As taken by my kid, a Blue Ridge Scenic Rwy. train is seen on an overcast day last week in Blue Ridge, GA. I've never seen this operation. The railroad runs in northern GA on former L&N track and provides freight service too. The locomotive is a former NYC 5958, a GP9. It ran on the Georgia Northeastern before arriving here.
Yes. The locomotive is an US built (ALCO and Lima if I remember) 141R, which was a 2-8-2 remotely derived from the USRA Light Mike. Heavy modifications were implemented in order to accommodate european's lighter axle weight and smaller gauge clearance regarding US standards. This series of locomotives were provided to France in the status of Marshall Plan after WW2. It's the far biggest series of steam locomotives that have ever run on french railroads (more than 1200 delivered units, plus 25 at the bottom of Atlantic Ocean south of Newfoundland, when one of the freighters carrying them sank in a storm). This type of locomotive was a wonderful one, all railroaders, crews, mechanics, executives loved it. What was original with this locomotive series is that these locomotives were "unmarked". Prior to these, french railroads used to assign one engineer and one fireman to every locomotive. Always the same crew working on every sample. Rs were the first steamers (and only ones as far as I know) to be operated by any engineer and any fireman for each sample. Nowadays a few have been preserved and run for tourist/excursion purpose. Domi
After reading this, I went back and looked a lot more closely. Now I can see the US outline influence.
Yet indeed I was wrong. After fact checking, it appears these locomotives were a Baldwin design, but provided the huge amount to be built, every major north american locomotive manufacturer was involved : Baldwin, Lima, ALCO, Montreal Locomotive Works and Canadian Locomotive Company. Dom
In my railfanning experience, sometimes while driving, you chance upon a train heading your way, bail off the highway like there's a swarm of angry bees in the car, jump out while the car is still skidding to a halt, run to a hasty spot with camera in hand and start firing. Your composition might be lacking, rushed and uninspiring. When railfanning at night, a lot more time is required to set up. One must erect the tripod, attach the camera, manually focus to infinity or where desired, plug in the shutter remote release, level the camera, and set the exposure ISO level, shutter speed, aperture and only then will a shot be possible. This night, I bagged Amtrak 10 mins ago, and headed to what I call the "Split" where US-2 and 52 split and head separate ways, about 10 miles west of Minot. I knew a CP 498 freight was eastbound and would make a great time exposure at the Split. In prep for that train, I wanted to try the 85mm prime, so I mounted it, and manually focused to infinity. To reach my preferred spot, I head west to the Split at an intersection with a dirt road, and make a U-turn to head east back down US-52 about a quarter mile to the top of an overpass embankment. There's a safe spot to pull off the road there, and a great spot across the highway along the embankment to set up the camera. While arriving at the Split, I saw a headlight. I knew 498 wasn't called out of Portal, ND at the international border until 2230, and wasn't expected at my location until at least midnight. It couldn't be 498! What was it? I heard an H75 local was at Flaxton, up near Portal, this could be it. In like fashion as I noted above, I performed the same harried maneuver. The tripod was already attached, the remote release plugged in, the exposure, aperture set and lens already mounted. The shutter speed was not appropriately set, nor was the composition fine-tuned. I extended the tripod legs, leveled the works and fired just in time for what turned out to be H75 to pass the camera. The shutter speed should have been longer, to get the FRED blinking all the way around both curves, and I had to heavily crop it to remove the distracting light streaks from highway traffic, but what are ya really gonna do?? "Surprised by H75"
Once H75 passed, I properly set up for 498. I fine-tuned the exposure time, ISO, aperture and framed the scene as well as I coulld get it. I placed a ziplock back over the cemera and lens to keep condensation off, and went to sit int he car for what I expected to be an hour or so. Three hours later, I see the intermediates in the distance of the above shot illuminate. I scrambled to the camera to recheck settings, clean the lens (still fogged anyway, the bag didn't help) and double check the details. I was ready and stood at the tripod with the remote release in hand when I saw 498's headlights from behind me. The nearly full moon illuminated the scene brightly, so I stopped down to f/6.3 at ISO 100 and 5 min shutter speed to bag this shot. It was 0315! "Full Moon 498"
Roll by inspection. Columbia River valley, Golden, British Columbia. September 21, 2014. Google View same place.
N&W 611 on the Strasburg Railroad giving anyone who signed up for a "small" fee, the opportunity to crack her throttle for a short run. I love that Beautiful Machine regardless of the length of her run.
I posted this image in another thread. It is showing part of the MoPac yard in Sugar Land. This was taken in around 1952 after the MoPac had pulled steam off the branch line and introduced Alco S-2s to replace the old Ten Wheelers. Also a lonely caboose sitting out in the yard.
CP Train B39(Savanna, IL-Mason City, IA) passing the Mines Of Spain Recreation Area in Dubuque, IA October 22, 2019 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Got this set sitting in Bismark on Monday as I was driving home from the show in Fargo, ND. This was a surprise to see, but thankfully received! And this good old "Cadillac" was the best part of the surprise!
