Some Odds and The End of Gulfapalooza 2011

 All good things must come to an end, and here's the last of our Gulfapalooza 2011 lighthouse-hunting trip.  The odds and ends and um, The End.  Above, a mushroom cloud (oh, if ONLY) rises above Houston and a southbound intermodal train.

 I don't know.  Palms and sky.  Pretty.

 Swampy grass near Lake Pontchartrain.  Sawgrass?  Sugar cane?  Whatever - it's neat!

 Tourist trap!  Tourist trap at Port Isabel!  Hide your wallet!

 This is what Texas looks like.  Okay, that's not fair.  This is what Texas looks like when it's about to rain.

The Orion nebula is the birthplace of stars and worlds.  This part of Texas gives birth to oil rigs.

 Train!  Well, a semi-restored museum piece, but still.  A nice example of an old SW1 switcher.

 ...and an even better caboose.

 Pensacola Light Station's only pelican.  He's very disciplined, though - stood still until completely painted!

We finished shooting lighthouses with a couple of days to spare, but we were nowhere near ready to go home, so we made haste to Kill Devil Hills, and our favorite beach-side balcony.  Best.  Trip.  Ever.

Thanks for visiting.  With any luck, we'll have more pictures to post soon.

Things Spooky, Broken, Haunted

Broken RVICE Station - near Lively, VA - 2001

One of the spookiest and most unmistakably haunted places I have ever been. [Maris] and I were wandering through the mountains of Kentucky late at night when we happened on this scene in Lynch. There were ghosts. I know there were. Men died in that mine. It's a museum, now, but I have no doubt the ghosts are still digging. 1999 photo.

Just across the road from the mine portal, we found a rotting old locomotive, which I attempted to shoot, and this caboose, shot by [Maris]. It was nearly pitch-black, so focus and exposure suffered greatly, but by this time we were so spooked, it was time to go.

Maybe it was the chilly, damp weather. Maybe the fact that it was Sunday. Maybe everyone was at the McDonald's out on the highway (the worst McD's in the universe). Whatever the reason, Grafton, WV was a creepy, sad little ghost railroad town when we visited in 1997.

This one is more sad than haunted. This 1688 grave stone is in Salem, MA. The lower inscription reads "An aged person that had been but nineteen winters in the world." 1998 photo.

Broken Happy Place. The north end of the Boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach, DE after the 1992 Nor'Easter.

Overgrown Farmhouse - Northern Neck of Virginia - 2001. I'll bet there's a ghost in there.

Big creepy, spooky, haunted house in Garrett, PA in 2001. TELL me there isn't a whole mess of ghosts in there!

Wind turbines looming creepily above Garrett, PA in 2001. They don't scare me the way they do some people, but I have to admit, seeing them up close when you're not accustomed to them does sort of make the little hairs on your arms stand up.

Finally, "Bart's End." I know - I've posted this one before, but I just love it so. It speaks to me, and every time I look, it says something different.

Thanks for dropping by. I'm thinking it might be time for some barns, next.

Falling For Cass

Fall, despite its tendency to become Winter, has its moments. In our 1997 Autumn of Pure Wanderlust, my soul mate and I found our way to Cass, WV. Cass was at one time a busy little logging town, but by the time I first visited there with my father in the late 70s, its Shay-locomotive-powered mountain railroad had begun to carry only tourists. Fall is obviously the best time to make this trip, as evidenced by the panorama above, shot from the train about halfway up Bald Knob from Cass.

On our way from the hotel at Snow Shoe to Cass, this fog-filled valley caught our attention and insisted that we photograph it. I especially like the lone tree silhouetted against the fog in the second shot (center, near the bottom of the frame).

Two shots of Cass Scenic RR Shay #2. The detail shot shows the builder's plate: Lima Locomotive Works, 1928. If only my Chevy would last as long.

Okay, the two shots above were mistakes (I forgot to adjust my shutter speed for the wooded portion of the climb up the mountain), but I really like the resulting images. I'm not sure I could depict the motion of the train ride any better, and if I ever return to Cass, I'm going to be trying a whole bunch more shots like these.

Back out into the sunshine, we were treated to colors like this everywhere we looked.

Shay #4, which had helped #2 get us up the hill, cut off the train on the fly as we reached the summit. Smooth as silk.

Red cabooses stored at Cass, WV. Gotta love a good caboose!

Okay, friends. That'll do for now. That'll do...

Steel At Magnolia

Yesterday, I found my way to Magnolia, WV to scout potential locations for shooting trains in fall color. The trees are not quite ready and the sky wasn't the best for most of the day, but here are some relatively unedited samples. The bit of color above is actually the ridge just north of Great Cacapon, WV - about 20 miles from Magnolia.

West Portal, Stuart Tunnel, Magnolia.

Westbound Q400 clears the signals at Magnolia.

Caboose! These things are exceedingly rare on a train like this. Weird.

Venturing onto the trestle over the Potomac at Magnolia, looking west through Graham Tunnel.

Q373 rolls west toward Paw Paw and points beyond.

Q415 crossing the Potomac at Magnolia. Where were you this morning, when the sun would have been right on your nose? Phooey.

Dead Tree! That's mainly for Mom. She loves dead tree pictures.

A little switching work at Hancock, MD on the way home.

That's all for now. Still scanning hundreds of negatives from 1997-2006. Ciao!