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The idea for a hotel in Dalen came with the expansion of the Telemark Canal in 1892. Through a series of staircase locks, the canal from Skien to Norsjø was extended to reach Bandak, with the small town of Dalen as its new endpoint. The canal was referred to as the "eighth wonder" upon its completion, and the waterway saw heavy traffic from ferries bringing passengers from the east in Oslo and Grenland travelling towards destinations in central and western Norway.
The initiative to build a luxury hotel in Dalen was taken by Skien businessman Hans Larsen along with his two associates, merchants Lars Rød and Anton Hansen from Skien and Porsgrunn respectively. The men commissioned local Porsgrunn architect Haldor Larsen Børve to design the hotel. Børve, originally from Ullensvang, was a highly trained architect, having studied at universities in Trondheim and later Hannover in Germany. After its opening in 1894, the hotel drew royal guests from all over Europe, playing host to the likes of King Oscar II of Sweden, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King Leopold II of Belgium, King Haakon VII of Norway and his family, and several members of the British aristocracy.
During the German occupation of Norway in World War II, Dalen Hotel was used as a resort for German officers. Most of the building's interior was stripped out and sold for parts, and the building fell into disrepair due to lack of proper maintenance. After the war, the building was bought by singer and evangelist Aage Samuelsen with the intent of restoring the hotel to its former glory. Though Samuelsen failed to raise the necessary funds to renovate the building, he gave the hotel significant press exposure, and towards the end of the 1980s restoration efforts began in earnest. The hotel was reopened once the remodelling finished in 1992. In 2000, the hotel was honored with the Europa Nostra award for outstanding conservation.
Pontile di Bagnoli (Napoli) - Il punto terminale a 900 m. dal punto di partenza. (The end point of Bagnoli pier 900 m. from the starting point)
(see L A R G E R )
The interesting flower of a fire wheel tree (Stenocarpus sinuatus), about 10cm diameter. (Alien tree from Australia)
Inset 1: Five strands go to each endpoint (sphere) of which one goes inside the sphere.
Inset 2:A quarter sphere at the end of one of the 4 strands.
Inset 3: Structure at the end of fifth strand, looks like pistil.
The cauldron of Blato is the endpoint of a mountain road, and a perfect trailhead for hikes on higher mountains.
The destination of our hike: A beautiful lonely beach. Sold a few tents and a small restaurant that served delicious food, as well as the tickets for the return journey by speedboat.
The location of the beach I've marked on the map - strictly geotagged: promise! Actually, you just have to follow the way. Start- and Endpoint is always Sai Kung (Bus or Boat).
Highest Explored position: 225
If you like my pictures, please leave a comment, I'd really appreciate it! If you really like it, hit favourite!
Dam Square lies in the historical center of Amsterdam, approximately 750 meters south of the main transportation hub, Centraal Station. It is roughly rectangular in shape, stretching about 200 meters from west to east and about 100 meters from north to south. It links the streets Damrak and Rokin, which run along the original course of the Amstel River from Centraal Station to Muntplein (Mint Square) and Munttoren. The Dam also marks the endpoint of other well-traveled streets, Nieuwendijk, Kalverstraat and Damstraat. A short distance beyond the northeast corner lies the main red-light district, de Wallen.
As always, comments/notes/crituques and favourites (just hit F ) will be very much appreciated! For the best view, hit L .
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The Cherry Creek Regional Trail is a picturesque 47-mile route with a northern endpoint in downtown Denver and connects suburban and rural Arapahoe and Douglas Counties, including the communities of Parker, Centennial, and Franktown. The vast majority of the trail has an 8-foot-wide concrete surface, but short sections of the more rural southern end consist of gravel trails and roads.
About the Route
The trail's northern endpoint is located at Denver's Confluence Park, which marks the area where a gold discovery in 1858 led to the founding of the city. Meandering southeast, the trail parallels Cherry Creek through urban landscapes and parks and into the suburbs. Highlights of the route include the Cherry Creek Shopping District Four Mile House and Historic Park, where one can learn about Denver's early pioneers.
(source: traillink.com/trail/cherry-creek-regional-trail/)
In Vancouver BC.
This is the northeast facade of the art gallery which occupies the former provincial law courts building; which was moved in the early 1980s to newer buildings just southwest.
This plaza is the defacto endpoint for just about every protest march that happens in Vancouver; the steps serving as the speaking platform for whoever happens to be saying their piece that day. It lies alongside Georgia Street, the largest downtown traffic artery in the downtown, and is surrounded by a number of high end hotels including and in the style of Canadian Grand Railway Hotels originally built at the turn of the 20th century.
On the far side of the building, between the gallery and the (now not so new) law courts, is Robson Square. It is a pedestrian portion of Robson Street which runs parallel to Georgia. Robson Square also hosts a below street level, covered but open sided venue used for public skating in winter, and hosts dancing in summer (when there is no COVID-19). Part of it is under Robson Street and sticks out either side.
You can see a couple of pictures of the rink in my photostream including a couple have a wedding reception skate during a public skate session, and a photo of a summertime dance session.
The building, mostly on the far side, often serves double duty as needed, as an old school courthouse for any of the many movies and TV shows the film in Vancouver. Many "Hollywood" movies for theatres and streaming services are shot here.
This glacier lake is the endpoint of the Hooker Valley Track, which is considered one of the best walks in New Zealand. Unfortunately, the lake was covered in snow so couldn't get a nice reflection of Mt Cook, the biggest mountain in New Zealand.
Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park | NEW ZEALAND
With the news just out that modern day Norfolk Southern is selling a surving piece of the original historic Norfolk Southern to RJ Corman I thought I'd share another shot from the one day I spent on part of the line. If you missed the news I'm talking about here's the link: www.railwayage.com/freight/short-lines-regionals/r-j-corm... I'm glad I shot this when I did, and I'd love to go back for some nice looking red Corman units in the street someday.
Anyway, here's the caption I wrote at the time:
Fayetteville, the seat of Cumberland County North Carolina is most widely known as the home of the US Army’s Fort Bragg. The city itself is larger than expected with a population of around 210,000 but has a reputation as kind of a tough town. It is so rough that soldiers stationed on post are advised to avoid downtown “Fayette-nam” as it’s derisively referenced. But to the visiting railfan willing to take a look around the city has a surprisingly lot to offer. And while I wouldn’t call it a particularly inviting place, I in no way felt ill at ease or unsafe photographing in town.
By far the dominant railroad in town is CSXT with their south end subdivision, the former Atlantic Coast Line main, seeing the passage of dozens of daily freight trains and four daily Amtrak trains on an 11 mile stretch of double track through the city.
The city is also served by the Norfolk Southern that arrives tri-weekly on a 43 mile branch from Fuquay-Varina that was an ORIGINAL pre-1974 Norfolk Southern.
And those roads both interchange with the famous and always independent shortline Aberdeen and Rockfish that calls Fayetteville the eastern endpoint of its 47 mile route.
CSXT also operates two branchlines out of the city, both of which are remaining stubs of the one time Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad dating from the 1880s.
This remarkable street running is made even more special by story behind it, since prior to this trip none of us even knew it existed. One evening while we were hanging out at the Salisbury depot after the big 611 celebration that had brought us to Carolina we ran into a long time regular local fan named John who was an ex original Norfolk Southern (pre-74) engineer. He told us about the street running on a surviving portion of the original NS down in Fayetteville that the modern NS still serves with tri weekly with local out of Varina. Being that Friday was our day that we planned to head off to hunt the Aberdeen and Rockfish anyway we crossed our fingers and headed out. Low and behold luck was with us, as shortly after we arrived in Fayetteville we heard NS E25 (the symbol for the branchline local) crackle on the radio and we knew we were in luck.
We were rewarded with multitude of shots of this train on the half mile long section of street running as well as working the A&R interchange. In this view we see the arriving southbound train curling out into traffic just north of the Cumberland St. intersection to begin more than a half mile run down Hillsboro St. This is about MP VF42 on the East Carolina Business Unit's Varina to Fayetteville District. Since sold off, classic standard cab SD60 6659 blt. for the NS in Nov. 1988 leads the train with NS 6784 an EMD SD70M blt. Mar. 1993 as Conrail 5537 trailing.
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Friday May 29, 2015
Took my parents to see the "Sensorio, Field of Light" in Paso Robles last night. Fiber optic threads sprouting to endpoints via octopus tentacles connected to buried bulbs - 58,000 of them planted in rolling hills amongst craggy oaks. Scrambled to get there before evening light disappeared, and barely made it. Definitely not part of the Central Coast thing growing up! Really unique experience. iPhone snaps - we'll see how the camera shots turn out later (though they ban tripods, so that was a separate challenge).
Cornus Kousa flower.
This variation is based on one of my own presets in Topaz Studio 2, based loosely on my Paeony Play set from last week. I try and reach differing endpoints from the same start as part of the fun.
I like this for the changed colour scheme and the texturing. What fun.
This is the one from the set that I thought I would publish in the Sliders Sunday group. I hope you enjoy it :)
See this version for more detail of the initial processing.
The first comment gives a link as usual for Sliders Sunday to the in-camera original I started with.
Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image and the series. Happy Sliders Sunday everyone :)
Mobile Pictures taken at a trip to La Councha,
High above the hustle and bustle of Marbella and San Pedro, La Concha Mountain stands proud as the famous landmark that towers over this part of the Costa del Sol. A visual delight that plays a vital role in Marbella’s benevolent micro-cilmate, La Concha’s summit is also the endpoint of a pleasant three-hour hike that is highly recommended to confident walkers during autumn, winter or spring.
At 1,215 metres above sea level, La Concha – which means ‘shell’ in Spanish but is actually an impressive mass of limestone – marks the western point of the imposing Sierra Blanca mountain range that is impossible to miss for anyone driving along the A-7 coastal road.
A rocky path partially covered in ‘pinsapos’, a rare pine tree discovered in 1837, the route is varied and thanks to its views is probably one of the most pleasant treks in Andalucía. If you enjoy hiking, are steady on your feet and happy with heights, take an afternoon to scale La Concha and enjoy impressively panoramic vistas of Gibraltar, northern Africa and inland Spain on the way up.
The walk sets off from the Refugio de Juanar refuge, on the road from Marbella to the inland village of Ojén, and takes you through a pleasant pine forest before continuing along the bottom of a valley carpeted with olive trees towards the Cruz de Juanar peak. Here the route heads off to the north, taking hikers through another pine forest with a fern-covered floor before beginning its steady ascent. La Concha is clearly signposted.
I mentioned briefly yesterday that I have been working on some various forms of photo art, that employ ideas of conceptual art that are influenced by Surrealists like Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, the Russian Constructivist art movement and even Joseph Cornell. It involves hand crafting and digital media. The common theme running through these various experiments is the Unconscious (as indeed it was for the early Surrealists).
The endpoint of this current approach will be the completion of a short film on C.G. Jung and his "Red Book" (I hope not too big to upload to Flickr). The Frenchman Duchamp, who was also a chess grandmaster, once said of his art, "I am interested in ideas. Not merely visual products."
So everything you see over the coming week or so will not be pretty or even beautiful. But I hope it unlocks some ideas and stimulates a relationship with your Unconscious.
So I won't be spending much time describing the actual works, I'll let you work them out. This one today is a nod to the work of Joseph Cornell, one of the truly unique artists of the 20th century who should be better known. So I've given you a few links to follow up on if you're interested.
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jul/25/joseph-corne...
"Dreams and Shadow: The Life and Works of Joseph Cornell"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=djzwMg3YF0c
A couple of examples of Joseph Cornell's experimental filmmaking (and forays into Surrealism):
"Rose Hobart" (1936)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQxtZlQlTDA
"Angel" (1957)
Took my parents to see the "Sensorio, Field of Light" in Paso Robles last night. Fiber optic threads sprouting to endpoints via octopus tentacles connected to buried bulbs - 58,000 of them planted in rolling hills amongst craggy oaks. Scrambled to get there before evening light disappeared, and barely made it. Definitely not part of the Central Coast thing growing up! Really unique experience. iPhone snaps - we'll see how the camera shots turn out later (though they ban tripods, so that was a separate challenge).
MRL's local to Harrison MT crosses this unique and rustic timber trestle at Beale on it's way up and out of the valley to it's endpoint. At Harrison there is a grain elevator which is the only customer left on the branch. June 14, 2022
Ilford Delta 100 @ISO 400, Nikon F
As seen from our endpoint for today. There is a whole lot more ice on the mountains beyond. And some fresh snow coming down right now.
Færderseilasen, also called Færder'n, is a regatta that held on the second weekend in June by the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club.
The regatta starts in Oslo for ordinary sailboats and in Son for old yachts. The fastest of the sailboats reach Færder Lighthouse. The endpoint is in Horten.[1] Smaller boats turn around at Hollenderbåen or Medfjordbåen. The regatta is open for any member of the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club (KNS), and boats are placed in classes according to their sailing potential. The trip from Oslo to Færder to Horten is about 83 nm long. (Wikipedia)
Best viewed on black.
Pink paeony petals. Yep :)
This is derived from exactly the same image as last week, but with a different endpoint. It treads a well-trodden path for me though in this case I used a different way of producing the symmetry.
Oh, and it’s for Sliders Sunday in case you hadn’t guessed :)
First I developed the image in Affinity Photo to a passable rendition of the flower (effectively a plainer version of last week’s).
The symmetry was achieved very simply: duplicated the layer and then flipped it horizontally and blended the upper copy with Darken. Merged the two layers and repeated the performance but flipping vertically. And there we go: four-way symmetry.
[At this stage it is already a fun image. If you want to have a go do feel free to download the original and have a play yourself: it doesn't take long and can do it in Photoshop or Affinity. I suggest you try changing the colours and contrast a bit and see what happens...]
Then the pretty bit. Into Topaz Studio using the Glow filter and starting with the Contrast Cables preset. Quite a lot of fun and tweaking from there, and looking at it I must have played with hue shifting too.
Finally back into Affinity with a dark vignette and a slight tweaking of the brightness and contrast. The usual frame method of merging what we have so far, expanding the canvas by 100 pixels, placing a white fill layer underneath the merged layer; then adding a shadow and a 1-pixel black outline using layer fx.
I’ll post a link to the in-camera original in the first comment so you can see how far we meandered...
I rather liked the stained glass window effect...
Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image. Happy Sliders Sunday :)
McCloud Railway's "Hill Job" backs toward Mount Shasta, California in August 2001. MR had a switchback on the line between McCloud and Mount Shasta. Trains operated uphill from the endpoints with the locomotives on the point. McCloud trains on the Hill Job used cabooses. A trainman would ride the caboose and protect the reverse movements away from the Signal Butte switchback. Cabooses on MR were equipped with a set of horns for use at grade crossings during these moves.
Alas, as local resident "PhotoBob" Morris would say, it's all crap now. When this photo was taken, MR was still running to both Lookout and Burney. In a couple of years, BNSF would negotiate a haulage agreement with Union Pacific for traffic off MR. That doomed the line to Lookout, which saw its last train in December 2003. The railroad filed for complete abandonment in 2005. Freight operations ceased in June 2006.
Once the freight was gone, the railroad was dismantled east of McCloud. Dinner trains hung on until early 2010, when they served their last morsels. Today, these rails are still in place, but unused.
Thank you to the kind soul who cut a hole in the fence for allowing me to capture this photo. My final shot of the Madison to Madison was taken on the old wooden bridge east of Willmar, no longer open to road traffic. Though I always think of the end of the Wayzata Sub in Willmar Yard, according to timetables CP 98 is the endpoint, which is about a mile east of here, making this the Morris Sub.
This was one of the longest sunsets that I've ever experienced. It was also one of the most colorful and surreal. No mater how much time I spend in nature, the capacity of nature to far surpass my prior experiences and my wildest expectations never ceases to amaze me.
On this night the sunset color lasted at least an hour after the sun set. Most people left for dinner, but I was shooting a time-lapse sequence, so I stayed until the color was gone. This was taken on December 13, after Badwater Basin flooded shortly after Thanksgiving. With a follow-up storm, the water remained until early January!
The water table in Badwater Basin can be very close to the surface. That's how these polygons form: salt-laden water rises up cracks in the salt via capillary action, until it dries and deposits its minerals at the surface. The polygons re-form after winter rains, when the water table again is shallow enough to send salt to the surface.
Sadly, many visitors both enjoyed the sight and completely disregarded its fragility. Where people were hiking out to this spot, the polygons were quickly trampled and destroyed, The hike to less damaged locations became longer and longer, until the unique and incredible geologic processes were only visible as traces, lines flush with the surrounding salt flats. It got particularly busy after Los Angeles area newspapers covered the event. In an early visit there were perhaps a dozen people at sunset, even fewer at sunrise. Later, in one panorama image, I counted 212 people, many clearly oblivious to what they were stepping on, and erasing. I'm happy for whatever part of it they did appreciate, if only the reflection, or the joy of running around and splashing in the shallow water. Perhaps they'll notice more next time, and be curious to understand and value the extraordinary nature of the place, and the processes that they're seeing.
I hope that we get more rain on Badwater Salt Flats soon. I hope to spend a lot more time out there next time around.
This is one of the first revisits I've made to my folder from this night, to re-adjust my results with the latest post-processing tools and with a fresh perspective. Post-processing is a process, not a destination, an endpoint. I should re-process the entire time-lapse.
In response to one of the earlier edits from this night I received the inevitable responses of "fake" and "over-processed". Personally, I'm surprised at how often I am experiencing a literally unbelievable moment in nature, one that tempts you to abandon the camera and try to soak it all in before it's gone. Some of these moments are entirely predictable, like seeing the shimmering corona of the sun during a total eclipse. Many people who experience this become addicted to the experience, pursue every possible eclipse that they can, worldwide, for the rest of their lives. Other times you're completely taken be surprise, and the sun rays that you hoped to see are are more intense than anticipated, or the quality and colors of a sunset exceed your ability to comprehend how such a sight is possible.
In these moments, I've gotten into the habit of stating out loud "No one is going to believe this,", partially to mark that moment in time in my own brain and memory when I seek to relive it in post-processing. It is important to ensure that I'm not tempted to dumb it down out of fear that some armchair quarterback on the Internet might not have enough experience in nature to know that such a place and moment existed, if only for a moment in time. This is especially critical during photography workshops, when an important part of my service to my clients must be to empower them to have the courage to resist the temptation to cave in to self-proclaimed experts on the Internet, who should calm down, grow up, and get out more.
There's a lot of life left to be experienced, for most of us, and it would be a shame if you never experienced something like this. Whenever you do, please don't destroy any rare geologic features that you're walking among.
View from the west wing of the peristyle.
In the foreground, traces of walls defining the square rooms that opened towards the inner of the peristyle from West. Just in front of this wing, a bridge that crossed the Erasinos River marks the endpoint of the road that, in ancient times, led from Athens to the sanctuary of Artemis. The Propylaeum, or main access, to the great stoa was opened on this side.
Source: H. R. Goette , “Athens, Attica and the Megarid, An archaeological guide”
5th Century BC
Attica, Brauron
Built in the 1870’s on Shipman’s Point, likely as a safe haven for yachtsmen, it is now owned by the Town of Brookhaven.
Gamecock Cottage is an historic building located at Stony Brook in Brookhaven Town, in Suffolk County, New York on Long Island. It was built in 1876 for storage of oars and sliding-seat rowboats and is the only remaining wooden beach cottage that was part of West Meadow Beach. It is located at the southernmost point of a peninsula within what is now part of the West Meadow Wetlands Reserve, as the official public beach is now restricted to the north. The Gamecock Cottage sits at the southern endpoint of West Meadow Lane, which was once called Trustees Road.
It is a 1+1⁄2-story building with a front-gabled roof with a four-sided wooden cupola located in the center of the ridge line in the Gothic Revival style. It is 20 feet, 5 inches wide and 25 feet, 5 inches long and covered with board and batten siding.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
Dam Square lies in the historical center of Amsterdam, approximately 750 metres (2,500 ft) south of the main transportation hub, Centraal Station, at the original location of the dam in the river Amstel. It is roughly rectangular in shape, stretching about 200 metres (650 ft) from west to east and about 100 metres (350 ft) from north to south. It links the streets Damrak and Rokin, which run along the original course of the Amstel River from Centraal Station to Muntplein (Mint Square) and the Munttoren (Mint Tower). The Dam also marks the endpoint of the other well-traveled streets Nieuwendijk, Kalverstraat and Damstraat. A short distance beyond the northeast corner lies the main Red-light district: De Wallen.
On the west end of the square is the neoclassical Royal Palace, which served as the city hall from 1655 until its conversion to a royal residence in 1808. Beside it are the 15th-century Gothic Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) and the Madame Tussauds Amsterdam Wax Museum. The National Monument, a white stone pillar designed by J.J.P. Oud and erected in 1956 to memorialize the victims of World War II, dominates the opposite side of the square. Also overlooking the plaza are the NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky and the upscale department store De Bijenkorf. These various attractions have turned the Dam into a tourist zone.
The greens and trees mark the endpoint of a route at the Nilambur Road Railway Station. The freshness of the morning's weather, and a freshly painted engine are just something special! The chills brought on by the cool morning weather are lowered by the warmth of the sun. In fact, the presence of the sunshine enhances the beauty and serenity of both the subject and its surroundings. It's worth every dime to visit the enchanting Nilambur Road station because there is beauty throughout!
My good friend Adam was complaining about Frank Keller's post of this train yesterday. Since I was standing right next to Frank for this I figured I'd share another frame I like.
Another shot from some fabulous but more obscure southern street running. I like this shot with the local resident pedaling along paying no regard to the giant beast he's sharing the road with here!
Fayetteville, the seat of Cumberland County North Carolina is most widely known as the home of the US Army’s Fort Bragg. The city itself is larger than expected with a population of around 210,000 but has a reputation as kind of a tough town. It is so rough that soldiers stationed on post are advised to avoid downtown “Fayette-nam” as it’s derisively referenced. But to the visiting railfan willing to take a look around the city has a surprisingly lot to offer. And while I wouldn’t call it a particularly inviting place, I in no way felt ill at ease or unsafe photographing in town.
By far the dominant railroad in town is CSXT with their south end subdivision, the former Atlantic Coast Line main, seeing the passage of dozens of daily freight trains and four daily Amtrak trains on an 11 mile stretch of double track through the city.
The city is also served by the Norfolk Southern that arrives tri-weekly on a 43 mile branch from Fuquay-Varina that was an ORIGINAL pre-1974 Norfolk Southern.
And those roads both interchange with the famous and always independent shortline Aberdeen and Rockfish that calls Fayetteville the eastern endpoint of its 47 mile route.
CSXT also operates two branchlines out of the city, both of which are remaining stubs of the one time Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad dating from the 1880s.
This remarkable street running is made even more special by story behind it, since prior to this trip none of us even knew it existed. One evening while we were hanging out at the Salisbury depot after the big 611 celebration that had brought us to Carolina we ran into a long time regular local fan named John who was an ex original Norfolk Southern (pre-74) engineer. He told us about the street running on a surviving portion of the original NS down in Fayetteville that the modern NS still serves with tri weekly with local out of Varina. Being that Friday was our day that we planned to head off to hunt the Aberdeen and Rockfish anyway we crossed our fingers and headed out. Low and behold luck was with us, as shortly after we arrived in Fayetteville we heard NS E25 (the symbol for the branchline local) crackle on the radio and we knew we were in luck.
We were rewarded with multitude of shots of this train on the half mile long section of street running as well as working the A&R interchange. In this view the southbound train is nearing the end of the half mile stretch of running down the middle of Hillsboro Street approaching the Junction with CSXT seen in the foreground at the intersection with Rowan Street.
**Update: I just looked at Google maps satellite imagery and it appears the that Rowan St has been rebuilt as an overpass over both CSXT's mainline and this Junction between NS' branch and CSXT's branch. So while most of the street running is still there it looks like this curve here at tbe far south end no longer is and that Hillsboro now dead ends at a curb about where the second unit is, and if I was there now if be standing in the shadow beneath the new overpass.**
This is about MP VF42.5 on the East Carolina Business Unit's Varina to Fayetteville District. Since sold off, classic standard cab SD60 number 6659 blt. for the NS in Nov. 1988 leads the train.
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Friday May 29, 2015.
Another shot from some fabulous but more obscure southern street running. I like this shot with the brakeman or conductor hanging out looking back at his train strung out down the middle of the road.
Fayetteville, the seat of Cumberland County North Carolina is most widely known as the home of the US Army’s Fort Bragg. The city itself is larger than expected with a population of around 210,000 but has a reputation as kind of a tough town. It is so rough that soldiers stationed on post are advised to avoid downtown “Fayette-nam” as it’s derisively referenced. But to the visiting railfan willing to take a look around the city has a surprisingly lot to offer. And while I wouldn’t call it a particularly inviting place, I in no way felt ill at ease or unsafe photographing in town.
By far the dominant railroad in town is CSXT with their south end subdivision, the former Atlantic Coast Line main, seeing the passage of dozens of daily freight trains and four daily Amtrak trains on an 11 mile stretch of double track through the city.
The city is also served by the Norfolk Southern that arrives tri-weekly on a 43 mile branch from Fuquay-Varina that was an ORIGINAL pre-1974 Norfolk Southern.
And those roads both interchange with the famous and always independent shortline Aberdeen and Rockfish that calls Fayetteville the eastern endpoint of its 47 mile route.
CSXT also operates two branchlines out of the city, both of which are remaining stubs of the one time Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad dating from the 1880s.
This remarkable street running is made even more special by story behind it, since prior to this trip none of us even knew it existed. One evening while we were hanging out at the Salisbury depot after the big 611 celebration that had brought us to Carolina we ran into a long time regular local fan named John who was an ex original Norfolk Southern (pre-74) engineer. He told us about the street running on a surviving portion of the original NS down in Fayetteville that the modern NS still serves with tri weekly with local out of Varina. Being that Friday was our day that we planned to head off to hunt the Aberdeen and Rockfish anyway we crossed our fingers and headed out. Low and behold luck was with us, as shortly after we arrived in Fayetteville we heard NS E25 (the symbol for the branchline local) crackle on the radio and we knew we were in luck.
We were rewarded with multitude of shots of this train on the half mile long section of street running as well as working the A&R interchange. In this view the southbound train is nearing the end of the half mile stretch of running down the middle of Hillsboro Street approaching the Junction with CSXT seen in the foreground at the intersection with Rowan Street.
**Update: I just looked at Google maps satellite imagery and it appears the that Rowan St has been rebuilt as an overpass over both CSXT's mainline and this Junction between NS' branch and CSXT's branch. So while most of the street running is still there it looks like this curve here at tbe far south end no longer is and that Hillsboro now dead ends at a curb about where the second unit is, and if I was there now if be standing in the shadow beneath the new overpass.**
This is about MP VF42.5 on the East Carolina Business Unit's Varina to Fayetteville District. Since sold off, classic standard cab SD60 number 6659 blt. for the NS in Nov. 1988 leads the train.
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Friday May 29, 2015.
CAL FIRE Sikorsky S-70i Fire Hawk N483DF, 903
c/n 704030.
I believe that that the 9xx number on this aircraft indicates that it is part of CAL FIRE's reserve fleet, used to replace or augment other helicopters as necessary. The station marking above the cockpit is McClellan, CAL FIRE's headquarters.
Sacramento McClellan Airport (MCC / KMCC), California
CAL FIRE S-70i Information Sheet (CAL FIRE):
34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureed...
Sikorsky / Lockheed Martin FIREHAWK web site
(Manufacturer's web site):
www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/sikorsky-firehawk.html
Shot on Lomography Color Negative ISO 800 with a Smena Symbol, 23 August 2019
This gorgeous lake is the perfrect endpoint* to a hike up Cascade Canyon, meadows full of a raindbow of wildflowers and boulder fields. And if you're brave you can even bathe.
*well, halfway point really, because from here you turn back to the start at Jenny Lake, looking over the Tetons the whole time.
Iowa Interstate has varied operations into its eastern endpoint of Blue Island over the years which occasionally benefits the railfans. For many years, eastbounds could be found in the mornings across eastern Illinois and into the Metra owned trackage between Joliet & Blue Island. Westbounds were generally in the evening - usually after dark except for the latest days of summer.
From time to time, operations would shift to a Rockdale, IL based crew called during the morning to bring the eastbound into Blue Island and then back out with the westbound. On this day in 2006, IAIS 704 West was using this type of crew setup and was getting across Bridge 407 in Joliet around 1527 on a sunny afternoon. Unfortunately, the light would be great just as the crew would get to Rockdale and tie down to let the train wait for an overnight crew to move BICB towards the Quad Cities.
10-01-2006
Just barely past sunset on a spring Sunday, CTA Pink Line run 314 pulls into the Western station on the Cermak Branch, headed for Cicero and (just barely) Berwyn. Almost completely rebuilt in the early 2000s, when service here was provided by a branch of the Blue Line, this route was originally the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad's Douglas Park Branch, named for the large park it passed (and still does). Extended westward in short sections over the years, by 1924, the line reached Oak Park Avenue in Berwyn. This would only be the terminus for 28 years though, as in 1952, as part of a broader series of service "revisions" by the then-new CTA, the branch was cut back to its current endpoint at 54th & Cermak, just barely inside the village limits of Berwyn (the terminal station there was actually once known as Cicero-Berwyn).
Here's one from TDH on New Years Eve, definitely the last bad decision I made in 2015. A month had passed since and I had initially wanted to write an entry for it but got carried away by a bunch of stuff and life got in the way. Anyway since I am on a long flight now and I have some time to spare after watching this cycling movie (To The Fore) that a friend recommended, which turned out pretty good.. Here we go and bear with me, its gonna be long.
I have been to TDH Mountain (Tom Dick and Harry Mountain) a good number of times that I am pretty familiar with the route up. On this particular day, forecast was partially cloudy and would have been a good day to attempt the hike. Woke up at 2am and was supposed to meet up with Rami, Justin and Lance to head over to West Skibowl to start the hike. Alarm went off and checked my messages.. Justin bailed. Great. We continued as planned, drove towards Skibowl West, got a couple glimpse of Mount Hood looking extremely awesome throughout the drive and started the 5mile hike at about 4.30am. Weather forecast was still looking great, parked at Skibowl as the trailhead was closed and added probably another half mile or so to the hike.
The initial part of the hike to Mirror Lake was pretty easy, basically tons of footprints and no need for snowshoes. After mirror lake, we usually take the route towards the back and finally to the top of TDH. However, as we hiked a little more, I realized the usual route was not there anymore. I found this open area and decided that we could just ascend from the front instead. I had also heard a couple days ago that the trail up to the top has changed recently and thus initially thought it was a good idea. The climb became really steep and really deep fast and we put on our snowshoes and pushed on. Wind speed started to pick up, clouds started moving in and it started to snow or might have been just snow that got blew from the ground back into the air. Since we could kinda see the endpoint, we kept going in the brutal thigh deep snow all the way to the top and made it in record time! 6.45am way earlier than predicted, wasn't a good idea as it meant a longer wait in the cold. The mountain is now all covered in clouds/fog and we waited at a lower point among the trees as its ridiculously windy and cold up top. I ran up a couple times to check if things started to clear. Nope no luck and it's not surprising, I have been up there a bunch of times and probably only saw Mount Hood from TDH once or twice and there would always been a piece of cloud overhanging the top of Mount Hood. Then sunrise went by... Well it never happened or at least we never saw it happen and we were all packed (since technically we never unpacked) and all ready to go and I decided to head up one last time to check and lo and behold I saw the mountain through the cloud clearing, shouted for the Rami and Lance, while I fumbled with my own gear. When I managed to get my gear out, the clouds rolled in again. haha fml.
We packed and followed our initial snowshoes track to head back down and maybe a 100 feet down, we saw the mountain in between the trees. Lance stayed while Rami and I raced back up to the top. Stayed up top in that ridiculous wind, so strong I had to stay seated down and I had initially thought Iceland's wind was bad.. Eventually I got this photo handheld, you can probably see the wind blowing the snow really hard in the foreground trees. I started making my way down and I realized, Lance and Rami were gone. I see a fork on the snowshoes trail, and I took the right trail and later realize it leads to an open space with no trail which I still think it was the path we took up and the thigh trail was just all covered and erased in snow. I panicked and backtracked and took the left trail instead and started shouting their names. I found them maybe 30 mins later and realized they have been walking in circles as well. We started trying different trails that ascend and descend and eventually still brought us back to the same place. Extremely tired and demoralizing...
Eventually Rami decided that he wanted to try finding the usual trail we would take to get up from Mirror Lake and try to take that path down. which also means we got to snowshoe all the way back up the mountain before descending again. As we were going back up, I found a bar of service and called up Chelsea to let her know to get help if she doesn't hear from us in 2 hours as our phones are basically all dying from the cold. Also told Justin we were kinda lost. :D After some descending in the direction I think we should be going, I found a trail (kinda) and was extremely glad. Messaged Chelsea and Justin that we are back on track on our way down. Another 10 mins in, hey we are back on the same path we were before and I was extremely extremely demoralized by then. %#@$. We then decided to just go ahead bushwhacking and making a new trail towards the direction of Mirror Lake. We got to a big clearing which eventually lead to a cliff and I was like erm we should turn back, we gonna fall off that cliff. We went back to the open clearing, super exhausted, dug out three snow holes and sat in it and took a rest. I was kinda sweaty from the hike and stopping was definitely a bad idea as I would start shivering real fast. I found a spot with cell service but my phone was dead. Kept my phone in my gloves in an attempt to warm it up to revive it while Lance tried to called search and rescue with his limited battery life. Whenever I could revive my phone, I will take a picture of Mount Hood and a couple images of my surroundings with some description and send it to Justin. He has an extremely excellent sense of the area around Mount Hood and would roughly know where we were at which helps.
Rami was cold and went into the forest to get some shelter. Maybe 15 mins in, I heard some voices from above but I couldn't see anyone. Shouted back but I wondered if anyone really heard me. Maybe I wasn't loud enough or maybe I was just hearing voices haha (for the record Rami heard those voices too). After waiting a little longer, I felt a little cold and thought we should keep moving as it was going to get dark soon and I don't plan on staying there overnight. Lance was getting intermittent messages from Search and Rescue (SAR) and they asked stuff like..
SAR: "are you lost?"
yea
SAR: "are you on the trail?"
I guess not? if I was, I won't be lost?
SAR: "call back in an hour."
my phone has like 1% left… huh? really?
So we kinda slide down that extremely steep area and continued traveling in the direction I believed where Mirror Lake was at. Crossed multiple creeks and continued to push on. Lance then got another ping..
SAR:"can you hear the sirens?"
no?
SAR: "keep walking.."
ok..
We later found out that the car was basically just by the freeway waiting. Rami kept walking and at this bend, we saw people above us. Awesomeee… Hikers that were making their way back from Mirror Lake. Rami shouted and asked if they could wait for us so we could head back on the trail. We basically had walked past Mirror Lake from a lower elevation and had missed it. One of them, Brett, came down and gave us some water, lifesaver! What a relief when we found the trail. *Humming Capital Cities' Safe + Sound* Probably another mile or so to go as we made our way down with Brett and his friends. When we made it out to the trailhead, there was a police officer waiting in the car, I believe that was the siren he was talking about. Anyway, glad to be safe. Crawled back to Lance's car and headed back, what an exciting day. :D Got frost nips from all my fingers which all became blisters after... and had awesome and WARM hotpot after at Brandon and Ting's place... Lesson learnt, buy a GPS... :P
Færderseilasen 2025, Norway
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Færderseilasen, also called Færder'n, is a regatta that is held on the second weekend in June by the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club.
The regatta starts in Oslo for ordinary sailboats and in Son for old yachts. The fastest of the sailboats sail around Færder Lighthouse. The endpoint is in Tønsberg since 2017, after many years finishing at Horten. [1] Smaller boats turn around at Hollenderbåen or Medfjordbåen. The regatta is open for any member of a Yacht Club, and boats are placed in classes according to their sailing potential. The trip from Oslo to Færder to Horten is about 83 nautical miles long.
Fayetteville, the seat of Cumberland County North Carolina is most widely known as the home of the US Army’s Fort Bragg. The city itself is larger than expected with a population of around 210,000 but has a reputation as kind of a tough town. It is so rough that soldiers stationed on post are advised to avoid downtown “Fayette-nam” as it’s derisively referenced. But to the visiting railfan willing to take a look around the city has a surprisingly lot to offer. And while I wouldn’t call it a particularly inviting place, I in no way felt ill at ease or unsafe photographing in town.
By far the dominant railroad in town is CSXT with their south end subdivision, the former Atlantic Coast Line main, seeing the passage of dozens of daily freight trains and four daily Amtrak trains on an 11 mile stretch of double track through the city.
The city is also served by the Norfolk Southern that arrives tri-weekly on a 43 mile branch from Fuquay-Varina that was an ORIGINAL pre-1974 Norfolk Southern.
And those roads both interchange with the famous and always independent shortline Aberdeen and Rockfish that calls Fayetteville the eastern endpoint of its 47 mile route.
CSXT also operates two branchlines out of the city, both of which are remaining stubs of the one time Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad dating from the 1880s.
This remarkable street running is made even more special by story behind it, since prior to this trip none of us even knew it existed. One evening while we were hanging out at the Salisbury depot after the big 611 celebration that had brought us to Carolina we ran into a long time regular local fan named John who was an ex original Norfolk Southern (pre-74) engineer. He told us about the street running on a surviving portion of the original NS down in Fayetteville that the modern NS still serves with tri weekly with local out of Varina. Being that Friday was our day that we planned to head off to hunt the Aberdeen and Rockfish anyway we crossed our fingers and headed out. Low and behold luck was with us, as shortly after we arrived in Fayetteville we heard NS E25 (the symbol for the branchline local) crackle on the radio and we knew we were in luck.
We were rewarded with multitude of shots of this train on the half mile long section of street running as well as working the A&R interchange. In this view the southbound train is nearing the end of the half mile stretch of running down the middle of Hillsboro Street approaching the Junction with CSXT by the intersection with Rowan Street. This is about MP VF42.5 on the East Carolina Business Unit's Varina to Fayetteville District. Since sold off, classic standard cab SD60 number 6659 blt. for the NS in Nov. 1988 leads the train.
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Friday May 29, 2015.
A worthy heads-up from a very informative bird yielded CP's 147 nearing its' endpoint of IHB's Gibson Yard with a cool SOO 60M/UP 90MAC combo. Calumet Tower, East Chicago, IL.
Bei Benutzung dieser Seilfähre rotieren zur Abwechsung mal die Arme statt die Beine. Der Fährenkorb kann von beiden Endpunkten als auch vom Korb aus bewegt werden, oder - wie hier - in Zusammenarbeit.
Cranking across the Fulda river.
Using this rope ferry cyclists have to rotate their arms instead of their legs. The ferry basket can be moved from within the basket as well as from both endpoints. Or both can work together as seen here.
At the endpoint - here Tokyo Station - the trains are cleaned and seats turned around. With boarding, the train stay here around 15 minutes, not more.
There is for each car at least one cleaning person, sometimes two.
The seats are turned electrically for the whole car/train.
Strolling over the beach in the last sun of the day and eating some sea-born food on a small terrace. That's what jumped into my mind when thinking of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Unfortunately, Boulogne turned out to be a rather big city, thus popping the daydream. It is the endpoint of the Paris - Boulogne trains though, so I decided to check out the station instead. The SNCF staff was preparing a train for its next trip, while these Corail coaches were enjoying the last rays of sunlight. This photo meant the end of the photographic part of the day... leaving only a 2+ hour drive home.
Gamecock Cottage is an historic building located at Stony Brook in Brookhaven Town, in Suffolk County, New York on Long Island. It was built in 1876 for storage of oars and sliding-seat rowboats and is the only remaining wooden beach cottage that was part of West Meadow Beach. It is located at the southernmost point of a peninsula within what is now part of the West Meadow Wetlands Reserve, as the official public beach is now restricted to the north. The Gamecock Cottage sits at the southern endpoint of West Meadow Lane, which was once called Trustees Road.