Trackside with Trains.com, vol. 132, “Making all local stops,” is now live.
Seven of our 14 photographers entered images for this round.
Enjoy!
Trolley car’s make all the local stops…but this is a museum photo. And local freights make all the local stops. Andy’s photo is the only one showing the stop and grunt work a local does. So Andy gets my vote.
Andy nailed the theme squarely on the head this week. Excellent lighting and details as well.
Despite its (current) 3rd-place ranking in votes, Tom’s clearly shows both “Murl’s” Helena local and one of the on-line industries it regularly serves. Others include the Continental Lime spur N (RR W) of Townsend, and Holnam Cement plant @ Trident, some 5+3/4 mi.NE-of that Luzenac plant (both along 3rd “Sub” main by M/p’s 206.5 & 170.5+, respectively). Another is Luzenac’s Sappington talc mill, just about 12 mi.SW (RR W/b, S-of M/p 19.5) from the one shown on S side of Three Forks (by M/p 6.75, original townsite platted-by Milwaukee Land Co. in 1907).
MRL’s 5th subdivision line through those locales also once hosted both BN No.'s 25 & 26 “North Coast Ltd.” as-well-as ATK’s “North Coast Hiawatha” (a-k-a “Mansfield Special”[:D]), and sees occasional movements of current owner’s business cars (one being a former “North Coast Ltd. vista-dome”). The GP-35 trailing that “SD19-1” #651 has since been (re-)painted to “Murl” black w/dark blue and “barking screamer” logo.
…Another dramatic, sharp view from Steve. Certainly, we know a vehicle such as this makes local stops…No question about that.
Photo has eye catching composition and unusualness…Great contrast in the photo colors.
Many of the others seems dull in color, and bland…{Sorry fellows}. Steve takes my vote.
I guess I’m just an old romantic, because I found a lot of these pictures quite sad. In your mind’s eye, you always think of many of these rail giants still dressed in their bright fresh paint, plowing across the horizon in the days of your youth. But, unfortunately, many are just rusting, unkempt workhorses who moan and groan in the back-rails of America today. Pictures of their demise are not to my liking.
So I judged my choice by the atmosphere that surrounded each faded lady. I’m not a fan of streetcars, so Steve’s picture didn’t stir me. I think David’s picture, tho he made mention of the “city clutter” didn’t really have enough clutter in it to really give any dressing to 2619. I felt the surroundings of Jim picture was also lacking - tho admittedly, that was one sad looking engine. I felt the surroundings in Tom’s picture also lacked character - nice sky tho. Alex’s stream engine in Poland was neat, but I found myself drawn to Drew’s black and white and Andy’s backwoods shot with it’s worn old buildings and barren ground cover.
I’m usually a sucker for Black & White, but I think I’m going with Andy’s shot. Lots of activity, both present and completed - lots of work happening in the “now” - It just spoke of being out in the boonies doing the work of the plain old folks in a special way to me.
I vote for Andy.
I don’t know if they still call 'em locals or way freights, but Andy’s submission is the image that comes to mind for me.
TJB / Nashville, TN
And besides there’s a minor error in the caption - #665 is entering Broadway, not Main Street. Nice composition though.
- Erik
It is sad [:(] to think a lot of these local work horses have faded into memories. Steve’s street car now being one of these memories. Although this did a lot of pick up and drop off of passengers in it’s day ad has a colourful history it is now a museum piece. Andy’s photo showed what it is all about and this local is still running, still working and also shows what it does best. All photos were good but Andy’s photo really showed what a local does. Well done, Andy [tup]
I liked the composition of Tom’s shot (that front-end loader looks like a kid’s toy compared to the train).
Drew’s shot was nifty, but it didn’t seem to address the theme.
Steve’s shot was interesting. I liked the backstory he provided.
Other than showing the poor battered locomotive, Jim’s shot didn’t ‘click’ with me.
I liked David’s (I quite liked the “available” sign on the building–it seemed to fit the theme of a work train which is ‘available’ to do local work).
Andy’s shot was almost my winner, as it seemed to actually show the train doing local work off of the main line (like David’s).
The image Alex provided showed, to me, what “making all the stops” is all about. I’ll admit that perhaps my many years operating suburban passenger train (that do indeed “make all the stops”) may have skewed my preference. However, the locomotive and train are quite interesting, as are the signals and the weeds growing all over. The shot is well composed and well lit. At first I thought the car and the bike rider spoiled the shot, but after further review, I found that all of those elements (signals, weeds, bike rider) actually added to the shot.
Voted for Alex.
…I’m wondering…aren’t we judging the presentations as a “photo” and it’s quality along with a required “theme”…not details of this and that of what street it’s on and whether it is actually occuring presently…? just my [2c]
I’m with you. I first judge the theme and not the photo. All photo’s are first rate or better virtually all the time, I have no qualms with them. I judge the theme.
Dittos to what CNW 6000 said about Andy’s photo. Great to see that this kind of action still takes place in our age of unit coal trains and double-stackers.
Andy first, Tom second. For all the hoopla this column gets, this is really not their best work. Boring composition, bad lighting etc
I agree that Andy had the best action photo of a local. That is what it is all about, spotting and picking up cars.
I don’t agree with Andy’s statement, ’ the daily grind." I’ve worked many a local and they are far from a grind. They are definitely more stimulating than a road job,
I believe he is referring to a road local, such as on the CN, where locals can traverse hundreds of miles and get put in every siding on the way.
Like some others here, I vote on theme first - not that photo aesthetics aren’t important - so for v. 132 I went with Andy, with Alex a close second. Coincidentally, both photos evoke favorite memories. Andy’s: as a boy, I’d wait in summer along PRR’s Col-San line for the n.b. afternoon Columbus-Crestline local, usually behind a shapely RS-3. I’d watch as the head end set out a few cars at the Nabisco warehouse and Columbus Stove Co., then brought a few back to the waiting consist. Sometimes I stood back where the caboose would stop. It was an aging, wooden N6B with center cupola. Rear brakeman Chuck would step down, flag in hand, and talk railroading. One day he demonstrated a torpedo on the adjacent track. Bang!! The engineer of the southbound J-1 heading a train of empty hoppers must have been startled, but Chuck flagged him on with a laugh. The biggest treat was to beg - and get - a cab ride in the RS-3 as it worked the set outs and pickups. Showing off a bit, I pointed to a lever and told the crew, “That’s the Johnson bar.” They cracked up for reasons a 10-year-old couldn’t yet understand. As we backed through a grade crossing to the waiting consist, the engineer let me blow the horn: ---- ---- 0 -----. Wow! Alex’s photo: It’s Poland, but for the livery on those commuter coaches and the loco’s details, it could easily be rural Germany. Those mechanical “HP” semaphores are no doubt controlled from a small “armstrong” cabin behind the camera. Their cousins dot the German landscape. I watched one day about 10 years ago as a Deutsche Bahn signal maintainer and his helper tested the lever frame that works such signals and points at a passing siding in southern Bavaria. The machine was museum-worthy even then, but it went through its paces with the throws not budging even a centimeter when locked.
I went with David Lustig’s photo. An industry job is the local service that puts the mainline trains together. The mix of street running, tight clearances and the occasional vacant building define a major part of urban railroading for me.