January 2022 - The Trackside Photographer

Posted on January 27, 2022February 10, 2022 by admin

Wreck on Tennessee Pass

First view of derailment area from CO Highway 24, November 27, 1994.

On the morning of Tuesday, November 22, 1994, a friend of mine who was the environmental manager at the Southern Pacific in Denver, Colorado, called me at my office at the Transportation Technology Center to say that there had been a derailment early that morning on Tennessee Pass. The air brakes on a train load of taconite pellets failed to function after cresting the top of the pass. Almost the entire train derailed on a 10 degree curve, he said, and that there were some injuries but fortunately no lives were lost. I wanted to see the aftermath but couldn’t get away until Sunday morning.

Posted on January 20, 2022January 27, 2022 by admin

Railroad Town:
Monroe, Louisiana

Kansas City Southern rail bridge over the Ouachita River, Monroe (Tri-X film, Hasselblad 501CM camera, 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens, green filter)

Formerly Fort Miro and now the seat of Ouachita Parish, Monroe is the “big city” of north central Louisiana. The family and I used to attend theater productions at the Monroe Civic Center and have flown out of MLU airport, but otherwise have not spent much time there.

A Virginia friend asked about someplace to explore, and I suggested Monroe. We drove there on a sunny warm day and headed to the Ouachita River at the historic city core.

Posted on January 13, 2022January 20, 2022 by admin

Railroad Heritage: Herndon, Virginia

Former Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Depot

If you were to visit the town of Herndon, Virginia today, you would think of it as any other town. It has a town center, houses, stores, and main streets. What very few people know is that this suburb of Washington D.C. has a deep-rooted history.

Who is Herndon named after? It is named after William Lewis Herndon, the commander of the S.S. Central America, a ship that sank in 1857 in a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean while in route from Panama to New York City. It is said that Commander Herndon saved his crew as he went down and perished with the ship.

It is named for a sea captain, but there is no navigable waterway in the town. How is it named for a sea captain? William Herndon and his wife were born in Virginia. He was born in Fredericksburg, and she was born in Culpeper.

Posted on January 6, 2022January 13, 2022 by admin

Editor’s Notebook

A New Year Miscellany

The Railroad and the Art of Place: An Anthology

Unlike most industries with a footprint measured in square feet, or perhaps several acres, the railroad reaches out into the American landscape to touch lonely rural outposts, big cities, and small towns. The railroad pushes over mountains and through uninhabited deserts. It spans rivers and streams as it stitches the country together with steel rails. And every place the railroad touches is changed by it, and the railroad is altered by each place it passes through.