2/7/16

Well, some very nice days we are having now.  I can get used to a winter like this if I know it won't get worse at some point.  :-)  My photo today goes back to the trip to South Dakota and the Black Hills Central Railroad or 1880s Train even though there is not much 1880 about it.  :-)  We had ridden this train earlier in the day and at this point I was chasing it along it's route to get photos at different points, usually as it passed a crossing, which it did numerous times.  This was at a point where I was able to get a different vantage of it from down low.

11/29/15

These icy conditions are not good.  We lost poser this morning but only for a couple of hours thankfully.  I am worried it will happen again though.  This is as least as bad if not worse than the ice storm we had several years ago.  It has been kind of pretty though.  I have been out taking photos every now and then or through the window.  
As for today's image, I am going back to summer and warmer days and our trip to South Dakota.  This is at the Black Hills Central Railroad.  This is locomotive Number 7, a Prairie 2-6-2 type, that is used on days when the loads aren't so heavy due to the fact that it cannot pull as many cars.  It sits out on static display when not in use which surprised me.  I would have thought they would keep it under cover when not in use.  It was nice to see it and I like the old time style of it.

11/8/15

Well, yesterday turned out to be quite the nice day.  Hope today is as well though it is starting out windy.  My image for today goes back to our trip to South Dakota and the Black Hills Central Railroad.  We rode this train and then chased it on it's next trip to take photos.   This is one of them as it crossed a small trestle on it's way to Keystone.  The locomotive is a 2-6-6-2 Mallet type Tank locomotive and the only one in service anywhere.  Quite a unique experience.

8/23/15

Had a cool lightning show last night and rain which cooled it down quite a bit.  It's only 60 degrees at 9:30am today.  Nice.  Today's image goes back to South Dakota after we road the Black Hills Central Railroad and were then chasing it.  I took this image as it was crossing trestle number 85 (I know that due to the tag on the trestle on the left side of it) on it's way back to Keystone, SD.

8/16/15

Another lovely morning and even though it was hot yesterday it wasn't too bad, hope the same for today.
Today's image goes back to the Black Hills Central Railway in South Dakota.  This is the locomotive that you see in a lot of their promotional photos for the 1880s Train.  It is a Prairie type 2-6-2 that they acquired in 1962.  This locomotive cannot pull as many cars and people on the grades as the tank engines so they only use it in the off seasons when there are not as many riders.  It was surprising to see it sitting out in the elements but you can see the cap on the stack to keep rain out and it looked in pretty good shape.

8/2/15

Well, here we go, mid 90s again today.  Yuck.  Pretty soon I'll be complaining it's too cold.  Sigh.  Need to move where it's more even all year round.  This image goes back to cool days in South Dakota and the 1880s Train or Black Hills Central Railroad.  We were in the town of Keystone where you can either ride the train right back or take a later train and spend time in the town which is what we did.  Before the locomotive heads back it needs to take on water which is what is happening in this photo.  The wood tank however, is just for show pretty much.  The guy on the other side of the locomotive is near a stand pipe with a hose where the majority of the water for the tank is coming from.  At least they are trying to make it look authentic.

7/26/15

Some more rain this morning and then up to 98 at least.  A sauna again.  The only thing good about this is I don't have to go out and water things in the heat.  This image for today goes back to much cooler times when we were in South Dakota.  On this particular day it was only in the mid 60s F and it was cloudy out.  We were riding the 1880s Train, or more accurately, The Black Hills Central Railroad, while I took this image as we were going around a curve.  Because of the cool conditions while they were blowing the whistle for the approach of the crossing it created quite the nice plume of steam.

7/19/15

Well, hopefully we are going to cool down now, got some rain and it's only predicted for low 90s today.  Right now it's rather steamy outside with the humidity.  Makes this post for today fitting.  :-)
This is the Black Hills central Railway in South Dakota.  We were chasing the train after riding and this was the first shot I got of it.  I was up on a rock hill, there were chairs set up near where I was so the locals must go up there to watch fairly regularly.  As you can see from all the steam coming out towards the cab in the shot, he was blowing the whistle.  This was something I did not consider and should have since I was at a crossing but I was just thinking about the cool shot.  It was quite loud and startling.  LOL  Even though it does not look like it I was safely away from the edge of the cliff.

7/12/15

Wow, it's going to be hot!  99 today 102 tomorrow.  I want the 80s of South Dakota.  Sigh.  While we were in South Dakota we rode a steam train of course.  :-)  It is called the 1880s Train but there is not really anything about it from the 1880s except the station which was an original Burlington Northern from 1889 so barely made it.  It was a nice ride but the people were rather strict about not moving when the train was moving even though it was one of the smoothest rides I have been on.  I like to be able to move about to take photos and most rides I have been on allow for this.  Anyway, it was pulled by a locomotive I had never seen before, an articulated Mallet Tank engine built by Baldwin in 1928.  Articulated means it has 2 sets of drivers that are separated and work independently, this is so it can negotiate sharp curves.  Mallet is the designation of the wheels arrangement 2-6-6-2.  It carries it's water in the tank that goes over the boiler.  It was oil fired because they stopped using coal in the 1930s due to trains traveling through the Black Hills Forest.  With oil you don't get cinders that could start a fire.