I get used to seeing familiar posters by their avatar. A lot of them are self-explanatory but there are some I just don’t get. Most seem to be railroad oriented. Some are self portraits. One is of a little piggy ringing bells (?), and zugmann changes his all the time.
Mine is of a drumhead(?), I believe, on a Santa Fe passenger train. Chris in Colorado was kind enough to help me with it. What’s the story behind your avatar?
Our long running effort to save the former NYC Adirondack Division from those who would rip it up.
Exactly as it appears; a rather custom-design no parking sign on Export St. in Port Elizabeth (there were at least 2 mounted on that fence) in an area where it’s entirely feasible that a errently-parked truck or freight car could block access to the Terminal Corporation office. The No-Truck image is standard MUTCD iconography, but the No-Train image (No-Bar Circle over a cab-unit loco) seems somewhat custom, the loco likely extracted from the standard “Railroad Station” icon.
I honor my father’s combat service with mine. It’s the 367th Bomb Squadron, part of the 306th Bomb Group (Heavy) at Thurleigh during WW2.
Thurleigh is in the UK I presume? My father-in-law and his brother both flew B-17’s out of Foggia, Italy toward the end of the war.
Mine is pretty self-explanatory too, but I chose it because the steam locomotive I help maintain and operate was originally built for the Canadian Northern, and would have worn it when new. Today 1392 wears the same Canadian National scheme she spent the majority of her service life in, but I never forget where she came from. She would have looked similar to this Consolidation when new:
http://silverhawkauthor.com/images/site_graphics/Trains/e010861781-v8.jpg
1392 today:
I drew mine from what I see in my mind when I think of a locomotive. I assume it to be a wood-burning American 4-4-0 steam locomotive.
I originally drew it using MS Paint (that came with Windows 3.1) and I drew it at 900 pixels wide and 3000 pixels tall… Thus on a standard (at the time) screen resolution of 800x600 I could only see very small portions at a time. I drew only the left half and then mirror imaged it and flipped it horizontally to paste as the right side (doubling the width), then added the non-symmetrical items (boiler door handle and hinges). Then I scaled the image up by 4X and did some clean up of the result to eliminate some of the “Jaggies” caused by the scaling.
I then drew a companion image of the back of a Caboose. I drew it the same way as just the left half, mirror imaged it to complete it, then added the non-symmetrical items (ladder, brake wheel and stove chimney), scaled it up and did some post editing of the result.
The two files are 83Mbytes each as bit-maps. (Jpegs are only 6.6Mbytes but lose detail and blur stuff.)
I had Kinkos print both images on thick vinyl making two posters 23.5 inches wide and 39 inches tall.
When the two posters are placed back to back it makes a nice yard flag of a 2 dimensional train (look at it from the front and it has height and width… same as when looking at it from the back, but look at it from the edge and it has no discernable length; thus it is only 2 dimensional!)
I hang it outdoors when I am running my live steam trains in my backyard.
I have also made smaller images to print out and laminate in plastic as 2 dimensiona
White Pass and Yukon DL535E. Tried out a few and it just seemed to fit.
A semi-streamlined East German Pacific locomotive, built in 1961, 18-201 is the number and it normally pulls two tenders. I was on an excursion from Halle to the Meiningen shops on thier open house in 2009 on a train pulled by it when I took the picture at a local station.
What mudchickens do. (this happens to be Fountain Creek bridge/ BNSF Br. 88.60/ ATSF 650.12 just south of Fountain, CO on the joint line)
Norris,
My avatar came from a bit of a whimsy. I was standing near a crossing waiting for a long overdue train when the thought hit me ‘Why not’. That said I focused the camera on the crossbucks while waiting. “Two track railroad one track mind” syndrome if you will.
I thought it appropriate at the time and used it on an aviation forum only to discover an airplane owner and friend of mine was of like mind and spent big bucks to have a caboose transported to his property. He now uses that as his office and stokes the fire to warm it before starting his day’s work. He is in Vermont and winter days get cold there too.
You need to snag a wayward caboose you can put on a spur to your lumber yard so you have a convenient place to go hide when you feel the necessity, though I doubt your job is that stressful. Take life one two by four at a time. They re all pretty mucht e same.
Yep, I’m ragging on you a bit but it is neant in friendship.I have researched the company you represent and I think you douldn’t have found a better employer.
Can we get you to park an airliner i your driveway/
Said with utmost respect,
Norm
Mine should be self-explanatory, showing that I am almost dry behind my ears. I think it was taken 3 1/2 years ago, when my older step-daughter, Katie, and her daughter, Jackie, and I were traveling.
Not all the time.
I still miss Perry the Platypus.
he didn’t do much.
He sure lasted though. Hung around way longer than any of the ponies.
I think Shadow was the longest.
there is a method to my avatars here.
I race in SCCA’s Formula 500 class. Picture is of my son passing me at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI.
My son is fast, I am only half fast.
I got bored with my old avatar one day, and did a google for “art deco train poster” and this one was one of the results.
Do explain