Alright, I have fought with my Nikon negative scanner long enough. I have chosen to go the “quick-N-dirty” route and just use my $100 copy/scan/printer to get these shots online. Grrr … the quality is NOT at the level I prefer, but as they say in “Babe”, “That’ll do pig, that’ll do.”

First up, is a Southern Pacific Black Widow. For those of you that remember this paint scheme, she was to run with the remade/upgraded passenger cars. It is very tough to find one of these fine ladies today:

Now, for a little bit newer big iron, and a Warbonnet paint scheme that is now going away, this lash up was moving at limit for this section of rail, which is about 72MPH. She is on a banked turn, so you get a great vantage point when they round the bend:

I have tons more somewhere on a CD/DVD backup. I’ll get some out every so often and share. Turns out I have some great photos from a classification yard where FMC was turning out personnel carriers and tanks - all kinds of cool stuff!

Take care everyone, have a great Sunday!

UPDATE: For The Chief - Adding one more shot from Deutsche Bundesbahn

The Chief commented here about how crazy the rail-to-tie system is in Germany. I just so happened to have a shot I took on my way home from “The Shop” after my shift was over. You can see the tail of the train just at the farthest point in the center of this shot:

It was late one evening when I took the shot. The SOP for DB is on uncontrolled crossings the gates stay down until the morning. The crossbucks show that this is under electronic control, but there is no one stationed at this location. They do have, however, a very complex system of video cameras and sensors just in case.

I had to lift my 10-speed bike over the gates and then scurry under. Then, I’d wait and listen for a train, which was very important. The trains moved so fast they would be on you in a flash. And, standing order was to not slow down - they just kept on a rollin’ …