A Sunday – day’s end; we had enjoyed family’s camaraderie and been among cousins at our cousins farm, an hour away from our Edmonton home. On what is now known as the Queen Elizabeth II highway between Calgary and Edmonton we traveled home Dad at the wheel of our green 69 Pontiac Parisienne. Often on our right travelling northward with us would be a train – three or four engines together pulling a string of cars, box cars, black tankers, different hopper cars etc.. As we finally entered the city of Edmonton and made our right turn from Calgary trail onto 51st avenue at the intersection holding Koch Mercury and the Van Winkle hotel, we would encounter the train we had traveled with at the rail crossing behind Koch Mercury. And, as you sat in your car waiting for the train to pass you could sometimes signal the engineer to sound the train’s horn by putting your fist in the air and pulling down in same fashion that the engineer would with his hand on the cable line that would release the bellow of the train’s horn. More often than not, the train’s engineer would oblige, the horn would release and the sound could be heard for miles.
It’s been a generation or two since Dad and Mom took my two brothers and I to my cousin’s farm. I have had my own time working with trains during summers in University, often as rail car spotter. My own son is now entering his fourth year of University and there’s even been a good long while since he and I would read of Sir Topham Hat, Gordon, Percy, Thomas et al in Reverend W. Awdry’s ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ books.
And, my own interest in trains has not waned. The following photos are a number of first edits from Ogden and engines for viewing at the the Union Pacific railway station, there.
Listening to: ‘The Miracle (of Joey Ramone’) and ‘Every Breaking Wave’ from U2’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ – flip, you don’t have to buy the album, it’s free in iTunes; also the morning has been about Springsteen’s music and musicares celebration of his achievement.
Quote to Inspire – “… Photographs are evidence of not only what’s there but of what an individual sees, not just a record but an evaluation of the world.” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’
Recommended book encouraging literacy in children – ‘The Read Aloud Handbook,’ by Jim Trelease
In My Back Pocket - Photography 
18 responses to “Sundays and Trains”
Great pictures with a perfect, expressive colouring!
Hello, hello …
Definitely expressive, but also exploratory finding my way, searching out what works … tentatively expressive, perhaps; lemanshots does encourage such use of colour (or perhaps its absence, in some cases) – I’ll be looking in regularly.
Thank you for your kind words … and your blog that bears witness to your words. Take care. 😉
Love it, I come from an Australian railway family. Check my blog to see some similair rail shots from Oz.
Hey there, Shayne:
Totally liking the locomotion pix – this is the second one I’ve found; I’ll be showing it to my son http://shaynetwright.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/img_1647-copysw.jpg .
I’ll be having a good look around for more. Thank you for pointing me to these trains.
Good schtuff! 😉
Glad you enjoy it and I hope it brings a smile to your son’s face.
I really like the HDR work you do – it is great.
Hey there, Shayne:
You know, the neat thing for him will be that your photos will allow him to see the detail of the engines and will introduce the fact that these engines that he’s seen all those years ago in the Thomas the Tank Engine series are actually still around and able to be viewed. Your photos will do much to draw him to the trains.
Have you taken in any of Jay and Varina Patel’s workshops; they’re in New Zealand right now … they have a method for HDR that I’m hoping to explore one day; right now, it’s NIK Software and HDR Efex.
Good, good. Take care! 😉
I forgot to mention, I have about a dozen train / railway pics over at my redbubble site that might interest you as well. http://www.redbubble.com/people/shaynetwright/collections/278394-rail-and-trains
Good schtuff, Shayne:
I will have a look through at your redbubble site.
😉
Like the Ogden boxcar No2. Very graphic, like a comic book from childhood. I love traveling on trains, I used to do it a lot when I was in the military but now, the price is prohibitive. And they are fairly poor in the UK. Shame, I remember some great trips.
Jim
Hey there, Jim:
The Ogden boxcar – the idea had started with an HDR which worked, then it was about playing with the new editing software to see where it could go. It’s a shame that trains are beginning to cost. 😉
Ogden and Brigham City are where my fascination with trains took hold. I lived in Brigham City from the age of six to ten, and a couple of friends and I were always hopping the freight cars and riding the 19 miles between the two cities. Yep. Parents too drunk to know where the children were. Got into a lot of trouble but had a lot of fun on those trains!
Hey there, Russell:
As a teacher, it’s a shame to read about parents unable to embrace parent-hood. Riding rail cars regularly speaks to the joy and resilience of youth.
It does sound like you’ve come out alright and for that, kudos! Take care. 😉
I had to go gaze at your pictures one more time before moving on, and read the captions, too. I have never heard of a “Train Car” and believe that, while captioning, you got the “Train” from the next picture in with the “Train Car” caption. That “Train Car” is actually a snowplow, used to keep the tracks clear of snow during those northern winters.
Hey there, Russel:
Totally good, you’ve helped with this – I didn’t know what the ‘train car’ was and put it out there. I have revised the image caption.
Being in Northern Canada, I wonder why we don’t have such snow plows. Likely in the mountains of Utah the snowfall can reach significant depths quickly.
Thank you for this! 😉
VIA Rail Canada, CN, and CP all have snowplow cars. That in your picture is a rotary snowplow and is used where the snow isn’t deep or packed.
Hey there, Russell:
I found two sights; the deep snow plows are what I am used to seeing.
Railroad snow plows – https://www.flickr.com/photos/larrys_model_railway/galleries/72157627706209048
Rotary snow plow – http://www.railfame.ca/sec_ind/technology/en_2002_RotarySnowPlow.asp
😉
Do a Google search on “CP snowplow” to see their unique snowplows.
Hey there, Russell:
I had luck with Canadian National as search term. Good schtuff! 🙂