Nope, no way. The American Telephone & Telegraph Company, or "Ma Bell", was founded by Alexander Graham Bell in the late 1800's to develop his telephone invention. Ma Bell lasted about 100 years until it was defined as a monopoly by the US Justice Dept and dissolved. The name AT&T still exists today, but has no connection with the former Ma Bell.
Wasn't that where the Motorola guy called his AT&T friend/rival with the cell phone he just invented, just to rub it in?
The first Cell Phone I ever encountered looked more like this. They were basically converted Mobile Phones that were originally assigned one frequency. The FCC "confiscated" all the dedicated mobile frequencies that were leased out to individual mobile users to create the first cell networks.
Waiting on a train in Bear Canyon, and new Vader signals to activate.... In Clarks Fork canyon, the former NP on the left, and the Milw on the right, Both BNSF and BA&P trestles crossing Silver Bow creek.
Are those original NP target signals? Chat with the local signal crew to see if you could have one of those!
NP targets, I wish. The local guys are trying to get an 'in' and see what they can do. I do have one, from somewhere around Hathaway. But not the tower and stuff.
The storm heads east as the Little Missouri flows below the waiting bridge, there is a train coming.....
From May 1981 near Sussex, NJ is this sad view of a once vital bridge line, the Lehigh & Hudson River Railway. It was part of CR at the time, much of it unwanted. There was a happy ending though. In the mid-1980s, this segment north from Sparta, NJ was acquired by the New York, Susquehanna & Western to extend its route and run stack trains to and from NJ port areas right under CR's nose.
In Corsicana, Texas looking west along what was the St. Louis & Southwestern Railroad (Cotton Belt). It used to continue on straight to Waco after coming all the way down from Memphis. It now is part of the Union Pacific. The curve that you see, used to only be an interchange track to connect to the Houston & Texas Central that ran from Dallas to Houston. It became part of the Southern Pacific and is now UP. The tracks to Waco are long gone. The curve used to be the route of the Memphis Blue Streak fast freight where that train left the Cotton Belt and traveled the rest of the way to California on the SP. The tracks crossing in the foreground started out as the Trinity & Brazos Valley (T&BV) which became the Burlington-Rock Island joint line and is now part of the BNSF. Just beyond the T&BV tracks and to the left of the SSW tracks once stood Tower 72. It was built in 1907 and was retired and demolished in 1984. This image, taken in about the same location, shows Tower 72 in place. It was captured by John W Barriger III in a photo taken in May, 1931 as he was eastbound on a Cotton Belt train toward Tyler.
Those are super cool pictures Russell! Thanks for the historic background and the 1931 image for comparison. Neat that some of the buildings on the right survive.
Looking north on the BNSF (old Trinity & Brazos Valley line) to the crossing of the UP (Cotton Belt). The red building, visible in the 1931 image above on the right, is an old cotton seed warehouse. After ginning the lint off the cotton seeds, those seeds were used for replanting cotton or pressing to extract the oil. Cotton seed oil is great for cooking as it has a high smoke point. The remains left over can be used for animal feed and years ago were even used for building insulation like fiber glass is today. However it was rather flamible.
Looking south from the Shinkansen platform at Odawara Station, Odawara, Japan; 29 May 2024. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
A brief lull in the action at Kanda Station-both directions from the platform. And from a railfan restaurant a little earlier in the day. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Des Lacs, ND at sunset. Eastbound Zippers from both Portland and Seattle are racing to Minot, one Z only moments ago passing the signals at MP 14. The steam era water tank structure still survives. Another Zipper is imminent on the nearest main track, attempting to stay ahead of Amtrak, only a few minutes behind and hot on their heels:
