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

"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

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

Christmas Time in Waterville

Every Christmas Carl and I wander up to Waterville on a convenient day to see what we can find.  Some years we see a lot, others we see little.  This year we caught a bit of everything.  Click on the Flickr link below to see the photos.

We started off with the B&M heritage unit sitting over by the intermodal pad.  An Eimskip train full of Poland Spring Water was sitting there, apparently loaded and ready, or it had recently arrived and needed to be unloaded.  We took a shot then left.  Nothing else of note around.  We thought we were skunked.  Upon return after the usual loop around the area, we noted that a former Army Humvee sitting by the office was on the move headed to the intermodal pad.  When it was over by the geep it unloaded some guys in safety vests who went to the geep.  The lights came on and the geep moved in our direction.  It began some switching.

The GMTX slug set was sitting in the yard and it began to make noise on the scanner about moving out of the yard.  We took off for open ground east of the yard.  It eventually showed up behind the chinese restaurant in Fairfield.  It had pulled some cars near Hutahmaki and returned to the yard.  No signs that it was headed for SAPPI yet but it used the SAPPI 3 call sign.  We'd keep an eye on that.  We got a few close up and backlit shots by the restaurant in case we couldn't do better.

Somewhere we heard MAWA looking for papers at MP104 or so.  So we dashed off for Clinton where we saw it coming in the distance.  The sun was good for the crossing so we stayed put.  We then pursued to Bellsqueeze Rd. in Benton at CPF107.  We followed this by dumping Carl out at the Kennebec bridge so he could get some shots and by the time we gathered up and dropped by Irvings SAPPI 3 was on the move.  It beat us to the crossings and was in the void shy of Shawmut before we could shoot and darkness was approaching.  We called it a day at that point. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/133256320@N04/shares/755f8i


BC