Merry Christmas, wherever you are!

 

E for Eighteen

Memories of summer

 

Milepost in the desert

 

Seen at Moapa, NV on the Union Pacific

...that you do so well.

Harvest's end

Rage against the dying of the light

 

This is not a philosophical post!  It is merely a marker of the changing seasons.  

Most of my opportunities for photography are when I'm travelling for work.  That's not to say that there aren't things to photograph when I'm at home, but if I'm not travelling I prefer to actually BE at home.  Summer is prime time photography because I can arrive at work at a reasonable hour, put in a good day's work, and still expect to have sunlight when I walk out the door. Showing up to work early will buy me another month or so of decent snapshots after work, but by the time the fall colors are in full swing, golden hour is half spent by the time I can get outside.

Soon it will be time to shift back to indoor hobbies in my off hours.

BF 109

Seen at the Dayton Air Force Museum

Number 9?

Or is that 153?  

I guess it's true that there are 10 kinds of people.

Caudron G III

As seen at the RAF Museum in London.  I can't say that I have any particular desire to go back to London, but if you're there, this museum is worth your time.

Update

Back over a year ago I posted a picture of a GP40 tied down in front of the Clearbrook, WV convenience store.  At the time I wasn't sure if the lunchroom was still in operation, but I'm pleased to state that not only has it survived the encroachment of McDonalds and Chic-fil-a just a few miles away in Winchester, but it seems to be doing a very steady lunchtime business.  

My most recent photo isn't quite as nice as the previous one (the overcast especially dull thanks to Canadian wildfires) but thankfully, not much has changed here.  They've made minor changes though.  You can search F***book for Clearbrook Restaurant and see a picture of the menu every day, which is very handy if you're in the neighborhood.  I hope they stick around a good long time. It's real food.  Maybe not the healthiest, but a fair sight more tasty than the fast food stuff you'll get elsewhere.  

Gentle breeze

We'll be there by morning.

Taken at a rural grade crossing with over a mile visibility in either direction...in case anyone wants to pick a fight about about safety or trespassing.

Signs

Hat in the ring!

Expressed: past tense of 'Express'

Lovely. Fake, but lovely.

Quality...running light

Dark of the moon

Danger indeed

Super Seven

A bright spot in the neighborhood

I said STOP

Someone has a sense of humor

North and South

Spring Colors

Untitled

Uphill

 

Engine at rest

Stationary engine in the Leeds Industrial Museum   

Throne room...the other one.

Just a bit drafty I suspect.

Darkness

Into, or out of?

Two Six Two

These were incredible machines and probably had the potential to change the balance of air power in the war.  Like all things military, though, the tooth to tail ratio must be considered.  By the time development was far enough along to field these jets the industrial support and military logistics needed to make and operate them in significant numbers was already being devoted to defending against the Allied land invasion.  

This example sits in the RAF museum in London

At the throttle

That white hat would NOT last very long.

Track work

Windows

Sometimes you just have to start pointing your camera at things and see what you get.

Above and below

Modern technology is pretty amazing.  The top photo was actually a handful of pictures taken with a cell phone on a cloudy day near dusk and then stitched together and tweaked until the colors looked decent.  Pixel peepers will no doubt see the flaws in it, but it's perfectly passable quality for a personal  photo album (if anyone actually has those anymore.)

F.E. 2b

I read "The Fledgling" by Arch Whitehouse long before I ever saw an F.E.2b in person.  From the description and the pictures I had seen, it seemed it was a tiny, frail little thing.  The aircraft equivalent of a crane fly.  In person it looked so much more substantial that I didn't recognize it at first.  

Siang Kong: Shrine to a Junkyard

Filed under: places you would never know about if you didn't just happen upon them during a walk.

The North Star

Originally built in 1837, this broad gauge locomotive served the Great Western Railway until 1871.  It was scrapped  in 1906 but parts of it were saved and used to build this nonworking replica in 1923.  It can be viewed today in the STEAM museum in Swindon, UK.

Cadillac

 My grandfather had a poster hanging above the stairs to the basement.  It pictured smartly dressed man posing on the fender of (I think) a Rolls Royce.  The caption at the bottom loudly proclaimed "Poverty Sucks."

I can't help but think of that whenever i see this much vintage chrome in one place.

Blur

 

Some of the downhill runs on the Ravenglass and Eskdale can produce what seem like frightening speed, but considering how close you are to the rails, I'm sure the sensation is somewhat more impressive than the reality.