Please vote for a winner for Trackside with Trains.com Vol. 187, Intermodal:
http://trn.trains.com/en/Trackside/2012/06/Vol%20187%20Intermodal.aspx
Also, let us know what you think of the photos.
Thanks and have a great week!
Only Tom and Elrond’s had universal appeal and immediate addressing of the term intermodal although the other’s entrants were all great from an artistic point of view. So what brings the winner’s vote will be geographical, whether you’re an Easterner or a Westerner, or one longing for the other. I stayed home and went with Tom’s Lehigh Line shot in the mist and fog. Yeah, that’s railroading in the valleys of the east.
I like the shot of the Abrams Tanks. I saw a Stryker battalion moved by rail through my area not too long ago, wish I’d stopped and gotten some pictures.
With all due respect to the photographers, with so much of today’s railroading being of the IM type, these were the best images Trains could come up with?
Sorry, but these are real sleepers.
ZZZzzzzzzZZZzzzzzz
But Trains doesn’t select them - well, the ones from the regular contributors, anyways. We send in one photo that we feel goes with the theme and that’s it. The Trains staff simply copies our caption info, and puts our photos on the voting page. It’s not like they go to the image library and pick out the best photo for the theme - we the contributors do that.
Sorry to put you to sleep, but up here in eastern Connecticut there really isn’t all that much intermodal - maybe a triplet of well cars occasionally coming through Willimantic, so I have to delve into my “road trips”, leaving me with a very shallow well to draw from. And for me personally, I try to choose a more unusual photo - I could have done the 3/4 wedgie of 20R like I mentioned in the caption information, but to me that’s run of the mill - I felt that “intermodal” meant more about the containers rather than the lead locomotive. Hence my selection.
Just putting a contributor’s perspective on it…either way, it’s all good…I love reading the comments here… 
I like the special take on the term intermodel. A photo of Abrams tanks on flats is 1) unique in its own right, 2) more interesting than a bunch of boxes in well cars, and 3) and a reminder that intermodel can mean many things.
Toss up between Tom and Ken…went with Tom’s after viewing them side by side, his just had more visual appeal for me.
It was a tuffy to decide, but since my decision was for the reader submission, here’s a salute to the troops!
Tom,
Your photo is best by far among the bunch, regardless of whatever the limiting subject is/was/may have been.
I hope people zoomed all the way into your pic and absorbed: the signal, the oncoming unit in the distance, the ballast heaped up along and over the grade… great eye you have there.
Your scene reminds me of my days walking the NYC main in western New York, spotting the lightning stripes roaring toward Rochester from Buffalo back in the 60’s. Not many photographers grab those feelings like you have with this one picture.
Thanks, and keep 'em coming.
Cliff Jones
Elmira, New York
Elrond’s shot simply did the best job of conveying the theme…with nice scenery to boot.#### Tom in Nashville
It was a toss up between Elrond’s and Tom’s photos. The scenery in Elron’s won it for me. Plus the view of the whole train said it was intermodel. Couldn’t really see what type of trains were in Drew’s although it was a good try for something different and out of the ordinary.
I had to vote for Tom’s picture, because, as an Englishman, I find that it epitomizes US intermodal railroading for me. The fore-shortening effect of those double-stacks is superb - we see nothing like that here in England (but maybe I should try to submit an English photo sometime). The only slight pity is that the photo was taken during an “off” cycle of the end-of-train device - a stab of light from the rear of the train might have made the photo even better. But why should I complain? I can only see US trains through the pages of TRAINS magazine. I last visited the US in 1991, when I had a cab ride on a Long Island freight! Superb!
Tom, you are correct on how we put together Trackside. In fact, the reader submission(s) is also randomly chosen. We are not the judges. You are! That’s what makes it fun. [:D]
Thanks to everyone for their comments.
I agree that we had a few sleepers today. I’m a sucker for shots that show most or all of a large freight train, so I chose Mr. Lawrence’s, in spite of the fact that I wish we could be closer to it.
Kudos to Drew for an interesting two-train shot. I knew it was intermodal!
Barry, as interesting as the military stuff is, that isn’t intermodal.
Ken’s photo was neat, but didn’t grab my attention. The loading and unloading of IM trains is interesting nonetheless.
Barry’s photo is intersting, but the “Oh, tank!” interesting versus “Wow” interesting.
Drew’s photo immediately appeared to be of containers in motion, at speed on a train. To me that’s the essence of IM. Move from A to B quickly.
Elrond’s photo was also immediately recognizable as IM and I honestly expected more photos of similar ilk for this topic. Containers on a train…always moving.
Tom’s photo worked a few more elements of the overall railroad in the photo: topography and traffic. Generally I like photos conveying one or both of those factors.
In the end I went for Drew’s shot as (to me) it seemed to best capture what I feel is the true nature of IM traffic: speed and constant movement.