Trackside vol. 158 - Small town - live to view and vote

Two snow, three grass, five 3/4 wedge shots.  Reader Rob by default and just because the pros didn't do it.  Aside from the grade crossing, the church steeples, the cute station, and perhaps the refection in the river, there is no real "smalltown" atmosphere in any of these pictures.  Maybe we needed more of the town and or the railroad and less of the train; maybe a dog howling at the train, a barefoot boy safety pin fishing, somebody looking at a watch or waving at the engineer! 

My picture decision is based solely on boyhood memories and a special yearning for the place where I grew up.

           I was raised in a small farm town in north central Missouri.  The main Santa Fe and Wabash lines between St. Louis and Kansas City ran right through the middle of my little farm community.  On those four tracks, over 85 trains a day barreled through town when I was a kid.  I lived on a farm a mile from town and from my upstairs bedroom window I watched as those freights and passenger trains of the 50's and early 60's roared across the countryside just a half mile from my house, morning, noon, and night.  My Grandmother's house in town was less than 50 yards from the tracks.  When the trains sped through, the whole neighborhood shook.

          I remember watching the trains "catch" the mailbags at the depot.  

         I remember two sensational head-on train wrecks in the middle of town during my boyhood years, both caused by work trains pulling out too early onto the main line and meeting head-on with a thundering freight train once and another time with a mail train.  I recall that the mail train was full of uniforms for the Air Force Academy and the track was littered with blue overcoats for weeks during the cleanup.  I know the work train guys jumped to safety, but both the engineers were killed, one making his final run before retirement.

          Anyway, I never watched a "yard".  There were no industries around Hardin, Missouri, unless you counted the sidings to the grain elevators. The station I use as my identifier here is the old Santa Fe/Wabash Depot in Hardin, circa 1966.

They’re all “ok” pictures this week, but I voted for Andy’s, because it touched my heart.

For some reason I wasn't able to vote this week...by the time I got to where that would normally be done, the results (so far) were already showing.

No big deal...but I thought I'd note that Andy's photo said "small town" loud and clear.

He would have received my vote.

Tom in Nashville

Andy's,,,small town,,no mistaking it! Voted for it.

I had to pick Reader Bob's, for reasons already stated.  That looked like a small town!

Drew almost got my vote, because his town by the river put me in mind of Thurmond, West Virginia, one of my "hallowed ground" spots.

Andy's shot, to my quick glance, was more about industry than town.  But I guess some small towns were like that, so nobody could be put down for voting for that instead of my choice.

Alex got the "familiarity" not, because we've been to Gallitzin--and stayed at the Station Inn, not far from there.  But I've had enough snow, already, for this season!

Sorry, I Tom Nanos' other NECR shot.  It's nice, but not as good as Bob's.

Living as I do in the Chicago area, I know you don't have to travel to the Dakotas to see small towns just like the one in Andy's shot... travel about an hour west on any of the U.S. highways which were the 'interstates' before Eisenhower: US20, US30, the I55/US66 corridor; you will see similar if not identical towns all along the way.

As I have never been to any small towns in the US I  could only vote for what appealled to me the most.  The train in Tom's photo looked an early type engine and seemed appropriate for a small town railway.  Right or wrong I voted for Tom's. 

As a Midwesterner, when traveling, on main highways, a mile or two distant or parallel to railroad tracks, I often look for grain elevators to signal the presence of a town, or to find a location that might make for interesting photos. Having visited many small towns like the one in Andy Cummings photo, I felt a kinship with his view, and voted for it.

....I like Tom Nanos shot of what seems to me a typical RR that might be servicing a small town.  Like the deep colors and contrast of the photo.  Details are nice and sharp.

The background with the small town features seems to qualify it for todays theme.

"I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree . . . "
with a bunch of trains running through . . .

Ok, so apologies to Joyce Kilmer, who surely would have edited his lines if he saw a few of these pictures.  Personally, with such a category as “trees”, I assume the vote would go for that photo which is the most “calendar picturesque” of the bunch.  So immediately I honed in on Jim Wrinn’s, Tom Danneman’s and Kathi Kube’s shots.

I quickly threw out the reader submission . . . You find “train romance” in an empty timber car?  And Mike, bless your heart, it’s ONE tree . . . and Matt, come on man, we’ve seen the back of this gal’s head before . . . seriously, it’s “trees”, not best pony tail!  Though, that IS a good one as pony tails go!  :-)

Well, I like the “far away toy train effect” of Jim’s shot through the Aspens.  Got my vote.

"Poems are made by fools like me,
but only God can make a . . . 
(with a
Nikon D80
F 5.6 at 1/500 of a second
ISO 400)
 . . tree."

Where's the link? for discussion on trees.Laughs I voted for Mike Danneman's shot! Why! Good composition. And there are lots of trees>