r a i l o h i o . c o m

Butler, Indiana Derailment Photos

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:47:00 +0000

I went to Butler, Indiana today to see the mess Norfolk Southern made with 206 yesterday morning. I have posted some photos on flickr and there is a discussion on RailroadFan.com as well. It was an excellent opportunity to test out the new digital camera!

railohio Goes Digital

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:36:00 +0000

Today, it can be said, railohio "went digital." Yesterday the mailman brought my first DSLR, a Nikon D90. Today it went for its first field trials.

I've been avoiding the issue for a few years now. I'd argue that the camera I wanted, a Nikon D700, was still too costly or that there were too many "extras" to get along with the camera that drive the price up further. I played the "computers are too unstable to entrust with my photos" card a number of times as well, never mind that I used Macs and my computers were perfectly reliable. It was, in the end, simply a preference for film that kept me from switching.

It was also the film that made me switch. Fuji is about to end their subsidized processing mailer program; that would virtually double my processing costs. My film scanner has also seen better days, greatly reducing the usefulness of those film-based images in an increasingly digital world. I was coming to terms with all that, however. The change ended up being more opportunistic than premeditated.

I logged in to check Facebook one day last month and saw a friend was offering a D90 and lens kit for sale. A figurative light bulb lit up in my head and I did some quick calculations on my estimated tax refunds. I made an offer equal to the value of my tax refunds and my film and processing budget for the spring; long story short, I'm now the owner of a Nikon D90 and 18-105mm VR. By my calculations the camera will have paid for itself if I shoot just three-quarters less film than I did last year. That's right, I don't even have to give up film entirely to make the switch pay off.

Of course, my original arguments against digital still hold true. There are still a number of things I need to get before I dive headlong into this. Memory cards are at the top of the list. The camera is being supplied with but one 1GB card, not nearly enough when dealing with 12-megapixel images. A trip to Meijer is in order this week to pick up a pair of 4GB SDHC cards. Those same images will also eat up my hard drive space. This past autumn I purchased a 1TB external hard drive, but I'm going to need to beef up the computers, too. I'll likely end up getting a new 250GB hard drive for each the Mac mini and Macbook this spring. From B&H I'll need to get a second rechargeable battery, I know a couple DSLR shooters who can drain a battery in less than a day, and maybe one of those cheap wireless remotes, too. Down the road I'll need to get some wide "DX" glass to make up for the 1.5X crop factor of the smaller image sensor. I'd also like to get the vertical grip battery holder which would help mimic the handling of my beloved F5.

The F5 is going to a new home on long-term loan along with some of my other photo gear out to the Northwest. The new (to me) SB-28 will likely go with and probably the manual focus glass as well. I'll keep the N80 and FM-10 for future film shoots along with all of my digital-compatible autofocus lenses.

Photos will be posted later this week.

iPad Arrives

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:20:00 +0000

After months of rampant speculation Apple's iPad has arrived. It doesn't run OS X and it doesn't have a webcam, but it's still an amazing device. For starters, it's priced at about half what Apple pundits expected. It also introduces new functionality to the iPhone OS in the form of iWork. And don't forget it doesn't require an AT&T contract to get wireless service either. That is possibly the most revolutionary idea behind it.

So what is the iPad? It's basically an iPod touch on steroids. It fits somewhere between the iPhone/iPod product line and the Macbooks. It is, in essence, Apple's reply to the "netbook" phenomenon. It can best be described as the everyman's gadget. No, it won't replace your iPhone or likely your laptop if you need specific applications. It promises to be the ultimate in traveling light, however.

So why are people griping about its release? Its not fully customizable, but what Apple product is? It lacks support for Flash. It doesn't have a webcam. And don't forget the biggest complaint of all, it's made by Apple. In spite of this techno-whining, it will still sell by the millions.

Yes, I do plan to get one. My Macbook will be three years old this summer. I'm sure when it dies, be it a year or three years from now, I'll replace it with an iPad. Truthfully, I don't need all of OS X when I travel. Sure, I'll miss having some favorite games, but when I travel all I really need to do is check e-mail and do some research on where I'm at or where I'm going. That can easily be accomplished on the iPad, or even my iPod touch for that matter.

But the iPad is just so cool! It doesn't do anything that my iPod or Macbook don't do now, but if my experience with the iPod is any indication it will do them very, very well. With an iPad I can carry a digital portfolio of my photography, play games, read a book, catch up on news, or update my blog. I can do it from anywhere in the house, anywhere in the yard, and, with the AT&T wireless setup, anywhere I travel. Going to Chicago for a long weekend? The cheap data plan will be perfect for trips like that. Having a keyboard dock makes it even more useful at home; if the rumored compatibility with a Bluetooth keyboard comes true it will be very appealing for travel.

This year will be very interesting for Apple. The company is poising the iPhone OS to be a dominant player not just in the smartphone category but also for personal entertainment and now even productivity. It's shaping up to become more relevant than OS X even. That development would truly be interesting.

Henry Ford's Railroad

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:52:00 +0000

This past week the Indiana & Ohio moved what are presumed to be their last auto racks out of Flat Rock, Michigan. The road that Henry Ford (re)built is now out of the automotive business. It should come as no surprise, however, with the two-year long shake-up of the domestic automotive business that is still playing out. It's only natural for contracts to be reevaluated and awarded based on new business projections. It will be strange regardless of the circumstances to see only covered hoppers and gondolas moving north of Lima on the road formerly with all the connections.

All is Quiet on New Year's Day

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:31:00 +0000

There was a time, not too long ago, when railroading was a 24/7/365 operation, when only the postal service (Neither rain, nor sleet...) had greater fortitude. Today, however, all is quiet on the rails. Only "essential" trains are running, those of Amtrak, commuter agencies, and, of course, UPS. What happened to the mantra that railroading is a year-round and essential operation?

A Railpictures Gem

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:29:00 +0000

I don't normally call attention to Railpictures.net, but this series of photographs is worth the trouble. Chuck Schwesinger has been posting some amazing photos from the Upper Midwest, and now the Pacific Northwest. They're definitely worth a visit to the site, even if you're normally put off by the flashy ads and pop-up windows. The pleasure is very much worth all the pain.

Decline of Hobby Retail

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:54:00 +0000

I visited a local hobby shop last weekend and was greatly disappointed with what I saw. The shop I visited was one of two under common ownership in a medium-sized city. The store largely survives off RC hobbies and paint ball supplies but there are a couple aisles dedicated to model railroad equipment.

I stopped by after a modular layout exhibition in town looking to get some supplies and maybe a couple new freight cars. What I was really after was a bulk pack of Micro-Trains 1015 couplers. (For the uninitiated those are the #5 couplers of N scale, a universal standard of sorts.) Unfortunately I only found a couple pairs of assembled 1015s mixed in with a ton of Micro-Trains and Kadee (!) coupler conversions for obscure out-of-production locomotives. In other words, stock that should've been marked down and moved out the door fifteen years ago. Ten bucks for two pairs of assembled couplers? No thanks! I'd have paid retail for the bulk pack, if they had it, but certainly not two stinkin' pairs of couplers. How a shop can survive without stocking the most basic items is beyond me.

They lost another sale with their (lack of) freight car selection. If there were 200 N scale freight cars in their inventory 185 of them were Micro-Trains and half of those were the special edition state cars. In other words, junk. There was not one single Atlas Trainman edition on the shelves. I'd have probably picked up two or three of those, at retail price no less, if they were available. What I wasn't going to do was shell out thirty bucks for a Micro-Trains hopper or auto rack. The clerk offered to order anything I wanted from Atlas or Micro-Trains, at retail price plus tax and with over an hour drive to pick it up. No way, sir.

So instead of getting forty to fifty of my hard-earned dollars this store got nothing. Whoever does the ordering needs to get a wake-up call. Micro-Trains cars don't move at retail price and nobody is still looking for a coupler conversion for their Rivarossi steam engine. Now it looks like N Scale Supply will be getting another other this winter...

Shelf Life: Bootlegger's Haven

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:56:00 +0000

Another Monday brings another installment of Anime News Network's Shelf Life. One feature of Shelf Life is "Shelf Obsessed" where viewers send in photos of their anime shelves. This week's edition is fraught with bootlegs.

Have I been to the fan's house and looked at or watched his DVDs? No. But I've yet to come across a legitimate North American release that used a frosted slipcover on a digipack. Using just that as a guide I see at least seven bootleg releases in one photo. There are also a number of questionable titles in regular keepcases and and digipacks without slipcovers; some of those figures don't look up to snuff either.

Now it's possible these are legitimate "Region 3 imports" but given the trouble of obtaining legitimate releases from overseas I seriously doubt that's the case here especially when the bootlegs are so easy to come by on eBay. I'm throwing out a challenge to Anime News Network here and now to only feature serious collectors with legitimate releases from here on out and to purge older editions of shelf life of bootleg photos as well. Somehow I think my challenge will fall on deaf ears, however.

The Real Value of Magazines

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:16:00 +0000

I was digging through a friend's sash of railroad magazines last night helping him catalog his collection and give it some semblance of organization. For my troubles, we were working until after 1:00am, he let me take home a small stack of magazines. I ended up taking twenty issues of various titles including Rail Classics, Railway Quarterly, Railfan & Railroad, Trains, Railroad Model Craftsman, and Passenger Train Journal; the oldest issue is from 1960, the newest from 1995. In spite of that each issue has something in common: at least one article I'm interested in reading. But what about the rest of each issue? Surely I can enjoy more than a dozen pages out of each, right? Sure I can! That is the real value of reading and collecting magazines, I will eventually read and learn about something I don't have a strong interest in.

The Internet has bred a generation of self-centered railroad enthusiasts, for lack of a better term. Everyone follows the same message boards with the people they like and there's no cross-talk of ideas or interests. Modelers rarely seem to understand how railroads actually work. Steam fans can't fathom how anybody finds a diesel to be interesting. Simply put, Internet railfans are too focused on their own interests to form a broader knowledge of railroading.

How are magazines different? Each issues will undoubtedly have "good" and "bad" articles, that is, those we find of interest and those we don't. We will eventually read everything in the magazine, however, even the "bad" articles. We have paid for all the content, we might as well read it, right? As individual bits these extra articles don't seem like much at first but after reading a decade's worth of magazines a greater pool of knowledge is formed. I still find the 1960s and 1970s obsession with steam in Trains magazine to be incredibly boring, but at the same time I have learned a great deal about railroading in another generation.

I still believe that the best railroad education comes from printed media. User-generated "Web 2.0" content can only take us so far. There are literally tens of thousands of old magazines floating around at train shows and swap meets for pocket change each. Maybe next time spend ten bucks and pick out a couple that look interesting and give them a try. What you learn from them will be greater than a night spent on The Gauge.

Chasing the Local

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:55:00 +0000

This morning, even before I posted this, I chased the Maumee & Western local in town for the third time this week. It was the usual engine, CNUR 5, an ex-Santa Fe GP7, with two boxcars headed east. On Tuesday morning it was the same engine with one covered hopper headed east and on Monday morning it was the same engine with a dozen boxcars headed west. Today I burned through a whole roll of film as I chased him across town; Monday and Tuesday were each good for about a half dozen frames. Unlike other recent exploits these won't languish unprocessed on a shelf. They are destined to get mailed out to Kansas on Monday with this weekend's (hopeful) catches.

Re: Re: Fuji Mailer Redux

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:19:00 +0000

My post office receipt says 4:30:48 PM. With any luck I'll have 'em back in my hands a week from Friday. Mission accomplished!

Re: Fuji Mailer Redux

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:10:00 +0000

And today my Fuji mailers arrived on the big brown truck. Now I have about two hours to finish filling them out, pack them in a box, and make a bee-line for the post office! So close, and yet so far...

Toledo Train Show Review

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:22:00 +0000

Lame. Now I remember why I didn't go for five years. I paid three bucks to park and five bucks to get in the door. For my money and my trouble I was greeted with a sea of tables filled with dusty Lionel and Tyco equipment and T-shirts, as well as the dusty fans who collect them! Also present was the same Swanton Model Railroad Club layout that's been at every train show I can remember. This type of show seems to cling on because its largest demographic, smelly men aged fifty and older, have yet to buy anything on the Internet and Toledo's glory days of having five open hobby stores are long passed.

I ended up leaving with six back issues of N Scale Railroading magazine for a dollar each, a back issue of CTC Board for two dollars, and a pair of secondhand Kalmbach books I snagged for five bucks together. Yes, I spent nearly as much to get there as I did in merchandise. What little N scale merchandise that was available was either old train set junk or the latest releases at list price plus tax (and the cost of admission). It's a shame there wasn't a book dealer there with a greater selection or someone hawking original photos, i.e. slides. (I refuse to buy a print of anything.) Even the paltry selection of railroadiana, mostly passenger timetables, was woefully overpriced.

What would I like to see? A better selection of both paper items and model railroad items at more reasonable prices. Toy trains hold absolutely no interest to me. I'd have walked out with a book from Four Ways West or White River if anybody saw fit to carry them. Steve's Hobbies had horrible N scale prices even though it no longer has the high overhead of a retail business to contend with.

Add me to the list of "never again" visitors this year. I can still support the one book dealer who did attend outside of the train show circuit and the rest of my need can handily be met online. R.I.P Toledo train shows.

Fuji Mailer Redux

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:45:00 +0000

Today I ordered forty Fuji slide processing mailers. That will cover the thirty-five exposed rolls waiting for processing and leave a few for future shooting. (It's been a while since I did that!) Next week will be spent filling out the envelopes, stuffing a box, and making a trip to the local post office followed by a week of anxiety. Thirty-five rolls of film, that's over 1,300 images and almost two Logan boxes full of slides. I think I know what I'll be doing with my weekends in October!

Northern Illinois Wanderings

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:14:00 +0000

Railroad photography is part work and part luck. You can listen to the scanner all you want and plan and act accordingly, but you can only get trains that are there. Sometimes advanced planning pays off but sometimes it is purely the luck of the draw.

Friday was a day of preparation and planning. After watching the operating patterns I knew the Union Pacific local down the Troy Grove Branch would show up in Dekalb in the late morning. True to this he rolled into town and down the branch around 10:00 on a gloriously sunny September morning. The chase was on!

Saturday morning the plan was to chase an eastbound on the Iowa, Chicago & Eastbound in the morning. Years of observation and chasing had shown this to be the regular operating pattern. The morning dragged on, however, and no track warrants were issued east out of Savanna until almost 10:30. The train was intercepted in Kittridge, the first siding east of Savanna, tying down and waiting for a crew van. So much for that morning IC&E chase. Well, almost. As the crew van was rolling up a westbound got a track warrant out of Kittridge into Savanna. It wasn't planned, but the chase was still on! Eventually he was lensed from Kittridge all the way to Bellevue, Iowa and along with a southbound from Bellevue back to Green Island. Not a bad day in the end.

Sunday morning was bright and sunny in Rochelle, at least for a little bit. Off the new overpass at Flagg one can see for miles to the west and surprisingly there were two headlights on the horizon. One of them turned out to be the Union Pacific side of the famed "Q090" refrigerated produce train. This catch was noteworthy enough to call back to Ohio for a heads-up. After the clouds rolled in I bid farewell to mainline railroading and headed for the Illinois Railnet yard in Ottawa. While photographing their parked power I was startled by a distant horn. A train? In Ottawa? On Sunday? Sure enough I managed to catch a westbound Iowa Interstate empty ethanol train a block west of the old Rock Island station. Without second though I gave chase back west to Utica for a total of three shots. The day wasn't over yet, however, and with one last bit of luck I managed to bag an eastbound on the Norfolk Southern Kankakee line, 10R eastbound out of Streator who met westbound counterpart 31K in the Kankakee yard. It was cloudy, it was dark, and it was raining, but it was also a nice way to end the weekend.

I certainly didn't see as many trains as the fans who spent it in the Rochelle park. Over three days I only photographed one BNSF train along with the local power in Rochelle. On the other hand I did bag three IC&E moves, the Iowa Interstate, a weekday-only Union Pacific branch, and a meet on the two-train-a-day Kankakee line. Sometimes you get lucky.

Re: Re: 2009's Most Wanted

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:56:00 +0000

I bagged another short Maumee & Western chase this morning, from Napoleon to Okolona. In spite of the train being sidelit from running west in the morning I still managed to pop off a whole roll of Provia. Then again, when it takes over an hour to go five miles and I have time to stop home for more film, update my Facebook status, and load the washer and dryer it's not much of a high-intensity chase!

Toledo Railfan Blitz

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:26:00 +0000

One ongoing project for 2009 is complete coverage of Toledo's rail scene. The past two weekends I have spent filling in the remaining gaps in this endeavor, and though I made some great progress there is still much to do. Added to the "done" column this year are Lang, Stanley, and Walbridge yards, Woodville local, Waterville local, Swanton, and CP 285/Vickers. The "easy kill" targets that remain are Holland, Maumee, Millbury, Manhattan Boulevard, CSX docks, and Homestead Yard. The most vexing subjects lie on the north side, the area around Hallett Tower and the Ann Arbor in general, Norfolk Southern's industrial, line under the new I-280 bridge near the prison, and their line to the elevator in Ottawa Lake. With only a few months left I'm still inching towards my goal, and, in the end, that's really all that counts.

Ohio Passenger Rail Survey

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 03:46:00 +0000

To my fellow Ohioans:

Please take a few moments to fill out the passenger rail survey on the ODOT website. This will help in planning Ohio's transportation future.

Re: 2009's Most Wanted

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:05:00 +0000

Labor Day is the traditional end to summer activities and with it I've decided to do an audit of my railfan goals. Back in February I posted a list of railfan targets for the year. Now it's time to recap the summer's activities.

On the positive, I have managed to shoot five of the eight targets on my list, a better than sixty-two percent average. This list includes the Adrian & Blissfield; Canadian National; Chicago, Ft. Wayne & Eastern; Indiana & Ohio; and Maumee & Western.

Still elusive for the year, however, are the Ashland Railway, Indiana Northeastern, and Northern Ohio & Western. These will undoubtedly require a little more work. An aborted trip to shoot the "NOW" last month will need to be seen through to completion along with coverage of the other two roads.

Overall I'd say 2009 has been largely successful. Aside from these noted projects I invested a couple days each on the CSX Toledo Subdivision and the Norfolk Southern Chicago Line. While both lines are nearby and "easy kills" I have been able to add a number of new locations and views to my collection I, for some reason, previously did not have. I was also able to bag a couple obscure Norfolk Southern locals working in Fremont and Waterville.

So far 2009 has been good to me and with a little more work and a refined focus I'll be able to complete my outstanding goals in the remaining months. I might even be motivated enough to share some photos of it, too!

July's Manga Stock-up

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:19:00 +0000

I don't normally blog about something I've purchased, but anime culture makes us do things we wouldn't other wise do. That includes both purchasing and showing off.

I inquired on an ad from Craigslist earlier this month selling manga for five bucks each. Not really wanting to nickel and dime per book I made an offer for a lot of thirty volumes at a discounted rate; much to my surprise it was accepted. Today I went to pick up my purchase.

This is the perfect time for such a buy. Summer is great for manga. It's portable, much more so than anime, so it's great for travel or summer evenings on the porch swing. Many volumes of manga have accompanied me on railfan trips over the years. I've also depleted my manga backlog this year giving me motivation to restock.

Now all that's left is to brew some iced tea, slice some lemons, and enjoy a book or two this weekend. Maybe I should upgrade my LibraryThing account while I'm thinking about it...

Back in Black

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:23:00 +0000

I've spent an inordinate amount of time shooting Norfolk Southern the last couple weeks. I don't know if it's a longing for the "good old days" of my youth or just a renewed enthusiasm for the Thoroughbred. Either way I'm digging it.

It's been almost non-stop this week. Up before the sun for shots of Amtrak 49 and evenings catching that great low sun north of the tracks. Sometimes in between I've managed to stumble into work a few hours. I've been burning it at both ends and loving every minute of it.

I have almost twenty unprocessed rolls of film now and half of it is from the maligned Chicago Line. It may be arrow straight, but it's far-from-flat and still an intriguing piece of railroad.

I'm looking forward to exploiting it more this summer and making the most of those early mornings and late evenings trackside. It's high time I made up for lost time and filled in those final gaps in my coverage. This is shaping up to be the summer of the Thoroughbred and I can't wait for the next ride.

I Won!

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:21:00 +0000

I won something! Woo-hoo! Okay, sure, it's pointless, and useless, but damnit, I won! Maybe this will finally get me to watch Kanon? Eh. Maybe not.

The Library Grows

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:41:00 +0000

A friend's spring cleaning is my good fortune. I'm getting seventy-three magazines, CTC Board and Railroads Illustrated, a full 33 pounds of paper, for the price of shipping. Not bad, not bad at all! There will be plenty of reading and writing in the coming weeks. Now, where am I going to put them...

Return to Oak Harbor

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:57:00 +0000

Yesterday I got back to basics. I set the alarm for 0500 and pointed the car towards Oak Harbor, only about an hour and fifteen minutes from home. I had a roll of film loaded up in the N80 and a bag of snacks packed. Let me tell you, it felt good. Back in my old stomping ground with my old camera and nothing but the chatter on the scanner to direct my moves. I had a couple train magazines and some graphic novels, too, to keep me occupied between trains. Unfortunately for my readers that all means it'll be a few weeks until my photos are ready to be posted, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Film, At Last!

railohio@hotmail.com (railohio) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:12:00 +0000

I got a hot tip this week that Meijer stores carry Fuji Sensia slide film. I took a detour on the way home from work today and, sure enough, I found about a dozen rolls at a nearby store. They're 36-exposure rolls of Sensia 100 for $7.99; the total for two rolls was $17.02 with tax. Yes, buying Provia from B&H is still the far superior deal, a better film at a better price, but this provides an option for a last-minute purchase if I need film in a pinch. Also available is Fuji Acros 100 black-and-white, also in 36-exposure rolls for about five bucks each. This will certainly help ease the need to keep a stash of film or constantly order from B&H. A very nice find, indeed!