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Trackside with Trains Vol. 336: 'More than meets the eye' is open for submissions

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Posted by zardoz on Monday, October 8, 2018 1:23 PM

I feel this feature is slowly dying, if not already dead.

But it was fun while it lasted.

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Posted by Harrison on Thursday, October 4, 2018 7:31 PM

Brian, are you going to post the new photos soon?ConfusedConfusedWhistling

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Thursday, September 27, 2018 8:57 PM

K. P. Harrier

Brian Schmidt (9-4):

Seriously, Brian, archeologists 20 million years from now when they electronically find your ALTERED first (top) post will be baffled because people replied about something different that your current first post.  They will probably wonder WHO was intoxicated at the time.  Aren’t there repercussions for altering time?

The Time Traveler Press,

K.P.

Nah... archeologists will decide it was a religious ritual of some sort.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by zardoz on Thursday, September 27, 2018 8:36 PM

Harrison

Um, When do the new photos get posted?

 

About the same time that the "Photo of the Day Week Month" is updated Whistling

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Posted by Harrison on Thursday, September 27, 2018 8:24 PM

Um, When do the new photos get posted?

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Posted by zugmann on Thursday, September 27, 2018 3:22 PM

I'm guessing the number of submissions was less than impressive under the orignal deadline/restriction?

 

Still no idea what to take a photo of to fit the theme. 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by K. P. Harrier on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 3:11 PM

Brian Schmidt (9-4):

Seriously, Brian, archeologists 20 million years from now when they electronically find your ALTERED first (top) post will be baffled because people replied about something different that your current first post.  They will probably wonder WHO was intoxicated at the time.  Aren’t there repercussions for altering time?

The Time Traveler Press,

K.P.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.

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Posted by zardoz on Wednesday, September 12, 2018 8:57 PM

zugmann
Back on subject - I can't think of what to photograph to fit the theme.  So I'll pass this month for now.

Me, neither.

This will be the first Trackside in a long while that I haven't entered a photo (perhaps to the relief of the moderator), except for the times when I spaced out the deadline.

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Posted by zugmann on Wednesday, September 12, 2018 4:40 PM

Our local paper had a pretty active forum, shut that down, then went to DISQUS, then replaced it with Facebook comments.  

 

Now they have a paywall where you either have to subscribe to the physcial paper, or pay for online access.  I suspect the physical paper won't be around much longer, though.   I prefer the DISQUS over facebook, though.

 

Back on subject - I can't think of what to photograph to fit the theme.  So I'll pass this month for now.

 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, September 12, 2018 2:22 PM

Murphy Siding
Well, now you're crossing into another realm that is going the way of the dinosaur- printed media. How’s your local newspaper doing these days? My guess is they too used to have online forumstoo.  Out local newspaper can’t shed employees fast enough to keep ahead of the rolling ball of extinction.

Our local newspaper doesn't have a forum (I don't recall that it ever did), but we do have a news aggregator which also has a FB page, which kinda serves the same purpose.

Our local daily is still daily, but isn't what it used to be - even the want ads have shrunk and they're trying to figure out which comics to shed.  The Syracuse daily is now three issues a week.

Even my old hometown weekly has very little local news - it's more of a regional now.  Once you get past the front page, it covers a lot of geography.

Almost reminds me of the old days (before my time) when small newspapers might typeset the front page for each issue, but might just reprint what was inside from the last edition...

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Posted by Robert Jordan on Wednesday, September 12, 2018 1:10 PM

I guess I am surprised as the number of photo contributors has picked up lately so did not see a change coming.. I have usually tried to stay on topic but accept that there are  other factors. i happen to have a photo on topic but the time span is short, not sure of way around that.  I like the concept of challenging  photographers to go out and shoot something new.  Hey, at least the topic was not trains in the snow,  might be good for our New Zealand friends.  Bob Jordan

 

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Friday, September 7, 2018 3:28 PM

K. P. Harrier

Murphy Siding (9-7):

You make an interesting point.  BUT …

I wonder how much of those forum demises were from suicide?

A colleague here in the office read a strange, unbelievable TRAINS newswire.  He went to the site to see it for himself, and found the TRAINS newswire was false.  He sent photos to TRAINS as proof.  But, the TRAINS newswire never made a retraction, and let falsehood go supreme!

Do you think, Murphy Siding, that that person will ever trust TRAINS Magazine again?  A magazine’s lowering subscriber list and forum demise may be being caused by their own stupidly and haughtiness!  Simple as that!  In that light, they are a contributing factor in NO society ever being eternal.  One can’t deny history!

Hope you can sleep well tonight,

K.P.

P.S.  Please, nobody else reply so that I have to reply.  I have to prepare for society’s implosion …

 

  

Well, now you're crossing into another realm that is going the way of the dinosaur- printed media. How’s your local newspaper doing these days? My guess is they too used to have online forumstoo.  Out local newspaper can’t shed employees fast enough to keep ahead of the rolling ball of extinction.

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Posted by zugmann on Friday, September 7, 2018 11:46 AM

selector
Not to put too fine a point on the post above, but fb, itself, is losing support and investors like there's no tomorrow. Tempus edax rerum.

And if that goes, something else will take its place.

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by selector on Friday, September 7, 2018 11:38 AM

Not to put too fine a point on the post above, but fb, itself, is losing support and investors like there's no tomorrow.  

Tempus edax rerum.

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Posted by zugmann on Friday, September 7, 2018 10:03 AM

I'll sleep just fine.  If trains.com is here, I'll post.  If it disappears - I'll move on with life.  It just isn't that important to me.

Foums are dinosaurs.  If I want to see photos, I don't have to see Trackside with Trains, or pick up a Trains Illustrated Magazine.  I can just go to one of 56 million facebook groups, or check out some Flickr feeds.

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by K. P. Harrier on Friday, September 7, 2018 8:29 AM

Murphy Siding (9-7):

You make an interesting point.  BUT …

I wonder how much of those forum demises were from suicide?

A colleague here in the office read a strange, unbelievable TRAINS newswire.  He went to the site to see it for himself, and found the TRAINS newswire was false.  He sent photos to TRAINS as proof.  But, the TRAINS newswire never made a retraction, and let falsehood go supreme!

Do you think, Murphy Siding, that that person will ever trust TRAINS Magazine again?  A magazine’s lowering subscriber list and forum demise may be being caused by their own stupidly and haughtiness!  Simple as that!  In that light, they are a contributing factor in NO society ever being eternal.  One can’t deny history!

Hope you can sleep well tonight,

K.P.

P.S.  Please, nobody else reply so that I have to reply.  I have to prepare for society’s implosion …

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Thursday, September 6, 2018 10:24 PM

K. P. Harrier
Those Astronomy forums went bye-bye a number of years ago for an unknown reason.  In my humble opinion, this Trackside theme, “More than meets the eye” and the NEW photo qualifying dates taken rules for submitted photos for this Trackside, are a precursor to that same fate at these forums (oblivion, buried bones and trolleys passing those buried bones, i.e., an upcoming death of the TRAINS forums).  From what I’m now seeing clearer and clearer at the TRAINS forums, if there are forum postings in 2019 (or at least by the end of that year), I will be very, very surprised.  Will our forum vision be 20-20 in the year 2020?



     Sorry man, but you need to look around. The world is changing. At one time I was on 6 different message boards/forums. Four of those went away. This and the other one I'm on that is still active are slowly going the way of the dodo bird. The times they are a changin'. People don't go on forums anymore to share and learn and socialize. They go on Facebook and such to hiss and moan and insult people. The civil train has left the station. As John Fogerty sang "Big tain from Memphis, now it's gone, gone, gone......gone, gone, gone."Music

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, September 6, 2018 12:34 PM

zardoz
It sure feels like something is (has) changed at Kalmbach.

It's been mentioned before that things like POTD and the fora are "extra duty as assigned" for Kalmbach staffers.  

If it comes down to running such activities or turning out a publication, I'm sure the publication takes precedence.  

I'd also opine that the staffers aren't tripping over each other.

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Posted by K. P. Harrier on Thursday, September 6, 2018 9:42 AM

Paul D. North Jr. (9-5):

San Diego’s Mount Hope cemetery came first, in 1869 (in the timeframe of the first transcontinental railroads meeting up in Promontory, Utah).

The rail line in question was a BRANCH off the San Diego & Arizona (SD&A), which SD&A was chartered in 1906, ground breaking in 1907, with completion of the MAINLINE in 1919.  The branch construction timeline is unclear, but obviously it was way, way after the cemetery came about.

Getting back to the Trackside this round, I’m all eyes on how the forum will respond to the new competition approach.  To me, it is treading uncharted waters.

zardoz (9-8):

Good point!  Something has changed at Kalmback.  May I suggest it was some economic reality had set in.  How companies respond to such economic realities historically can make or break those companies.

Take care,

K.P.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.

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Posted by zardoz on Thursday, September 6, 2018 4:06 AM

K. P. Harrier
this Trackside theme, “More than meets the eye” and the NEW photo qualifying dates taken rules for submitted photos for this Trackside, are a precursor to that same fate at these forums (oblivion, buried bones and trolleys passing those buried bones, i.e., an upcoming death of the TRAINS forums).  From what I’m now seeing clearer and clearer at the TRAINS forums, if there are forum postings in 2019 (or at least by the end of that year), I will be very, very surprised.  Will our forum vision be 20-20 in the year 2020?

I wonder.  It sure feels like something is (has) changed at Kalmbach. Perhaps the staff was cut too thin, and they don't have time to spend on photo stuff. For instance, the "Photo of the day" feature has been frequently neglected. The current (9/6) photo "Slicing thru Sedalia" has been up since 8/28; the photo prior to that, "Diesel under wire" ran for 14 days, as did the one before, "Classic Canadian".

Time will tell.

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Posted by zugmann on Wednesday, September 5, 2018 9:25 PM

You can always beat the tide and quit posting if you think the ship is sinking. 

 

I mean, it's a forum.  If it stops being fun - why bother posting?  Such drama.

 

But don't think I want you to stop posting - I really have no preference one way or the other.

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Wednesday, September 5, 2018 8:19 PM

K.P., which came first - the Trolley or the cemetery?

- PDN. 

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
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Posted by K. P. Harrier on Wednesday, September 5, 2018 8:29 AM

I’ve got “More than meets the eye” related …

… Photos Already (but they don’t now technically …

… qualify date-wise for THIS contest)

The below photos are of a San Diego cemetery that just happens to have a very busy San Diego Trolley two-track rail line passing through the middle of it.  Bushes keep light rail riders from seeing much of the cemetery.  Of course, dirt and grass covers all the caskets filled with bones.

This is an applicable thread to what K.P. sees as the future of the forums:  Drastically reduced posters and lower and lower and lower views towards intentional oblivion, and likewise with the Tracksides, to answer zardoz (first REPLIER in this thread) in a photo-visually and insinuating way!  It might be of interest to Zardoz to know, ironically, Kalmbach book sales have been LOST because of the current downspin policies and treatment of posters, things beyond the eyes of most

TRAINS sister magazine, Astronomy, HAD forums too, which some of the below photos was part of a Mt. Palomar Observatory thread at the turn of the decade:

Those Astronomy forums went bye-bye a number of years ago for an unknown reason.  In my humble opinion, this Trackside theme, “More than meets the eye” and the NEW photo qualifying dates taken rules for submitted photos for this Trackside, are a precursor to that same fate at these forums (oblivion, buried bones and trolleys passing those buried bones, i.e., an upcoming death of the TRAINS forums).  From what I’m now seeing clearer and clearer at the TRAINS forums, if there are forum postings in 2019 (or at least by the end of that year), I will be very, very surprised.  Will our forum vision be 20-20 in the year 2020?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Tuesday, September 4, 2018 8:18 PM

zugmann

 

 
tree68
And have, as I recall. Not exactly that scenario, but close.

 

Heh.  Can't blame the photographers for submitting what the people wanted.

 

I guess I don't feel so evil now about wishing to have a contest where the rules said "no steam". Devil...or maybe "no diesels"?

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Posted by zugmann on Tuesday, September 4, 2018 3:32 PM

tree68
And have, as I recall. Not exactly that scenario, but close.

Heh.  Can't blame the photographers for submitting what the people wanted.

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, September 4, 2018 3:02 PM

zugmann

Contest could be "diesels in the desert" and a "steam in the snow" shot would win. 

And have, as I recall.  Not exactly that scenario, but close.

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Posted by zugmann on Tuesday, September 4, 2018 1:45 PM

Contest could be "diesels in the desert" and a "steam in the snow" shot would win. 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, September 4, 2018 1:18 PM

I like the idea of a limited window, although perhaps the window should be a little wider.  Not all of us can get trackside that quickly - maybe a month ahead, instead.

It does, however, prevent folks from pulling out that "steam in the snow 3/4 wedge shot" that viewers vote for because they like steam in the snow, not because it fits the theme best.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by zugmann on Tuesday, September 4, 2018 1:07 PM

I've seen the assigment format done elsewhere.  Always thought it posed a bit more challenge than grabbing a photo from one's archives.

 

Now if I could only submit under my online persona instead. 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

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