Hello all.
Our trip was a great success, mainly because it was a LOT of fun! We ate too much (sometimes great, sometimes not great) food, sampled a lot of terrific beer, and saw dozens of fascinating places and things.
Chief among them were of course trains. Click this link, and you can see a slide show; the pic changes every five seconds. There are about 65 railroad pix.
I hate captioning, and therefore have not done it yet, but you'l be able to figure out generally where photos were taken if you keep this in mind:
We flew to Philly, Amtrak to Pittsburgh, flew to greater Chicago, rented car and drove around rural central Illinois, Amtrak to White Sulphur Springs WV, rented car and drove around, Amtrak to Washington. (Took two more trains - one was SEPTA - to get us back to Philly airport; took no pix of or from those trains. Then flew home.)
Still in training.
Looks like the river was high at the double span bridge!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Lots of great pix. Looks like you had a good time.
Thanks, man.
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comment was regarding a picture that has been removed.
Holy stringlining, Batman!
(looking at the fourth photo down on the left of those spine cars and trailers on the ground)
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Paul MilenkovicHoly stringlining, Batman!
Overmod What engine is in the Challenger, and (informally) how fast have you had it?
What engine is in the Challenger, and (informally) how fast have you had it?
It was a rental car in Illinois. I maybe got it up to 85 passing someone. It had a lot of grunt, for sure. We were supposedly getting a Hyundai Elantra or equivalent. When we got there, the choice was only the black beast and a Volvo SUV. Easy choice, as the Dodge had a trunk for my gear. Fun car.
In WV we got a Ford Focus "Elantra." Underwhelming car.
Paul Milenkovic Holy stringlining, Batman! (looking at the fourth photo down on the left of those spine cars and trailers on the ground)
I wasn't counting, but I'm pretty sure there were at least a dozen derailed.
OvermodBest part, if I remember the accompanying discussion, is that those cars have been sitting there for weeks!
Those cars derailed the day before Lithonia went through there. In fact he lucked out - I think the Pennsylvanian the day before got as far as Altoona, then had to be bustituted over to PGH.
And I believe that would be a 3.6L Challenger he had.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
zugmannThose cars derailed the day before Lithonia went through there.
Took me a while to realize you were asking about someone's Dodge Challenger, not an ALCo Challenger.
Overmod Incidentally, every time I've had one of these cars for rental, the tire pressure has been what was put in for transport -- one of them had 61psi in all four tires! Perhaps needless to say this gave a certain 'roller skates in a gravel pit' performance on the road. You probably wouldn't think you'd have to check tire pressure in a rental car. Many's the time I've gotten cars with under 22psi in at least one tire, sometimes more than one; there was one period where I was regularly going down the street from the Budget office to their 'subcontractor tire-service provider' to get the tires pumped up or patched... I hear you cry 'not my job description' but I was regularly going over 1800 miles in 2 days, so good tire performance and fuel economy were both highly important.
Incidentally, every time I've had one of these cars for rental, the tire pressure has been what was put in for transport -- one of them had 61psi in all four tires! Perhaps needless to say this gave a certain 'roller skates in a gravel pit' performance on the road.
You probably wouldn't think you'd have to check tire pressure in a rental car. Many's the time I've gotten cars with under 22psi in at least one tire, sometimes more than one; there was one period where I was regularly going down the street from the Budget office to their 'subcontractor tire-service provider' to get the tires pumped up or patched... I hear you cry 'not my job description' but I was regularly going over 1800 miles in 2 days, so good tire performance and fuel economy were both highly important.
That's interesting, especially when the rental companies try and sell you one of their rental cars and at a premium price, at that. Their pitch is how many service checks and TLC their fleet vehicles receive.
Now I am not recommending that people treat their rented cars that way, but after reading The Truth About Cars car-enthusiast site with a little Jeremy Clarkson's Top Gear thrown in, it is a trope that rental cars see hard use because of the "not my own car phenomenon." Yes, you will pay if you scratch one, and they are quick to tack on a refueling charge if you didn't fill the tank beyond the first gas nozzle click when returning it, and there are multi-hundred dollar cleaning charges if you smoke in a rental car designated No Smoking. But I so far, do they check if you ran high engine revs and ran over pot holes at high speed?
I guess the rental cars could see if a car is driven hard by using GPS or the OBD-II smog-check port -- some insurance companies give a reduced rate if you plug something into the OBD-II port to see if you slammed on the brakes in a near-miss of an accident.
But it is good to know to check your rental car over well.
I bought a car that was used by GM for visiting staff.
The car was in good shape - never had a problem with it.
But it was clear that more than a few people had trouble finding the slot for the ignition key.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Lithonia OperatorI hate captioning, and therefore have not done it yet
You photograph professionally, correct? Do you use IPTC meta data to protect your images? (curious)
I have removed all photos that are not railroad-related. And I edited my original post.
Convicted One Lithonia Operator I hate captioning, and therefore have not done it yet You photograph professionally, correct? Do you use IPTC meta data to protect your images? (curious)
Lithonia Operator I hate captioning, and therefore have not done it yet
[/quote][quote user="Convicted One"]
I am retired. Have been for seven years. This recent trip represented the first time I've used my pro gear since I retired. (I've sold off most of it.)
When I was working, everything started out as RAW files which were first brought into Lightroom. At that stage, my copyright metadata was automatically written into each file.
But at some point, I had either a crash or a shaky upgrade, and I lost a lot of stuff, including metadata; and I also lost a lot of Lightroom "collections" I'd put together, which was unfortunate, because those things came in handy.
You made me realize that I needed to look into this again. Since some images had no copyrigt notice, I told the software about fifteen minutes ago to write that info into ALL of my 20K hi res stock files. (I am no longer concerned with commercial assignment images.) Per the progress bar, it would appear that this will take about 90 minutes. If it actually works. Wish me luck!
Lithonia Operator I have removed all photos that are not railroad-related. And I edited my original post.
I liked the Challenger photo.
Tough crowd.
Thanks for sharing .. some nice photos in there. See downloads are blocked :) was going to update my desktop backgrounds.
Nice of them to have that FedEx piggyback train pull to the side so you could get by.
Thank you sir!
I want to again heartily thank everyone who gave me photo tips. Those notes were my bible. More than once when we were a bit confused or curious, my wife asked, "Well, what do your people say?"
I've got people!!
To the tipsters:
Great pics! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Psychot!
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