Steam Whistles

I went to the train show in Erwin this AM, camera in hand, hoping to find some photo-worthy subjects like old railroad lanterns and such ... and ... I found almost nothing.

It was just too crowded inside for any pictures. But there was a guy outside selling some spendy railroad stuff out of a trailer, and he had this rack of steam whistles for sale. I had to wait around quite a while for a chance to get this picture without arms or backs of heads.

A 5-frame, faux-HDR, processed with Lightroom and HDR Efex Pro.

Marion Fish Hatchery

This picture is of the aerators at the Marion Fish Hatchery in, you guessed it, Marion Va. I can remember going to the hatchery on field trips back when I was in grade school. In all honesty I was surprised it was still in operation.

I saw them from the road as I drove by as was immediately struck by the color and shape ... they are so cool looking! It was closed when I got there but the nice lady that works there saw me taking a picture from outside the fence and let me come inside and walk around to take all the pictures I wanted ... she was a really nice lady. She had two 'plow dogs' that kept me company while I walked around.

It was so bright that a slow shutter speed was out of the question. And the center three were in partial shade making it that much worse. So what I ended up with was this over-cooked, faux-HDR version. It's ok, but I definitely want to go back some day when the conditions are better for picture taking.

Marion Train Station

I saw a recent picture of the train station in Marion Va. What caught my eye was that the construction dumpsters were gone! The last time I was by there the place was being refitted for some retail shops and there were several dumpsters and lots of trucks all around the place. Definitely not ready for pictures.

Once I got there and walked around I realized that it might never be ready. The retail-ization of the property has cluttered the property so much that any picture will be 'busy'. So I snapped a bracket from the best angle available and ran them through HDR Efex Pro and then straight to Photoshop for some serious clutter removal. After a good amount of work I decided to convert it to black and white, crop it rather tight and add the vignette for an 'old timey' look. It turned out rather well.

Dorothy

This picture is of Dorothy, the shay at the Little River Railroad museum in Townsend TN. The weather couldn't have been worse for picture-taking: 95 degrees and hazy - which led to the odd-looking crop to get rid of as much of the flat gray sky as possible.

Another More Tractor

Oh yeah, there's plenty more tractors.

This beauty has been sitting along the road at the Sell's farm for several weeks. She needs a few parts to get her back on her wheels ... okay, she needs lots of parts, but she worth saving, right?

I don't know much about the lineage of this one, there's no markings of any kind, so it's just a yellow tractor.

Fordson Part Deux

Another shot of the Fordson tractor.

Fordson

Here's another tractor that sits along the road that I travel to work 3 days out of 5. I could have sworn there was another piece of the sign that had a "4" on it ... as in "4 Sale". Regardless it's dang cool.

I've not heard of a Fordson brand tractor, so I did what any rational guy would do .. I googled it ... and I found this: "Fordson was a brand name used on a range of mass produced, general-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son, Inc, from 1917 until 1920 when it was merged into the Ford Motor Co.". Well there ya go.

Mad Max

If the bad guys in the mad max movies were going to drive a tractor, this would have been it ... check out those rear tires!

This McCormick/Deering tractor has been getting a face lift over the past couple of weeks, it used to be yellow with a red engine and wheels, but the yellow has been sand blasted away and now it's just covered in rust ... not sure that's an improvement.

Lakewood Morning Storm

This picture was taken just after dawn on the day we left Lakewood Campground. These storm clouds were rolling in as we were packing up to leave.

Old Beach Trucks

Some pictures of the old trucks at the Whales Nostalgia City shop in Surfside Beach.

The Green Beast

This purpose-built piece of hardware is the tea picker exclusively used at the Charleston Tea Plantation. It uses a combination of hedge clippers and high-speed blowers to collect the tea leaves.

This tractor left perfectly trimmed tea plants that reminded me of hedge rows in a garden.

Skywheel

Another faux-HDR, this one is the new Skywheel on the boardwalk in Myrtle Beach. It's a 200ft high ferris wheel thingy with enclosed gondolas.

The ride was rather anti-climactic, the view is great but it's so climate controlled that there's no noise, no vibrations, no squeaks, no rocking ... just kinda okay.

The Angel Oak

A faux-HDR of the Angel Oak on Johns Island.

The tree is a Southern Live oak and is supposedly the oldest tree east of the Mississippi - some estimates have it at nearly 1500 years old.

The tree is massive, it stands 65 ft tall, measures 28 ft in circumference, its longest limb is 105 feet in length. and shades an area of 17,000 square feet . Its widest crown spread point-to-point is 180 ft, which is longer than any other live oak in the country.

Kickin it with the Pig

This picture of a guy's purpose-built fishing buggy was taken on the Folly beach pier. I true southern fashion it was adorned with decals that express his personal tastes ... most excellent.

The one that caught my eye was the Piggly Wiggly sticker. I spent a few years working at 'the Pig' in Glade Spring back in my high school & college days, it was my first real job.

Dam Turbine

Here's another picture I took several weeks ago but never uploaded. It was taken at the TVA building at Boone Dam, it's an old turbine from the powerhouse.

Archers

Here are a couple of pictures taken at Archer's Garage & Wrecker along Tn-81. they are a bit over-hdr'd, but they were taken under some really bright sun and needed some help to get the colors right.

This one is a 'clutch' of old corvairs parked along the road.

This one is a home-built generator made from the front end of a truck mated to a generator.

Glade Spring Baptist Church Steeple

A year or so back some folk removed the steeple from the old Glade Spring Baptist Church and it's been sitting at the edge of the parking lot ever since.

It appears they are bringing the old church building down and only got this far. I'm not sure if there's plans to reuse the steeple, but it makes a cool picture.

My dad was baptized in this church.

Earnhardt Train

EARNHARDT !!!

Woooo

... raises three fingers ...


Here's an HDR'd picture of the shuttle train in Glade Spring, Va.

Shady Valley Ford

As I was driving back home from mom's I detoured through Damascus and Shady Valley and spied this old blue ford truck sticking out from under a old red barn near the intersection with 421.

It was the contrast in the red and blue and green colors that caught my eye from the road. So I skidded to a stop, parked in a driveway, and quickly shot a couple of brackets.

Here's the result after some HDR'n and some cropping.

Rural Retreat Train Depot

My plans for a photo trip on Good Friday didn't go as planned. I tried in vain to outrun the rain as I motored up I-81 to Rural Retreat Va., looking for this train depot that need it's picture taken.

I had read a newspaper article about this depot a couple of weeks earlier. The article says that, like the train depot in Chuckey TN, the train depot in Rural Retreat is privately owned but currently sits on land owned by the Norfolk & Southern railroad. The owner wants to upgrade the building but is reticent to do so in its current location, and the railroad won't sell him the land on which it sits. So he plans to move the train station to property he already owns at Mount Airy, a long-lost stagecoach stop along U.S. Highway 11 in Wythe county.

I was about a week late getting there as most of the platform and the roof over it have already been removed. I assume the article in the paper must be drawing lots of attention because of the number of 'No Trespassing' signs tacked on the building - and yes, I was careful to stay on railroad property and the sidewalk, not on his property.

Regardless, when I arrived it was breezy, about 41 degrees, and sprinkling rain, a really bad combination for picture-taking. But I was determined to get some brackets so I grabbed a towel to cover my camera and set off. Between gusts of wind I snapped off several brackets, I could only take pictures from the upwind side because the rain was blowing too much to allow shooting into the wind without getting water spots on the lens.

Anyway, here's the HDR'd result, with some judicious photoshop'n to remove the 'No Trespassing' signs and power lines.