return from west Texas

Still working through the November backlog... today I have 5 more shots from November 13, as I worked my way back to Fort Worth from Slaton...

Santa Fe depot at Snyder

Santa Fe circle-cross emblem at Snyder

Bodine Bros Drive-In Dairy near Colorado City

7-up fading ad near downtown Colorado City

BNSF 1733 on the Texas & Oklahoma Railroad in Sweetwater

On November 17, M joined me for another short trip to Argyle to try my luck at another silhouette shot at sunset. (See January 4 entry) A southbound arrived at just the right time...

Fourth time's the charm, as well... UP southbound near Argyle at sunset on November 17.

Check back in a day or two for more...

WSC

np: Led Zeppelin - "Bring it on home"

return to west Texas

Thursday, November 13. I had spent the previous night in Slaton, and woke up to clear skies and a nice sunrise. I'd spend the morning between Slaton and Post on the BNSF Slaton Sub, and then head down to the UP Toyah Sub west of Sweetwater in the afternoon...

Sunrise at Slaton. A westbound coal empty is ready to depart, as a westbound freight enters the yard in the distance.

I had wanted to catch an eastbound heading down through the cuts along the edge of the Caprock at Buenos...

... but all I got were two westbounds.

The second westbound: BNSF 7396 at Buenos.

I headed to Colorado City to start the afternoon on the UP Toyah Sub. This Z-train was the second of six westbounds I'd see that day.

Westbound Z-train leaving Colorado City.

I raced the Z to the overpass near Coahoma for another shot... I was lucky the highway department had the outside lane of westbound I-20 blocked off!

Back at Colorado City, I set up for another westbound.

Westbound stacks approaching Roscoe.

I burned the last hour of daylight getting a few shots of the TXOR (Texas & Oklahoma) SD9s, tied down on the line to Maryneal south of Sweetwater. The BNSF 1733 looks like it's seen better days. But I wonder how it SOUNDS! Maybe someday I'll catch them running...

BNSF 1733 on the TXOR south of Sweetwater.

Coming next: finishing out the month of November, and a quick December re-cap...

WSC

np: Stevie Ray Vaughan - "Voo Doo Child"

Half a lifetime ago

It used to be that the concept of an 18-year stretch of time seemed damn close to an eternity. Well, as of today, I've lived through TWO 18 year "eternities". That's the theme of my 1990 blog "Half a Lifetime Ago", featuring a re-cap of my experiences and photos from my 18th year.

On this date in Whiskey history: 18 years ago in Sweetwater, TX...

On January 7, 1990, my 18th birthday, I spent a day watching and photographing trains near Sweetwater, Texas. I remember feeling relieved that trains were still running in the year 1990. To listen to the skeptics and gloom-n-doomers during the late 1980s, one would have thought that 1990 would usher in the decade when all the railroads would finally declare bankruptcy and pull up their tracks forever. How wrong they were...

1990 would be the year that I graduated from high school and began my freshman year of college. It would be my first year of shooting photos with an SLR camera (instead of an auto-everything "point & shoot".) The timing couldn't have been better, since I did quite a bit of taveling that year -- including a nearly month-long summer trip to Washington DC, Baltimore, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kansas City. And halfway through the year, I would switch from print film to slide film. It was a year of great personal change, and a year when I really began to refine my talents as a photographer. And there was plenty of interesting stuff to shoot on the railroads that year. What I wouldn't give to see some of that stuff back on the tracks!

18 years... it seems like a lifetime ago, but even as of today it has only been half of that. Follow along at http://halfalifetimeago.blogspot.com/

WSC

np: Mark Davis and Hal Jay - WBAP morning show

nr: John Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath

Ghost signs - Sweetwater, TX

Another cool thing about ghost signs is that they give me something to focus my camera on when trains aren't around. Not only that... I've found that photographing ghost signs allows me to take a more casual "snapshot" approach to my photography. I don't obsess about shadows or light or spending 10 minutes getting the "perfect" composition. Sometimes, I'll just slow the truck down and fire a shot out the window. I snapped these photos during a quick break in the rail activity in Sweetwater a couple Sundays ago.

Auto Parts Co.

JM Radford Grocery Co.

Al's Cafe

Kinsey Printing

Sweetwater Sash and Door

Sweetwater Steel & Supply Co.

Next up... local stuff from Fort Worth

WSC

np: Mark Davis & Hal Jay - WBAP morning show

nr: John Steinbeck - East of Eden