Twin City Photos

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.

I intended to go out and get some shots of a particular flowering tree, but it was so windy today that would have been an exercise in futility. So instead I took a drive in the Northeast Art District. There was quite a bit of activity around the few bars in the area, some festival going on, so I took some side streets to avoid the traffic jams. Spotted this railroad bridge across Mississippi and intended to get some shots of the bridge, but instead found it’s base decorated with graffiti.

I’m surprised at the letter reversal to disguise the swear phrase. But then they did something similar on Battlestar Galactica. Apparently it’s acceptable on TV to disguise swear phrases by substituting a couple of letters, so I guess we could consider the graffiti swearing socially acceptable.

This was fun. Didn’t even bump my head. The brake lines look like they’re shaking hands.

Another one from our train museum outing. This coach is normally not on the typical visitor’s list of things to see. It’s in the cue to be restored, though likely only the steel frame underneath is salvageable. It may look ugly to most, but to me it’s a beauty, full of shapes and hues, and a long history to boot.

The photo was difficult to line up, trying to figure out which is the vertical. I finally decided the door at the end is what should be vertical. Still looks tilted to me, but if you line up a ruler with the right door frame you’ll see it’s vertical, or at least as close as I could get it. Our mind is so easily tricked when it comes to visuals.