Gooey Gobs of Gopher Guts....Dirty Little Birdie Feet

Vancouver, Washington

TWJ Will be on Hiatus

I will (gasp!) actually be out and about with my camera for about a week. Please feel free to peruse the tag cloud at the bottom right of this page, and you can also waste your precious time watching videos on my YouTube Channel.

Blind Blake - Police Dog Blues

Blind Blake, my second favorite bluesman behind Buka White, was the most well known musician of the "Piedmont Blues" style. Of course all of these musicians were originals, and were not really playing any style but their own. I saw a recent interview with Jorma Kaukonen where he disavows being a Piedmont style guitarist. I am sure that fifty years from now some guitarist with a unique blues style will have to deny being a "Jorma Style" guitarist.

Tipsy Zebra

Santa Fe GP7 2750 in the ditch, possibly near Santa Fe Springs, California

Somehow this photograph reminds me of the state of my model railroad work bench.

The relief train with torpedo GP7 2654

Not sure where this mid 50s wreck occurred. I am thinking it was on the Third District near Santa Fe, Springs, California. Maybe someone recognizes the mission style building in the background.

"More Civilized Electric Locomotives"

Great Northern Z 1 Class Westinghouse Boxcab 5004 

Great Northern Y 1 Class General Electric Boxcab 5016

World's Ugliest Beautiful Locomotives Toil in the Urals

I love industrial railroads, and the more brutal and massive the industrial landscape, the better. In the Ural Mountains of Russia is a large open-pit Titanium and Magnetite mine just outside of the city of Kachkanar. The big electric locomotives resemble Krokodils on roids, and they haul six wheel trucked air dump cars. The complex only dates back to 1958, built during the Khrushchev era. Nikita was very familiar with the industrial value of the Urals. It was he who was given the task by Stalin to move Soviet industry east and out of range of Nazi bombers.

View Larger Map

San Diegan Parlor Obs - 1938 Budd Train

Santa Fe Parlor Obs for the San Diegan

Santa Fe Parlor Obs for the San Diegan

Just slightly more civilized than Bombardier cars. I will have a Gin Fiz, and my lovely wife Rita Hayworth will have a Rob Roy, and what time do we arrive in Del Mar? I wouldn't want to miss the first race.

Punctured

Tender punctured by rail during derailment. Unknown location, probably N. Arizona

Malcom - 1986 Film

Speaking of Melbourne's trams got me remembering this great 1986 Australian film featuring a transit geek. It is kind of interesting to compare the character of Malcom to the Sheldon Cooper character on Big Bang Theory. I wonder if this movie was an influence on Chuck Lorre. I saw this movie in a W. Hollywood art house cinema. When one lived in the Pomona Valley then, one had to drive 30 miles to go see a foreign film. 

Full film is here.

Learn Something New Everyday Department

SNCF photo of a tram in Melbourne, Australia - via

I had a visitor on the blog from a suburb of Melbourne, so I opened up Google Maps, and started to look for rail and tram lines. Intrigued, I did an image search for Melbourne Trams, and came across the image above and noticed that the photo was from an SNCF website. So I opened the site, and music started playing, French pop, not bad. Turns out SNCF has its own Internet radio channel, but the real news is that a French public/private sector company called Keolis is running Melbourne's tram system. We live in a world now where local control of our own infrastructure is becoming irrelevant as business expertise is now marketed as a commodity. People in America are so afraid of a one world government. What they really should be afraid of is one world corporation run by a handful of ruthless but efficient business school trained drones, and all of their fucking software.

M.C. Escher Like - MTA Grand Central Excavations

Photo by MTA/Patrick Cashin - via

I think that if I was ever allowed down into this excavation for a tour, my dreams would never be the same. These photos by MTA photographer Patrick Cashin are stunning. Flickr set is here.

Photo by MTA/Patrick Cashin - via

Photo by MTA/Patrick Cashin - via

Amtrak Busiest Stations Map by Brett Lucas

Amtrak's Busiest Stations during 2012 - Map by Brett Lucas

Brett's Wordpress Blog.

Brooklyn Sub Timebook - 1965

Enginemen's Time Book - January 1965 - SP Brooklyn Sub.

Ho-hum, solid sets of SP F-Units on turns between Brooklyn Yard and Eugene. But look at the 6th, and the 8th Krauss-Maffei hood units in their original numbers, each paired with an F7A. Locomotives 9016 and 9005 would become 9116 and 9105 later that year. The KM/F-Unit combo is the same way the Hydraulics were used in the San Joaquin Valley, and I don't think the date is too far off from their transfer down to the flat lands of California. Also of interest is the passenger extra with Alco PA 6025 on the 13th. More to come.

Wreck of the 3769 - Gallup, New Mexico - December 18, 1943

Santa Fe Northern 3769 heading a WB mail train hit a switch engine in the fog. There were two fatalities.

Thanks to Altamont Press contributor R. Welch for information on this wreck. He thinks that these photos were taken by the late Jackson Thode.

Same locomotive seen at Apache Canyon, New Mexico
From Kansas Historical Society

2-10-2 Billiards at Cajon Summit

LA&SL 2-10-2  5528 mixes it up with some Santa Fe cabooses at Cajon Summit

UP 5528 was assigned to helper service on Cajon and may have been helping the Santa Fe eastbound.

Santa Fe Caboose 1973, a study in caboose trucks.

Santa Fe caboose 1973 after being wrecked at Cajon Summit. The classic Summit train indicator board is seen in the background.The visors on the marker lantern would indicate that this event was during WWII.

R.I.P. Sky Saxon (1937-2009)

Extreme Aspect Ratio

Rio Grande EB, near Green River, Utah

Why Leave Home? - KCS - Vancouver Center

Kansas City Southern  AC44CW 4595 with an EB Grainer empty stops for a crew change at Vancouver, Center - Dig those big wheels.

Tunnel Motor Mood - Rio Grande

Helpers at Helper - 1989

Kyune Crossovers -  1989

In a Tunnel Motor Mood - Part 1

Dunsmuir, and yes a little distorted, taken with a 20mm lens.

An SP solid tunnel set at Araz, Arizona, EB

Wilsburg Jct, Oregon, WB

Proctor, Minnesota

WB leaving Hiland, California

Albina Yard, Portland, Oregon

placeSpotting Quiz

Powee !!!! - placeSpotting Quiz

TrainWatchersJournal Does the "Harlem Shake"

Seriously....... ?????? This is what we do with mankind's technological capacity? How did our species ever get out of the trees?

WTF times infinity!

Why Leave Home Department - "Furrin" Power in Vancouver

B-Unit "Do Not Occupy"
Ex  Southern High Hood SD40-2s 3249 and 3251 in leaser service on the BNSF
Vancouver, Washington - 2006

NREX leasers on the BNSF - Vancouver, Washington - 2006
Former Conrail and QNS&L units.

Power from the rumored merger partner of the BNSF. When will the railroad merger shoe drop again? Note the two styles of the NS logo. At least the NS doesn't feel the need to change its paint scheme every couple of years like the CSX.

Roster information on the CP Rail/Southern high hoods is from this very cool CP Rail roster site.

The Outer Anchorage and the Catalina Isthmus

Los Angeles Harbor Anchorage.

Some ships visit the L.A. Harbor just to take on fuel due to the relatively low cost of oil from the refineries located there. Other ships are awaiting a berth to free up. To the left out of the frame is a quarantine area for ships having explosives on board. On the horizon is Catalina Island. The gap apparently filled by the ocean is actually the Catalina Isthmus.

Nice work, if you can get it.  Fuel barge - LA Harbor

It takes about 24 hours to pump out one of these oil barges into a ship. Of course this process must be tended. I have seen a longshoreman sit on a plastic chair reading a paper while the pumping is in progress. No smoking allowed of course.

Now This is a Ship! - Sitmar Fairsea (2)

Sitmar Lines ship Fairsea - San Pedro, California - 1987

Sitmar Lines ship Fairsea - San Pedro, California - 1987

Sitmar Lines ship the Fairsea (1) had quite a history (link.)  More here.

"No Diving"
From:

Ship of Fools

Carnival Cruise Lines ship Tropicale heads out on the main channel of the L.A. Harbor for a Baja Cruise in 1987

I am probably the last person on this planet who would ever go an a party cruise, being constitutionally averse to revelry of any sort. So then, it was always with a mixture of pity, bewilderment and horror, that I would watch the Sunday afternoon departure of the Tropicale for seedy Baja, California ports. I used to think that the cubed out proportions of the ship absolutely ungainly, but compared to today's mega Cleopatra-esque pleasure barges, the Tropicale now looks positively dainty. Spend good money to be trapped on one of these........never!

Starlight Power Swap - Portland, Oregon E-Units Part 2

Southern Pacific SDP45s lead the northbound Coast Starlight into Portland, Oregon.
The business car track on the right is now a setout spur on TriMet's Max Yellow Line.
Photo was taken from the steps of the VC Tower interlocking.

A solid set of Amtrak E8s cutoff of the southbound Coast Starlight.

SDP45s trade places with E-Units

The swap is complete.

Crookton Cutoff - MKco Film

GP40s Make Like SD45s

Cardinals Pitchers and Catchers Report......

.......and will be selecting the new Pope soon.

Amtrak E-Units - Portland, Oregon - 1972 - Part1

Amtrak Starlight gets out of Portland for Seattle.  E-8 340 is ex BN and ex CB&Q  9946A.
Note the little herder shed.

Amtrak 340 and BN 9945 lead the northbound Starlight out of Portland, Oregon in 1972.
Still lots of business on Front St.

BN  E-8A 9949 makes a switch move by VC Tower, Portland Terminal. Unit will  singly take a  train to Seattle, one of the old Pool Train schedules from pre-Amtrak days.

After the inception of Amtrak in 1971, BN transferred  former Burlington E-Units to cover Portland-Seattle Amtrak service. Units were seen in BN green, Amtrak paint, and several versions of the Zephyr scheme.