admin, Author at The Trackside Photographer

Posted on February 13, 2020February 20, 2020 by admin

Big Boy
in West Texas

It’s hard to put into words the feeling of being the only person for miles around listening to a steam engine’s whistle echo through the mountains and across the desert plains. The first faint whistle comes nearly forty-five minutes before it passes by, leaving you plenty of time to imagine life on the frontier when the train was your only connection to the outside world. Before long, Big Boy rumbles past and the massive steam engine disappears back into the vast West Texas landscape and all falls silent.

Posted on February 6, 2020February 13, 2020 by admin

Steel Arteries

THE FORGOTTEN MAIN STREET OF AMERICA

The transcendent universal compassion of trains being the main street of America reconciles me to a place in time when the rails flourished. The angels whispered the secrets of the night train speeding its way to darkness. I could attend to the gentle chugging of the Railroad, comforted that there was someone else awake in the middle of the night. Tick tick…tick tick… tick tick the soothing steel wheels sound off a smooth rhythm as I sit still in bed. The passing trains are like musicians singing me a song. The whistles fade into the distance as I close my eyes for sleep and for dreaming.

Posted on January 30, 2020February 6, 2020 by admin

A Monday Morning Trick
at OW Tower

During the mid-nineteen-sixties, my father’s assignment was changed around. He would open OW tower, located almost in the shadow of the Tappan Zee Bridge on New York Central’s Electric Division, on Monday mornings. OW was closed from Saturday afternoon until he got there.

Posted on January 23, 2020January 30, 2020 by admin

Depot Road

On a cold and rainy afternoon in late December, 2019, I stood on the railroad tracks in the small village of Fishers Hill, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I was surrounded by weeds, and distances were lost in mist. Behind me, the tracks crossed over Tumbling Run, and before me stood a derelict, two-story, gable-roofed frame building. One one side, the tracks; on the other side, Depot Road.

Posted on January 16, 2020January 23, 2020 by admin

Shoot it while you can

As an adult, I often look back at some of the things I have been told throughout my life. We often overlook the things we are told as youngsters, but as we age, we look back at some of these statements and realize what they mean. More often than not, it is too late to take action and we end up having some form of regret. This applies to us in the railfan community just like it does to anything else.

Posted on January 9, 2020January 16, 2020 by admin

Big Boy Visits
Little Rock, Arkansas

Hot Running History

The Union Pacific (UP) Railroad’s Big Boy 4014 made a full day stop at the Union Pacific yard in North Little Rock on Thursday November 14^th. This was one stop on its 2019 tour celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The 4014 then departed Little Rock on the following morning, continuing with many more stops along a multi-state tour.

These mechanical behemoths were ordered by Union Pacific and constructed by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in Schenectady, New York, during the early 1940’s as America geared up for World War II. Of the twenty such locomotives delivered to UP by ALCO, the 4014 is the only one of the handful of remaining Big Boys which has been restored to operational service. The rest are reposing in various Railroad Museums across the Western United States.