FIRST CLASS AIR!

The last weekend in August was Pete Lerro's Berkshire photo freight, and since I'd never seen the big Berks, I decided to go. A trip to the UK was also needed since I hadn't seen mother, who is 86, for some time. So I decided to use my air miles and go first class. Tucson to DFW and on to Detroit was on Super 80's, and I have to say that first class is considerably better than cattle class up at the back! Hot nuts, a hot breakfast, hot towels, attentive service, what an eye opener. I set off from Detroit in the rental car, and eventually stopped at a rest area to find out where Owosso had disappeared to. Turning round, I drove back the 45 miles I'd overshot the exit, and eventually found my way to the hotel. The event was quite entertaining, the big engines certainly put on an amazing show, especially the 765. Well worth doing. I flew from Detroit to Chicago on a regional jet, so no first class, and I had to surrender my camera bag, which is one of the reasons I avoid regional jets wherever possible, I've seen the way luggage gets treated. The camera of course come out of the bag! Chicago to Manchester was on the usual 767, but what a difference sitting up front makes. I could really get used to travelling in style. Except of course I can't afford to, but I still have a lot of miles left, so hopefully I can do it again. The ride home from Manchester to Chicago was on the same 767, then Chicago to DFW to Tucson was on Super 80's again. Manchester I was sent upstairs to BA's first class lounge. Free breakfast, the bar was open (9 am!), newspapers, magazines, TV, quiet. Very nice!

Since I seem to be incapable of going anywhere without getting a program out of it, and to indulge my new found passion for narrow gauge steam, I visited the Welshpool & Llanfair railway in Wales. I stayed in a pub, which was interesting, to say the least. My room was over the bar, which stayed open until about 2 am, the following two nights (I checked out early!) they hosted stag parties, the first night went on until 4 am, the second a Saturday night, went on until 5 am. The likelyhood of me staying in a pub again is small! The railway was a lot of fun, although access is a bit limited. I was given a cab ride on an 0-6-2 tank engine from Sierra Leone when the driver found out how far I'd come to see the railway. I've always liked the look of The Earl and The Countess, they were around when I was a kid, and I finally got to see them, they are even nicer in real life than they are in pictures.

I grew up in Rochdale, near Manchester, in England. Rochdale was a cotton town until everything went overseas, and the mills have either gone, or been converted to other uses. The town dates back to Roman times, there are remains of Roman roads in the hills behind the town, and it's mentioned in the Doomsday book. The town hall is pretty impressive, dominating the town center, and on the hill behind is the parish church, dating back to the 10th century. Mother still lives there, so I get to go and visit three or four times a year, see if she needs locking up yet!

TEXAS HUMIDITY

In June I set off for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to document some of the railroads there. My first afternoon was spent on an overpass just south of Tower 55, which is now off limits and patrolled. Eventually a police car pulled up and a lady officer, who seemed to think it was funny, told me that I'd been reported as a suspicious character and a probably threat to Homeland Security. We chatted about what I was up to, the patrol car mostly blocking traffic, then she asked if the white SUV was mine, which it was. She told me the area was not really nice, the cops called it crack alley and I perhaps might like to consider not being there after dark. So after considering it, I went and found a motel and considered the next day. After more Tower 55 I ended up in Saginaw, 7 or 8 miles north of downtown Fort Worth. Watching TV that night I was, ah, interested, to find that I was in the tornado warning area! Sitting trackside at Saginaw the next day I couldn't see across the tracks for the rain, and the day was mostly worthless. After the storm moved through, it heated up again and the humidity became almost intolerable. After driving to Dallas and finding the Trinity River bridge, I got set up and discovered that my camera declined to function due to condensation. So I spent the next hour in the car with the heater on full trying to dry it out. Late afternoon the storm clouds showed up, so I packed up and set off back to the motel in Saginaw. It took two hours on the freeway to cover the 34 miles! All in all, it was reasonably interesting, but oh, the humidity!

From Dallas I set off to Columbus, Ohio to pick up my wife at the airport for a visit with our oldest son and his wife, and of course our grandchildren. I got to spend an hour on top of the parking garage watching the planes until my wife arrived, then off we went to see our grandson for the first time, and I got to practice child photography with my new camera. After the visit I dropped my wife off at Columbus International and went to Marion, a couple of hours north of Columbus. Chris joined me the next morning, and went home the following morning, and I set off home the morning after. Marion was interesting, decent amount of traffic and variety, and only a two day drive home. I got to Socorro, New Mexico the first day, and from there it's only 400 miles home!

Fort Worth & Dallas, Texas

Marion, Ohio

Grandkids

A TRIP TO NORTH DAKOTA

We had to attend the wedding of our niece at the International Peace Gardens between Manitoba and North Dakota at the beginning of July, 2009. Since it was our niece, my wife flew up to Minot to help her sister get ready, and I, being too cheap just to go anywhere, set off to shoot BNSF on the old Northern Pacific line across North Dakota. After leaving Tucson about 6 am, I spent the first night 850+ miles later in Castle Rock, just south of Denver, Colorado. I have made it to Cheyenne, Wyoming (1005 miles) in a day, but I guess age is creeping up on me and I don't really feel like doing that any more. I set off for Glendive, Montana, the start of BNSF's Dickinson Sub, next morning and arrived early afternoon after driving up through the Powder River coal fields, seeing a reasonable number of trains on the way. I spent a couple of weeks shooting my way across the state, ending up at Casselton, west of Fargo and the end of the Jamestown Sub. The Badlands were interesting, and I got to meet a couple of BNSF MoW employees, the first being somewhat aggressive! I'm quite entertained (after the fact) that they seem to know to an inch where the property line is (your tripod is trespassing). This one told me, in addition the the usual Department of Homeland Security, need permission to take pictures of trains, trespassing etc, that I was obviously up to no good since my car doesn't have plates! Arizona is a one plate state and thus no plate on the front. So he walked over to my car and put the tailgate down to check if I had a rear plate. A while later his supervisor showed up to check me out, but was a good deal more polite. Otherwise there were no problems on the trip, mostly excellent weather and my car didn't do anything it shouldn't. We had a good time at the wedding, catching up with a number of in-laws and nieces and nephews. I did get stopped for speeding on the way back to the hotel after the wedding, and got to sit in the front of a state trooper's car while he checked me out. Since I was well dressed, sober and polite, and have a clean record, I got off with a warning. After dropping my daughter off at Minot airport at 4 am, I set off for home. I didn't realize it until well in to the drive home, but the big Sturgis bike festival was going on and North Dakota was FULL of motor bikes. I made it to Castle Rock again, and was home the next day.

California

My friend Graham came over from the UK in May, I met him at LAX and we had a few days on Cajon Pass. As usual I was too busy shooting video to take many stills, but did manage a few. The new track is open, traffic seemed a bit down, but there was enough so that we didn't get bored. I was concerned over security, and I'd heard that the inside of Sullivan's Curve belonged to BNSF. However, there were signs near the crossing at Cajon that seemed to indicate that it was actually Forest Service property, so we went and had a look. Security was out and about over the pass, on the new double track, but I made sure the car was well away from the rails, and so were we, and we weren't bothered. Somebody in a pickup was racing around the inside of Sullivan's while we were up on the SP side, and somebody in a Jeep came along, crossed the SP track and sat on the retaining wall alongside the BNSF track, which I thought was perhaps a little foolish. The access road up at Summit is used by dirt bikes and ATV's, so I'm not sure what the trespass situation is there, I figured it was perhaps best not to find out!

After Cajon we set off for the Feather. Satnav and I disagreed, I would have gone down to I10 and up 5, satnav and Graham wanted me to go over Tehachapi and up through Sacramento that way, so since I really didn't think LA would be too much fun during the rush hour, I took their advice. Nothing moving over Tehachapi, but there was probably a good deal less traffic, so it all worked out well. On arrival at Oroville, we checked in to the hotel and then went exploring. After we got over the bridge at Pulga, the car felt odd, and it turned out that we had a flat. It's a royal pain getting the spare out from under the Trailblazer, so we were both filthy by the time it got done. On the way back we found an eastbound, and managed to get a glint shot at James. Dinner was at the brewpub in the Oroville depot, and very nice it was too. Next morning it was off to the tire store, where I had to buy a new tire, since mine had split. I think it was this day that I tripped getting over the crash barrier at the side of the road and landed, hard, on my face. Good thing my glasses are plastic, otherwise I might be blind in my right eye now. Knocked me out for a few seconds, and gave me a good road rash on the side of my face. Gave me a bit of a headache, too. My doctor says that one looses one's abilty to quickly regain balance after tripping as one gets older, had I been 30 years younger it would probably have just been a stumble. 

It had been ten years since I was on the Feather the first time, and the trees have not stopped growing (surprise!). The shot at Keddie is going away, and there is some construction at Clio, which together with new growth is taking that shot away. Some of the shots in the canyon are going away too. Traffic counts are fairly low, but chasing is easy, and we had perfect weather, so we got enough footage for a nice program. After running around, we had a look at the museum in Portola, then set off for Sacramento, where I left Graham, he had a flight to LAX and on to London. Satnav had me take the central route down to Tehachapi and then to Victorville, I would, again, have gone down I5 to LA and on to I10. I spent the night in Banning, and was home by noon the next day.