Moonshot

This picture was taken around three in the morning with a full moon behind the subject.
I had to rush the shot because there were too many skunks in the area.

Dragging equipment

Something dragging off one of the railroad cars peeled back the cover of one my hydraulic switches. I am constantly amazed at the power of trains!

Just a good picture!

I have been starting early to work since it has been so hot and got this picture before sunrise. It is a southbound "autorack". That is shoptalk for Auto Carrier.

Painting Signal Backgrounds

I got to borrow a bucket truck today. I used it to paint the backgrounds on our signals. After the backgrounds start to fade they need to be painted black again. It is more cosmetic than a necessity but, it looks good when you are done.

Encounter

Sometimes when I am Hi Railing (that is railroad lingo for riding the track) I encounter trains on the adjacent track. Does this look scary? Believe me it can be. For those of you who might be wondering why the crossing gates are not down, this train was stopped.

In the clear

Sometimes this is all the clearance I have next to a fast moving train. This one was traveling 50 miles per hour! This is quite disturbing considering all that can happen. Trains can have banding dragging,they lose brake shoes off cars, shifted loads, and hopefully, no derailments!

Vandalism

There are times when the Signal Maintainer is dispatched to trouble and finds that vandals have left their signature. In this one vandals have shot up a relatively new installation. Glad I was not home!

Pole Climbing

This is another dated photo. We used to have to maintain pole line, sometimes 30 miles or more. Thanks to technology and the advancement thereof it has all been eliminated and I get to stay on the ground.

Train Orders

The agent/operator would type up train orders. These orders needed to be given to the conductor. The agent/operator would roll the orders up, tie the orders to a post with twine. As the train was moving by the station, the conductor would reach out from the moving train and snatch the paper train orders from the post.

They used this method for decades until the arrival of computers. This photo is about 32 years old. They no longer transfer train orders by this method.

Perspective

More of a perspective view before the bridge. It is 5 miles long!