Robert Pence

Eastbound South Shore Train 117 at Beverly Shores, Indiana (flag stop) Sep 16, 2008

Neat stuff! Baltimore is so amazingly rich with historic character. And so stinkin' hot and humid during the times I've been there in summer!

Beautiful photos. It's so good to see that area and those buildings finally getting some attention.

Beautiful. Pittsburgh has such wonderful old working-class neighborhoods, and it would be wonderful if they could stay that way. So often that doesn't happen; either they get gentrified out of the reach of the people who took care of them for years, or they go the other way.

I passed through York going to and from Lancaster, but both times it was too late in the day and I was already worn out. From what I saw from the car, it looked like Lancaster's grittier cousin. I look forward to the photos.

That's happened to other people, too, even some who may never have had hiccups. I read someplace that everyone who eats carrots will die eventually, as will everyone who never eats carrots. I guess a person just can't win. Come to think of it, there was a guy named Charles Osborne in my sophomore year high school phys-ed class. He'd be under seventy now, though, and he didn't have hiccups then that I remember, so it must not have been him. That would've been a shame, 'cause he was really cute as a young guy. Slim, with dark, curly hair and dark brown eyes. Poor Charlie. Oh. Wait. I just said it couldn't have been him. :roll:

You should have gotten your hug from him! :-o :-D

Beautiful, creative work! I usually don't think of highways as being photo material, but you made it work. UO should hold a civil disobedience event in the RTC -- picture a couple dozen forumers chained to a column and chanting, "TRANSIT FOR THE PEOPLE - NOW!" while cops stand around trying to figure out what to do and TV new crews gather. OK. So maybe it's four guys and two cops with bolt cutters and a van, and two column inches buried in the paper a couple days later. BTW - The Naked Cowboy has pretty awesome legs.

The Reformed Church and the Lutheran Church were outgrowths of the Reformation in 1516, and one of the manifestations of change was the removal of images and placing the Word of God at the center of worship. I believe certain Christian concepts. like the Trinity, are coded in some elements of the windows, and I think there's symbolism in the floral design at the center. I've never seen an interpretation of these windows. I recall that the pastor who was there during almost all of my membership denounced the Roman Catholic Church as idolatrous. Some Reformed congregations still showed their German roots well into the 20th century, and when I was young I remember that a lot of the older pastors still had very German surnames and the patriarchal families were descendents of German immigrant founders of the communities. Dad said that when he was a young boy, pre WWI, the services in this church were conducted in German. The Reformed Church in the United States was chartered in 1725, and in 1934 merged with The Evangelical Synod, chartered in 1840. I believe it was in the 1960s that the merger with the Congregational Church formed the United Church of Christ. Last year a number of the old Reformed congregations split from the UCC over the issue of same-sex marriage and reconstituted themselves as Reformed Churches. This was one of those churches. Remembering the strict conservatism I grew up with, I wasn't suprised.

Last week was Bluffton (Indiana) Street Fair, long regarded as homecoming week for all the expatriates. Our BHS Class of '57 had so much fun (really!) at our 50-year reunion last year that we decided to get together during Street Fair this year. We gathered at First Reformed Church, which happened to be the place of my religious persecution until I fled to the bright lights of the sinful big city. I hadn't been in the building since my brother's ill-starred wedding more than 35 years ago. Here I was subjected to the rigors of the Heidelberg Catechism and various other spiritual tribulations. Mostly I tuned out the sermons and studied the windows. Here are a couple of them:

Yup! They derail every discussion and make it all about themselves! <giggle-snort> Sorry. I just couldn't help it. I'll stop now. Meanwhile, check out the Amtrak photos that I put in the Lancaster, PA post

Sounds like a business opportunity, Sherman. Create a paper corporation, get some names from tombstones at an out-of-town cemetery as co-signatories, create a business plan to create fifty or a hundred six-figure jobs in coal-derived molecular biosciences, promise to underwrite a vocational training program for the unemployed, harvest a couple million in incentives, and disappear into the night. It might be helpful to hire Messrs. Booth & Duncan for $100K or so, apiece, as consultants to help you find your way through the local bureaucracy.

My morning coffee is only beginning to take effect, and it took a minute for that to soak in. Now, I'm still chuckling as I type this. And yes, it does smell like Americana - literally. The mainline steam era ended during my teen years, and the mingled aromas of coal smoke, steam and hot oil still bring flashbacks to times spent waiting at railroad crossings as trains passed, and sounds associated with detraining at age 5 from an Erie Railroad passenger train in Chicago's Dearborn Station and walking up the platform with Dad past the locomotive with its hissing steam, panting air pumps and whining generator. Earlier on the day I took these photos there had been rain, and the cool temperatures and high humidity caused the vapor clouds to hang in the air a while before dissipating. Cool, moist, cloudy weather is best for photographing steam railroading, and the diffuse light makes it easier to capture steam locomotives' more intricate machinery that is often hidden in shadows. I believe we have Thomas the Tank Engine to thank for the rabid enthusiasm of young boys for trains. I have two grand-nephews, both just past their third birthdays, and both go nuts at the sight of a locomotive or sound of a whistle or air horn. Their enthusiasm doesn't show any sign of abating just yet, and their dads encourage them. Ten years or so down the road they'll probably be distracted by the onset of puberty, but after several years of the frustration and disillusionment that inevitably brings, hopefully they'll return to their true love for steel wheels on steel rails.

They should hook him back up to the catenary. There are already too many stupid architects; he probably designs strip malls and big-box stores.

I can see the resemblance, although I think Lisbon's older buildings are about the same age as Strasburg's "newer" ones.

A History of Pennsylvania's Railroad Industry - The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is located across the street from the Strasburg Railroad. The museum preserves rare and valuable artifacts showing the evolution of America's railroad industry in spacious, well-lighted, climate-controlled buildings. Raymond Loewy-styled GG-1 locomotives were introduced in 1934, built until 1943 for a total of 139 units by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and served until 1983 between New York and Washington, D.C. and as far west as Harrisburg, well into the Amtrak era. The GG-1 drew 11,000 volts from overhead catenary and had 12 25-cycle motors giving it a total of 4,620 horsepower in continuous duty. It could easily exceed 100mph with a train of more than 14 cars. In a test run a GG-1 reached 135mph and was still accelerating preceptibly when the crew reached the end of specially-prepared track and had to slow down. Locomotive 4935 was restored to the original Loewy-designed paint scheme in 1977 by Friends of the GG-1. In 1978 while waiting for a train home from Baltimore, I saw this locomotive stop there with a NY-Washington corridor train. This E-44 locomotive was built for freight service on the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1963 by General Electric. It could produce 4,400 horsepower in continuous service. General Motors' Electro Motive Division (EMD) built 428 E7 locomotives for American railroads. Number 5901 is the only survivor of all those units. It is equipped with two 1,000 horsepower 12-cylinder diesel engines with an operational range from 275 to 800 rpm. Fully loaded and ready for service the locomotive weighed 315,000 pounds. Shay geared locomotives were designed to negotiate heavy grades, sharp curves, and uneven track with heavy loads, and were used mainly on sometimes hastily-laid track in quarrying, mining and logging operations. Their maximum speed usually was something less than 15mph, but their tractive abilities were impressive. A History of Pennsylvania's Railroad Industry - The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is located across the street from the Strasburg Railroad. The museum preserves rare and valuable artifacts showing the evolution of America's railroad industry in spacious, well-lighted, climate-controlled buildings. Raymond Loewy-styled GG-1 locomotives were introduced in 1934, built until 1943 for a total of 139 units by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and served until 1983 between New York and Washington, D.C. and as far west as Harrisburg, well into the Amtrak era. The GG-1 drew 11,000 volts from overhead catenary and had 12 25-cycle motors giving it a total of 4,620 horsepower in continuous duty. It could easily exceed 100mph with a train of more than 14 cars. In a test run a GG-1 reached 135mph and was still accelerating preceptibly when the crew reached the end of specially-prepared track and had to slow down. Locomotive 4935 was restored to the original Loewy-designed paint scheme in 1977 by Friends of the GG-1. In 1978 while waiting for a train home from Baltimore, I saw this locomotive stop there with a NY-Washington corridor train. This E-44 locomotive was built for freight service on the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1963 by General Electric. It could produce 4,400 horsepower in continuous service. General Motors' Electro Motive Division (EMD) built 428 E7 locomotives for American railroads. Number 5901 is the only survivor of all those units. It is equipped with two 1,000 horsepower 12-cylinder diesel engines with an operational range from 275 to 800 rpm. Fully loaded and ready for service the locomotive weighed 315,000 pounds. Shay geared locomotives were designed to negotiate heavy grades, sharp curves, and uneven track with heavy loads, and were used mainly on sometimes hastily-laid track in quarrying, mining and logging operations. Their maximum speed usually was something less than 15mph, but their tractive abilities were impressive.

A Slow Train to Paradise - The Strasburg Railroad Strasburg Railroad was founded in 1832 and served through World Wars I and II. By 1958, victim of diminishing freight revenues and a series of destructive storms, the railroad had descended into inoperability and a petition had been filed for abandonment. A group of rail enthusiasts/investors purchased the line and over the years the tourist operation has grown from one gasoline locomotive and passenger car to the wonderful collection of restored historic rolling stock and thriving operation it is today. At each end of the trip between Strasburg and Paradise the locomotive runs around the train. The locomotive is always on the leading end of the train, although when running from Strasburg to Paradise the locomotive is backing up. It's time to take a ride. Paradise, Pennsylvania. In the words of the conductor, "Take a good look, folks. This may be as close as some of you get to Paradise." Waiting at Groff's Grove to meet the opposing train. That's all for Strasburg. Across the road is the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

Strasburg, PA Between the Raindrops Strasburg is a village just a few miles from Lancaster. It's concentrated around a crossroads without side streets to speak of, and has a remarkable collection of restored historic homes and several shops oriented toward the tourist trade attracted by Strasburg Railroad and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. St. Michael's appears to have undergone major reconstruction in the gable ends. I'd guess that it once had a bell tower and a traditional entrance in the end that's on the left when facing the building from the street. Strasburg's tourist business is enhanced by nearby major attractions. The Strasburg Railroad, in its 50th year as a tourist railroad, is on the edge of town, and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is just across the street from that.

I was exploring the grounds of the Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary when these four guys on bellowing Harleys disrupted the tranquility of the setting. One of them turned around and caught me with the camera pointed at them. I thought I was going to have a problem, but after a brief hesitation they moved on.

...esp of generic stuff. People expect snapshots of landmarks, but not everday things. Mostly they expect snapshots of the wife and kids posing in front of landmarks, taken from so far away that the photo will be explained later as, "You can't really tell from this picture, but that's supposed to be ... >

I've had a few run-ins, but mostly with out-of-line cops or security guards. At the 57th Street Metra Station in Chicago I was taking photos down the platform of trains and boarding and detraining passengers, just general scenes and mostly from a distance, when two women confronted me about not wanting to be in photos. They didn't ask to see the pics or ask me to delete them, and when I looked at the pics in Photoshop later, they were far enough away as to be unnoticeable. They weren't all that much, anyway. Just a couple of weeks ago I was yelled at from close range, less than six feet, and threatened with arrest and confiscation by a cop while I was taking photos of a motorcycle wreck across the street from my house. Everything and everyone involved was in the public right-of-way, as was I. I was well out of the way, not interfering with police or EMTs and not endangering myself. After inquiring of an attorney I know, I'm sure the cop was completely out of line. I decided to just drop it, because this is a small enough city that it's easy to become known and recognized on the street, and nothing good ever comes of an adversarial relationship between a civilian and a cop. Yes, I'm intimidated.

Oh Geez, Yes! Stunning photo!

I never function "normally", but my body seems to crave 8 hours of sleep overnight and a 1- or 2-hour nap in mid-afternoon. I'm approaching 12 hours since I got out of bed this morning, without a nap, and I feel like I'm in zombie mode and running on autopilot.

This thread changed my life. Until I saw this I was firmly opposed to capital punishment.

Fun Stuff!