View and vote! Trackside with Trains vol. 126, “A link to the past,” is live. This round features seven different photos.
Enjoy!
What I like best about Alex’s picture is that it is totaly a link to the past in that it is still in use as such today! It has been continueous, it goes back further than the others, it is still a today feature, it is definitely the biggest link presented.
I acknowledge your decision and rationale, Henry, and it is perfectly rational. I also like that image.
Yet, I took the image of the steamer to be my link to the past…to my own past, where I was enamoured of steam at the time of being a mere toddler. So, Aaron’s image did it for me.
-Crandell
Steve got my vote as best illustrating the theme. Andy and Jim were very close in the running.
Dave gets the human interest award.
Alex and Elrond provided good shots, but there was no bridge between eras there.
Aaron’s entry is fantastic - definitely a “hang on my wall” image. But it also looks like it could have been shot by O. Winston Link during his study of the last days of steam on the N&W (specific equipment notwithstanding, and still a compliment). As with the entries of Alex and Elrond, there is no bridge to the present.
Whoa…I’m in the distinct minority this time, but I voted for Jim Wrinn’s shot of the IRM’s CB&Q diesels. Obviously I need to get out there more often than I have been! That museum has so many links to so many people’s pasts.
I agree with Larry about Dave Lustig’s photo getting the “human interest” vote–it almost went away with everything from here. Mr. Walker was indeed a link to the past then; now there’s just a control point with his name, alas.
Maybe less of a minority than you think. Great pic by Jim and I need to get out there more also.
Jim Wrinn - a very direct link for me.
I opted for Andy’s picture, as very definitely linking past and present. I also have seen the ghosts of many prairie towns. The steam engine on the photo charter is very nice, but there is no link to today. As usual, I consider how the picture fits the theme as being of equal importance with its inherent artistic quality.
Steve’s picture of the two boys was considered, but ultimately eliminated. We recognize the classic EMD style of a 1st generation roadswitcher, but it doesn’t have the universal meaning that Andy’s does.
John
The theme suggests that a story needs to be told. For me, Andy’s photo does it best.
George in Lynden
As a member at IRM I was ready to vote for Jim Wrinn’s CB&Q 9255 photo, but something kept pulling me back to Aaron’s shot. Whether it was the hardworking Soo steamer with a huge smoke plume, the weathered Purina ad painted on the building, or the use of black and white versus color, it finally got my vote. This photo definitely evoked a link to the past… it could have been taken last year, or in the 1930s. Too bad Andy used his photo of the BL-2s in an article on last Wednesday’s News Wire, or that could have been a contender as well!
Great subject, one of the best contests yet with all the different, interesting photos, all different all somewhat unusual. fun to look at. Since I like Santa Fe, old broken down buildings, ghost towns and open prairie, Andy’s photo is my choice. At first all I saw was the crumbling building and I wondered what it had to do with railroading and then the locos snapped into view. cool.
A great topic, and an exceptionally fine group of submissions.
I could have voted for any of them, but decided on Aaron’s black and white Soo steam shot.
As far as matching the category, Aaron’s was so realistic that it could easily have BEEN the past (rather than a connection), but aside from that it just seemed the best candidate.
After voting, I looked at the results and was interested to note that a lot of the rest of you must have had the same thoughts. Ironically, Andy’s photo was my second choice and it was in second place at the time I voted.
TJB / Nashville, TN
I voted for Andy’s ghost town photo with a BNSF passing freight. It reminded me of the old town of Drawbridge,CA. with its few buildings slowly sinking into the marshes of San Francisco bay. This photo shows both the past,in the abandoned school house,and the preasant, in the modern BNSF freight.
All very good photos this week. The one photo that attracted me the most was Aaron’s. I agree that it is a link to the past that you could hang on the wall. Being in black and white made it even better and a more realistic link to the past even though it was taken in more modern times. I also liked Jim’s and was hard to decide between the two. Eventually voting for Aaron’s.
Great work. Keep them coming.
Another fine group of photos. But the two which for me best related to the theme this week were Aaron’s and Andy’s.
Aaron’s shot was composed so nicely and I loved the many nuances of the multitude of shades of gray in the image. But the one thing that was missing was an obvious link to the present. To me, it is a most excellent image that could easily have been taken 100 years ago.
Andy’s shot, while composed nicely, lacked the exquisite detail of Aaron’s; however, it made up for it in its poignancy. The sadness of the old building, the intimation of many events that happened over the many years, the loneliness of the open prairie; and contrasting all of that are the brand-new locomotives pulling a modern freight past a timeless grain elevator that has a modern streetlight in front of it. In so many ways, the juxtaposition of eras seemed to perfectly fit the theme.
My choice is Elrond’s depiction of the very intent engineer “taking care” of the job at hand, getting the most out of his engine to accomplish it’s work.
Along with that thought, I like the photograph, a clear detailed interior of a classic steam engine of some decades ago…The sense of movement is evident too by the blurred foligage out the engineer’s window. Trivia: Good strong abundance of steam operating pressure on hand too…
Again, we had several outstanding ones to make a choice from, but we can have just one winner.
Andy’s the best for a current “everyday” seasonal scene that’s not either in a museum or on some special event. While there’s no body of water comparable to “San Francisco bay” nearby (outside of a slough or two[:)]) Gascoyne’s station site was M/p 951.2 on the Hettinger “sub” of BNSF’s Montana Division, same locale as it was under the former CMStP&P/MILW’s Puget Sound main for nearly a century (near M/p 146.3 on former CM&PS/CM&StP Trans-Missouri Division’s McIntosh - Marmarth subdivision). The present owner has a detector @ M/p 950.9 near location of siding’s E switch, about a mile and a half W/b from the former Knife River mine (and later hazardous waste dump), and some two-dozen track miles W/b from Hettinger, N.D.
As for “a steam-powered Olympian Hiawatha” that may have happend w/No.16 *c.*1948, which would have been “o.t.” E/b through Gascoyne around 08:00-MT An F-6 or F-6a “Baltic” or perhaps one of the S-2 “Northern” types could have protected the usual F-M “Eries” prior-to the 1949 coal miners strike. A more-likely scenario would have involved its pre-1947 “Olympian” predecessor, w/No.16 passing Gascoyne about a half-hour later (and prior-to delivery of those F-M “Erie” A/B/A sets). Before its late 1931 discountinuance, the “Columbian” No.17 had a 14:15-MT stop @ the depot, and its postwar counterpart (No.18) was scheduled to follow that E/b “Olympian Hiawatha” by about an hour there.
Aaron Jors’s charging-on Soo Mikado shot speaks most clearly to me, and surely wins my personal “C.M. Clegg and Philip R. Hastings Memorial” award for best effort and final product. It seems timeless!
I;m with Mookie:
It was the SW-7 that cemented my avocation with trains. The type was very special; watching them work. At Southern’s Forrest Yard, tying onto a whole string of cars just brought in by multiple road units and heading up the lead to either classify them or take them fro a transfer. Unbelieveable Moxie.