Fine Art Photography of Railroading
View allAll Photos Tagged strongwilled
*Working Towards a Better
World
When a door closes,
try to re-open it,
If it does not yield,
look for another door.
If you can’t find one,
look for a window.
If there is no window,
poke a hole in the wall
and make one!
There is always a way out.
Nothing that confines you is
stronger than your will to be free.
Michael Josephson
Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors
where there were only walls. -
Joseph Campbell
Thank you for your kind visit. Have a wonderful and beautiful day! xo❤️
A simple shot of a plant that has very strong will to grow on a wall!
Explore #15. Thanks a million my friends! ;-D
i will guard it, and i'm very fierce. I don't fuck around .... So you can try and take it, but i don't think you'll like the outcome.
After all, the Xray goggles will kill you if I don't.
You've been warned ;) have a nice day
better if you hit L... or i'll zap you just for the fuck of it
"And where does the newborn go from here? The net is vast and infinite."
('Motoko Kusanagi' by McFarlane Toys)
Little Woof Woof was determined to follow Mama Mei, no matter where she went, so he climbed up the mountain ALL BY HIMSELF, and then took the easy way down 😁
Our precious Xiao Qi Ji is growing up before our eyes! Not only is he able to walk on his hind legs, but now he's dragging big boo into his room.
Rockstar looks at his best friend and sees nothing but rage in his eyes.
Ben doesn't even talk but just growls and swings at Rockstar with his razor sharp katana.
Mr. Pink laughs while Rockstar is being attacked by Ben, the friend he has known ever since elementary school...
"Nice job huh?" says Mr. Pink as he explains his masterplan using a satellite to send a signal via the large satellite dish outside to other smaller satellite receivers to influence the citizens in Brickwood City.
The signal taps into a persons darkest desires which makes many turn to criminal, violent or defiant behaviour.
Surprising fact is that some citizens seem completely unaffected like Mara and Rockstar but Ellie, while strongwilled but good natured still joined a criminal girl gang...
"Ben, snap out of it, I'm your friend dammit!"
Rockstar tries to dodge Ben attacking him with his silver katana and knows it's no use. He seems completely under Mr. Pink's influence...
Now that he is so close to saving Danny will Rockstar and Ellie fail at the hands of the devious Mr. Pink?
Being bored and cooped up indoors, Bei decided to climb the gate hood and quickly realized that it was a bad idea
On Tuesday Mercedes was found laid out at my front gate.
I had started to trust her to go out in the night sometimes. She always came back. It was difficult to force her all the time to be inside at night.
She didn't come back on Monday night after we had gone to bed, but I had an important phone call and I had to get up. It was then she kept demanding to go out. On the 3rd demand I let her out.
I had been vigilantly keeping her in at night, but I have been unwell, and I had started to give in to her demands to go out. She hated confinement. I was also doing things to keep her connected to stay close to the house. I would take her for walks on my shoulder which she loved. She loved individual attention away from the other cats.
I have been struggling in myself, and I had neglected giving her her special time, for a few days, which I used to do at dusk. She would anticipate me coming out and we would walk the length of the property and back with her on my shoulder and purring loudly.
I was going to go out and call her after she hadn't come back, but I am in pain myself in my ankle and feet, and it's difficult.
I don't know if she was hit by a car or poisoned. She did have blunt force injury to her left hip. But other things raised questions.
She loved catching mice and she loved showing off her prize. She would catch about 2 mice or rats a day. Mostly mice.
She was doing well on her pain medication, and it was a deep cold blow to me emotionally to lose her. I am responsible for her and she shouldn't have been off the property, regardless of her difficult nature. She had to suffer a little bit being inside at night to survive this world, and I allowed her to go out.
She did have her health issues and I hope she didn't suffer in any way.
She was mostly happy, but she was antagonistic towards the other cats which made things difficult where I am.
My life has taken a few bad turns due to circumstances, we were meant to have our own home a year ago. But things happened and we have had to move to a temporary home. Each time we move it's traumatic for all of us.
I have no doubt that if we had our own home, that I would have had the place secured for them.
I'm sad that she didn't get to come with us to our eventual home of our own.
This is how she slept. I think she's able to stretch her legs fully when there is no weight on them. It must have felt good to stretch them like that. With the pain killer she walked taller, but she still wasn't perfect.
This photo was taken about 12 days before she passed.
#3 - Other than J.B.H.C., only Bei knows why he had to have his treat container up on his hammock with him (which he later purposely knocked it onto the ground)
My favourite photographic subject, my rough coat Jack Russell Terrier, Mac. Confident, strong-willed & absolutely fearless, whilst being loving, loyal and playful... Mac is the full package!
The Jack Russell Terrier was bred from fox terriers and developed in Southern England to hunt fox both above and below ground. He takes his name from the Reverend John Russell, who would use his terriers to flush animals while he was out riding.
"I feel confined, only free to expand myself within boundaries.”
('Motoko Kusanagi' / 'Stand Alone Complex' version by Figma / Max Factory)
Diorama by RK
Caroline gave the caged feeder one, last wistful glance and she slid down the pole. She had received extremely sound advice from Joy C. who told her "Caroline, the secret's size! Don't go on a diet though, because you're too cute just the way you are!"
She had been called reubenesque, zaftig, beautiful, healthy, valient, determined and lovable.
With her dignity intact, she could close this chapter in her adventures.
Linda Hartong Photography. ©All Rights Reserved. 2007 Do not use, copy or edit any of my photographs without written permission.
After spending an afternoon in Napa with my family we began to head back, and found this off SR-12. The story of the NWP is one of conflict, irony and despair. In its modern times the NWP has been treated like a stepchild in the communities that it once proudly served. The unit I'm standing on was one of many EMD SD9s that are permanently stuck on this railroad. The NWP last run in the late 1990s at its full capacity and trailed off til 2000 when it was killed permanently. Its said to been reopened for a project called SMART, which has plans similar to NCTD's SPRINTER in southern California - that has yet to bear any fruit.
This bus has been all the hoopla in northern California for about three months. This bus is one of two Envio 500s purchased by Unitrans to operate in the Davis area. 8185, a large 40 foot bus with an 81 passenger capacity arrived Thrusday evening. Its less than three days old. WELCOME HOME BABY!!!!!!!! W00T!!!!!
The bus is so new when I boarded it had an overwhelming new car smell inside. Also worth noting the RTL is the last Leyland-powered bus in Unitrans' fleet and possibly North America.
The future is saying hello to its past, while the past is waving good-bye to its future. Ironic.
A garage tour today at Unitrans' facility in west Davis led me to some great memories! This one is probably my favorite. Four very different double-deck buses, from the last Leyland-powered coach to the newest family member just four days old.. A very special thanks to the Unitrans crew and Andy Wyly.
This year will make the 150th year Donner Pass has been open to rail traffic which moves this nation. July will make Union, Southern and Central Pacific's 150th birthdays - making them some of the oldest compaines in the country. Today Union Pacific owns and operates this rail corridor from the shores of the Pacific to the shores of the Great Lakes comprising of the largest railroad in the country and is considered one of the largest in the world.
However, tonight its one of the quietest. Standing in silent testment of what over a century and a half of engineering, ingeniuty and preserverance can accomplish.
The red signals on the cantilever is not an omen of ill will. It is of good, another train - the 14th for the day - just passed under those signals and disappered into the cold night, the crew hunkering down for a long night ahead with thier precious cargo going to feed the midwestern and eastern markets of the US. In a few minutes it'll go to showing a Yellow signal, followed by a Flashing Yellow, just to be lined up for another Green. The fact the signals light up the beautiful new rail and ties - both only weeks old - from an ongoing project to upgrade and maintain this beautiful natural gateway to our markets. It is the manifest destiny of today - to move our nation - not on highways or roads - but the rails that criss-cross the US like blood vessels. Because they are.
Our nation realized long ago what it would take to expand, and survive. While modern society takes to the highways to enjoy thier "freedoms", it took a select few engineers, millions of hard laborers and lots of lessons to get so far in so little time. It will be only a matter of time before we wake up and again realize how important the role the railroad plays in our lives.
If it was not important, it would not be an 150-year old, multi-billion dollar industry and tradition - going strong. Very strong.
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Special thanks to Patrick "SP8254" Dirden for inspiring this image. Patrick took a similar image. He chose black and white, while I chose color. To see his work; www.flickr.com/photos/sp8254/6980548302/in/photostream
© D. Felice Strong-Baker Photo, All Rights Reserved.
The HT-C truck developed by Electro-Motive is a hallmark of modern railroading. Developed over 40 years ago these utilitarian trucks have blessed the under frames of hundreds of thousands of locomotives around North America and the world. Unlike other things in the industry that seem to change with time, these trucks, bogies, skates, whatever you'd like to call them are what holds our proud, mighty and majestic machines up right and propel them into the future.
In America this was the truck the SD40-2 wore while moving some of Americas fastest trains both passenger and freight alike; the kept entire factories open, they've been traded amongst locomotives, everyone seems to think highly of them, and many equate this truck to the most successful locomotive of all time. Many see the body of an SD40-2 or an SD50 or even the modern SD60 - yet - they don't see the giant shoe that holds it up and provides the smooth ride they are famous for. They are the underpinning of our economy with a simple purpose. To propel freight on thousands of miles of rail to keep us - America - alive.
In this case, old meets knew as brand new LED lights the step well of this freshly rebuilt EMDI SD59MX, unit 9915, of the Union Pacific. The truck has been completely rebuilt, placed back under this unit with another modern accessory added - the recorder cable. Yet it hasn't lost its graceful looks, meaning and power. I would have never thought that I could find so much beauty in a piece of steel.
If we had to debate upon the truck that pushed America into the modern age and moved, built, and powers this nation with superlative six-axle locomotives, this truck gets my vote.
© D. Felice Strong-Baker Photo, All Rights Reserved.
Visited a small farm in rural Vaasa 2 years back, which was kept and maintained by Mira. A very strongwilled girl.
The peacefulness of Hughson, California is shattered for less than 40 seconds while a northbound Amtrak California San Joaquin train 718. CDTX 2051, whose earned the nickname 'Sluggo', on account of its slow loading times, is pulling this trainset at a brisk 79mph rushing northward to Oakland at the other end of this corridor.
Present here are two ghosts from the past. Two old Santa Fe Searchlight signals guard this trains and grants it safe passage from one signal block to the another. These signals are becoming few and far in between as the BNSF Railway is replacing them with modern 'Tri-Lights'.
Santa Fe Avenue parallels its namesake railroad from Escalon to Madera and is one of the many routes open to photographers to enjoy the San Joaquin Valley and its trains safely.
No stage or spot lights were used to create this photograph as the trains headlights took care of that for me. What you see here is less than 20 seconds of the locomotives headlight lighting up the night sky and everything in front of it.
UPDATE! This photo has been featured by Amtrak California this week! I was recognized by them as a Photographer of the Week! 10/14/11
A train does not need to always be present…but a train will come.
Here are two very different railroads that move two very different type of commodities and both have a single monumental task - to move our world. From above Sacramento Regional Transit's Gold Line LRT reaches skyward to cross the Union Pacific twice in the area of a couple hundred feet, first crossing the Fresno Subdivision you see before you, and again in the background the famed ex-SP Placerville Branch which runs for 13 miles beside the Light Rail line to Nimbus, CA.
However, tonights real show is front and center. In the two hours I sat at Brighton, CA, a neighborhood in Sacramento near the CSU campus, five trains passed by myself and my best friend, Jeremiah. Two intermodal trains, a manifest, another "Z" train and finally Amtrak 703 which came by us at 80mph marking the end of a beautiful night. Brighton serves as the gateway to the San Joaquin Valley to the south and is a staging point on the railroad for trains entering Roseville via the famous Elvas Wye, five miles to the north on the opposite side of CSUS.
This image was captured while waiting for the "Salad Shooter", an expedited perishable train that consists of 55 specialized mechanical reefer cars that run between Delano, CA and Selkirk, NY. The "Shooter" took down the Clear seen on Track 1. The Advance Approach as seen on Track 2 was being lined up in preparation for AMT703, the last San Joaquin Corridor train of the night. By the time both trains showed up this was a show of double Clears and each train passed within minutes of each other, both heading northbound and disappearing into the night. By this time SacRT had ended its night in the form of not revenue trains but deadhead moves to its yard on the North side of Sacramento which is also alongside the UP.
What is very interesting about this area is the fact that SacRT, while being 41 miles long is draped across each subdivision of the Union Pacific Railroad through Sacramento. The Blue Line, which runs from the extreme north end of the city runs alongside the Martinez Subdivision, also known as the "Cal-P", crosses the Sacramento Subdivision just north of Haggin Junction, and joins the Sacramento Subdivision again for its nine-mile jaunt to Meadowview Road. That totals to some sixteen miles in length.
The Gold Line on the other hand, runs on the former Sacramento Valley Railroad RofW, California's first railroad, as well as parts of the former Central California Traction Company on R Street to what was Brighton Junction. The bridge you see is 160+ years of history, as the SVRR crossed the railroad at grade. Today a US highway, seen to the left, occupies that space, forcing RT under the highway, then screaming for the sky to cross the UP, then back to ground level alongside the branch. That simple, but impressive structure is known as the Brighton Bridge which sees some 120 Light Rail trains a day. From there it follows the original railroad alignment into downtown Folsom.
While Union Pacific is touring the nation celebrating its 150th birthday, Northern California celebrates some 160 years of railroading. To this day the Capitol region of California is still a railroad town and its culture is alive and well. Just stand anywhere in Sacramento, you're always within earshot of a flange or a horn. Always.
© D. Felice Strong-Baker Photo, All Rights Reserved.
Amazing how so many intimate elements can come together in such a wide and public space.
© D. Felice Strong-Baker Photo, All Rights Reserved.
On a beautiful summer night the second section of Union Pacific's daily MRVWC blasts southward over Grant Line Road, in Elk Grove, CA. This train will travel nearly 500 miles in the next 12 hours making numerous stops along the way. This train is what's called a "hauler", a train that moves vital loads and empty cars from one major point to another. In this case, Roseville to West Colton (San Bernardino) via the San Joaquin Valley and Tehachapi mountains. This photograph marks the end of a beautiful day with my best friend Patrick "SP8254" Dirden , as him and I celebrated a personal feat of capturing 29 different trains in less than 15 hours on what is a normally a rather quiet subdivision.
How are him and I going to celebrate? By doing it all over again. This coming Saturday (July 31st, 2010) we're going to head back down to the SJ Valley and do it all over again.
The Western Pacific Railroad is commonly and fondly referred to as the "Willing People", a small railroad in a big market that did very big things for the past 103 years. That message and image lives on today in many forms, museums and most of all the people that work to preserve this railroad. I myself am a volunteer at two such railroad museums; the Feather River Rail Society in Portola, California and the Western Railway Museum in Rio Vista, California. Both are dedicated to the preservation of northern California's railroads and Interurban systems with a focus on the Western Pacific and the various electric railroads of the San Francisco Bay Area.
What you see before you is an act of passion and relentlessness to preserve a railroad which is now gone but lives on forever through modern-day mergers and preservation. The locomotive seen is WP 913; a beautiful, fully-operational GM F7A locomotive built in the 1950s. Tonight she is spreading more than just joy, pulling the California State Railroad Museum's "Polar Express" and "Train of Lights", but putting on a good show for those who worked on this wonderful railroad and those who strive to keep it alive in a time where mega-corporations are the norm.
Here is the exceptional. Here is the willing.
Earlier in the evening I recorded a wonderful video of this beautiful locomotive and her train passing the River Promenade along the Sacramento River just south of Downtown Sacramento. It is elating to hear and see the history mixed with the present pulling into the future; youtu.be/SvvW-BYr97I?hd=1
A small personal accomplishment in this photo; this photo was taken at night in a rather dim lighting area, it took me a couple tries, but this shot was taken by hand without the aid of a tripod, which I normally do. I'm quite happy with the result above.
D. Felice Strong-Baker Photo, All Rights Reserved.