General Discussion

Matt.

This is a tough bunch! Gotta have that train front and center to get the votes from these die- hard rail fans. But that is OK. After all it is TRAINS Mag!

For me, seing the train in its enviroment, doing what trains do and within the Christmas card atmosphere makes your shot a winner.

Gary

Aaron got my nod...just because!

I noted after voting that was not a widely shared preference...but I can't imagine why.  It's well composed, warm-fuzzy, and fits the criteria perfectly.

But then, I also predicted that Gore would win TN in 2000!  

TJB - Nashville

 I’m not sure this was our best week of pictures, but admittedly, there were some pleasant surprises along the way as I perused down the list.  I enjoy going to Aaron Jors' website and looking at his train pictures, but today’s entry didn’t really do anything for me.  And Alex and Drew? - Ooooh Noooooo!  Drew!!!!! RED TRAINS IN WHITE SNOW!!!!  Where have I seen this panorama before? - Neither really captured me.  Elrond’s sun-washed shot woke me up a bit and I hesitated with my finger poised over the “vote” button for a long moment . . .but then . . . I moved on . . .

Living in the Tennessee Valley did draw me to the Norfolk Southern Four by Jim Winn.  Lord knows we see a lot of that black and white livery here in the Chattanooga area and the fall foliage almost pulled me in.  Directly above however, I was a bit jarred by Matt Van Hattem’s Christmas montage . . . Where the heck are the engines in that mess . . . oh....ok....there they are, lost in the watery shimmering glaze . . I feel like I’m looking at one of those ridiculous Christmastime Nightly News features where somebody covers their 600 square foot cabin with 6,493,762,476 blinking lights!  You discover that you’ve scorched your retinas trying to make out the shape of the cabin through the glare!

However, to his credit, Matt did get me in the mood to start looking at the Christmas catalogs for a twinkling trinket for the little woman . . .

 But then there’s Andy’s picture.  Power.  Promise. Distance. Sky.  Romance of the rail.  All wrapped up neatly.   Finger presses the button.  DingDingDingDing.  We have a winner!

Andy gets my vote.

I particularly liked 4 out of the 7 photos this week.  Aaron, Drew, Elrond and Andy's but I could only choose 1 which made it quite difficult.  Matt's was too busy.  I only saw the train when I enlarged the photo.  Jim's was ok but didn't stand out for me.  Alex's was also ok but he always seems to have snow which makes all of his scenes similar.  I ended up voting for Andy's.  The different colours in the sky and the closeup of the loco's and rest of the train was what won me over in the end.  Keep them coming! 

Yesterday I liked 2.  Today I like 7.  All for different reasons which I won't belabor here.  Normally it is pretty straightforward, but each time I look, I see something new.

Still debating.

Most of the photos were quite nice. However, I like photos that have some artistic appeal.

Thus I voted for Alex's DRGW photo. It had a combination of beautiful scenery, good composition, sharp focus, and showed action. And either the track is extremely super-elevated, extremely steep, or the image is tilted by quite a bit.  But because I did not know the reason for the 'tilt', I gave Alex the benefit of the doubt (it was almost enough to swing my vote to either Jim or Andy).

The other photos have some of the above-listed positive attributes, but none of them combined them all in one image.

Well, all were within a hair-breadth of each other, in my opinion.  I still like to feel that I am a part of the surroundings in good photographs and paintings and only one did that for me.  Two made me shiver (really), the backgrounds in 2 were beautiful (and I adore NS), one I would use as part of my Xmas decorating (love the lights!) So that left Elrond and Andy. 

I went with my first impression. Elrond.  But Andy's was a dust mite away from being first in my mind. 

I loved the sky effect on Andy's, but the entire photo of Elrond just wrapped itself around my imagination.  Maybe it is because it could have been taken just a few miles out of my home city.  Every time I look at it, I can feel the warmth, the dryness and a slight breeze. 

A nice, momentary vacation.

Liked the photos. However, would have like to seen some earlier shots from either the beginning of the Dash-2 era or the end of the original era,  before SD40'sswaped Mars and Gyralights for ditch lights and when Southern/NW's still had high noses and ran long hood forward and BN's huge fleet was their mainstay..

Wouldn't that be "along the Hudson River" on the old West Shore?  I doubt they were donin 70 mph.  I can't remember any tunnels along the Mohawk River.  Anyhoo, all the '40s (and '38s) are ugly, especially in NS "Funeral Train" black.  Go for the new "green scheme"!  It is quite an improvement!