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Jasper is the undisputed OddBall champ. Other toys get used but OddBall is the enduring favorite. I'm often amazed at some of the catches Jasper makes. He can be like some kind of ninja snapping it out of the air with blinding speed
432 Park Avenue (is the name of the hirise) is the tallest residential hirise (not the tallest building) in the world topping out at 1,396 ft (425.5m).It's the second tallest building in NYC after One World Trade Center.For those of you who might be wondering,the tallest residential building in Dubai is the Princess Tower which tops out at 1,358 ft (414m).The shot was taken from the observatory deck at 30 Rockefeller Center,also known as The Rock.
I'm not sure question I asked Jasper, but it apparently stunned him. He's all wide-eyed, like I might have said, "I think there's a squirrel in the yard!"
Despite it being about 100ºF (~38ºC) Jasper wanted a little outdoor play time on Saturday evening. So bucket of ice water in hand we indulged him. For a few minutes anyway 😎
And now back to our regularly scheduled Oddball Channel. For years, the Oddball has been Jasper's go-to toy. His other toys certainly get play, but every day we get in a least a little Oddball play. He's an Oddball champ, you know. Probably a world champ.
Illinois and Midland #31, an EMD RS1325 of which only 2 were built, leads a photo freight west over Camp Creek in Monticello Illinois
I thought it was cute the way Jasper set his OddBall on his front paws, looking at me as if to dare me to try and grab the ball. This particular OddBall has been with us for a month now and is still in tip-top shape.
At first I thought this bull moose was growing its antlers abnormally, but upon close look, it appears his left side has been broken off at the tips. Perhaps they got stuck in some branches when he was trying to scrape off the velvet. He would have been a monster this year had it not been for that. So I've nicknamed him Oddball for this year. It doesn't seem to have impacted his interest in the ladies. Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA, September 2025
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It's funny, Jasper will often hang his oddball or frisbee on his canine tooth, as if its some sort of storage hook.
Agapanthus is usually in blossom in summer here. But this one and only oddball is blooming against the cold.
Wisconsin Central SD35 2500 was leading train 243 at Leithton as it was picking up some traffic from the EJ&E in 1998. It was built by EMD in 1965 as Southern Railway 3024.
It went on to the Fox River Valley and had its high nose chopped while retaining its Southern Paint. Wisconsin Central inherited it when it took over the FRV.
It was eventually painted in the classic WC paint, and it ran amuck until the Canadian National takeover, and it was sent to NRE in Silvis to be scrapped.
St. Aidan's Bucyrus Erie Dragline BE1150 "Oddball", This massive 1200 Ton Machine use to walk!
This is 4 wide angle images stitched together its that big.
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Built by EMD in 1951 as Chicago and North Western GP7 1534 and rebuilt in 1980 as CNW HE15 4252, KJRY 252 was an oddball,
It was one of 2 CNW motors used to test Cummins diesel motors for a possible re-engine program, They were not a success.
It was switching BN interchange traffic at Keokuk in 1996 as Keokuk Junction's 252 along with a former Santa Fe CF7.
Some type of slime mould that has popped up on our garden mulch. I think it may be Fuligo septica which is also known as dog vomit slime or scrambled egg mould. It isn't a fungus, despite often being called a slime mould. It belongs to a group of organisms called myxomycetes.
Sometimes bright yellow, orange, white, cream or grey depending on the stage. It will evenually dry to a powdery mass when the spores will be dispered. It's completely harmless to humans and animals but I wouldnit recommend eating it.
Linwood-Macon train 119 is just underway from Spencer Yard as its three GE locomotives slip and struggle with a heavy train in a snow squall. The lead unit is a product of NS's short lived Dash 8 rebuild program and is certainly an odd looking unit, but a nice change of pace from the usual power that roams the rails.
We're missing Jasper on our Christmas trip to Wisconsin to visit family. But we've got pics to help us through :-) Plus the matriarch of the family he's staying with in Arizona has sent us a couple of pics so we know he's doing well.
This was taken with my iPhone XS. I used portrait mode then adjusted the depth of field so that he was in focus and the tree went out of focus. Interesting to play with. Ultimately not a replacement for the DSLR, but amazing what comes out of phones
Jasper the OddBaller jogs back victorious after an awesome catch of the OddBall. Rock on my furry friend. Shot blind, cuz I like to
The two well-known Northern General rebuilds posing together at Washington depot on 10 February 1978. The Wearsider (3069) was a Routemaster converted to OMO following an accident, whilst the Tynesider (3000) received more drastic surgery to the same aim. Neither were successful and I believe that the latter has survived.
Scanned from a slide taken by the late Charles Dean, now in my collection. Sharpened and tidied up with Meta AI.
The "Chicago" F40 brings Westbound Union Pacific West train #59 through Tower A2 at the end of rush hour.
BNSF Y-NTW1501 makes a move out of Northtown Yard in Minneapolis Minnesota with a former Santa Fe C44-9W leading an SD60M.
After having fallen under Jasper's mind control spell, we had a rousing game of Oddball, finishing on his Ottoman Empire
Union Pacific GP40X 5504 was built in 1978 as UP 9004 and was a test bed for EMD's 50 series. The UP bought a modest fleet of six motors equipped with an experimental high-adhesion truck, known as the HT-B (for high-traction, 2 powered axles).
Oddballs on the roster, UP used them in special service for most of their early lives, powering executive trains and helping out Amtrak.
The 9004 was renumbered to 94, then 958, before it became 5504.
It had been downgraded to local service by 2001. It was northbound on UP's Milwaukee Subdivision in Kenosha on a bitterly cold afternoon.
We still get some walks in, but with the Stay at Home order we're getting some exercise in the backyard. Normally I like more even lighting but I liked the dappled light as Jasper emerged from the shadows with his OddBall.
The giant dragline is affectionately known as "Oddball".
The colossal 1,220 ton walking dragline excavator is a remnant of the reserves coal mining history ad now home to the resident little owls.
You can just see part of the huge machine in the background here.
Magpie - Pica Pica
RSPB St Aidans
Many thanks as always to all those who view my photos. Your comments and faves are very much appreciated and welcome.
DSC_0655
A 5 shot merge of 'Oddball' a Bucyrus Erie BE 1150 Walking Dragline Excavator,
initially identified as B-E No. 47858 the machine left the factory in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 30th December 1948 and started work in 1949 for the company A E Dick Construction at Phillipi, West Virginia, where it worked for four years before coming to Britain. It worked first at Tirpentwys opencast site near Pontypool from 1954 until 1963. Unlike the other three BE 1150-Bs working on opencast sites in Britain this one had electrical equipment built by General Electric (others in the UK had electrical equipment by Westinghouse) and was consequently known as “Oddball”.
In 1963 Oddball was dismantled at Tirpentwys and transferred to the Poplars site near Cannock, Staffordshire, where it worked from 1964 to 1972. It was dismantled and moved again to start work in 1974 at its final site at St Aidans where it worked until the site became inundated by the flood of March 1988. she was handed over to the St Aidans Trust in 2020. The Friends of St. Aidans BE 1150 Walking Dragline have cared for and attended to her since 1997.
Jasper dug out his old red Oddball this weekend. Fun to switch it up (his current main Oddball is blue). Shot blind as we took a breather.
Oddball is the nickname given to this BE1150 walking dragline excavator at St. Aiden’s RSPB reserve. The reserve was once an opencast mine operated by British Coal, now a thriving and popular nature reserve. This machine weighs around 1200 tons, check out the people in the top left to get a sense of scale.
www.walkingdragline.org/ Friends of St. Aidans BE 1150 Walking Dragline
With the heat of summer draped over the Phoenix area, we're doing a lot of indoor play. Good thing Jasper is agile and very rarely knocks into anything.
Pristimantis sp. - Buenaventura Reserve, Euador
I was thrilled to find these nestled underneath a bit of moss in the Ecuadorian cloud forest. Initially I thought they might be the eggs of either the Hyloxalus or Epipedobates which were common in the area, infact I even photographed these eggs together with a Hyloxalus that was sharing the same hiding place. However after further consideration I'm pretty certain these are the eggs of a Pristimantis likely P. achatinus. A few different characteristics of these eggs made me think that, first of all the size seemed to big for the other species I mentioned. There also seemed to be too many of them and lastly and most importantly it looks to me that the developing embryos in the eggs are turning into little frogs rather than tadoles. This is a life trait known as direct development and is present in Pristimantis but not in the other frogs mentioned. An adult Pristimantis will deposit its eggs somewhere wet and hidden and they will remain there and develop until they hatch as tiny versions of the adults! This was the first time I came across a cache of these eggs and was very excited about the opportunity to photograph them. What I would have really loved to have done is gone back every few days to photograph them but unfortunately I had other commitments and could not remain in the area.
Built by GMD as CP Rail SD40-2 5780 in 1978 and owned by Ontario Hydro, this Canuck was transferred to Canadian National in 1996 when the coal contract was transferred and renumbered to CN 5389.
It was then re-acquired by CP in 2000 and re-re-renumbered to CP 5389. It was then sold to Progress Rail in 2005 and whereabouts currently unknown.
Keith E. Ardinger photo
Tucked away at one of the road's engine terminals, Union Pacific RS-27 675 sits in the Summer of 1970. With just about every possible door open, the unit appears to be very much out of service. 675 had been built by ALCo in 1959 as demo unit 640-2. It was sold to UP in 1961 along with three other demo RS-27s. The small fleet of four were not repeated on the UP roster or that of many other roads, as only a total of 27 RS-27s were built. Renumbered to 675, the unit was on the UP roster until 1971 when it was sold to a dealer, who in turn sold it to Montreal Locomotive Works (ALCo's Canadian subsidary). MLW used it in their lease fleet until 1975 when it was sold to the Devco Railway and numbered 214.
Location unknown
Circa July 1970
Train of the Day
1/14/26
Although CN ordered hundreds of both EMD's SD75Is and GE's C44-9Ws, they also ordered a small handful of their "oddball" siblings. Pictured here is both the SD70I and C44-9WL, bringing in a load of sulfur through the lush last few miles of the Coronado Subdivision.
CN Coronado Subdivision
CN S71851 (Sulfur Loads)
CN SD70I 5606
CN C44-9WL 2515
Canon EOS R6 | Canon 24-70 f/2.8 II
July 25, 2025 - 4:39 PM MT