The Flickr 282Steamlocomotive Image Generatr

In this photo, Amtrak's Southwest Chief arrives in Mendota, IL to complete its scheduled stop with two P42DCs in charge, while older generations of motive power in the form of CB&Q 4978 (2-8-2 steam locomotive) and a couple of BNSF Geeps on the local look on.

Hegang Mining Railway
Heilongjiang province
China
4-12-2001
NEG120map264

Build by Tangshan 1973/03

All Aboard!
The ill-prepared journey ahead may be treacherous, navigating unknown territory, so hold your breath. Ready or not, here we go.
It will surely be a wild ride.

This photo was taken by a Hasselblad 500C medium format film camera with a Carl Zeiss Distagon 1:4 f=50mm T* lens and Zenza Bronica L39•3C(UV) filter using Kodak Portra 160 film, the negative scanned by an Epson Perfection V600 and digitally rendered with Photoshop.

After a long climb uphill, the locomotive pauses before heading back downslope.
Much of the world is now doing the same, waiting to see what may happen with the current health crisis that is unfolding rapidly across the globe.
Should we move full speed forward, risking a runaway train, or should we prudently stay put at the station?

This photo was taken by a Hasselblad 500C medium format film camera with a Carl Zeiss Distagon 1:4 f=50mm T* lens and Zenza Bronica L39•3C(UV) filter using Kodak Portra 160 film, the negative scanned by an Epson Perfection V600 and digitally rendered with Photoshop.

The nose of Ol' 45 while chillin' at Northspur.

More or less the shot I was trying to get in Utah, but with nothing behind the building to distract but ocean.

You know, I'd have preferred having the tracks centered, but again we get back to that whole rocking and rolling speeding train thing. I was lucky to get it as composed as it was!

In all my years of putting coins on railroad tracks, I have never been able to find one after the train has passed.

But here, I figure the train will be going slow, the coins wont get scattered and I'll have my squished currency. Nothing can go wrong. . .

. . . until the train hits the switch right before my coins, veers off and totally misses my 41 cents. Damnit!

The Ten Mile River basin has been logged continuously since the early 1870s. At first, trees were cut using single-bladed axes and dragged by oxen to mills at Fort Bragg, just a bit to the south.

The Lorax must be sad, because there's not a tree in the vicinity.

Except for the passengers' high-tech cameras and modern garb, a time traveler from the last century would feel quite at home riding California Western Railroads Skunk Train in the Aughts.

The railroad was originally built by the Fort Bragg Redwood Company as the Fort Bragg Railroad in 1885 to carry coast redwood logs from the dense forests to a newly built lumber mill located at Fort Bragg, California.

This is Ol' Number 45, a Baldwin Locomotive Works 2-8-2 from 1924 and still running today.

Built as a logging railroad, the Skunk line began that year as a logical vehicle for moving massive redwood logs to Mendocino Coast sawmills from the rugged back country. Steam passenger service was started in 1904, extended to the town of Willits in 1911, and discontinued in 1925 when the self-powered, yellow "Skunk" rail cars were inaugurated. The little trains were quickly nicknamed for their original gas engines, which prompted folks to say, "You can smell 'em before you can see 'em."

The people vacate the beach when the Skunk Train stops over them. I wonder why.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to shoot with 50 speed film in the long shadows of a redwood forest on a moving train that's bouncing all over hells half acre?

Still, I really liked the way this one turned out. I just wish the train itself was in a bit more focus.