Tuesday, July 7, 2020

2020 Hindsight

Two photos that illustrate my continual fascination with our hobby!



I took these photos, linked on Flickr below, 40 years ago on a road trip from Colorado to Maine. My brother and I camped in Michigan City, IN enroute since I wanted to scope out the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend RR (CSS&SB) which had recently given up electrified freight operations. In the morning we parked at the passenger depot and watched a couple of passenger MU sets go by. Then this lite power/ caboose hop goes by. At the time, "geeps" were very uninspiring, but I took the photos anyway.  Film wasn't free so I didn't shoot everything, but these weren't UP or BN.
Time, countless magazine articles and "google detective" work have proven that this set is a bit less well-matched, and therefore slightly less 'ho-hum' than it appeared at the time. My findings are in the captions on Flickr. Only a railfan can truly appreciate them. Non-fans will wonder what the big deal is.

Click here for the rest:

BC
Don't forget our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/hapttrain/


Sunday, November 24, 2019

Social Media Presence



Some time ago we moved some operations to Facebook.  The Fiddler created a simpler site using a FB business template (it informs us like a business, which is annoying but functional).  It's also far easier to post to from a mobile device if the need arises. 
https://www.facebook.com/hapttrain/

This Blogger page will be maintained for anything larger than a simple "report" as in the last essay about a caboose in Iowa.  Who knows how long that will last.  But, until it is gone, there is archive value to this site so we'll keep an eye on it and keep it's function available.

BC

Sunday, February 24, 2019

"Worlds Collide" - or at least graze each other.


Here is a simple picture of a caboose. It is a Missouri Pacific caboose similar to the many that passed through my college campus in Kansas in the early '80's. But it led me on a mission that ended up crossing my “teacher life” with my passion for railroads.

What actually got my attention the day I took the photo was the Taco John's next to the caboose. I was traveling through Missouri and Iowa at the time and it was lunchtime. Taco John's was my favorite fast food in my teen years and it was unusual to find one so far from it's home range in Wyoming. After securing lunch, I crossed the parking lot and decided to shoot a photo of this rig and other equipment sitting nearby. This turned out to be Fairfield, IA on June 28, 2007. I was traveling home after a national debate tournament in Wichita and subsequent visits with Kansas friends. I was headed for the railfan park in Rochelle, IL.

Nearly 12 years later, I had forgotten where the photo was taken. I had just edited and posted it to my Flickr account, where I normally like to put a location in the caption. In small bursts for days I perused rail maps and Google maps for locations. Nothing fit my recollections. Then one day I found a similar photo by someone else which named the town. Zooming in on Google satellite view, I found the spot and the caboose. Fairfield, IA, a city a bit outside my search but certainly along my possible route.

As I zoomed in on satellite view, something else of interest in this unlikely town popped up. Maharishi University Of Management. M.U.M. Until recently, I'd never heard of it. But, in my Debate Class a student gave a commencement speech (Oratorical Declamation) given there originally by Jim Carey in 2014. This aroused my interest since there were many Vedic references in the speech, and I used to teach some ancient history, including ancient India. I had check this place out. https://www.mum.edu/about-mum

Interesting history and certainly marketed well to modern generations. Founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, developer of transcendental meditation, the university incorporates “Consciousness-Based education” into their work. While it's not my kind of thing, it is certainly interesting. Something I would have missed entirely if a quest for a photo location hadn't crashed into a kid's speech. Apparently the speech given just across town from the caboose. Shoot, what were the odds I'd even heard of the place let alone taken a photo near there.

BC

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Readville 2016



The usual trip to Marlborough on Dec. 3rd for the annual HUB train show naturally led to the usual trip to Readville.  And, as usual, we saw a few trains of the MBTA and Amtrak variety.  However, this time we got to see the remnants of the very recent bridge replacement over the NEC.  The old pin-truss bridge was sitting on a gravel pad over the Dedham branch and the new bridge was easily seen from the platforms.  The sun was good for this sort of recon but the cold wind soon took away our will to hang around for much longer.

Follow the link to the photos https://www.flickr.com/photos/133256320@N04/shares/J8x7f0

BC

Welcome to HAPT's Railfan Adventures


The Hebron Any Power Team is actually just a bunch of fun-loving rail enthusiasts who enjoy photographing and chasing all things railroad with friends. This bunch of guys cover a lot of ground for a group based way up "nawth" in Maine. We also have friends scattered around the country who contribute well to our hobby. In fact, our name is derived from our actual friends in the Worcester Foreign Power Team, except that Hebron hasn't seen a train since the 1950's so we'll settle for "any power".

Welcome and enjoy the eclectic collections of the contributors. Maine idealizes "life in the slow lane" so we present this blog as an effort to share our less time sensitive findings and to add to our hobby.