Ed. One more by Jim Pearson – can’t help but think about O. Winston Link seeing this. July 9, 2016 – LORAM Rail grinder RGS-9 waits in the siding at the north end of Robards, Ky as southbound loaded coal train CSX N040-05 passes it on CSX’s Henderson Subdivision. – Tech Info: 3 seconds | f/2.8 | ISO 125 | Lens: Nikon 18mm with a Nikon D800 shot and processed in RAW. – Photo by Jim Pearson (forgive me for cropping)
In 1984 is was working for Andalex Resources as a supply truck driver. My friend from school, Tim Kingery was managing the Salvation Army Thrift Store and would alert me to any “train stuff” the store received. That summer he called my work place (no cell phones in 1984) and left a message for me to come by the store. He had taken in a book titled “Flying Sparks”. Of course I purchased the book and read it immediately.
The book is a series of letters penned by a Missouri Pacific passenger train conductor to his then eight year old niece. His niece had requested of her uncle a description of his work and the places he visited. This all takes place in or before 1914! The style of writing is as interesting as the stories themselves.
I have enjoyed this book for thirty plus years now and will continue to do so. Hopefully you will as well as I intend to recount portions of the book as a regular Newsletter feature.
We look forward to hearing more from Ricky next month about this book. Editor.
July 6, 2016 – Norfolk Southern Tier4 engine 3616 heads up a loaded coal train as it heads north on the Paducah and Louisville Railway cutting its way through steam rising from the roadbed after a summer rain outside Bremen, Ky. – Tech Info: 1/320 | f/6.3 | ISO 500 | Lens: Sigma 150-600 @ 600mm with a Nikon D800 shot and processed in RAW. – Photo by Jim Pearson
June 15, 2016 – I chased the leading edge of this storm front for about 20 miles till I finally caught CSX Q592-15 approaching the south end of the siding at Kelly, Ky as it headed north on the Henderson Subdivision. As dark and nasty as the sky looked, all it did was dump a lot of rain and create some lighting and fortunately for me it didn’t do it while I was shooting! – Tech Info: 1/400 | f/2.8 | ISO 900 | Lens: Nikon 18mm with a Nikon D800 shot and processed in RAW. – Photo by Jim Pearson
July 1, 2016 – Autorack CSX Q241-30 (Detroit, MI – Louisville, KY) makes its way through downtown La Grange, Ky (one of the few places in the state that has street running) as it heads south to Louisville, Ky on the Short Line (LCL Subdivision). – Tech Info: 1/400 | f/20 | ISO 900 | Lens: Sigma 150-600 @ 165mm with a Nikon D800 shot and processed in RAW. – Photo by Jim Pearson
I would never promote taking photos while driving, but I couldn’t pass this up – actually, I did pass it! I would guess this is an order coming out of Siemens Automation in Marion, KY. I didn’t get the name on the side of the truck. Bill Thomas, editor
Here are some photos from our June Meeting at Bill Thomas’s home and Garden Railroad.
Bird’s Eye View!
If you own and use a computer or smart phone, you now have access to a great tool for locating rail lines and more interestingly, abandoned rail lines.
Lately, I’ve enjoyed Elmer G. Sulzer’s Ghost Railroads of Kentucky first published in 1967, by Indiana University Press (originally by Vane A. Jones Company) which presents 23 chapters of railroads that used to be. Chapter 18 unpacks the history of the L&N’s and IC’s adventures through Clay, Dixon, Morganfield and Henderson, KY, right in our back door.
Now back to the computer and/or smart phone. I’ve begun to “mentally overlay” the satellite images available on sites like Google Earth and other mapping apps on Sulzer’s maps provided in the book. The drawback to the latter is that there are no roads mapped in Sulzer’s book, just rivers, streams, county and state lines. You have to be a little creative, but it’s fun to find some of these places on the computer screen then visit in person. And, if you have the smart phone map app, it will pinpoint your location as you move.
Many of you are probably familiar with this technology as am I, but I wanted to share the possibilities with those who may just be getting caught up with it.
As a side note, also included in Sulzer’s book are railroads which once served Russellville, Adairville, Gracey, Princeton, Elkton, Guthrie, Hartford, Irvington, and Falls of Rough.
Mr. Sulzer also published Ghost Railroads of Tennessee and Ghost Railroads of Indiana. I’m looking forward to browsing through both of these in the near future. All are available on Amazon.com.
Bill Thomas…
I know many of our members have thanked Bill Thomas for opening up his home to us for the June meeting. I would like to make it official just in case anyone forgot to thank Bill, thank you Bill. It was a great change of pace from the Madisonville Depot all though I really enjoy that old station. I need to thank the Terry family for supplying the hamburgers for last month’s meeting. On a whole I though all the members who attended enjoyed themselves. As I looked around I saw lots of fellowship taking place with members just relaxed and enjoying themselves.
Congratulations to our photo contest winner Bill Grady and thank you to all the members who participated. Jim Pearson does a very good job with judging all the photos entered. Our next photo contest will take place from August 6-13 so keep those cameras ready. I think Jim has all the entries from our past contest and it looks like we will have a great start on the 2017 club calendar. Jim and I will work on the calendar later on this this year. Let’s keep this project in mind and support it by purchasing one or more calendars when they are printed in December.
We had several great items for the raffle last month let’s keep it up. The raffle is our only source of revenue at this time, so dig deep into your railroad books and artifacts for some items you’re not using. We have had some very interesting items come across the raffle table.
See you on Monday evening July 18th at the Madisonville Depot, 7:00 pm.
Bill Farrell, President
Bird’s eye view of those in attendance at the June meeting held at the home of Bill and Angela Thomas, Madisonville. – Photo by Bill Thomas