A TRIP TO SAINT LOUIS

I set off for Saint Louis in late July, to do some shooting around the city, and meet Chris for a few days. Since I don't really like 1,000 mile days much anymore, I set off at noon on Friday for a Sunday afternoon arrival. Since I had a little spare time, stopped on the way to shoot a few cloud pictures. I got as far as Socorro, NM, 400 miles the first night, the second night was spent another 875 miles away, in Miami, OK, just a few miles south of the MO border and somewhere I've stayed several times before, in fact I lost my phone there last year. Next morning I drove the 200 miles or so to Kirkwood, MO, about 15 miles west of the STL center.

There is a nice park on the south side of the Amtrak station, commemorating several council members and police officers who lost their lives in a shooting at city hall. I was approached by a police officer, but she was just interested and wondering if I was getting any good pictures. Chris arrived after 4 trains, and we sat around and waited for Amtrak, by which time the light was getting off the tracks, so we looked around town and found a new location, seeing about 8 more trains before it was time to head off to the motel in Collinsville, IL. My satnav lost it's mind, and had to be rebooted, which I found annoying, since it's brand new.

At the top of my wish list was the TRRA's new, ex UP GP38's in their nice new paint scheme. Our first full day was spent at Granite City, and eventually, in the midst of all NS's locals, along came a pair, and proceeded to block the grade crossing for half an hour. An NS cop stopped to say hello, he was just interested.

The late afternoon found us along the river front, ducking up and down side roads, we eventually found the old Cotton Belt freight house, long since abandoned, and a freight. We spent time at Lacledes Landing until the light went, with no train, and adjourned to a nearby brewpub for dinner.

Next morning we went and found the big MacArthur Bridge across the Mississippi, my camera decided it didn't like the humidity (appalling!) and decided not to function. So I sat in the car with the heater on full, holding the camera over a vent until it dried out. Nice busy morning, then we went off to an overpass near the Amtrak station and baked our brains. late afternoon found us back at Lacledes Landing, where we were told by a parking lot security guard we could not use recording devices, despite the fact that there was a public observation area on the roof. He spent a long time trying to get somebody in authority to say yes or no, in the meantime a train came, we got our shot and went away. After the light went, we headed off

down the interstate to find a brewpub that had been recommended. Sadly, the beer wasn't cold, and my prime rib was put in front of me in about 5 minutes, I've never even had soup in 5 minutes in a restaurant before! Plus it was expensive!

Chris had to set off for home on Wednesday, but we found 20th Street in East Saint Louis. the light was all wrong, so we went to the other end of Gateway Yard and found a spot where we weren't trespassing. we got to meet an Alton & Southern cop, who told us the area wasn't safe, and recommended a couple of places safer. So we went back to 20th Street, and Chris had to go. the light still wasn't right, so I went to the other place the cop had suggested, and had a good two or three hours before heading back to 20th St. I'd no sooner parked when another A&S cop showed up, he just wanted to make sure I was OK, recommended that I keep the aircon on, windows up and doors locked! The neighborhood looked pretty rough (well, really rough) but the road I was on beside the yard dead ended, and nobody came near me. Thursday morning the alarm didn't go off, so I ended up on Grand Boulevard later than I intended. I set up, UP, BNSF & Metro (light rail) all come together here. Before long a voice wanted to know what I thought I was doing. Turned out to be an armed Metro security guard. Told him I was waiting for freight trains. He said it was illegal to take pictures of Metro trains or property without permission, and to go away. which I declined to do, since I was on public property and he had no authority there, nor did I believe I needed permission. Next he wanted ID, which I also declined to give him. So he called a cop. Who told me to go away, and demanded ID, which I did give him. I also told him he was exceeding his authority, that I had every right to take pictures, and told him, and the security guard I was being deprived of my rights and was going to file formal complaints, and took names. The cop was getting quite disgruntled by this time, so I decided that I was about to get tazed or arrested, and went away. I called Metro, who seemed quite surprised by the whole thing, since I was on public property, told me that of course I didn't need permission and would call security. So I set off back to the Metro station to have words with security, and discovered I'd locked my keys in the car. Of course this was the trip I'd forgotten my spare! While waiting for AAA, I called the Saint Louis County PD, the captain wasn't available, so I talked to the dispatcher. Metro had called, everybody knew all about me, and to go back and take my pictures, very sorry! Which I did, AAA having taken about 30 seconds to get into my car. I got the hairy eyeball from a variety of Metro security & cops, and from several members of the STL County PD, but nobody bothered me.

I know I've ranted and raved about graffiti, but there is a flood control wall down by the MacArthur bridge that has some serious stuff on it, sadly the usual moron taggers have defaced a lot of it.

Friday I set off for Columbus, Ohio, to pick up my wife so we could spend the weekend with Chris & Megan and the grandkids. Which we did, and had a very nice time.

On Monday I dropped my wife back off at the airport and set off for Saint Louis to get a few more shots. Tuesday I had a look at the other big bridge, the humidity was just appalling, the heat index was 117, and I was soaked in sweat. On Wednesday, when I woke up it was dark gray and nasty, thunderstorms promised, and the heat index was going to be 125, so I came home. It was an interesting trip, less rail traffic than we were expecting, and STL seems to be quite a gritty kind of town. East Saint Louis was something else, all the railfan websites say how dangerous it can be, and not to fan alone or display expensive equipment. No problems though, although at 20th St/Valley Junction I did take the A&S cop's advice, just popping out of the car for my shots, and keeping a wary eye out for problems.

All in all, not a bad trip, a total of about 4500 miles. Great to see Chris & Megan and their kids again!

Saguaro National Park West

It's monsoon season here in Arizona, when we hope to get most of our rain, this year to date about 6.5 inches. The cumulus clouds build up over the Santa Catalina Mountains in the afternoon, and since I like to include cloud formations in my videos, I had a couple of hours with my digital still camera in Saguaro National Park West, which is perhaps half an hour from the house. We're in the Sonora desert, which is the only place in the world that these cacti grow. So any western type cowboy movies with this cacti in them were shot in this part of the world.

Canada & The Columbia River

In late June I set off for Seattle to pick up Graham, who was flying in from the UK for a couple of weeks of train chasing. I took my time getting up there, and stopped for a shot of a train near Dunsmuir, California. and since Mount Shasta was still covered in snow, I took an hour to wander around looking for a photo site. After all this, and 1650 miles on the road, I arrived at the airport about an hour before his flight was due in, and wonder of wonders, it was early!

From Seattle we headed up Interstate 5, which was quite busy, to Hope, British Columbia and a hotel for a couple of nights. Canadian immigration was interested in our journey in search of trains, and asked if we'd seen the Thompson & Fraser canyons, which was where we were headed! After checking in to the hotel, we set off to look for a train or two. We found one crawling slowly in to a siding, and the engineer came over and asked if I'd mind going to get his conductor, they had been knocked down by a detector, and the train was better than 9500 feet long. So off I went, but the conductor was nowhere to be found. I went back to the head end, and told the engineer that the people at the crossing had said the conductor was on the other side of the train. Since the train was blocking the crossing, he dragged it forward to clear, and I went back for the conductor. Who was grateful for the offer, but needed to find the problem, and would quite likely be a long time. So I picked up Graham, and we went off to find something to eat, since it was getting quite late.

Chris and I had been on the Thompson and Fraser Rivers in 1997, I recognized a few places, but mostly we shot in places that were new to me. After the first couple of days the weather cleared, and we had some excellent days, with only one cloudy afternoon. There were osprey all over the place, and lots of bald eagles too.

After a week in Canada, we'd about covered the Thompson & Fraser. Traffic on CN was quite sparse, but I shot enough for a nice program, so we set off for the Columbia River. we ended up in Cascade Locks for a couple of nights. Since it was prime tourist season in both BC & Oregon, I was blown away by the price of hotel rooms. We had superb weather on the Columbia River, but train traffic was a bit weird. BNSF had a MofW window for a couple of days, and UP was quite sparse, good in the early morning and evening, but long waits in the afternoon. And of course the traffic on the opposite side of the river to us was usually quite heavy! we had 50 mph winds one day, which made shooting quite difficult, the tripod and camera wanting to get airborn! On the Monday afternoon, the day before Graham had to leave for home, my Trailblazer's power steering went, so the following morning I had to take it in to the dealer, which was fortunately next door to our hotel in The Dalles. The nearest power steering pump was in Portland, and there were no rental cars to be had, so poor Graham had to take a very expensive taxi to Portland airport. Which was only the start of his problems getting home, the flight from Chicago was late, then had to turn back and land in Chicago (with a full fuel load) after having electrical problems. He finally got away more than five hours late. I spent that day and the next morning sitting in the hotel room, then dragged all my luggage over to the dealers and sat there. They tried quite hard to sell me a Subaru Forester! I finally got the car back at 4 pm and set off for home. I made it to the Oregon/Idaho border, where I spent the night in a somewhat, how shall I put it, less than average motel. Next day I made it to Flagstaff, which was a VERY long day, then got in to home late the next morning. All in all, it was an excellent trip, covering about 5500 miles.

A northern Arizona sunset, only 400 miles from home!