2016 – Page 3 – The Pennyrail Online Edition

Southern Indiana Excursions

August 17, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments Don Clayton, Rare Mileage, Regional Rail Notes

Train Rides on the Hoosier Southern (ex-Southern) Tell City, IN to Lincoln City, IN during the Fall of 2016

The Scenic Lincoln Way is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to welcoming tourists to the historic land of President Abraham Lincoln’s childhood in Spencer and Perry Counties in Southern Indiana. This is over the Hoosier Southern (ex-Southern) Tell City, Indiana branch east of Evansville, Indiana.

Past events have traveled west out of Tell City to approximately Troy, Indiana. The September trip should be from Tell City to Lincoln City (most of the route). Suspect equipment is borrowed from the nearby City of Jasper and/or Indiana Railway Museum.

2016 Excursion Train Rides

September 10, 2016—Bicentennial Ride to the Beer Fest at Lincoln Amphitheatre. Details coming soon!

October 2016—Fall and Zombie-themed rides. Details coming soon!

December 2016—Holiday Excursions—Details coming soon!

Visit http://www.sceniclincolnway.org/events.html

Submitted by Don Clayton

Former WKNRHS member Dr. Fred Ripley photography exhibit

August 17, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments General Post

Former WKNRHS member Dr. Fred Ripley stands with his photography exhibit at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Fred is getting creative in his display venues.

Fred’s work can be seen and purchased at

The Village Bookshop

2424 W. Dublin-Granville Rd.

(Ohio Route 161)

Columbus, OH 43235

Telephone: (614) 889-2674

Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10:00 AM– 9:00 PM; Sun. 11:00 AM–7:00 PM

Dramatic and colorful images of railroading “come to life” in this series of 20 x 30” mounted and framed photographs, all for sale, taken by a life-long observer and interpreter of the railroad scene. A guide sheet available at the bookstore provides detailed information about each photo.

contact the photographer:

Frederick J. Ripley

P.O. Box 21491

Columbus, OH 43221-9998

Telephone: (614) 949-2056

E-mail: fjr68@live.com

August 2016 Pickin’ the Points with Bill Thomas

August 17, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments Bill Thomas, Pickin' the points

I have some great news. As most of you know, we came to Madisonville in 2003, when I answered the call to First Baptist Church to serve as their Minister of Music. Since leaving that church in the summer of 2013, two week shy of my 10 year anniversary there, I’ve been making a living in lawn care, landscape design, real estate sales, driving a school bus, and serving as an interim music minister at First Baptist Bowling Green.

I am happy to announce that on August 28, 2016, I will begin service as the Full-time Associate Pastor/Minister of Music at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Madisonville.

It is a bitter-sweet transition as I leave a great church in Bowling Green which has helped me find the joy in music ministry again. I often tell them, “They’ve been better for me than I could ever be for them!”

I also am sorry to leave the hard working team of professional drivers, trainers, and staff in our Hopkins County School District’s Transportation Department, led by Marcie Cox, who answered a late-night call from me needing another job to make ends meet. I am forever grateful.

While I will be full-time at the church, I’ll be keeping my real estate license and business active for the time being. Time will tell if I can manage the two while giving First Christian my time priority.

Thanks to all of you for your support, prayers, and kind words over the last three years of this long transition. I look forward to continuing my work as your editor and fellow railway historian. Whether you’re looking for a home in Madisonville or heaven, I can help. In a pinch, I can mow your yard and drive a bus too.

Bill Thomas

August 2016 The Spill with President Bill Farrell

August 17, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments Bill Farrell

Well, it has been hot this summer and it even got hotter last week. On Tuesday afternoon I received a call from Ricky Bivins. He asked me if I had read my emails for Tuesday. I reply with,” no”. Then he unloaded a ton of coal on me, with, we lost our meeting place in the Madisonville train depot. Yes, if you have not heard they started renovation on the building last week.

Ricky’s next question was, where are we going to meet for the August meeting? Well, that was another ton of coal dropped on me. Before I could even think Ricky said, we can meet at the airport. Well, with all that coal, now I at least had a shovel to start digging out. So, we will meet at the Madisonville Airport for the August meeting. I have placed time on the agenda for us as a club to discuss the future of where we will meet. I would like for the membership to give it some thought on a good place to meet.

By the time you receive the August issue of the “PennyRail” the third quarter photo contest will be over. I hope everyone had a chance to submit a photo to Jim Pearson. Our next club contest will take place in October from the 1st to the 8th. After the final judging of the pictures we plan on making up a club calendar which can be purchased at our December Christmas Party. Jim has also made reference to selling them online to other individuals who may be interested. Jim will tell us more about that later.

The Christmas Special, at the Parkway Plaza Mall is starting to pick up speed now. James Kemp who is serving as the chairperson will need everyone’s help for this to be a success. So when you get the call to help, please say yes, you will more than likely have fun. This will be an event you can show off to your family, friends and neighbors. This will be a free event to our community and people shopping at the mall.

We have several new items on the agenda this month, other than a new meeting place so please try to make an effort to attend, your input is very important.

Bill Farrell, President

LORAM Rail grinder RGS-9 at Kelly, Ky by Jim Pearson

July 18, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments Jim Pearson, Photo Section

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)

Book Review By Ricky Bivins

July 18, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments Rick Bivins

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.

Norfolk Southern Tier4 engine 3616 on the PAL by Jim Pearson

July 18, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments Jim Pearson, Photo Section

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

Stormy train at Kelly, Ky by Jim Pearson

July 18, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments Jim Pearson, Photo Section

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

Autorack CSX Q241-30 (Detroit, MI – Louisville, KY) at La Grange, Ky by Jim Pearson

July 18, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments Jim Pearson, Photo Section

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

Loaded on the road by Bill Thomas

July 18, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments Bill Thomas, Photo Section

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

Photos from our June 2016 Meeting

July 18, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments Photo Section

Here are some photos from our June Meeting at Bill Thomas’s home and Garden Railroad.

June 2016 Pickin’ the Points with Bill Thomas

July 18, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments Bill Thomas, Pickin' the points

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…

June 2016 The Spill with President Bill Farrell

July 18, 2016 Jim Pearson No Comments Bill Farrell

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