Tag Archives: #Shortline

CUrious Cement Cars-7 new photos!

In the title, I’m using curious as adjective to mean ‘unusual’ for alliterative effect.

Saturday, September 19, 2020, Kris Sabbatino and I briefly visited Rockland, Maine.

Years ago I’d photographed the short freight turn that brings cement from the Dragon cement works in Thomaston to a rail-barge transload on the Rockland waterfront.

I was curious if this operation was still running, so after a visit to inspect the Rockland roundhouse (still standing, still housing a locomotive), we followed the short branch that meanders through the neighborhoods down to the water.

Here we found a selection of the unusual pressurized cement cars used in the cement circuit. The wheels were shiny, so I we concluded the service still operates. Perhaps one of these days we’ll return to catch it on the move again.

I exposed these photos using my FujiFilm XT1.

Curiosity of Northern Indiana: Some call it ‘the Chicken’.

The reference is a pronunciation of the Chesapeake & Indiana’s reporting marks; CKIN.

Chris Guss and I had hoped to catch this curious short line railroad on the move.

No such luck. But we did make some photographs of their General Motors-built locomotives near their interchange with CSX at Wellsboro. Some of these wear Southern Railway style paint.

Southern’s been gone since the 1980s so it’s a flashback to see these colors again.

If only I’d been more awake! I’d just traveled overnight on Amtrak 449 (Lake Shore Limited) from Worcester, Massachusetts.

Photos exposed on a overcast July morning using a FujiFilm XT1; files adjusted digitally for contrast and exposure to maximize highlight and shadow detail.

Union Mills, Wellsboro, Indiana.

 

High hazy sunlight in Northern Indiana with black locomotives makes for a photographic challenge.

Tracking the Light Post Daily!