Railway Scene 2018

By Bob Campbell

The continuing saga of the Long - Long - Short . Long - railroad book series recording the rail world as it was lived by those wandering in and around the rails during our changing times. Transitions from "classic" modern diesel-electric units to triple-truck behemoths is nearly over as each year brings yet another livery to an end, either through merger, acquisition, or fallen-flag graveyard.
Changing from previous styles, now presenting in a more straightforward collection, Railway Scene 2018 cruises the rails in a monthly journey through the year, along with several other bonus sections to round out the plethora of color image photography to well over 150 individual frames and over 200 power registry entries. Expanded sections for Power Type and Identification, Passenger Power, and Lively Liveries entries.
So come along with us on this railway journey through the year along the northwest section of the country if you're looking to relive the era (versus relieve yourself area), brush up on details of railroading on the Pacific side of the United States of America, or just take a moment to reflect upon the changing times.
While BNSF (Burlington Northern - Santa Fe) encompass a large number of pictures herein, there's also plenty of Union Pacific (UP) and usurped registries (RI / Rock Island, CN / Canadian National to name a couple of mentions from inside the book) along with trips down non-Class I railways like Columbia Basin Railway (CBRW) and corporate leasing groups (CREX / Citicorp Leasing) to fill out the pumpkin patch.
Like most of my works, don't expect all gloom, doom, and seriousness - although I do try to provide a relatively accurate power identification note section to all the units included - because I'm more than willing to tell it like it is (or isn't, as the case may be), providing wonderful less-than-factural (sic) details as needed to more accurately plop you in the puddle that is my usual photographic stance.
Welcome to another sparkling diamond in the manure pit collection of railroad photography in our growing consist of photographic journeys.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Campbell
• Release date: Jan 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463273203

Bob Campbell

The short of it: over-educated, unemployed, and annoying with a camera. Quite possibly a dangerous combination.The long of it:I've been snapping pictures for over a quarter-of-a-century on equipment ranging from a Pentax k1000 to Canon SX700hs - but nothing fancier. In fact, after they retired my Kodachrome 64 film, I hung up the 'real cameras' and settled for "digital pocket snappers." It seems ninety percent of the challenge to taking pictures is to remember your camera (would seem obvious, wouldn't it? But look around at the folks with large, fancy cameras - no wonder they claim the phone-based lens will be the death of real photography). So I do my part and pack it almost everywhere.I was a latecomer to photography, though, so I had time to grow up in many different parts of the country with my formative stage in the South, but junior high and onward in the Pacific Northwest. The last set of initials after my name tacked on by the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine - making the 'highest degree attained' line of the survey read Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.I still live in the state of Washington with my lovely wife of over two decades who continues to be an invaluable accomplice. For any hazard I manage to avoid, our son does his best to ensure we'll see an early grave.Having spent a little time teaching, I've grown to miss a captive audience to inflict my photography upon, so thank you Smashwords for providing me a forum for dispersing my imagery pain to be loosed upon the world.

Book preview

Long - Long - Short . Long -

Railway Scene 2018

Bob Campbell

Copyright 2019 C. Robert Campbell

Photography & Images Copyright 2018,2019 Bob Campbell

Cover (UP5379(AC45CCTE), March 9, 2018, Ridgefield, WA) ©2018 Bob Campbell

Skip to Table of Contents if this isn't your first reading.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your very own personal enjoyment only. The series of ones and zeros that comprise this work may not be resold or given away to other humanoids or sentient beings. If you would like to share this ebook with another, please purchase an additional copy for him, her, or it. If you're reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased specifically for your own personal use, then duck-and-cover, because Karma has a way of happening - so don't chance it - just make a little digital trip to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your very own copy. Thank you for respecting my efforts.

Disclaimer and conflict of interest disclosure: I hold a few shares of General Electric/GE common stock (for what the rotten thing is worth nowadays!) - which happens to be the maker of many of the locomotive units pictured within this collection. In addition, there's some shares of UP (Union Pacific - because about the time I was ready to get a couple Burlington Northern / BNSF shares, wouldn't you know? Some other person had the same idea... only he had Berkshire-Hathaway behind him and just bought the whole dad-burned company and took them private (Thanks, Warren... did I mention I'll forgive you for a share or two of your BRK.A common stock? Heck, a single share would be hunky-dory), so I settled for our other local rail company, UP) and SI (Siemens - the European version of GE, which I hope won't go the path of its American counterpart), and rounding out the rail in my retirement: CSX. Why buy common stocks like these? Because one day, I don't know when, but as I'm being hassled by rail police for being on public right-of-way snapping pictures of a train, I want to use the line, Oh, sorry - just taking a picture of my rail line / locomotive... yeah, I own part of that unit... (Sure, it's a single fleck of metal shaving in the wheel housing, but still... it's a part of it!)

Plus, due to my kin having been employed by a couple of these companies, it's a memorial to family history. (For example, my grandfather took part in the original build of the first diesel-electric way back in the history of CSX (Chessie System, Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) - Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O)) - which better release some cool looking heritage units before it shrivels up and gets absorbed by yet someone else / a bigger fish. I don't want to have to look through painted-over liveries for signs, like I do of Rock Island (UP / IC took major chunks - so I guess, in some manner, I at least do still have a little piece of where my father worked). (See? I'm allowed to make bankruptcy blue jokes when we get there.) (Image above: BNSF 2094(GP38-2) - BNSF 2726(GP39-2) holding up at the signal before heading out to duty while a Canadian Pacific unit train of covered hoppers rapidly departs the area, May 10, 2018, Spokane, WA)

: Table of Contents :

Introduction

2018 A Year In Trains

- January

- February

- March

- April

- May

- June

- July

- August

- September

- October

- November

- December

Power Type and Identification

Passenger Power

Lively Liveries

Bonus Sections

- Yard Engines

- Winter Darkness

- Columbia River Train Bridge

- Connell Contemplation

Conclusion

Master Index

Other Works by Bob Campbell

- Not Another Travel Guide

- Not Another Travel Guide: High Octane

- Railroad Photography

About the Author & Contact Information

Preamble

Brief organizational note on how information is presented: annoying, easily skipped information and general 'story line' appears below each picture. Following this subjective diatribe, I include a little objective (and to many train enthusiast, the real) information as it relates to the image: namely unit registries pictured, date, and location. In this manner, if you like, enjoy the book either as a narrative (skipping the parenthetical notes) or a cool collection providing a snapshot in time of the various railway scenes as they existed, never to be repeated in the exact same manner or conditions (skipping the text outside of the parenthesis). Sure, sometimes the borders blur, but I'll try to keep those to a minimum. (BNSF 4459 (C44-9W) - CREX 1339 (ES44AC) - BNSF 4993(C44-9W) triple-header clearing the Columbia River Train Bridge and angling over to the south section of Vancouver Center's wye interchange on autorack duty out of the Port of Portland deep-water off-loading terminals behind her to the south, April 28, 2018, Vancouver, WA)

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: Table of Contents :

Safety Note

Motivated to snap some railway images of your own to document history happening before it's gone? Always shoot responsibly and avoid trespassing on railroad property and protected right of ways. With the new welded rail, it's vaguely amazing just how close these million ton monsters can get to you at speeds often exceeding posted speed limits through city highways before you hear them. The zoom lens is your friend, so stay behind the barriers and crossbars, and if you're like me, have your personal photo identification ready: the rail police are only doing their duty to protect you and the railway. (Special note about the preceding picture in the Preamble section of the Vancouver Train Bridge which makes it look like I'm standing on the rails: it's the effect of zoom lens shot from a curving passenger platform, not me standing out