Rocks

Builder

Once or twice a week I go to the Richmond Beach Library, and then down the hill to sit by the railroad tracks for a while. Sometimes I see a train, but mostly I don't react quickly enough to take a picture. Today the camera was already out and sitting on the console, and I had just enough warning to open the car door and make a snap shot through the gap next to windshield pillar. Had to be straightened & cropped, so the result is just a snapshot, but it does prove that trains still go by.

Sounder

Many mornings I have the objective of trying to get down to the beach in time to watch a Sounder or two go by. Sometimes it happens, but not often enough, and when it does, I don't often get pictures.

I get down in the evening even less often, but did today.

I wasn't in position to get the image I might have wanted but decided to take a shot anyway. And with the light not being what I wanted, I thought it was a great opportunity to play with conversion to black & white.

I think it turned out better than the color version, below. The color has been tweaked to make it look more like Spring & less like Autumn. My monitor is so bad that I'm not sure how the results will look to someone with a good monitor. But then you never know how the colors will look to someone with a lousy (or badly adjusted) monitor, so there you are.

Streetcar

I have been admiring the Streetcars from downtown to Lake Union since they started, and have made several visits, somehow without taking pictures or with only "inadequate" pictures.

This is an "inadequate" picture taken through the windshield of my car.

But I kind of like it.

I thought maybe by posting it, I would be more motivated to return to make more of an effort. Maybe even ride.

Richmond Beach

Switching Wells Point

This morning I stumbled across the BNSF switching the oil facility at Wells Point (aka Point Wells). Got a nice train & train shot (above) and a zoom to confirm it is actually switching (bottom). Maybe in my 1970s slides I have the BN switching there, but I don't know.

I did manage to find one of my shots of Great Northern RS-2 217 switching there circa 1963-64 (below). That day we found a broken rail not far from there, and told the switch crew on the RS, who called it in. When the International came through a bit later, it was running "wrong main" and avoiding the break. We felt like heroes. I had pictures of the break and the International as well. I wonder if I still do.

Backlit