What happens above is mostly cosmetic. The real work happens below.

Southern Pacific 4449 all steamed up and ready to go. It left the station in Northeast Minneapolis at 8:00 am 18 July, destination Chicago. Once it left the station, I got ahead of it and got a few more shots as it was passing the Jackson Street Roundhouse.

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Southern Pacific 4449 being worked on with what is affectionately known as the ‘blue wrench’. It goes along with another phrase sometimes used in the steel industry, ‘heat and beat to fit’. The blue wrench of course is a cutting torch, which has a blue flame. Once it touches steel … well you can see the result.

Mitchster will be riding on SP 4449 today down to Chicago. Have fun Mitch.

This is the engine room from which the engineers operated Locomotive 227. In the center you can see the coal shut leading underneath the boiler.

Locomotive 227 is located at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. Weighing in over 1 million pounds and capable of pulling a load of 36 million pounds, it has two separate ‘engines’, i.e. sets of powered wheels. Because of the locomotive’s length, the wheel sets are articulated, meaning they can ‘turn’ underneath the main body of the locomotive. This was necessary so the locomotive could handle the curves in the railroad tracks.

Looking at all the controls in the cab, one could almost imagine that the train engineers running this machine could probably have a go at running the space shuttle, aero issues excepted.

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Another shot of engine 225. I’d love to understand how that mechanism functions as a ‘reverse gear’. Actually, locomotives don’t use gears in their drive line, but we’ll let them get away with description. Reversing gears has to be a big deal with a steam locomotive. Growing up in Germany, I saw quite a few coal fired locomotives. One of the more amazing sights is to see on of those locomotives spin their wheels, their version of a burnout. Hard to believe but they can do that.

Fair amount of processing done on this photo. Wanted it to look like a vintage photo. For other Monochrome Monday photos check here.

Riding around on my bicycle I continue to discover hidden graffiti areas. This one was taken under University Avenue near St. Anthony Blvd. Quite a bit of train traffic at this spot.

Overnighted at the camper up north, and got a chance to visit this steam locomotive in the Duluth area. One of the few things that wasn’t swaying given the very gusty winds all day long. These machines are a mechanical engineer’s dream. Covered with mechanisms and steam powered actuators. I would love to drive along side one of these as it goes down the track and watch the operation of all those parts.

For other Monochrome Monday photos check here.

Cleaned up my blog a bit, got rid of the top header links that probably nobody ever clicks on, and expanded ‘About’ section. Also cleaned up links a bit, eliminating blog that hasn’t had an update for over 4 months, and added a few new links plus re-activated some old ones.

This photo was taken at the train tracks that run through Dinky Town, near the U of M campus.

I drive past this abandoned rail road track every day and have stopped several times to take some photos. I’m still looking for a particular rendition of this setting, which this is not. But I like this one for the time being, using a flash to accentuate the stop sign and underexpose the surroundings.