Midweek Photos 1/29/2014

Last summer.  Denali Express - DEX - leaving Whittier for Denali Nat. Park.

It looks like everything is better with the work computer, so here we go.  I was at the Big Hobby Show in W. Springfield, MA last weekend, and made a stop at the Amtrak station in Springfield.  Not much going on while I was there. 

Inside one of the halls at the show, the WW&F narrow gauge RR brought this milk car for display.

From what I hear, it is built on the frame of a WW&F boxcar, but repurposed as a milk car simply because it is a more fitting story for that railroad's location in Maine.

Neat truck design.  That is just a small slice of what I captured.  More to follow later.

While in Massachusetts for a few days, a friend and I went exploring.  Our first stop was Ayer, MA. This is a stop on the MBTA, and an active freight town.

IIRC, this is a CSX local, just using NS power, no. 1000.  

It was taking a cut of auto cars (loaded) East to where they can be unloaded for New England distribution.

It was a busy morning in Ayer, as I caught this Eastbound commuter train passing the tower.

Loading passengers at the depot.

And another train, Westbound, coming into town about 10 minutes later.

Just about reaching the depot.

A few more of Massachusetts.  Vermont will wait until next week.

Next stop was Palmer, MA.  The New England Central RR has a lot of cars to hustle around the town.  On the left is one of their wide cab GP40s in Rail America colors, and on the left is a GP38 in the gold and blue NECR markings.

There is a real steam engine in town.  Apparently, it is going to be restored, and be Massachusetts' only operating standard gauge engine when the work is done.

The Palmer depot.  No longer an Amtrak stop, but Amtrak does pass by.  While eating a late lunch, we saw the westbound Lake Shore Limited Boston section.

And above, both ends of the Vermonter, which uses a strange zigzag movement through town until a direct line can be rehabbed to let them run to and from Vermont.

I have a few shots this week, I guess.  This week's chapter should be called, "Ice Road Foamers!"  Winds have been hitting 50 mph out here, and that often tears up my lights. It blows so hard that even when I weight the lightstands down with railroad ties, they still get damaged when the force of the wind bends the pole!   So, I didn't try any night shots the past week.  Instead, on Saturday I headed up to the glacial lake area of northeast SD to see if I could catch anything moving.  There is an old CNW line that cuts diagonally from Huron to Watertown SD.  The line is still there but has effectively become a spur.  There's a couple of small elevators and an ethanol plant up on the north end, but the south end is used for car storage.  I haven't been up there for awhile, so I headed up to check it out.

To get there I took a shortcut across Lake Poinsett (pronounced "Ponsett.")  The highway jogs around it so I simply drove over it. The ice is about 2 & half feet thick now so I had no problem driving about three miles from one side to the other.  It was a relatively warm day and the ice fishermen were out in force!  There were no trains moving; didn't really expect any on this little line.  I did get some shots of the elevators and tiny towns.  It was dark by the time I got to Watertown where I found a set of geeps putting together a train to go to Willmar MN.  What luck!  I've never caught a train on that line at night--they are rare!  I talked to the conductor at the switch and found out it was not to be.  A rail had snapped in the cold the day  before and the inspector had just called it in.  Train would run the next day.  Dang. The next day I was rewarded, sort of, by catching an ugly s/b grain train on the Marshall Sub, near Pipestone MN.

First shot, dusk settles on the end of the line at Vienna SD Cargill elevator.

Second shot, an ugly engine pulls a s/b grain train, Pipestone MN.

Third shot, the Georgia Northern engine at Currie MN.  Shot with a Petzval lens made by Andrew Ross in the year 1845 (five years after photography was invented!)  Camera was a Chamonix 045n 4x5, film was Ilford HP5.  This is my oldest lens, and I really like it!

This is probably enough for now.

Kent in SD 

Interesting photos, fellows.  A tip of my hat to each of you.