The Flickr Industrialplant Image Generatr

I spent a few hours wandering this UNESCO heritage listed site with fellow photographer, Kent Johnson. This wall looks like it could tell a few stories.

A major drawcard is the UNESCO World Heritage listed Convict Site, which provides a window into the era when Cockatoo Island was a convict gaol (1839-69). Further highlights include a waterfront campground, licensed cafes, a historic dockyard, holiday houses and apartments, guided and self-guided tours and exciting seasonal events.

The island connects to the waterways and homelands of the Wallumedegal, Wangal, Cammeraygal and Gadigal peoples. During the 60,000 years leading to European settlement, the island was a meeting place for these groups. They have the Dharug language in common and, in Dharug, Cockatoo Island is known as Wareamah.
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One of several projects, that explore photography as evidence amongst other ideas. Blog | Tumblr | Website | pixelfed.au | Instagram | Photography links | my Ko-fi shop | Off Ya Trolley! | s2z digital garden | vero | Dpreview albums | my work archived on trove at the National Library of Australia. |

On the fringes of the Westgate Tunnel Project under the Westgate Bridge.


One of several projects, that explore photography as evidence amongst other ideas.
Blog | Tumblr | Website | pixelfed.au | Instagram | Photography links | my Ko-fi shop | Off Ya Trolley! | s2z digital garden | vero | Dpreview albums | my work archived on trove at the National Library of Australia. |

March 2025.
Central London Outdoor Group (CLOG) weekend away in Seville.
Day trip to Jerez de la Frontera.

Afternoon industry juggernaut Y225 out of Niagara Yard makes a pit stop to swap tank cars at Superior Lubricants on the Junction Industrial.
Back in September 2023, this job was still fresh off of a move from overnights as Y325 to the Cadillac of start times at 1600 hours, replacing the 3 in its symbol with a 2 for second shift. Up to that point, I had only shot Superior one other time, on Independence Day 2022 of all occasions. Holidays have a tendency to either annull local jobs, or see them cover work not usually assigned to them in place of an annulled job. The latter was the case on that particular July 4th, with L035 foregoing their usual Niagara Branch duties on a Wednesday to cover the combined work of Y290 (former afternoon remote switcher) and Y325 (manned switch job). On that day, my shot here was two long hood forward geeps sticking a few cars out of the spur out onto the main. Not exactly anything to write home about, but at that time it was a shot I didn't have yet so I gladly took it. Fast forward over a year later and now Superior is regularly being switched in light as opposed to a one-off 4th of July special. On this day, I was specifically up at Niagara hoping to get a shot of Goodyear being switched finally, after having missed an opportunity the day prior it turned out. Realizing I wouldn't get my chance on this evening, I almost abandoned shooting the job, till I realized with one engine and a tank car on the head end of their small train, they had to be going to Superior, where I'd be able to get a shot of the power actually close to the customer. Boy am I glad I stuck around, since the crew had to make the last pull from OxyChem's J-Track across the street. This was the first time in over a year and a half a train had touched its rails since their shutdown in February 2022. The lesson to be learned from that experience: although I've been burned waiting around plenty of times for nothing of interest to happen, there will still be days when you should stick with the crew, even after you get the shot you came for should your initial plans work out. There can and will be times when you get more than you bargained for, or something completely different than what you showed up to see. This hobby is cool like that sometimes, and has no doubt resulted in some all-timers in my collection. But I digress, as a final note on Superior, they have since changed hands and been renamed Reliance Fluid Technologies. I'm not entirely sure when the change happened, as I don't pay too much attention to that job this time of year with it almost completely in darkness, but having driven by their plant yesterday even the name on the outside of the building has changed (contrary to CertainTeed for example who still has their name on the building, but is owned by another company). The plant track fits up to four tank cars at a time, crossing a diamond with another customer Tier, who once specialized in tank car cleaning but now has shifted into the art of rubber shredding and disposal. Alas, I'll save the explanation on them for their own post.

-costume-
▶R2LX Kagami @ Access

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R2LX Raimei Arm

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▶Industrial Plant Backdrop PBR - The Bearded Guy

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▶WINGS-TF0110-HAIR @ Equal10

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[LANEVO] SCOPEDOG GOGGLE
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lel EvoX CEYLON / Lara X

Ohio Street Yard's morning switcher Y133 spots one covered hopper of polyvinyl chemicals at CertainTeed, located on the "Lehigh" near South Buffalo Railway's "long bridge" back in March 2022.
A producer of vinyl fencing and decks, CertainTeed is what I'd consider to be one of the more obscure customers in the area, with no real switching schedule in place, switched as necessary a few times a month. With at least eight spots for unloading and more space for standby cars, hoppers tend to spend a month from their placement time to empty status, slowly moving from the outside inward as older cars are pulled from the back. When Y133 was still based out of Ohio Street in early 2022 (instead of coming over from Frontier every morning as they do now), they were often the ones performing a switch at any point during their shift, any day of the week. Both yard jobs run seven days a week afterall. With the consolidation of Ohio Street later that year, all the cars for the customers served out of the yard were moved to Frontier. In summer of 2022, the overnight Seneca Yard transfer job out of Frontier Y331 was resymboled to L049, and in the process was assigned to switch Sonwil and CertainTeed on their way to Seneca/South Buffalo. The job was also moved to 0600 instead of midnight. For whatever reason, I never managed to catch L049 with cars for CertainTeed across the few dozen times I saw them the next two years. As of fall 2024, L049 has been abolished and South Buffalo transfers are now being handled as-needed, which is a sore spot for G&W but that's just the way it is. In the meantime, it seems CertainTeed is back under the responsibility of the Ohio Street jobs once more, as well as Sonwil. During the last month specifically, Y233 has carried the brunt of their switches, bringing cars over the day of to spot. While their plant still bares the same name on the outside, a company called Barrette Outdoor Living acquired several CertainTeed locations across the U.S. in August 2023, including the plant here in Buffalo. I can't speak to whether or not this move increased their production, but it *certain*ly (teehee) hasn't seemed to hurt them either. I'm looking to hopefully redo this shot now in 2025 with a proper facing engine, maybe a non-Lego cab even. Every time that year I saw Y133 heading out to switch them, they always just happened to be long hood. Given they've mostly been switched in the dark as of late, it'll take a little luck, but at least I can take solace in the fact I have any shot here at all. Y133 worked them again earlier this week for the first time in a month, so anything's possible. Perhaps they'll even get a regular Seneca transfer job back on the books.

Seldom seen in daylight this time of year, Ohio Street's second shift workhorse Y233 delivers a single box car (ex-Amtrak) to the Sonwil Distribution Center, off of Ship Canal Pkwy near Tifft.
Sonwil is one of two customers located on "The Lehigh" (the other being CertainTeed), which connects Ohio Street Yard and CP Draw at the north end to Seneca Yard and the South Buffalo Railway to the south. This connection is used daily by CN L531, the daily Canadian transfer train from Port Robinson, ON to South Buffalo, and a few times a week by CSX to either serve their customers or as part of a wye move to turn covered hoppers for General Mills. (Certain hoppers can only be unloaded from one side inside their plant.) The lone box car here is a far cry from the 10 spots available, which have been known to be completely full at times. Neighboring Sonwil to the left is their newly finished Four Square warehouse, which seems to finally have been completed in the last year. However, despite having been laid two and a half years ago, the brand new track alongside the building remains untouched, having yet to see any rail traffic. In fact, directly behind me was a mound of snow covering the start of that track. The lack of any cars here continues to be a puzzling move, following the discontinuation of rail service in September 2023 at their Depew location on the A Industrial, siding in favor of starting up the new warehouse. With locations connected by rail also in Niagara Falls and West Seneca via NS, there's certainly no lack of options for them. Of note, neither of those locations are rail active either, but the infrastructure exists. In the case of Niagara Falls, the track which leads to that location is presently out of service, near the end of the Junction Industrial line downtown. The building Sonwil occupies was formerly part of the Niagara Falls Nabisco plant, whose silos still stand empty today 20+ years since their last usage. Ironically this time last year in January 2024, the West Seneca location was actually looking to reactivate with NS, citing displeasure with delays in switching by CSX at Tifft. NS cleaned the track up and made sure it was in ready condition, but Sonwil never once received a car there either all year long. The West Seneca location was known to previously receive refrigerated box cars. For one reason or another, it's as if Sonwil can't seem to make up their minds on what they want, despite the railroads' willingness to work with them. In the meantime 'ol reliable at Tifft seems to get the job done just fine. To see some more rail traffic generated on their behalf would be a bright spot in a region which continues to lose a couple customers every year.

Dort, wo die "Wolken" zum Himmel steigen

Conneaut-based NS local C62 descends the steep hillside spur at Welch Foods in Westfield, NY after pulling one loaded tank car of fresh grape juice with 3452, the last snoot-nose unit on NS.
Of all the industry shots I've amassed in my few short years with a camera, this is the only one to feature a full-fledged bridge separating me from the customer. While it'd be just as easy to walk down to the spur from the east side of the bridge, I couldn't pass up this unique angle offered here. The bridge has existed since the days of this line being owned by the Nickel Plate, and although I've never been able to find any info on its construction, it's easily more than a few decades old. Welch itself tends to be an elusive customer, being in the grape business and therefore relying on growing seasons to provide ample supplies. Sometimes they can be served regularly, once or twice a week, and at the opposite end they can go an entire month without seeing a car placed or pulled. These factors only seem to apply to the Westfield location, as there is also a plant in North East, PA some 15 miles west of here. The two sites work in tandem in fact; loaded tank cars from Westfield will end up in North East at a later date for unloading and presumably refining/packaging/distribution. One might say well why not just ship by truck if they're so close together? That I don't have an answer for. The capacity of the North East location however is well more than double the number of cars Westfield can fit (up to four at a time).
This is one of the aspects of railroading I find most fascinating: when customers ship internally between their sites, or merely the simple fact a train car's loading point and unloading point. In this case, many of the cars which come to Westfield for loading often stay local to the area, later returning for more loading after being unloaded in North East. By happenstance I found out there is a Welch location all the way out in Grandview, Washington southeast of Yakima. I stumbled upon this revelation while tracing some recent cars to end up in Westfield, and their statuses came back as released by the customer in Grandview. As it turns out, there too is a Welch Foods plant, served by the Washington Central Railroad. Many of the car numbers seen via street view are in the same number class as the ones which populate Westfield and North East, furthering the idea of keeping those tank cars internal. For all I know, Welch may full on lease those cars to keep them purely in their network. Goes to show you never know what you'll find sometimes when tracing rail cars. Having adopted the strategy of paying attention to car numbers two years ago, it has far and away helped me to shoot the more difficult customers I encounter, whose switching schedule may not be so obvious or concrete. Before I started trying to shoot Welch, I was under the impression that C62 went out there a couple times a week regularly, purely based on days and times when the local would pass the North East rail cam on YouTube. Among the railfan collective, there also exists a Google spreadsheet log of trains ran by railfans who update the sheet with train info and times as seen on the cam. As a fun little aside, Welch in North East may qualify as the only industry whose switching is viewable from a public online rail cam. I have not gone through and checked the location of every Virtual Railfan cam, so I can't say for sure, but again just another unique tidbit for the NY/PA border region.
While I probably could have had this shot sooner if I'd settled, I made things a little more difficult on myself by waiting for 3452 to face properly, in this case west. The power for C62 is often times a solo SD40. The power is shared between this local and a night job which can run a transfer, usually turning on a wye as part of their work. Thus, the direction the power faces typically changes once, sometimes twice a week. The customers belonging to C62 have no set service days, and are all eligible for switching Monday through Friday (and occasionally the weekend should an extra run). The week prior to this shot, I faced one of the most frustrating outings I've ever attempted. Having been out early in the morning for a couple things around Buffalo, and while waiting on the South Buffalo Railway to do something they ultimately did not do that day, I saw a message from my friend Aidan that C62 had passed North East with tanks for Westfield about 15 minutes ago. This already set me back, and so I hastily walked back to my car, abandoning another not often seen event on Buffalo Southern, a double-header of Alcos pulling a big storage run. C62 would still have to run around their train east of Welch, which I'd hoped would buy me some time. Perhaps a road train would be in the picture and further delay them, but that wasn't the case that day. Jumping on I-90 west, I immediately ran into several miles of one lane highway with a major repaving project underway which I failed to account for. Not having the foresight to get off at the nearest exit and circumvent the work, I suffered further delays trailing in traffic at very low speeds. Once out of the zone, it was full bore speed all the way to Westfield. By the time I reached this exact spot, I looked across the bridge to see the conductor lining the switch for the main as the engineer tied onto their train, the cars already spotted. Devastated did not begin to describe the feelings of anguish and rage washing over me. I drove back home in total silence, 60 miles on the highway. I didn't talk to a single person for nearly the rest of the day. Out of desperation, before leaving the scene I still stopped closer to the plant to grab car numbers in the hopes it would help me at a later date. I didn't anticipate that day coming so soon the following week. Miraculously, the cars worked on CSX TouchTrace, stating they were empty and placed at industry with the correct location, date, and time. TouchTrace tends to be unreliable when it comes to NS happenings, but this was an exception. Tracing the cars daily each morning, I awoke to one of the cars coming back as "no status available," which I took to mean the car had been released. TouchTrace for whatever reason could not recognize that into the actual "released by the customer" status, but I took the gamble anyways. I decided to be proactive and start my drive out to Westfield well before C62 passed the North East cam this time. When I was getting close to the exit, they finally appeared heading east, and so I set up shop. With one road train close by to pass them, it didn't take long for the run around to be completed. The engine still faced west, which doubled my excitement for the chance at redemption. While I still take flack from the snoot enthusiasts for not having "shot the nose properly up close," being told "that's the whole point of shooting the snoot," I'm still happy with this shot. Thrilled really. It remains one of my favorite scenes compositionally. While my original plan was to follow the job further west to nab another customer shot, a place called Rehrig in Erie, PA for whom the covered hopper was for, I got word from my main CSX contact that another rare move was on the docket in Niagara Falls that evening. The newly appointed afternoon yard job would be making a run up to Tam Ceramics to pull cars from a recent high and wide move. Surprise surprise, they weren't the ones to do so, but it still ended up happening with another job. Nabbing a third obscure customer shot in between this one and Tam, it made for a truly perfect day out, one of those days which comes around maybe a couple or three times a year.

Evening Rochester local L031 ties onto a handful of empty covered hoppers at Cargill Animal Nutrition in Batavia, NY about ten minutes after sunset on a damp May night.
Formerly known as Batavia Agway, and still referred to as such by railroad crews and dispatch alike, this customer is somewhat hidden along the mainline between Buffalo and Rochester. The siding to access the the customer is located on track one just west of CP 406 at QC 406.8. 406 is also the west end of Batavia Yard where interchange with the Depew, Lancaster & Western takes place three times a week. Typically L031 will drop cars for DLWR on M/W/F while Cargill is a Tu/Th switch with other days as-needed. The siding and spur has existed for at least 40 years, being listed in Conrail ZTS maps from the 1980s as Agway Feed. The procedure to work here is pretty simple. The local will tuck in the controlled siding starting at CP 402, cut away from their cars at the west end of Batavia Yard, use one of the few remaining yard tracks to run around, then shove out at 406. The shove move from the runaround point to the Cargill switch is about two miles. Some days the crew will use the caboose from Goodman Yard in Rochester as a shoving platform if it's available. On this occasion however they did not have it with them. Once the switch on the main is lined and locked normal, it's another tenth of a mile to get to the customer switch. This is where things tend to slow down for the crew even on a good night. While most of the time CSX crews can easily switch on their own terms with only a derail, locked gate, or both separating them from the customer cars, Cargill is in full control of the spur here. A blue work flag protects the start of the sour before it splits into two tracks, and only a Cargill employee may take the flag down to allow CSX to begin their work. From what I was told by Doug the engineer and his conductor Tony that night, the majority of the time they're made to wait for lengthy periods of time while trucks load/unload, or the trackmobile finishes moving empty cars back onto the interchange tracks. In fact, it's uncommon for them to even make it here in daylight most nights, making a shot here really only possible during the summer months or the rare daylight run. Seldom as it is, one of the daytime locals L033 will sometimes make a morning run out to Batavia if absolutely necessary. There was one day in August recently when they ran out to switch Cargill on L031's regular service day, and L031 still switched them again later that same day. That's pretty good customer service in this day and age of class 1s shedding their small customers.
Another factor contributing to the difficulty of the shot is the fact that the spur tracks point directly into the sun (if it were still light out when switching began). Not knowing that they needed Cargill's permission to work prior to my attempt, I aimed for a cloudy day to avoid sun interference altogether. It had pretty much rained all day around Buffalo and the surrounding towns, but stopped in time for my lengthy walk out to the siding from the nearest road crossing. Having to walk along the main was the only sketchy part about this, with the possibility of fast moving road trains spotting me and becoming concerned. Around Buffalo, the vast majority of customers are located on branches and industrials, which helps keep shooting them more low key. The only customers really located on the mainline like this would be Metalico Buffalo near 437 on track one, and 84 Lumber in Depew, although the spur is long enough and spaced away from the main that it's never been a concern in that instance. So really just Metalico is the only real mainline customer on CSX in Buffalo. By contrast, from Batavia to Syracuse most of the customers are directly located off of the mainline, with a couple having small handthrow sidings, and a couple with their own signaled sidings. Suffice to say, mainline switching has taken a little getting used to, after being pampered with industrial branches galore around home, but I like a good challenge and a walk. (That's not to say there aren't lengthy walks around Buffalo either, just not along busy mainlines.) With this being my first true encounter with L031's crew, they were very friendly guys and thankfully didn't try to shew me away. We exchanged pleasant conversation and I gained some insight into Rochester ops while waiting for Cargill to let them in. Fortunately, it was right around sunset when they finally came out to take the blue flag down, and contrary to my initial worries the sun would have never been an issue even if it had been out. With the loads still on the head end, they shoved in to pull a string of 15+ cars out, setting a few over to the siding, then stashing the rest back inside. By the time they shoved in the clear to get the elevator tower in view, it was going on ten minutes after sunset. Nothing I wasn't used to from previous experience. Incredibly I didn't think to bring either of my low light lenses with me, but was able to make it work on my wide lens being in close proximity. The rest of the elevator facility can be made out a bit between the hoppers and behind the tree line. I wish it was a little more visible, but you work with what you're given. The fact I had any light at all to work with was a blessing, and in the end I'm quite content with how this one came out. Not to mention having an engine facing east for once on a Rochester job is another major win. Fittingly 2504 has stuck around for both of my L031 triumphs this summer. All things considered, not bad for a one and done at Cargill.

Evening Rochester local L031 prepares to lift one covered hopper from American Packaging in Chili, NY on a muggy summer Friday night.
If you're at all familiar with my photographic musings, you might know that I have an affinity for the rarest of the rare shots, specifically pertaining to industries. For the last three years, I held Tam Ceramics in Niagara Falls as the hardest customer to shoot, only receiving a handful of two bay zircon hoppers each year. However, the last five months have proven to me there is a new champion to hold the title of least served customer in Western New York. In all of 2024 (so far), the hopper pictured here is the only railcar American Packaging has ordered at this site. There is a another more frequently served location closer to the city of Rochester, but that will be addressed momentarily. One car at a site which has a capacity for up to 12 is pretty mind-boggling, although in this economy, maybe it's not so outlandish afterall.
American Packaging Corporation started life in the early 1900s as American Bag & Paper in the city of Philadelphia, PA. It wasn't until 1966 that they expanded, with their first acquisition in Rochester, NY of the Northern Packaging company. A few short years later they purchased Ameri-Pak in Columbus, WI and by 1982 had merged to form American Pacakging Corp. It wasn't until June 2017 that they sought out and began groundbreaking for a new site in Chili, NY. With a stake in the Rochester area for 50 years at that point, it certainly made sense, not to mention dollar incentives given by the state. That location was up and running the following year in June 2018, and by mid-2019 had completed further expansion with a rail siding installed off of CSX's West Shore Subdivision which bypasses the city of Rochester. Aside from interchanging with the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad at Genesee Junction, American Pacakging is presently the only other CSX customer on the West Shore. In 2024, the company has six locations: two in Wisconsin including the former Ameri-Pak site, one in Iowa, of course the two here in New York, and their newest plant in Utah. Three of the four sites outside of New York are near rail access, however satellite views suggest that only the New York locations are rail-served at this time. It would not surprise me if the new Utah location were to join in that regard, as the surrounding rail-served industries are all in the plastics business as well.
Cars for American Packaging originate at the Dow Chemical plant in Plaquemine, LA which is a huge industrial site with its own switchers and hundreds of railcars, being filled with various products to ship out to consumers all over the country. Dow Chemical cars typically bare the reporting mark DOWX. While the plant on Beaver Rd in Chili is only a few years old, the city location has been around for decades. Located near the General Motors plant of Rochester, that one is served by the Rochester & Southern Railroad on their Belt Line, which runs north/south and also serves the Kodak Business Park among other customers. The APC plant in the city has a smaller spur which can fit up to four covered hoppers, as opposed to the two track 12 car capacity of the Chili location. It seems they are served far more frequently, anywhere from once a week to every other week. However in all my drives by, I've never observed fewer than four hoppers at full capacity there, despite the building being half the size of the Chili plant. Thankfully I documented that location last summer in 2023 with relative ease. I never imagined that the newer and bigger site would be served less than its smaller and much older counterpart, but here we are. As perplexing as it is, that is simply the reality of the situation. Funnily enough, another Rochester customer on CSX has a similar story, being outshined by its smaller twin on the DLWR in Batavia, but that's for a separate post. It's story time on how this shot came to be, and all the struggles incurred along the way.
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March 2024. After suffering driving issues with my car throughout the month of February, all was taken care of and feeling fresh at the start of March. Spring was lurching ever closer, along with daylight savings. I made an afternoon trip out to the LA&L to document a customer no one had properly shot yet, Diamond Pacakging in Henrietta (yes, another pacakging company, but box cars instead of hoppers). Having successfully captured the shots I desired, I set off back towards home, but not without making a quick pit stop to scope out American Pacakging for the first time. My goals for 2024 were to canvas CSX ops around Rochester and the LA&L's customers. Still a work in progress admittedly, but getting closer to completion. Standing in the doorframe of my rear seats for elevation, my camera managed just enough zoom to see the car number of the lone hopper sitting there at the time. I found the best frame and saved it, then called it in on CSX TouchTrace. My jaw dropped when its status came back. It wasn't so much the fact it was still loaded, but rather that it had been placed in the middle of the night on September 26th, 2023. The car had been sitting there for nearly six months. Right away I knew this was gonna be more difficult than I was used to. I left that information alone for a week, deciding to trace it occasionally to see if and when anything would change. The timing was impeccable, as the following Monday I found out the car had been finally released as empty on Friday the same week I photographed it. Unsure of why it hadn't been picked up, I drove out that night and waited on L031 to depart Batavia towards the West Shore. On my way to the customer spur, a deer struck my car on a back road, shattering my driver side headlight and denting the fender. After checking the car briefly, I pressed on to beat the local still to the plant. Adding insult to injury, they blew right through the area, leaving me quite angry with myself and my decisions. With a rental car secured while waiting for damage evaluation the rest of the week, I went about my life again unsure of when this car would be pulled. Enlisting the help of the famous PRR hating Rodney Kantorksi, he too was unable to find the railcar or even the customer in their computers. It was a mystery for the ages. That same week, I considered on a whim driving out once more on a Friday night to see if they'd stop to work there. However, I had picked up a side gig of scorekeeping hockey games in a local league for extra cash, and I got a text asking if I could cover a game that night. With nothing planned, I said sure. Just I was about to leave the house, a friend who lives near the plant texted me saying L031 had just told dispatch they were stopping to work it that night. The week just kept getting better, as earlier that day insurance decided to total my car. (I still have the car thankfully and ended up repairing it myself.) I sat through that hockey game angry as ever, while my friend managed a phone shot of the crew pulling the single hopper. I felt defeated, but not deterred. It takes a lot to break my spirit.
Over the next three months, with the help of Rodney, he checked once a week at my request for any incoming cars for the plant, which had finally been found in the system in order to pull the car in the first place. Had it not been for me pointing it out to him, and his word passed along to the Rochester trainmaster, who knows how long the car would have sat unbothered. It seems it had been so long since they were switched that the computer purged them from the system. Nevertheless, a night in June came along unexpectedly while Rodney had been checking a different customer. He just happened to look at AP the same night and at long last another car was on the way. The joy of hearing this news was met with the realization of potentially missing it again altogether. A planned trip to Philadelphia with my best friend and his brother for a concert and weekend vacation was only a week away, and the car was estimated to arrive within the same week. Once again, impeccable timing. All along I jokingly said to myself watch the next car show up while we're in Philly. Sure enough, it was about to happen. Taking multiple 24 hour stints at three classification yards, the car made it to Rochester on a Wednesday afternoon, the day before we were to leave for vacation. Too late to make the local that night, the car sat in the yard for the next two days. TouchTrace even updated its scheduled placement from that Wednesday to Friday. With the concert also being on Friday, I said forget about it and enjoyed our trip. Following the concert and getting back to the hotel that night, I once again traced the car with my heart pounding, and again to my surprise the car had not even departed that night. I found out L031 had been annulled for the evening, leaving the car to again sit till Monday, when we would be back home. Although in that moment I rejoiced, the remainder of the Philly trip was plagued with nothing but adversity, suffering two separate car repairs and almost being stranded without a way home. Thankfully everything worked out last minute and we were back home late Sunday night. Utilizing the 511NY traffic cameras, after hearing L031 call to depart Monday evening, I watched the train pass above I-490 from my best friend's house before setting off for Batavia again. Having formally met the crew in the prior weeks of shooting them, at least this time I wouldn't be going in as a stranger. Indeed the hopper was on the train that night, with Rochester electing not to run an extra over the weekend. The first big caveat though was given how big the train was, they were using three engines, which would all be long hood for the shot. The next caveat came in Batavia, as the crew sat for hours due to one of the engines experiencing failure when getting ready to head for the West Shore. I watched the Florida Panthers secure their Game 7 Stanley Cup victory against the Edmonton Oilers in my car while I waited. Around midnight the flying squad made an appearance at Batavia yard to troubleshoot the engine. They got moving again close to 1:00 a.m. With one of the main tracks shut down through Rochester that night, there was a lot more traffic taking the West Shore than usual, forcing L031 to wait even longer for their window to work. I considered going home, but still stuck with it. After everything I'd been through up to that point, I couldn't throw in the towel. Part of me hoped maybe they'd tie down in Batavia and leave it to the morning crew, but they did eventually get their signal. It was now 3:00 a.m., and I was standing at the switch into American Pacakging awaiting their arrival. I made sure the engineer Doug knew I was there, along with his conductor and their trainee, who must've thought I was insane. Imagine training for a future on the railroad, and a random photographer is out at the most obscure industry in the middle of the night, to watch you help spot "the one car a year this place gets," as joked by the conductor Tony. As you can clearly see, this is not the shot I got that night. The three engines made the situation less than ideal. It was a start, but ultimately it ended up being a practice shot for the real thing.
It's now the middle of August. Based on the previous hopper's demurrage time, I estimated this one might be released some time around Christmas. Still though, I was diligent and checked its status on the days L031 goes down the Shore (M/W/F). On a Friday morning, the car traced as empty and released. I couldn't believe it. I texted Rodney, and my friend Cooper who had connections with L031's crew, the same friend who got the phone shot in March. Rodney had no straight answer for me if they'd pick it up, but Cooper got a response thankfully which pointed to them likely working there that night. My concern was if would it make their paperwork in time. Sure enough it did. Just like in June, I was again at my best friend's house briefly before L031 called to leave. Watching the cam once more, this time it was one engine and eight cars. Still would be long hood for the shot, but one unit was way better than three. Of note, Cooper's phone shot featured a proper facing engine, which also is hard to come by as most of the time engines face west in Rochester. Regardless, I set out for Batavia just like before, this time making a point to chat with the crew there to make sure they were stopping that night. They confirmed it, and I made my way out early. Cooper was able to join this time as well, having just gotten out of work nearby the plant, equipped with a proper camera this go around. I think I fired off over 50 something shots that night, trying a couple different angles. The ambient lighting was plentiful this time with the main engine much closer to the car and building. To say I'm relieved would be an understatement, but having finally checked this shot off is a huge weight off my shoulders in the topsy-turvy year that has been 2024. I'm hoping my next obsession won't be so costly, time consuming, and stress inducing as this one was, but man oh man does it take the cake. It may very well be my favorite shot of the year, though there's still quite a bit of year left to go. Out of the numerous customers I've shot, if this doesn't deserve the number one spot, it's at least in the top five for difficulty no doubt. Cheers to the next great mystery waiting to be uncovered.

Long abandoned Calcium Carbonate processing plant. Iron County, Utah.

Designer unknown (佚名)
Early 1960s
Long live the victory of the great Mao Zedong Thought
Weidade Mao Zedong sixiang shengli wansu (伟大的毛泽东思想胜利万岁)
Call nr.: BG H13/286 (IISH collection)

Advertisement of a confectionery company, promoting ideology and political campaigns as the bringers of abundance. The "Three Red Banners" in the center celebrate the General Line, the Great Leap Forward and the People's Communes.

More? See: chineseposters.net

Designer unknown (佚名)
ca. 1970
Develop physical culture, strengthen the people's constitution
Fazhan tiyuyundong zengqiang renmin tizhi (发展体育运动 增强人民体质)
Call nr.: BG G2/672 (IISH collection)

More? See: chineseposters.net

Designer: Pang Taisong (庞泰嵩)Huang Sancai (黄三才)
1979, September
Study hard improve every day
Haohao xuexi tiantian xiang shang (好好学习天天向上)
Call nr.: BG D30/90 (Landsberger collection)

More? See: chineseposters.net

Yet another high-flying Monkey Morgan image of an industrial complex. This enormous mill/factory was ideally placed beside the river/sea to deliver and take away materials. It will be interesting to see where this was situated, and if it still stands?

Photographer: Alexander Campbell “Monkey” Morgan

Collection: Morgan Aerial Photographic Collection

Date: 1954-1957

NLI Ref: NPA MORU44

You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie

Designer: General Political Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (中国人民解放军总政治部)
ca. 1955
Pictorial explanation of the First Five Year Plan (1953-1957) for the development of the national economy of our nation
Woguo fazhan guomin jingjide diyige wunian (1953-1957) jihua tujie (我国发展国民经籍的第一个五年(1953-1957)计划图解)
Call nr.: BG E15/952 (Landsberger collection)

More? See: chineseposters.net

Designer unknown (佚名)
Ca. 1951
Celebrate 1 May International Labor Day
Qingzhu wuyi guoji laodongjie (庆祝五一国际劳动节)
Call nr.: PC-1951-s-003 (Private collection)

More Chinese propaganda posters? See: chineseposters.net