Trackside with Erik and Mike, Vol. 66

[Bergie]

I just posted the latest installment of Trackside with Erik and Mike in our new section within the Railroad Reference area of TrainsMag.com. 

Read Trackside with Erik and Mike Volume 66

Voting for Trackside with Erik and Mike now occures at the top of the Trackside with Erik and Mike section. Click here to vote.

Please add your comments regarding this week's photos here.

Thanks, Erik

[Modelcar]

 

....Cast my vote for Erik's corn field scene....Believe both photos are equal in quality.

Choose Eriks photo as it seems to be a bit unusual in content, especially the color of the field and sky combination.  {Even with the crooked corn rows, ha].

[zardoz]

Nice shots, guys!!!  Both are very, very good.  For me, this was one of the more difficult choices. 

I really liked the rural setting of Erik's image; it seems so peaceful, unhurried, and simple, with the train adding a sense of action and urgency...going somewhere while all around remains stationary...very nice.  It just sort of seemed like something was missing, but I'm not sure what.  Maybe it needed a few clouds.

Mike's image, however, somehow evoked a more dynamic response from me.  The fancy, clean locomotive, with the backdrop of the deep-blue cccccold Lake Michigan waters, the white snow, the bare trees......also very nice.

 

By a margin of barely 1%, I voted for Mike's.

[spokyone]

Mike has my vote. I always go for a body of water in the background.

[mikeyuhas]

Hi,

In case anyone wants to see more of the Union Pacific Shoreline Subdivision, there are over 160 photos in the Shoreline Sub album on my website. Thanks.

 

[zardoz]

Hi,

In case anyone wants to see more of the Union Pacific Shoreline Subdivision, there are over 160 photos in the Shoreline Sub album on my website. Thanks.

Mike,

I like your site.  Lots of nice images.  But what I really liked was the maps showing where the image was captured; that is WAY COOL!!!

[cherokee woman]

Well, couldn't vote, because looks like the voting has ended; but, I "vote" for Erik's photo this week.  There's just something about a farm scene, with a train going by, that just gets to this ole country girl.  The background just looks so peaceful to me.

[blhanel]

I'd try again, CW.  I didn't have a problem voting- went with Erik's shot this week.  Tough choice, though.  Either one is very 'cool'.

[PBenham]

Well, I had to go to the Vermont quarter system here. The lone BNSF SD40-2 in a cornfield had a model like quality to it. Mike's shot of the UP ES45AC was nice, too, what with the background. But, I liked the grade crossing shot best of all those shown, even though it wasn't in the competition. I liked the composition of it and I'll look in my Logan boxes, me thinks I have a shot of some B&M GP40-2s running toward Mudville on the old Erie with a similar set up near Attica, NYSSR.

[Noah Hofrichter]

I agree, both shots are very good again this week. In the end I went with Erik's by a nose (pun intended). Between the snoot nose unit, the corn feild, and the barn, it's a great photo. Mike's is good too, but I like Eriks just slightly better.

Noah

[edblysard]

Erik's...

The composition is not only unusual, but works great to draw you eye to the locomotive.

And the background farm buildings against the dark sky add further impact.

[Datafever]

Both very good shots.  I voted for Mike's (cuz he's such a great guy and all), but Erik's was every bit as good (and he's a fairly decent guy himself).

[Anonymous]

Just had to go with erik's shot this time... very clean... as he said, the rows f scythed grain-field just draws your eyes to the train in the distance...but you're definately right mike, that water DOES look cold!

[Bergie]

Well, couldn't vote, because looks like the voting has ended; but, I "vote" for Erik's photo this week.  There's just something about a farm scene, with a train going by, that just gets to this ole country girl.  The background just looks so peaceful to me.

Hmmm... that's odd. Voting is open until next Monday. 

Bergie

[LVJJJ]

ERIK, GOOD JOB, MIKE, GOOD JOB, VOTED FOR ERIK'S PHOTO CAUSE IT'S ON TOP.  REMINDS ME OF THE GOLF COURSE SHOT A WHILE BACK.  LARRY OF THE PACIFIC NW (IT'S RAINING, GO FIGURE).

[Chris Owens]

Both were Good Shots !! I voted for Mikes

[CShaveRR]

Again, I'm going with Mike's. 

It was a hard choice this time, because I have some good memories of pacing freights with a cornfield between us and the tracks (between Rochelle and DeKalb--try it, you'll like it!), but the lake is an influential factor for me, as is the prospect of a train bigger than the single-unit BNSF shot is providing.

You know, of course, that those Alliant Energy cars are lettered EDGX specifically for the Edgewater plant, right?  That's the truth.

[DICKK]

Voted for Mike thid time.  Too much farm and not enough train in Eriks photo.

[CNW 6000]

Ran with Mike's shot this week.  It seemed...somehow...more...something than Bergie's shot.

[lhtalbot]

Hi guys,

I like both shots. Not sure I can analyze why?? So I will just vote.....it's Erik's this time.

Larry in Wauwatosa

[gemotor]

Both very good photos, gentlemen.  This was one of the tougher calls, but I went with Erik's BNSF shot.  I like the mood, the cornfield, everything fits - a single locomotive out in agricultural land.  Great composition, the convergence of the cornrows is perfect.  Long light - I like that.  I liked Mike's UP shot also, just not quite as much.  I'm glad to see Mike's decision to shoot just part of the locomotive while allowing the landscape to carry the scene.  The yellow/blue opposites on the color wheel is a nice touch.  Nice work, both of you. 

[NYC]

Two fantastic shots.  Mike by 50.1% to 49.9%.  Corn rows, clouds, cold water, snow, yellow engines, real, real close to chose.   Keep up the great work.

 Other great shot of the UP consist at the grade crossing.

[mikeyuhas]

You know, of course, that those Alliant Energy cars are lettered EDGX specifically for the Edgewater plant, right?  That's the truth.

Sure is! Parent company Alliant Energy (NYSE: LNT) just took delivery of 100 new aluminum cars, numbered EDGX 3601 through 3700 inclusive. On rare occasions some IESX and LNTX cars have been used. They're also leased to Alliant Energy.

[Rocket Man]

Bergie, your shot took me right back to my youth in Iowa... too bad the SD-40 wasn't the maroon and gold of the Rock Island!

You are TRULY outstanding in your field!


Get it...


Out standing in your field!

[al-in-chgo]

Hi guys,

I like both shots. Not sure I can analyze why?? So I will just vote.....it's Erik's this time.

Larry in Wauwatosa

 

********************************************************************

Grab shot or not, I wish Mike had submitted the impromptu photo of the train crossing the highway.  I thought it was more visually interesting than either of the two photos submitted. 

Since I have no strong opinion either way about what was submitted, I'm withholding my vote this time. 

al

[toprail]

You guys never make it easy to choose, do you?

Anyway, the reason I chose the Sheboygan shot was that it is from Wisconsin, where as Eric's is from Illinois.

If you are from Wisconsin, you hate "flatlanders," and visa versa.

My best rail fan friend is from Wisconsin, but he lives in Illinois!

We disagree on politics, as well.

Technically, as a photographer, I prefer the Illinois shot.  As Eric points out, the total effect of the shot is just damn impressive!

 But Mike's shot has Lake Michigan in the background.

I really want to thank you for letting me see what is going on around Milwaukee.  I particularly loved when you mentioned Saukville, where I lived until I was in first grade.

If you could start shooting northward, that would suit me fine!

[mandelswamp]

It was a very tough choice this week.  Mike's photo of the UP engine against the backdrop of Lake Michigan was quite nice although I liked his road crossing shot even better.  Had Mike went with the latter picture, it would have won my vote.  However, I felt Erik's grain train photo to be a better composition mainly for the reasons that Erik mentions.  So I voted for Erik this week.

[Augusta Station Master]

I voted for Erik's precisely because it wasn't just another locomotive shot. Mike's shot was pretty but Erik's told a story.

[abandonedrails]

Good job once again, guys. I voted for Bergie's photo for the same reason as others have posted -- the serene setting and a typical scene from rural America. The angle presented in Mike's photo seemed to throw me off a bit.

Hey, have you guys ever considered doing a "On the Road With Erik and Mike"? I'm sure you're aware of Trains publishing a recent issue containing articles on railroading in all 50 states. Maybe you could travel to the top 10 states listed and send us your pictures to vote on from each.

While you're at it, mosey on down here to Texas (#17 in the list) to take pictures of railroads in the Lone Star State.

(Apologies if this topic has already been visited in a previous forum post.)

Greg
http://www.abandonedrails.com

[dknelson]

Hi,

In case anyone wants to see more of the Union Pacific Shoreline Subdivision, there are over 160 photos in the Shoreline Sub album on my website. Thanks.

A bit of a history lesson on the shoreline sub.

One of Mike's shots

 http://www.mikeyuhas.org/albums/upshorelinesub/20050070.php

is in Fox Point WI (where I happen to live) and as it happens he caught the spot where up to the late 1920s a spur line connected up the track to a line coming from the Milwaukee lakefront depot, so that C&NW passenger trains could head north to Sheboygan

 http://www.cnwhs.org/memberphotos/displayimage.php?album=21&pos=112

(and beyond) all the way to Green Bay

http://www.cnwhs.org/memberphotos/displayimage.php?album=21&pos=72

without having to go through Wiscona,

 http://www.cnwhs.org/memberphotos/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=51

an interchange several miles to the west.

From Don Ross's website:

Prior to 1927, the line north from the Milwaukee depot split at Lake Shore Junction which was just south of Capital Drive. One branch went to Wiscona and then up the Fox Valley. The other line went north up the Lake Shore. The trackage from Lake Shore Junction to Fox Point was abandoned, and trains were routed via Wiscona. Dean Segal found this old photo of the station.

http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr0001/cnwls.jpg

If you walk the line in the area covered by Mike's photo you can very slightly make out the spot where the lines merged, even though the track was torn up in, I think, 1929 and no trains ran after, I think, 1927.  Much of that line went right through what is now a totally residential part of Whitefish Bay WI, a very nice and expensive suburb.

Dave Nelson