View allAll Photos Tagged Z6ii
Bryant Park, a narrow strip of green space near downtown White Rock, BC.
A small slender maple tree was dwarfed by the surrounding tall thick evergreens, despite its "miniature" status, it stood out from all the other trees - due to its colourful foliage.
Christmas market, Stuttgart 2022
Ich habe an den Zoom gedreht...
A little creativity with the bandstand...
A Sunday Evening Experiment in Black and White.
At 10:45pm an inbound Saint Charles Line Streetcar glides down the neutral ground of Saint Charles Avenue towards downtown New Orleans. The lone streetcar guides through the night surrounded by the old live oaks that line Saint Charles Avenue, and give it so much character. The western edge of the New Orleans Garden District is distinctly quiet this time of night. Outside of the streetcar rolling by, and the occasional vehicle, all is silent at Saint Charles and Audubon. As it has done since 1923 car 900 of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority will continue plying these rails throughout the night offering inexpensive service to whomever needs a ride home in the Garden District. This Photograph is really just an experiment of mine. Shooting at High ISO well after dark is a difficult, but rewarding task, to attempt. I like the way the light and shadows play in this image, and overall I liked it enough to post!
Thank you for reading and looking! Enjoy!
Saint Charles Car number 900 rolls into its hundredth year of service on the venerable Saint Charles Streetcar Line. The Night Owl service runs 10pm to 6 am with reduced streetcars in the loop between Claiborne and Canal on the Saint Charles line. Night photography on the Saint Charles line is a challenge but extremely rewarding when it pays off.
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It's last light on a cool winter day as CPKC I180 enjoys an unobstructed run down the KCS Beaumont Subdivision in Dequincy, Louisiana. The hot Chicago to San Luis Potosi Rack and stack train doesn't give off many hints that this is now CPKC country... Dequincy is home to an immaculately restored KCS station that sits in the crux of the Lake Charles and Beaumont split on the mainline. At one point this was a sleepy gut line to Port Arthur, Texas, by way of Beaumont, but these days the expansionist dreams of the 90s "Nafta Lines" are a daily reality. Most traffic here is bound for the border crossing in Laredo, Texas, three crew districts away. This 180 hotshot will be in Laredo at dawn the next morning readying for a sprint across the high desert of Northern Mexico. Dequincy is the big curve in the CPKC system that sends what have mostly been due southbound trains veering west towards their next crew swap in Beaumont. What used to be near the end for the original Kansas City-Port Arthur mainline is merely the midpoint of a vast rail system that stretches all the way from Lazaro Cardenas, MX, to Vancouver, British Columbia, in the west and Saint John, NB, in the east, by way of Kansas City, Saint Paul, Minot, and Calgary, AB. It's still KCS country in Dequincy, however, and the many KCS locomotives that roll past the venerable old station continue to make it feel that way even a year and some change post merger...
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Foggy Track Speed local.
Canadian National Local L562 is seen here in the thick fog through Hazlehurst, Mississippi, along the former Illinois Central main line to New Orleans. The fog was setting in thick as the Jackson to Brookhaven turn makes a fast run back home after meeting the southbound Z194 on the double track at Wesson, Ms, a few miles to the south. The Canadian Cab SD40-2 and the Bessemer and Lake Erie 907 made a great chase on Thursday down and back up the Illinois Central main line.
December 2021
Painted Skies of Acadia.
The elements all came together for a magical sunset on the back side of Beech Mountain in Acadia National Park one beautiful October evening. There's not much to say really. The light, location, and fall colors all line up here for a beautiful look over one of America's wildest landscapes. It was a privilege to stand on this outcropping and photograph this view... I'll never forget how beautiful this sunset was...
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Beech Mountain Maine. October 2022.
As the shadows grow long the daily Florida Gulf and Atlantic Pensacola to Milton shuttle returns back east along beautiful Escambia Bay in Pensacola, Florida. The lead locomotive is a former Iowa Chicago and Eastern GP40 that was sold to the Helm Rail Leasing Company some years ago. Seeing leased motors like the 4216 is reminiscent of the times in the early 2000s when leased power was common on the line's predecessor, CSX. This section of the old L&N and CSX is a hidden gem for photography. Upon departure from Pensacola the tracks travel right next to Escambia Bay for 10 or so miles until crossing it at Lora Point on the Massive John T Collinson bridge. Two years ago nearly to the day Hurricane Sally destroyed this section of track, and drug most of it into the bay. This cleared out many, many, miles of sightlines that were just not there hours beforehand. This locale is one of my favorites to capture having grown up just 5 minutes from here; and thus spending many afternoons watching the rainbnow era of CSX roll by at the beach here.
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A routine scene takes place at Saint Charles and Audubon on a beautiful early summer evening. Another Saint Charles car is inbound to the city with a quickly filling ride. 9 miles ahead lies the connection to downtown at Canal Street. It'll be dark by the time the 951 makes it there. Just another evening for these streetcars that have been doing it now for over 100 years.
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CSX B651-01 pops out of ridge tunnel in Altapass, North Carolina. The tunnel here carries the CSX Blue Ridge Sub under the Blue Ridge parkway a hundred feet above. The train is right at the top of the Clinchfield loops on the former Carolina Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad. Leading the train is a decently clean KCS Belle ET44AH. This train took two days to get south of Erwin from Kingsport after a rear DPU failure. It wound up working out better in the end though as they managed to run the Kingsport to Erwin segment in nice afternoon sun, and then made the morning run south through the gorge near Poplar, NC, and on south to Bostic. We had a great chase of this guy south from Poplar to Marion in North Carolina on a stormy Friday. More to come soon!
A resplendent scene is displayed along one of Florida's wild spring runs on a stunning winter afternoon. Most of my photos have long-winded narratives that attempt to engage the viewer with the image. I feel, however, that this image speaks for itself through nature's intrinsic beauty. A hidden Florida Landscape that's as old as time itself...
Thanks for looking and enjoy! More Pure Florida scenes soon!
The 21 car Belton Job is seen here along Railroad Ave in Anderson, SC, as they prepare to switch a new customer on the eastern side of town. The engineer has just released the air, and they'll momentarily begin switching. The unique U18B's were struggling with the heavy interchange train here, and it certainly made for great sounds. Thanks for looking!
A fall day in Galaxy Hill, Vermont.
Your typical Vermont Roadside shot. Galaxy Hill is a small farming community between Woodstock and Pomfret in East Central Vermont. It was ablaze with orange on a misty Autumn evening. The sightlines in this part of the world are certainly idyllic...
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CSX W083, a herzog ballast train, is seen gliding into Bay Saint Louis, Ms, just about half an hour after sunrise along the coast. The marine layer of fog is burning off in the golden hour of the morning. The W083 is snarled in a tangled web of 5 trains trying to get through the area in what was a busy busy morning along the NO&M.
CN 2029 leads a southbound Two Harbors ore load into Wales, Minnesota, on a cold fall day in the northwoods. The heavy loaded taconite train is running south on the former Duluth Missabe and Iron Range railroad mainline for the ore docks in Two Harbors on Lake Superior. The train is fighting uphill from Rollins a few miles back, but will soon prepare to drop down the steep 3% grade to the lake in Two Harbors. The C40-8's running the Two Harbors side are the last holdouts for class one standard cab dash 8's. Trios of C40's routinely hold down taconite pellet shuttles on the remote Iron Range Subdivision running north from Two Harbors to the Minntac Mine and return. With the disposition of many units already taking place I was glad to have photographed at least one train with these former Chicago and Northwestern C40-8's on point.
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The KCS Business train is seen here crossing over the massive Bonnet Carre' Spillway bridge in Norco, Louisiana. The Spillway is a flood control project that keeps New Orleans from (in theory) flooding when the Mississippi River rises. It creates a diverging channel for southbound water to flow into Lake Ponchatrain a mile or two to our north. For the two railroads that cross it the spillway created the need for some massive bridges to be built in order to span across the massive structure. The northernmost bridge is the former Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad, now KCS. This day the old, decrepit, and rickety trestle was carrying outbound company brass back to Shreveport. This particular move only had business train staff onboard, and thus it got held up for just about every possible train on rival railroad CN before they could leave New Orleans. It didn't take them long after to get out here, and for the 6 or so of us on the western end of the bridge the results proved spectacular. The telephoto angle here brings into perspective just how long the bridge is. On this April day it was dry as a bone underneath. This is something, that according to the locals, isn't super common.
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Under a stunning sunset the Lady Malou and Pacific Tulip lay over on the Mississippi River awaiting an opening in Reserve, Louisiana. The foreground ship, the Lady Malou, was waiting for a chemical related load to take to Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. It was built in 2013 as a purpose-built chemical tanker under the Grecian Flag and is currently sailing along the eastern Mexico Coast. The background boat, the Pacific Tulip, was built last year as a bulk carrier under the Marshall Islands flag, and was picking up grain for Singapore. The vessel would depart two days later for Singapore where it is not expected to arrive until May 7th of this year. On the westbank the DOW chemical plant dominates the skyline in Taft, LA, behind the ships. The amount of Commerce moving up and down the Mississippi is stunning. A quiet river up from New Orleans is a rare phenomenon with ships calling on many, many, ports inland.
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Three years ago the last solid grey KCS SD40 consist was out running for one more day along the KCS Gulfport Subdivsion. We are set up in Saucier, Ms, a little after 8 am one morning for our first shot of the day. Engineer Darrell Mickler has his train in the wind as they head north towards Hattiesburg on a muggy southern summer morning. The very next morning freshly painted 3206 replaced the 695 on the north end, and as since there has never been a solid grey SD40 consist again... I credit my good friend Brandon Smith for letting me know about this train. Without his texting me I never would have known this was still possible all the way into 2019.
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In a classic scene that is instantly recognizable for N&W fans we see Norfolk Southern train 393 struggling upgrade at Shawsville, Va. The train is passing the iconic scene at John Farm road that so many recognize. The low afternoon sun accentuates the scene nicely. This was a great shot on a busy afternoon out of Roanoke for both N&W westbounds and Virginian eastbounds.
Some days you'd rather be lucky than good... After following the previously posted NS S0N up to Iager, WV, on the Dry Fork branch we backtracked to the town of Cedar Bluff, VA, late in the afternoon along the Clinch Valley main. When we arrived NS empty train 815 was in the process of splitting their train with a new S1N crew for Weller. Splitting the train is the process by which one long empty coal train is split into two trains for different destinations. This particular 815 came out of Norfolk with a Weller, VA, bound empty set, and a Toms Creek, VA, bound empty set. In Cedar Bluff, at Dry Fork Junction, the Weller bound crew boarded the DPU's of 815, detached from the rear of 815, attached the EOT to 815, brake tested, and took the turn up the Dry Fork side for the second train that day. When we arrived at Amonate again there was a brief glimmer of setting sun that illuminated the trestle and quickly disappeared. After hearing that they were stopped I figured we may have made the hike up again to come up empty handed. When they did finally get on the move again I was happy to at least know they'd make it in daytime. Just before S1N rounded the curve on the far side of the bridge the sun broke through the cloud deck, and illuminated the bridge just far enough to bathe the train and mountains in sweet golden hour sunlight. Before the end of the train passed, and we reached the bottom of the steep hike down the clouds had covered the bridge for the day. From wondering if we were going to have a shot to getting complete sun on the train was a sweet turn of events. This was made especially nice by the great location, and the overall rarity of getting a single train up there, much less two.
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