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At yesterday's car show:

Fortune smiled this morning when my Norfolk Southern Lehigh Valley Railroad "Heritage" locomotive boomeranged back into town after working in Georgia. I can add these pictures to my burgeoning collection on Heritage units in trail (i.e. not leading the train), but I'm very happy to have seen it...

Sometimes the stars don't align. NS's Lehigh Valley "Heritage" locomotive rolled in and found a home deep in the engine terminal under overcast skies. Wanting to stay safe and to show respect for railroad property, I didn't trespass to get a better shot from the other side. I'm hoping that...

Finally found some trains after a long drought. Train time at Lugoff, SC: Blue Ridge Southern entering Norfolk Southern's mainline at Murphy Junction, NC: Blue Ridge Southern cruising through the arts district in Ashville, NC: Blue Ridge Southern headed home across the French Broad...

I went for a walk with the family this evening as darkness encroached. I set my D5100 to 'S' wanting to stop the action as best I could, but 1/30 was the fastest I could do. Several minutes later at a different location with perhaps better light, I switched to Auto and found myself able to...

Mother's Day flower arrangement. Looks like I lifted it from a greeting card. :)

The train drought continues. Spent 4 Hours several hours from home waiting at a spot with great composition and not one train passed by in either direction. :emptiness: To pass the time, I shot a rail joint. Trivia: The nuts are alternated from side to side for safety. If a derailment...

The Brasso conversation about the li'l Rio Grande locomotive was funny! Thank you. I haven't been able to get out to take pictures lately, finding only these three units the other day lined up "elephant style". All three of these locomotives are over 35 years old, rebuilt and repainted, and...

Caught a few photos of the new Blue Ridge Southern railroad at Asheville, NC today. This is a new operation, having recently bought a Norfolk Southern branchline. The light wasn't all that great, but I was pleased to have been there. Those vintage locomotives sounded great on the last shot...

It dawned bright and sunny, so I again went out to seek elusive perfectly-lit southbound Train 157 and once again poorly-lit northbound Train 156 showed up. Sigh. I think NS hides 157 until I'm not around. ;) So anyway, here's another backlit shot of 156 snickering as she passes by:

Caught NS Train 156 [Savannah, GA => Linwood, NC] this morning at Killian, SC. The light was perfect for a southbound, but instead this northbound showed up. The shot turned out okay though and is only slightly backlit. This is a north <=> south railroad, so the lighting prefers southbounds...

Here's a yellow Chessie System caboose at Sand Patch, PA (hence my name on Nikonites). Helpers have just cut off on the fly and the train will proceed downgrade for arrival in Cumberland, MD. It's November 1981 and I'm shooting with a Nikon EL-2 and Kodachrome 64.

Southern Railway caboose at Hendersonville, NC as scanned from a photo I took in the 1980's sometime. The train is headed toward Saluda, NC to contend with what was at the time, the steepest mainline railroad grade in the U.S.. Sadly, nothing has run on this line in a decade and the rails might...

Was passing through Columbia, SC today and saw only light engine moves (aka locomotives with no cars), but it was worth a stop and it was nice to get some fresh air. In the top photo, that's Columbia Union Station to the rear of the trailing locomotive. No passenger trains call there, but...

I'm already missing Radio Shack. My model railroad was built almost 30 years ago, so is plagued with obsolescent components. Today's train was stopped cold and the culprit was a broken toggle switch. As seen in the lower right of the photo, the internals cracked. Happily, these are common...

Went to my local Radio Shack store this afternoon to see what discounted items might remain on the shelves. Radio Shack entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week and many of their stores will be closing. Everything had been pretty well picked over, including my favorite department with all the...

Delaware & Hudson caboose at Taylor, PA in June of 1982.

Ducks in cold and sparkly water in western North Carolina, USA

Was out looking for trains and found nothing, so shot a signal. This type is becoming common everywhere on U.S. railroads, sadly displacing the unique types that allowed railfans to identify line ownership just by seeing a signal. These new signals are nicknamed "Vaders", as their dark hooded...

One of my brothers has some of my Dad's old Nikon gear and amongst the stuff is a Nikkor 35mm F/2 Lens from the latter 1970s. I do not know if it has been converted to AI. I am thinking that this might make a nice addition to my D5100, but I have some questions: Would this 35mm/FX-size lens...