Midweek Photo Fun - 7/25/2018

Is that a real-life Geep? If so, I didn't know that such a thing existed outside toy train models (!!!!)

FrankM

Good start to the week!  For the month of July, I have been posting photos from my one week with RailCamp kids.  My final post on this is about our time at the Strasburg Rail Road.  Here we have the guys and girls heading from our bus to meet the people who will walk them through many of the duties in working on a railroad.

SW8 no 8618 was used to teach the group hand signals and coupling / uncoupling the cars from one another. 

After the exercise, this group posed with the locomotive. 

Each camper gets the chance to run the Cagney small scale steam locomotive at least a part of the way around the complex of East Strasburg. This is a backup move down the line. 

I had a bit of free time, so I grabbed this shot of 2-10-0 no. 90 on its arrival at the depot. 

After lunch, they learned about track repair and replacing a few ties on this track.  The two with the shovels are Conor and Alex, who was one of the girls at the camp. 

Some fun was had on the handcar ride. 

The two steam engines running at Strasburg this time around are no. 90 and  2-6-0 no 89.

Moonson posted:

Is that a real-life Geep? If so, I didn't know that such a thing existed outside toy train models (!!!!)

FrankM

Not a Geep, an SW1.

Rusty

I was at the IRM on Monday as part of the LCCA convention activities. Here are some photos.

A young railfan from Georgia has been staying in my town all summer, doing an internship for his college program.  He's an even more hard core railfan than I am, so I suggested a weekend long foam-a-thon to North Dakota!  But what to make a priority?  You could spend a month there and not catch everything.  North Dakota may be the best state to chase trains in the entire country!   We settled on the big Highline Trestle at Valley City, on the BNSF Jamestown sub.  It's one of the jewels of the Northern Plains.   We got to it after driving 350 miles, did a quick check, and then I wanted to drive an hour on north to the even more impressive Karnack Trestle.  Partly I thought since we were that close (relatively) he should go see it, and partly I wanted to look for the $90 worth of lighting equipment I inadvertently left there on my last trip.  He agreed, and was predictibely awestruck by the bridge.  We stayed several hours!  I did not find my missing gear.    After catching several trains there, we headed back to Valley City to figure out a plan to photo that trestle at night. I got permission to hike in on the golf course, which would make it faster to get to the Valley City bridge.  It wouldn't be easy carrying ~150 pound of camera gear in there, though.  While thinking it over I noticed the wind had calmed--a rare thing in the Dakotas!  I checked the reflection of the bridge in the Sheyenne River below, and it was perfect!  The river's surface was as smooth as a woman's behind.  Change of plan--go for the reflection shot!  Much shorter distance to carry stuff too.  We set up with three big X3200 monolights apiece (I share,) and pre-focused the cameras.  As darkness fell, thousands of mosquitoes appeared!  Bug spray and netting kept them at bay, but I ended up swallowing two.  After over two hours of waiting, a w/b appeared, and we each snapped a shot.  No one was around, so I drove my Subeeboo across the park's  grass so we could toss the gear in and get out of there!  Got back to the hotel about 1 am.

My apprentice foamer said he woke up at 6 am ready to go, but I slept until about 8 am.  Went down stairs and drank some coffee, ate some breakfast, drank some more coffee, and off we went.  He had picked out a nice spot for a morning shot along the CP tracks, and that's where we went.  We both got nice shots. After climbing the east bluff to get a daytime shot of the Highline Trestle, we followed the CP (former SOO) tracks south back towards home, taking a few shots here and there as trains appeared.  All in all it was a great trip!  I usually have to go alone or with my wife--I don't know of any other hard core railfans in the entire state of South Dakota.  (There is one up in Minot, ND.)  When I got home I checked my trip odometer--857 miles for the two days.  That's railfanning on the Northern Plains--miles and miles of miles and miles!

1. Karnack Trestle, BNSF KO sub, Lake Ashtabula, ND

2, 3, & 4. Highline Trestle, BNSF Jamestown sub, Valley City, ND.  Trestle was 225 yards away, 160 ft. high.  Lit up about 850 feet of track here.

5.  Canadian Pacific manifest climbing out of the valley, Valley City, ND

6 & 7.  Highline Trestle

Kent in SD

I took my first trip to Steamtown and the Scranton, PA area on Monday.  My girlfriend and I stayed at the former Lackawanna Station, now a Raddison Hotel.  While Scranton was definitely a quiet town on the Sunday evening and Monday we spent there, we still enjoyed ourselves.  We scoped out the few things in town that were actually filmed for the opening credits of the TV show "The Office" and checked out a few places that were simply referenced in the show.  Steamtown was obviously quiet since it was Monday, but I really enjoyed the nice museum displays and a great shop tour by Tim O'Malley.  I have to say, while the museum often takes on various derogatory names such as "diesel town" among others I've heard over the years, my visit definitely proved them to be pretty wrong.  There is a yard full of equipment behind the shop buildings that definitely needs some TLC, but the exhibited equipment looked great and the museum displays were well thought out.  I enjoyed my time there.

Baldwin #26 was undergoing its monthly boiler wash.

By far, the neatest exhibit of a steam locomotive I've seen.  While sad it'll never run again, it's probably one of the best teaching tools for explaining the mechanics of a steam locomotive that I've seen.

A couple pictures taken during the 10 a.m. shop tour.

A nice display for the B&M 3713 project.  I finally got around to donating to the cause.

A little weather beaten, the UP 4012 is the first Big Boy locomotive I've seen in person and is definitely impressive.

A 1919 Vulcan outside the Anthracite Heritage Museum

The Electric City sign in downtown Scranton.  I ordered the Miller Engineering model of this sign while we were visiting because I really enjoyed the real one.

Kent, thank you so much for your efforts. Glad you had a true "companion in crime" to be a part of your adventure. Although your wife does a great job of hanging in there with you!

Jake, good to see your photos. I live less then 2 hours away. It's about time I make the trek to Scranton.

Dan Weinhold

Lancaster, PA.

sleepmac posted:

I live less then 2 hours away. It's about time I make the trek to Scranton.

Dan Weinhold

 

Railfest is coming up....

Great photos, Jake!  I am sorry that when our tour was over, I didn't have a chance to talk more with you.  I also forget about the Hudson Coal steamer over at the Anthracite Heritage Museum.   I'm glad that you and your guests had a good time. 

Tim O'Malley posted:

Great photos, Jake!  I am sorry that when our tour was over, I didn't have a chance to talk more with you.  I also forget about the Hudson Coal steamer over at the Anthracite Heritage Museum.   I'm glad that you and your guests had a good time. 

Thanks Tim.  No worries on not talking, you seem to be a popular guy!  I just figured I'd say hi so you could put a face to the name from our email chat about points of interest in Scranton.  We definitely appreciated your tips and had a nice time during our stay.

I was surprised to see that locomotive outside the museum.  It's definitely a cute little thing, though in rough shape.  I was surprised though as to how complete it seems, even the cab appliances and fittings. appeared to be mostly intact.  A nice little museum for sure.