The "I Love Trains" Lens

The #2368 traveling through Bushnell from the Wildwood yard on its way to pick up rolling stock from Dade City.

Photographed at Bryson City North Carolina in 1999 using 35mm film.

Train yards are a great place to visit with your camera you can always find one at standstill which makes it easier to photograph, I was never one to chase moving trains around to different areas though I have done my share in the past.

This was photographed at Wildwood Florida in 2001 using 35mm film.


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Another shot of the #604, a 2-8-0 Consolidation being fired up on the property to show itself off to its fans.

This is another photograph of the #604 at Spencer on it's way towards the main staging area of its fans, the other steam locomotive and its cars in the background await their renovations in front of one of the many shops on the property.

The #604 a 2-8-0 Consolidation reversing it's direction to connect the passenger cars for a tour of the Spencer Shops at the North Carolina Transportation Museum at Spencer, North Carolina. [Circa 1995]

Photographed with 35mm film and sepia toned in Paint Shop Pro Photo v2.

The driving wheels of a 2-8-0 consolidation steam locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works.

Photographed with 35mm.

Passenger carts have played their own part in railroad history, they come in different forms for different duties or services mostly for passenger baggage but also mail and freight. This particular image was taken at High Point North Carolina back in 1979 when Southern Railway still ruled the southeast rails (their emblem is showed on the carts top board) and photographed with 35mm film.

This 1953 44 ton switcher was built by Davenport Locomotive works and served both the US Navy and Army, it was retired in the late 1980's.

This cable driven Incline Railway is a very popular attraction at Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga Tennessee and is designated both a National Historic Site and National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, It has been popular tourist attraction since 1895 that carries enthusiastic passengers up and down a 72.7 grade of track in a trolley like carriage making it one of the most steepest passenger railways in the world.

The lead locomotive a GP-50, is owned by Southern Railroad and pulls a full load of rolling stock down the mainline (on the right), The switcher locomotive on the left working the factories is a SW1500 also owned by Southern. This photograph was taken at High Point North Carolina in 1980 a few years before Southern Railroad was bought out.

Located in Spencer, North Carolina an old railroad town were the Spencer Shops, a repair facility for Southern Railway that was named after the first president of the company Samuel Spencer, the old back shop shown here was photographed in the late 1980's, it was built in 1905 to serve as a major overhaul facility for steam locomotives and at one time the largest commercial building in North Carolina, standing 60 feet high 150 feet wide and two football fields long it is the largest structure on the grounds, it housed lathes and milling machines to re-machine parts before the reassembly of the locomotives, at its peak of activity two or three locomotives emerged from its doors every day.

In whole the facility was founded by Southern Railway in 1896 and served its rail lines between Washington DC and Atlanta Georgia, overhauls were first done on steam locomotives then on freight equipment. In the 1950's with the dieselization of Southern Railways the facility slowly became obsolete throughout the 1960's and 70's and because diesels could be repaired in half the time and with fewer people by the late 1970 the doors were closed at Spencer and its repairs and service moved to the Linnwood Yard located 12 miles north in Davidson County.

In 1977 Southern gave the State of North Carolina 3 acres of the Spencer Facility and another 54 acres in 1979 and made way for The North Carolina Transportation Museum which opened its doors in 1980 with one or two building followed by more throughout the 1980's and 90's, ongoing preservation projects still continue to this day.
The site also has besides the old repair buildings a 37 stall roundhouse and turntable that includes 25 locomotives and other exhibits.

If ever visiting the Charlotte or Winston-Salem areas of North Carolina, both within 30 miles away, this is a must see museum and town !

One of my favorite all time Diesel Locomotives are the GP series by General Motors these were the old workhorses of the 1950's thru 70's era which I proudly called the Masters of The Freight.

The red one is a GP-9 built in 1958 for Norfolk & Western Railway.
The black one is a GP-30 built in 1963 for Southern Railway.
Both were built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors and were recently restored at the time of this photo.
The roundhouse has a total of 37 bays and was built 1924 with a 100' turntable and has also been restored.

Photographed in Spencer North Carolina in the early 1990's, The Spencer Shops which at one time was the largest steam locomotive facility in the southeast and owned by Southern Railway now houses the North Carolina Transportation Museum.

This image shows the #1702 a 2-8-0 Consolidation at Bryson City which is part of the Smoky Mountain Railway and a well known excursion in western North Carolina, part of the journey shows the area of the scene in the movie "The Fugitive" starring Harrison Ford, where the train hit the prison bus.

Seeing this train as it chugs up the tracks from around the curve is an awesome sight. With mountains and trees behind the billowing smoke and the rumble of its steam powered rods and pistons that drive this iron horse is nothing short of spectacular, for just a moment it takes you back to a simpler time and for some tears in the eyes.