More thoughts about Richmond

A favorite one and one most used is the Mountain Road crossing. It has a long straight run before which allows time to complete setup for pictures.

(Pardon the Sound in the following, disk lens needed cleaning)

One place I would love to see and get more contemporary pictures, is Main Street Station. This picture was taken in the late 1970"s. Since then, the building burned, it was converted into a downtown mall, and now restored and used as an Amtrak Station. However, only two scheduled trains makes this station.

Finally a place to look at is about an half hour north, Doswell, VA. It was here that the RFP and the CO crossed.

Some Fallen Flags, I Have Seen

Almost thirty-five years of train photography, well, train picture taking, have given me the unexpected collection of fallen flags pictures. Within this collection is two in particular:





These, for some reason have fired a bit of imagination. First of all on a road trip between my home in Williamsburg, Va and  northern Virginia, I took a stop at Doswell. Doswell was the crossing of two railroads, C&O and RF&P. It was 1981 and C&O was wearing the Chessie System colors. I just happened to catch this scene of both awaiting the crossing. They were both waiting for the northbound Amtrak. What makes this picture special is that C&O became Chessie System than Family Lines and finally CSX. RFP was merged with CSX. Both are fallen flags but not one Line.

The early days of Amtrak was fun for a number of reasons. The Amtrak car color had just been developed but the old line cars were still on the road in original colors. It would be some years before Amtrak began to operate their own trains. In this picture, A train making the station stop in Williamsburg, VA, was being pulled by a B&O F unit. However, this was a fallen flag, as the B&O had been absorbed by the C&O. During mergers, as here, you could see off road motive power.

Selma, NC, part 3

My train chase was not  very hard. I returned to the station to get myself into position for the train 89, the Palmetto southbound.

While waiting on the southbound Carolinian, I had some time and explored to see this Trackmobile.
I had time to bring myself into position for train 79, the Carolinian southbound. In the distance I heard the horn of the approaching train. To my surprise, it was not the Carolinian but a CSX southbound freight.

Finally, the Carolinian southbound.

Charlotte, part 1

For most day trips, I have a number of criteria. I have many interest that would take me off on one of my excursions. Trains being one. Another would be skylines. The measure of success of a city is the grace with which it rises up from the sidewalk. As to a pretty skyline is found in the city of Charlotte, NC. Coming into the city that grace can be seen rising before you.

To combine my interest, I was drawn to the Charlotte Amtrak station. There at the end of the platform is one of the prettiest scene of that skyline.

Timing was right to capture this picture of the Carolinian as it winged itself north toward Raleigh.

Day Tripping to Florence SC.

My original intent for my Boston trip was a vacation, using the concept of effective recreation. Effective recreation means that we re-create ourselves and become more effective in our normal lives. I came home with the understand that I would have to be more intentional in my days off. I needed to leave home for a day trip and to protect my days off. It is all about effective recreation. For without effective recreation we would find it hard to do our work. My first renewed attempt at effective recreation was a day trip to Florence, SC.


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Day tripping to Florence SC included both railfan location as well as those of other interest. You can see below, both passenger stations for the former Atlantic Coast Line which merged with the Seaboard Air Line to become the Seaboard Air Line. Through numerous mergers it is now CSX. The current station is Amtrak's smaller home in Florence, SC

Former train station, Florence SC. Not currently used as a train station

Current Amtrak Station

Not far from the train station, there is this curiosity. The display sign explains. Not much more to see in Florence but the trip was worth the time.