Trackside Vol. 213 “Mainline steam in the past decade” is now live.
Check out the five entries and cast your vote!
Drew
Alex Mayes. If I was completely ignorant about which engines ran when, only Mr. Mayes’ photo included two obvious visual clues that these photos are from the past decade: the Darth Vader style signals, and the heritage Gevos trailing.
I also opted to go with Alex’s shot, for much the same reasons. It had lots of life, and a very visible indication that it was a modern, main line, operation.
As an aside, all were clearly modern operation, for a subtle reason - no telegraph line. That is a prop that is generally missing when short lines stage a shot with a vintage automobile waiting at a grade crossing. As photographers we often cursed the telegraph line when the wires or poles blocked the best angle. But they were an integral part of the steam scene.
John
To me, the clearly most appealing is the last by David Styffe. Very well done!
Crandell
Voted for Joe’s photo. One of the rare steam-without-diesel photos. In almost every respect this photo looks like it could be 50+ years old!
All these excursions that put modern locomotives behind the vintage steam just look like a bunch of wannabees. If the steamers of old could haul 75 cars of coal thru the eastern mountains, surely they can haul a 10-car excursion train by themselves.
I’d rather have just the gevos, myself. Never was a huge steam fan.
I don’t see a diesel in David Steyffe’s photo, and the drama with the oceanside and the elegance of the locomotive itself win me over to that photo. For an unstreamlined 4-8-4, the SF’s was one of the best. The photo showing photo line would not have been as honest without the photo line, but would have been a better contender. 2nd place for me was the UP Challenger.
Just behind the steamer’s tender.