Last weekend was the GTE (or whatever it is called now) show at Sonoma Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa. It was the smallest GTE I've ever been to and Wine Country traffic on a Saturday is not for the faint of heart, but the hall is great and I got to see the Trainboard Silicon Valley FREEMON crew and I spent the day with my middle son who was a hoot. Plus, I got a steal on an Atlas/Kato RS3 (I think 3) in SP&S colors. $20 runs like a clock. So all around worth it. As a bonus, Sonoma Marin Area Rapid Transit was running test trains all day:
Oh, yes... I have a couple of those RS-3s with the Kato drives and they are silky smooth runners. Back to prototypes, here's something I dug up from my own archives, in 2009, when I visited Mount Royal. From the lookout, the whole southern part of Montreal is visible, including the former CN Point Saint Charles shops, and the surrounding yard facilities. It's now Alstom, which is a contract shop that builds, overhauls or rebuilds locomotives of all stripes: IMGP3584A_PointStCharlesShops_Yard by Mike VE2TRV posted Oct 28, 2016 at 2:01 PM Plenty of rolling stock surrounding the facility, and you might even be able to spot a couple of blue EMDs in front of the Alstom building. Some of the old factories and shop buildings in the neighborhood are still around, with red bricks and even some with arched windows. Sadly, a lot of the older buildings have been either demolished or replaced with gray boxes. Sorry for the grainy quality... my DSLR was still fairly new to me at the time and I had set the CCD to 1600 ISO. I have since learned that 800 is plenty. But I did use the 60-300 zoom lens that my Dad gave me a couple of years earlier, with a 2x extender to bump it up to 600 mm. What was hilarious is that as soon as I had that howitzer hanging on my camera, everyone came to me to use their camera to take a photo of them... They completely ignored me when I had my 18-70 mm shorty zoom on. So if you have a really big lens on your camera, you're a pro.
All the parts are ready to reassemble at the Austin Steam Train. They just need lots of $$$ now and plenty of volunteer labor.
Absolutely! That very thing was a recent and humorous topic on a camera forum and everyone agreed that a monster telephoto provides instant professional credibility. I love your comparison of these to a howitzer! Used to carry my Dad's Nikkor 50-300mm, c. 1975 and all metal. The camera body itself became an afterthought, just a curious appurtenance stuck on the end of the thing.
Saw that pic and first assumed that was somewhere in Europe but the "Sonoma Marin" was throwing me - that's a clean looking unit! -Mike
I agree. I'm old enough to remember Varney, Penn Line, and Bowser kits from the late 40's and early 50's. Just give me a file, screw driver, and soldering iron, and get out of my way.
Had a lost Canuck in town last week, and on the point of a coal train.... But he wasn't lonesome in the yard. A 40-2. a GP and an older GE.....
BNSF 5670 at Sanger, Texas Northbound on Friday, October 28, 2016. These were the first three locos on a NINE locomotive train (seven brand new CSX locos trailing). Will try and post a link to the video I took.
Here's UP 4786 NB in Denton, Texas on Friday 10/28/16 in the morning Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
