Hello!
I just posted the latest installment of Trackside with Erik and Mike in our new section within the Railroad Reference area of TrainsMag.com. Read Trackside with Erik and Mike Volume 76.
Voting for Trackside with Erik and Mike now occures at the top of the Trackside with Erik and Mike section. Click here to vote.
Please add your comments regarding this week’s photos here.
Thanks! Erik
matt liked the bridges in the bnsf photo.but we both liked all the up engines pulling the train.
stay safe
joe
Oh, no! What are the complainers going to say? A “Where-is-it?” thread (of sorts) coming from Bergie!
Edit: I’m sure I haven’t been there, but I’m singin’ the Blues over the UP shot. Nonetheless…
Had to pick the UP shot. Better-looking track (I wish the river in the BNSF shot flowed a little faster so the taggers couldn’t get to the piers on that bridge!), better-looking power, and more of it. I could feel that train!
The “blind” voting is a good idea, at least sometimes.
Add another vote for the UP shot. A caption could read “UP Thunder” perhaps. Neat!
I voted for the UP shot. The grafitti and the billboard detracted from what otherwise would have been a great BNSF shot. The UP shot didn’t have the distractions and was a really nice shot looking down the rails in the front of the train.
Enjoy
Paul
Mine is a fourth vote for the UP shot. Even with the warbonnet and the bridge in the BNSF shot, the BNSF shot had its downsides:
Graffitti[sigh]
The big , in my opinion ugly billboard
The telephone poles
The highway
The UP shot really had the feel of heavy-duty railroading.
MIke or Eric?
Eric or Mike?
Eeney,meeney,miney,mo…
Both good shots, but which to pick?[%-)][tup]
Eeney,meeney,miney,mo…
Eric wins! [8D]
How did you know which one was Erik’s?
UP Mega-Power wins my vote.
As Tim “The Toolman” Taylor would say, “Argh, argh, argh”!
Like everyone else, I voted the UP shot. The BNSF shot had too much sky and that billboard. I didn’t mind the graffeti. But it was distracting. The UP was a nice shot of power with a clean background. My only problem with it is the train could have gone another 10-20 feet before the shot.
Went with Uncle Pete also…
Only thing to knock is the debris on the left of the photo, but then I am used to “track junk” so…
The BN bridge shot just didn’t light any fire…too much background and not enough train.
My eye kept getting drawn to the billboard for the water park instead of the train.
Don’t you work in a water park, Ed? [;)]
Nice shot of the Blue Mountains, Mike. I know exactly where that spot is! (or if it’s not the Blue’s, there’s a spot just like it in the Blue’s.)
Because Mike spilled the beans by posting his photo on his website! [D)]
Sorry Mike, but Erik got the vote!
So I’m looking at photo #2 and all I see is the river, the bridge and that huge “WATERPARK” SIGN and I’m thinking “where is the train?”
Then I look at photo #1 and I think “my gracious look at all that power!!!”
No contest. Photo #1 is by far the winner.
Jim H
Gaithersburg, MD (not too far from the CSX line to Brunswick)
The BNSF shot (which I’d guess is Mike’s photo) is interesting to me because I’m pretty sure I know exactly where it is. It’s the CP’s bridge over a river in Milwaukee, WI, just North of Miller Park (the place where the Brewer’s baseball team plays). Mike has shared photos in this collumn of trains on it before, but not from this angle. The bridge looks the same, though the river is swollen up a lot compared to normal, no doubt because of the large amount of rain we’ve had around here in Wisconsin lately.
The second thing that makes the photo interesting to me is that there’s a BNSF train running through it. Like I said, it’s CP track, but with the washouts on the BNSF and CP near La Crosse, WI and Winona, MN the BNSF detoured on the CP for a few days from La Crosse to Chicago. So from that standpoint it’s a relatively unique photo. BNSF in Milwaukee isn’t as common, and usually only as run-through power.
Noah
I voted, in the minority so far, for the BNSF picture. it has lots of interesting elements besides the locomotives: the tall billboard, the interstate highway interchange, the graffiti on the bridge. These combine to make the photo edgy and a bit gritty, but interesting.
How can anyone vote against a War Bonnet paint job?
The destructive work of disrespectful and uncaring vandals, combined with the intrusive nature of the monster sign in the background take so much away that what is left of the BNSF picture is of no consequence.
From Colorado
Nice move to revert back to blind voting. I myself have always made my votes by judging the picture rather than who took it, but blind voting does an extra element of suspense, I think.
The rural feel of the UP photo appeals to me, with some degree of side perspective added with the slight curve in the track, allowing one to see the paint scheme of the lead SD70M. The lighting is very nice, making look like an overcast early morning. A fantastic shot.
But admittedly, the BNSF photo appealed to me a little bit more, mainly because of the red and silver BNSF center engine (haven’t seen one of those in my area in a while) and the spine intermodal consist. The slight fading of the engine also reminds me of most of the engines I see in my area, which are usually dirty and/or heavily faded. The similarity to my area just caught me with this picture, and so the BNSF photo won my vote this week.