in the background. Manchac Pass carries the waters of Lake Maurepas into Lake Ponchatrain to the east. There's an entire neighborhood of homes behind the train that are only accessible by boat. The area out around Manchac is wild. The way of life for the locals is unlike anything else. Not many places outside of Louisiana's waterways where you take the boat to get home...

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