10/18/20

 This is another image from the Steamfest in Owosso Michigan a while back and another that is half of a stereo image.  The Little River Railroad is a tourist operated one in Coldwater Michigan.  Locomotive 110 is a 4-6-2 Pacific type locomotive built in 1911.  It worked as a logging engine early in it's life.  It has a "blind" center driver on it which means it has no flanges and that allows it to negotiate tighter turns than other locomotives with the same wheel arrangement.  It's quite a lovely looking locomotive that the LRR takes very good care of.

7/12/20

Welcome to another Steamy Sunday on the Blog.  Because of not being able to do steamy things this year I have been digging in the archives for older images I never shared.  This one is from a Steamfest in Owosso Michigan that I attended several years back where I was able to see and ride behind this beautiful locomotive, the Southern Pacific Daylight.  This image is actually one half of a stereo image I did at the time.

2/10/19

Today's image is actually a fairly old image now but it is still one of my favorites.  I just love how it turned out with the light.  It has been long enough now that those of you who have been with me for 2000 plus posts may not remember it and new followers can enjoy it.  I was able to attend a night shoot at an Owosso Michigan Steam Fest 10 years ago now, my how time flies.  This is the Southern Pacific Daylight and the Pere Marquette 1225 sitting under steam at the turntable for the shoot.

8/7/18

My image today was taken when I visited Greenfield Village of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan.  This is the Roundhouse that they still use to service the 3 steam locomotives that they rotate in operation.  It was originally built in 1884 for the Detroit, Toledo and Milwaukee Railroad in Marshall Michigan and was then moved here.  The locomotive on the right is a static display because it is too large to operate on the current tracks.  You can walk down underneath it for a unique view.

5/8/18

I mentioned last week that I was hosting Transport Tuesday over on Google +.  I found this shot that I forgot I had from my trip to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan.  This is one of the original Wiener Mobiles.  They have a Hot Dog Stand there in the museum and had this on display in front of it.  Not sure I would have wanted to drive this as the visibility looks pretty bad with it but a fun piece of history.

12/3/17

I have had this image for awhile and never shared so this is one from the archives.  This is a night photo shoot I attended with some cool locomotives in attendance,  Here in this image are the noses of Nickel Plate 765 owned by the  Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society.  Next is the former Southern Pacific Daylight 4449 currently owned by a Friends of group located in Oregon.  Then lastly is Pere Marquette 1225 currently owned by the Steam Railroading Institute in Michigan which is where I was for this event.  It was probably a once in a lifetime experience to be able to see so many famous steam trains at one time.

6/25/17

My image today goes back to A Sreamfest in Michigan that I got to attend a while ago and where I got to ride behind the beautiful Daylight locomotive.  This is a former Southern Pacific GS-4 which is a streamlined 4-8-4 wheel arrangement locomotive built in 1941 by the Lima locomotive Works.  It's bright color and matching color passenger cars made for a beautiful sight back in the day and still do to this day. 

5/14/17

This image comes from the same time as last week.  We were at the Steamfest in Michigan and Nickel Plate 765 was out on it's excursion and we were chasing.  By the time it got to the town where it was going to turn on the wye to head back it had begun to rain for a few moments.  I liked the moodiness that gave the image.

5/7/17

So it is nice and sunny and warm, a beautiful weekend.  My image today goes back to a summer evening in Owosso, Michigan when we went to a Steamfest and got to ride behind this beautiful locomotive.  This was the night before at a photo-shoot opportunity.  The Southern Pacific 4449 Daylight locomotive was positioned on the turntable for photos.  It's such a lovely streamlined locomotive and beautifully colored I think.  It's passenger cars were colored in the same style making it a lovely train in it's day quite different from the usual black locomotives and duller colored passenger cars. 

4/30/17

It's the last day of April and still having those April showers for May flowers though it looks like maybe they will let up for a while soon.  My image today goes back to the beautifully kept No. 7 locomotive at the Greenfield Village of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan.  I just love the color of this locomotive and they keep it spotless even though it is a coal fired locomotive which can be a bit difficult.  It is one of 3 locomotives that they run.  Each one runs for 2 weeks at a time, then goes in for maintenance while another runs for 2 weeks, goes in and so on.  It runs around the park all day and you can ride as many times as you like for just 5 dollars.  Well worth it I thought.  I captured it here pulling out of one of the stations on the grounds.

3/18/17

I took this image this past summer in Michigan.  I saw several types of waterbirds this particular evening on the shore of Lake Erie.  I captured this Canada Goose out for a swim and I liked the light and bit of reflection in the water.

3/9/17

I took this image while I was in Michigan after I was able to get some shots of an Egret.  This part of the stream was quite dirty, not sure if it was stuff off the trees or what.  I thought it created some nice bokeh.  I believe this duck is a Mallard.  There were several around at the time but I liked this image of this solitary one.

2/26/17

This is a bit different type of train photo for me.  I shot this image in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan and it is 5 shots done Vertically and then stitched together.  Because I was so close to the locomotive due to the tight confines of the museum, when it was stitched it created the curve which I was able to fix a bit but not all the way without the locomotive looking ridiculous.  It is a beautifully restored Rogers built American 4-4-0 style locomotive that has had 3 names in it's life. It started out in the 1800s as the "Satilla" for the Satilla River.  Henry Ford bought it in 1924 and named it the "Sam Hill" for an engineer from his boyhood days.  In 1929 it was selected to be used for ceremonies to open the Greenfield Village and Henry ford Museum and pull specially built cars so it was named "The President" in honor of President Herbert Hoover.

2/19/17

Today I am posting another shot of the beautifully restored locomotive No 7 at Greenfield Village of the Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan.  It was just coming around the corral area to the station to load passengers for it's next loop.  You can ride around the grounds as many times as you like for just a small charge one time.  No 7 used to pull Henry Ford's train on his various travels back in the day.

1/7/17

Another bitterly cold morning but things are supposed to get a bit better.  This image was taken on a nice warm day in July.  This is another image of the Egret that I was able to get fairly close to in Michigan.  It was just walking along and looking for fish.  At one point some fireworks in the distance, it was 4th of July, spooked it and it took off but didn't go far down the river.  It was nice to see one close and not so spooked as ones here in Kansas can be if you get anywhere near them.

12/31/16

Usually I post one of these images on Sundays as I co-curate Steamy Sunday over on G+.  I decided to do things here in reverse.  This is an older image of the beautiful Southern Pacific Daylight locomotive during a photo run-by.  We had ridden an excursion behind this locomotive while in Michigan a few years ago and it included a couple of times where we were allowed to get off the train while it backed up and then went past us to allow for photos.  It was a fun experience.

12/7/16

Heading into a few really cold days now.  This image is from a warmer day in July in Michigan along the shore of Lake Huron.  This is another image of the Heron I was able to get so close to.  It was really amazing as here I can't get within a hundred yards it seems.  This one came so close I could hardly get it all in frame at times.  Cool birds with their long legs and Legs is the game for Bird Poker this week on G+.  

10/2/16

This image is from the Roundhouse at Greenfield Village of the Henry Ford complex in Dearborn, Michigan.  This is another of the coal fired locomotives that they operate.  The locomotives are in rotation, 2 weeks on.  When they are off they get a boiler washout and maintenance in this operating Roundhouse.

9/25/16

Well we cooled off a lot now so today doesn't seem so steamy but I have a steamy shot.  This is one from the archives from a Steamfest in Michigan I was able to attend and a night shoot opportunity.  In this image, which I tried to shoot from a different perspective than the other photographers there, you can see 3 well known US locomotives.  Locomotive 1225 is the Pere Marquette that was used as the model for the movie The Polar Express, locomotive 4449 is the Southern Pacific Daylight with it's distinct red white and black coloring and styling and Nickel Plate locomotive 765.  Locomotive 110 is from the Prairie River Railroad and Number 1 was a traveling Tank style locomotive.

9/21/16

So it's really Autumn now but you would never know it as hot as it is.  Didn't even cool down decently over night.  I hate that.  My image today is a cooling image of an Egret I was able to get several photos of in Michigan.  I've shared another shot of this Egret before but this is one I shot of it before that one and fit the requirements of this week's Bird Poker Game on G+.  This was the first time I was able to get that close to one in the wild and get several good shots of it.