Miscillanious photos taken during visits in April 2009

A few pictures in the snow in and around Didcot station on Friday 5th February. Just after 12 Noon in rather bleak light, and very cold.

Vists to Dundee, St. Andrews, Perth, Arbroath, Montrose and Stonehaven. With some grab shots from HST between Stonehaven and Dundee.

A few photos taken at Hampstead Norris Station on the Ex GWR Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway, during the demolition and removal of tracks.

Came across this railway scene while walking around Chicago on my last full day there, on the 7th of November, 2007.

Lake Street is on the lower line out of Union Station northwards. The upper mainline is at the end of the street about 200 yards away. The Metra trains seen here are possibly on the Aurora service that I took to La Grange Road station a couple of days before.

A grab shot from the car as we motored through Ohio on a foggy morning.

The group of locos were heading west near Aberdeen, Ohio.

Another unexpected group of photos. We came across this loco at Boston Docks while touring Boston's 'Liberty Trail' and took the opportunity to photograph it.

Caught this passenger train by accident. We stopped at a restaurant for a meal and from the car park heard this train approach and grabbed the camera.

The local passenger train from Boston is slowing down for the double level crossing prior to running into Reading station.

A short visit to a very picturesque bridge at Havre De Grace, Maryland, on the 30th of October, 2007.

We arrived there a little late, as the sun started to set. While making photography difficult it turned out to be a very beautiful sunset, with the river and estuary on one side and a fine girder bridge behind the well placed railway bridge.

The high-speed french electric locomotives are on the mainline ifrom Boston to New York down the east coast corradoor.

The first photos were taken on the north side of the bridge, which didn't give a clear view of the trains as you have to look upwards. A better view of trains is seen on the south side of the river, where there is a lower wall either side of the bridge and the river bank is higher.

There is a clear view of the trains on the bank coming off the bridge but it is a short view and with trains viweed face on it is difficult to cath the full length of the locomotives.

I have included a few picturial snaps to show the beauty of the area. However there were no facilities at this spot, although Havre De Grace railway station is just a short distance beyond the embankment.

Horseshoe Curve near Altoona, Pennsylvania is a very well-known railway site. Set over 2,000 feet up the Allagenny Mountains, on a long horse-shoe curve. The heavy trains have two or three locos on the front and either 2 or three on the rear and are going quite slow as they come over the summit and curve around the horseshoe, allowing a number of pictures to be taken of the same trains as they pass. Ocassional light loco bankers (helpers) can also be seen as well as railway staff who run alongside the trains in a car, checking the trains.

Grand views of the trains can be seen at the summit or from the roadway below. You don't usually have very long to wait for a train. With three tracks you can often view three trains passing each other.

There is also a magnificent view down the valley with the Altoona Water Reservoir below and mountains in the background.

There is a administrative building and a reasonable sized car park and a funicular railway that will take you to the summit, or you can walk up the stairs. The building and the Funicular are closed on a Tueday. Of coyrse, we were there on a Tuesday! There is a sheltered viewing platform at the summit.

This is one of those really great trainspotting areas.

Strasburg Railway Museum, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Sits alongside Red Caboose Motel and Strasburg Steam Railway. Mainly a museum of the Pennsylvania Railway, with other railway's locos. A fine collection very nicely displayed. There are both inside and outside displays.

One loco of interst was the Heisler 4-0-4 steam loco. I saw two of these last year at Tillamook and Garibaldi, Oregon. One in poor condition at the Tillamook Airport & Railway museum and the other in excellent preservation, working on the Oregon Coast Scenic Railway at Garibaldi.

What I can recall is that there are only four of these locos in exististance and it was interesting to find that I had now seen three of them.

Another unusal loco is the Leetonia Railway No. 1 'Shay', which has very unusual piston connections and torque transfer from vertical to the horizontal . Rather than the usual piston and side-rods.

It was also nice to see the GG-1 Penn electric locos, close up and also the large Penn Steam locos that worked over the Allagenny mountains.

Strasburg Steam Railway is in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Along with a very nice station, which has the usual shops and railway parafinalia around it, there is a busy preservation and repair siding as well as a loco shed and sidings.

Steam trips are run a number of times throughout the day, along a seven mile branch that takes you though very pleasant countryside and terminates at Paradise, alongside the Boston to Chicago electrified mainline.

There is a stopping place half way, where passengers are set-down and picked up, in the main season, but always stops there for the driver to give four blasts on the whistle, which are immediately echoed back across the valley. The story is that a Ghost lives on the other side of the valley and responds to the train whistle. It is said that this is proven by the ghost always sending in his bill for the service!

This area is set up for Harvest Festival time, including children's games and rides etc, with a giant 'maize'. which is a real maize field.

This is a very interesting little railway and countryside.