Trackside with Trains.com vol. 134: Barren, now live

[Matt Quandt]

Our biweekly photo competition, Trackside with Trains.com, vol. 134 is now live! This round's theme is "barren."

View the images and vote for your favorite here.

[henry6]

Big diesels are Barons!  Nothing in sight is Barren.  Dave's shot all the way out of sight!

[diningcar]

David has my vote for this very unique scene. However I was in Caliente, NV last summer and would have voted for Alex had David not entered. Yours was great also, Alex.

[CShaveRR]

I gave my vote to Alex this time. It looks almost like every other Alex shot, but this one has it nailed. I appreciated Dave Lustig's shot, which really was barren, but I'm out for trains when I come here...

Memo to Drew: It's Savanna (no "h"), Illinois. Judging from the old ties in those cars, some place is more barren than it had been!

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I went with Alex.  Anybody who's been in that part of Nevada or the high desert of California knows what barren means.  The only place that might be more barren would be the middle of the Atacama Desert on the Antofogasta & Bolivia Ry.

[CNW 6000]

Went for Alex this time.  Nice shot.

[Rocket Man]

Many of the photos were shot at times when they may have appeared barren, but in fact in the right seasons might make beautiful shots with rich color in the trees. Dave's shot was on in a barren area, but he shot it so well with rich color it doesn't look nearly as barren as Andy's shot which won my vote for appearing barren... even the locomotives and rolling stock were barren of vibrant color or interest. Wow, that sounds really bad... "Hey Andy great job at taking an uninteresting photo."

[Modelcar]

I believe the front row contenders for this week is David and Alex....Both very well meet the theme of "barren"....

So....must use something else to decide.  I chose David's barren scene as I really like the beauty of the colors and contrast of the photo.  Something about it kind of amplfies the scene as really barren, out on the plains.....Very distant from anything, only the very distant line of upper terrain to be seen.

[zardoz]

CShaveRR

I gave my vote to Alex this time. It looks almost like every other Alex shot, but this one has it nailed. I appreciated Dave Lustig's shot, which really was barren, but I'm out for trains when I come here...

My sentiments exactly.

[mudchicken]

I would vote for Farley, NM (track gone) or the former SP Mina Branch (Nevada) as barren. Been to Caliente, Ely and Savanna within the past 12 mos., not even close.

David Lustig: Shoulda tried the San Luis Valley Southern at Jaroso or San Acacio, CO ... coulda overnighted in San Acacio in the B&B that was the railroad HQ.

[edblysard]

Alex's shot was truly barren of just about all color....but Drew's shot did what a photograph is supposed to do.

It draws the eye to the subject, in this case, about the only piece of color present, the locomotive.

Who didn‘t click on the shot to enlarge it, them immediately look at the motors?.

Add in the empty, (barren) yard...and it got my vote.

[kruser]

Sigh . . . Why do people always see deserts as barren? They are very full, diverse and complex habitats! But since the readers of this site are train fans not naturalists I'll point out that an empty yard and ripped up ties seems very barren to me. There is nothing particularly empty, train-wise, in the photos. Karl Ruser

[Muleshoe]

Andy's photo, as well as his earlier one in the March 9, 2009 Trackside illustrate an interesting feature of eastern Washington railroads. All the rail routes across eastern Washington follow, at least for some distance, the southwest trending Washington Scablands. The Scablands are former stream channels eroded through the Palouse Hills by a catastrophic flood(s) generated by the very rapid draining of glacial Lake Missoula 10,000 to 20,0000 years ago. The Palouse Hills are composed of glacial dust, which is very fertile and the host for the Washington wheat farms. It covers black basaltic lava, the rock visible in the foreground of Andy's photo. The Palouse Hills are not visible in this photo, but are in his earlier photo near Camby, Washington. In that photo the Palouse Hills are the rounded and smoother hills on the sky line. The pattern of the Scablands can be seem on Google Earth images from an altitude of 60 to 70 miles or higher. One other point of interest. Alex's photo was taken between Caliente and Eccles, NV. Both locations were possible junctions of the Union Pacific and the Department of Energy's proposed railroad to the, formerly proposed, Yucca Mountain High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository and was described by Kathi Kube in Trains 11/2008 I voted for Alex's photo because even though the desert is anything but barren to those who of us who have spent time in it - to most people it is barren, especially to those from more vegetated areas.

[Choo Choo Aussie]

It was a toss up between Andy's and Alex's this week.  David's was also a good photo but as a train fan I like to see trains.  I ended up voting for Alex's because his is barren all year round and not just in winter time.

[tree68]

Dave's shot all the way.  Not only was the landscape relatively barren, but the scene - obviously of a railroad locale - was also barren of trains.

Drew's shot almost had me, until I enlarged it and discovered that the railcars were loaded.  Had they been empty flats, or perhaps baretables, he would have had my vote.

The three "A's" were just plain vanilla 3/4 wedge shots, Alex, as always, including some snow.  Despite the landscape, nothing said "barren" to me, and my criteria for judging the submissions is that I should be able to see the theme without having to read the description. 

[LVJJJ]

Nevada! yes!, now that's a place that's barren, so Alex's photo is my choice.  Loved the composition of the Lustig photo, but I must see a train to make it work for me.

[drgw17]

Mr. Lustig takes my vote this time. By design (I hope), he caught some lovely backlight with the sun low in the sky. The negatives? Well, the RR connection is tenuous, even for those of us in the know, and he did what we all do sometimes do when we're not careful, that is to put the horizon in the middle of the shot, which makes for a very static composition. Still, a beautiful scene. The others, however well composed, focused on the trains and not so much on the theme. And yes, to echo some comments above, a lot of these shots are starting to look the same. Alex, for example--I'll pick on you because you've won recently, and you do some nice stuff. But how about a different lens, or something besides the classic 3/4? To be fair, "barren" is not the easiest theme to illustrate on short notice, yet it has a lot of applications besides scenery. I wish more of the team had given it a try. But thanks to those who did.

[W&NB]

"Dad, what's that thing out there?"  

"Well, son, that's an old water tower. A long time ago, Steam engines used to have to stop for water every so many miles....."

What a neat way to have a conversation with a young railfan.  The abandoned rail road that I love, the W&NB in Lcoming County, PA, was scapped in 1938.  Part of it was a narrow gauge line to the resort at Eaglesmere, Pa.  It had passenger cars pulled by a 30 ton Climax, plus a lot of logging.  Much of the right of way is still visible through beautiful mountain valley scenery, as are restored stations, track sheds, and even a museum in Eaglesmere!  Thomas T. Tabor has written one of his famous books about it, with many pictures.  An easy road to research.

[henry6]

W&NB

"Dad, what's that thing out there?"  

"Well, son, that's an old water tower. A long time ago, Steam engines used to have to stop for water every so many miles....."

What a neat way to have a conversation with a young railfan.  The abandoned rail road that I love, the W&NB in Lcoming County, PA, was scapped in 1938.  Part of it was a narrow gauge line to the resort at Eaglesmere, Pa.  It had passenger cars pulled by a 30 ton Climax, plus a lot of logging.  Much of the right of way is still visible through beautiful mountain valley scenery, as are restored stations, track sheds, and even a museum in Eaglesmere!  Thomas T. Tabor has written one of his famous books about it, with many pictures.  An easy road to research.

My son posed the same questions to me about 30 some odd years ago.  We were in the home of Thomas T.Taber, III at the time so Tom handed my son a copy of his book on the W&NB!  That book coupled up with about 30 or 40 books on the lumber industry in PA done by Tom and others, gives one a great look at lumbering, lumber railroads, common carrier railroads, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from the mid 1800's almost to the present.  With maps and pictures in hand from these books one can drive through many parts of the Keystone State and see the heritage of the state unfold before your eyes.  Lots of buildings, road beds, abandoned rights of way, bridges, culverts, cuts, and fills...some still in use today by private folk, state and federal parks, roads, bike and walking paths into, thorugh, and out of a returned wilderness.  You can even find some of the equipment in places like the Lumberman's Museum of Pennsylvania west of Galeton on Route 6 complete with a Shay, a Davenport, sawmill, mill pond, etc.  Then trapse through the woods and see what else remains!