We took a trip to Chicago for spring break, to celebrate a birthday and to get away from the snow. Two nights were spent tantalizingly close a lot of rail activity. Unfortunately, as often happens on a family trip it was tough to get away for quality camera time. The morning I was going to get out early was a weather washout. We did take a short ride on the electric line down to Hyde Park for our visit to the Museum of Science and Industry. It was a fun way to avoid traffic and parking hassles. An outbound train pulls up to 55th St as we wait for our train to take us back to Millennium Park (Randolph Street Station). Although the results where thin photographically it was a great get-away and fun to check out this end of the old Illinois Central for the first time. March 12, 2019.

BNSF 7320 bears evidence of its Canadian pedigree while in service on the BNSF. The old 7300s looked good even if they didn't hang around the roster too long. On the approach to Winona Jct., WI, September 5, 2002.

D-loco R 144 and the line not electrified, nowadays it is.

Illinois Central 2508 hauls a train of bituminous coal. Originally intended to handle priority freight tonnage system-wide, the mountain-class locomotives were increasingly used in heavy coal service after the IC retracted steam power to its core coal region around Paducah on the Kentucky Division.

The 2508 is a model of the 4-8-2s rebuilt from USRA clone 2-10-2s by the Illinois Central's Paducah shops during 1937-1943. NAPM member Ted Richardson started with a Hallmark Models locomotive and made major corrections to a number of parts to match the IC prototype, including the pilot, smoke stack, sandbox, and cab windows. Other details were made by Ackert Industries from drawings Ted provided, making this model a very accurate representation of a 2500-class locomotive. Ted also painted the model. The freight cars are a mixture of Red Caboose and Life-Like models.

Photo by Ted Richardson.

Visit the HO scale club on-line at www.napmltd.com.

There wasn't any intention to make an art impression but the camera did without demand (harsh winter light?). EMU-3 4019+4031 (type ICM) as train IC 1738 approaching the station Overvecht and heading towards the Central Station.

A favorite combination of mine is clean cascade green, snow and brilliant sunshine. This empty taconite train has all three as it rolls into Minneapolis at Park Jct. January 23, 1994.

PCC 7077 on route Nº 55 at Gare du Sud / South Station.

The coal trains provide heat but also need heat on occasion to unload. Evidence remains in the form of a ghosted mark where the applicator is applied to the car as well as the scorched bottoms of the Public Service stickers. August 10, 2024.

Wednesday, 28 December 2016

43303+43301 passes through Dawlish with the 0600hrs Arriva CrossCountry service from Leeds to Plymouth.

© Finbarr O'Neill

PCC 2125 on route Nº 10 at the Minderbroedersrui in the heart of the city.

I think the most glorious view and most glorious pass I rode in the Alps Divide Ultra Challenge was L’Authion.

It was already on the third day. The day after the rain drenched Via del Sale. From Tende on the tarmac road lead south and down towards Breil-sur-Roya and from there up via a small tarmac ribbon up to La Maglia where it soon gave way to a great gravel / off-road track. Which led all the way up towards and then alongside just below the green grassy ridgeline with great views onto the blue mediterranean.

After quite a while it finally meets a small and quiet tarmac road again. It’s the circuit de la découverte de l’Authion. A small ring road coming from and leading back to the Col de Turini which we climbed to the highest Point of L’Authion at 2026 masl. From there I prepared for the descent and only after the next curve another, even more awesome view over all the Alpes Maritimes and the far coast line opens.

I hadn’t expected this at all! What a spectacular panorama. Top star rating!

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#AlpsDivide

#fromwhereIride

#ridewithaview

#bikepacking

#Colcollector

#weitradeln

#cycling

#Authion

#Seealpen

#AlpesMaritimes

Stickered for their old Pleasant Prairie destination, the aluminum coal gons continue to rack up the miles. August 10, 2024.

Plenty of uniformity yet also a lot of small variations in age and weathering among this solid train of CSX covered hoppers. Lily pads clutter an impounded backwater near Lynxville, WI. Level running along the Mississippi River means smooth sailing headed west on the Aurora Sub. August 18, 2024.

Little did I know at the time that this former warbonnet would wear red again only this time for the CN. Regardless, this gullwing Dash 8 looked right at home hustling a Z-train past the elevators at Cochrane, WI. June 7, 2006.

The ever reliable BR Standard 2 No. 78019 boiler ticket is due to expire soon. An overhaul awaits her but she goes out with a bang especially on the evidence of this photograph on her final gala appearance for a while. 78019 passing Kinchley lane with black clag being thrown out of her chimney. A fine achievement for her crew on such a warm day.

An empty auto repo train parallels traffic on busy US 90A southwest of Houston. The grading to the left was part of a just-started double-tracking project on the Glidden Sub that was finished in 2016.

ASPLDR 08 (Autos- Spring, TX to Laredo, TX, Reposition)

NS C40-9W #9035

UP SD70ACe #8558

Sugar Land, TX

August 8th, 2014

UP's Pocatello to North Platte manifest cruises down Sherman Hill on a beautiful evening in Wyoming.

This image seems to be a bit out of the ordinary for me, but I like it nonetheless. It was one of those shots that I took to just see what happens in the camera. In other words, I wasn't expecting much or trying to capture anything in particular. I might have even taken it without stopping my walk.

Sometimes I have the most fun and feel the most contented when I'm not thinking about composition or light or focus or all those other things that agreeably make a photograph a quality one. You know, the pics that get the most comments and faves. Heh : ) The quest for that photograph is a bit of a devil in disguise. For me, while I enjoy capturing beauty with a camera, that process can deprive (and possibly deprave) the senses, the essence, of me being outdoors.

But what do I know? Perhaps it is possible to simultaneously experience both conditions of joy - to be in the natural element while deftly photographing it. Instead of feeling discord amongst two varying priorities, maybe one could (or should?) realize that they can be congruous, maybe even augmentative. Again, I don't know.

However, I do know many others who claim photography graciously forces them to pay attention to the world around them. But can it eventually go to the other extreme? Can one become so focused on "the shot" that consciousness of the external world is forfeited in favor of an attempt at mastery of an instrument of luxury?

Obviously, I have some exploring to do.

(NS) 205 crosses the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland, OH. with (NS) Heritage engine Monongahela leading the way.

There were a number of warm spells during December but by the last day it was storming again. On our way home from some more holiday celebrations we followed the BNSF and the Mississippi. At Ferryville, WI this 3 unit set of light power was encountered as it made its way east. The new year is about as clear to me as this view across the wide river. Who knows what it will bring but we're one day in, no turning back. December 31, 2018.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

GM 084 passes through XW 188, Newrath no. 1 level-crossing with 3 empty timber wagons on the 0755hrs wagon transfer from Waterford to Limerick.

Viewed from OBKW 144B.

Click here for a video of 084 running light through Ballybrophy taken in 2012.

© Finbarr O'Neill

As I often say during brown stick season along the river "I gotta get back here in October" was uttered as a westbound (GALNTW?) rolls by near Potosi, WI. April 8, 2016.

55019 Royal Highland Fusiler rounds the curve at Kinchley lane on the Great Central railway. The Deltic was hauling a Loughborough-Leicester north service.

With the rail and ties laid on the new roadbed, piles of ballast now dot the right of way as work progresses on the addition of a second main to the Glidden Subdivision southwest of Houston. This 10 mile stretch would enter service in May 2016.

MEWEG 15 (Manifest- Englewood Yard [Houston, TX] to Eagle Pass, TX)

UP C44-9W #9671​

CSXT CW44AC #47

Stafford, TX

August 15th, 2015

4930 'Hagley Hall' 4-6-0 80079 BR 4MT 2-6-4T & 43106 4MT 2-6-0 pass Withington Herefordshire heading for Bulmers Steam Centre and then the next day Welsh Marches duties 25-2-83

As can be seen the line was still double track and the field to the left was used for growing hops

Step back from the edge and for a few hundred feet before the trail turns back to doubletrack and loose rock, there's sand. An easy transition band between the "canyon zone" and the "mountain zone", wish the whole trail could have been like this.

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Spring Break 2015: "and finally, the tortoise"

April 4, 2015: An overview of Snow Canyon from Red Mountain; moving camp to Las Vegas.

Turbo 166207 approaches Malvern Link having just passed Newland East level crossing on 30-3-21.

The working is the 2V66 1440 Bristol Temple Meads to Great Malvern service

Still retaining the FGW blue livery. All units have been repainted into GWR livery for some time now and you will not see a daytime Turbo in Malvern with all services from Bristol now terminating at Worcester.

Ref: IMG_9221 30-3-21

The scene south of Bagley shows the riot of color enjoyed along the Mississippi this weekend. October 18, 2014.

Alta Via del Sale. In torrential downpour. For the whole day from 9 am to nightfall.

It was Alps Divide Day two for me. This weather was forecasted, but the extend and intensity was extraordinary. And it’s not me saying this. This came from quite a lot of very experienced people. Even people living in the UK and in Scotland and who have participated in events like Silkroad Mountain Race. E.g. both @Jennytough and @nielcopeland said this rain had broken the scale.

And wow - I literally rode through rivers running across the trails. At times just one side, at times on both sides. And it was chunky. As usual, the photos don’t do the real roughness of the surface justice. It was no mellow riding. It wouldn’t have even on good gravel surface as I did 3.400 meters of climbing on that day. But indeed it was a constant search for rideable lines over the chunky trails. Right through the middle of the streams running down the trails or next to it.

As long as I was moving and moving upwards the temperature weren’t that much of a problem. But for the descending parts the wet body had few reserves. Still not at the halfway mark, after quite a bit of a descending part and still 20 km from the next rifugio (i.e. more than 2 hours away) I was shivering so hard once stopped. Luckily I found a small opportunity to pull out my puffy jacket under a bit of shelter and put in on under my rain jacket. It took a while to stop shivering after staring to move again, but I finally could comfortably „swim“ all the rest of the Via Sale. It took me until well after dusk, when the rain finally subsided a little above Tende but gave way to dense and wet fog.

This was quite the experience.

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#AlpsDivide

#whatevertheweather

#bikepacking

#weitradeln

#ViaSale

#Rain

After waiting for a local to clear the main ahead, the engineer on Amtrak train #2 has the throttle wide open to get back up to track speed at the east switch of Sugar Land siding southwest of Houston. In less than a year this wouldn't be a delay as the new main on the right would be fully in service.

While normally the eastbound Sunset makes its way through Sugar Land by 10 in the morning, today's trip has it more than 7 hours late due to a 4 hour delayed departure while holding for a tardy Coast Starlight in Los Angeles, plus the added delays from UP after having missed its slot across the Sunset Route.

If you look real close, you'll notice an FRA track inspection car between the locomotives and the baggage car.

AMT2 02 (EB Sunset Limited)

AMTK P42DC #10

AMTK P42DC #154

Sugar Land, TX

August 4th, 2015

The wrong way isn't always worth a shot but with some fall color it can be worth a look. Westbound stacks cruise through Hager City, WI. October 15, 2022.

Spring time seems like a long way away at the moment especially with the dull and cold weather we are getting at the moment

The undergrowth is beginning to take over and indeed unless there is some vegetation clearance this picture will not be obtainable this year

Here we see GWR Turbo 2-car unit 165121 passing Malvern Common and about to enter Malvern Link station on 18-4-18

The working is the 1P27 1059 Great Malvern to London Paddington Great Western Railway service