THE RAPTURE

 

Railroad engineers snatched out of their cabs? Scary. For those unfamiliar with the particularly American theological concept, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture .                   

AMTRAK

 

Passenger rail service in the US. This is the Amtrak train coming into downtown from Chicago, the only one that comes from this direction. None of the sleek lines of the Shinkansen or TGV, but it’s something. Outside of the Boston - Washington corridor, we just dont' have the population density. This is America. We drive or fly.                        

UNION PACIFIC

 

Looking up from the field where Artica takes place, a viewer is confronted by one of the many freight trains crossing the Mississippi into St. Louis. Note the man in the yellow tee shirt riding in the front. Exciting or scary?                  

ABOVE THE FRAY

 

Turn around from the parade route and look up. The locomotives of a Union Pacific freight train are about to cross the Mississippi, passing just in front of the Arch. Then there is a billboard promoting St. Louis Public Schools. A bit sad that they need one.                  

ONDER WINS!

People from other countries are amazed at American lawyer advertising. (As an American lawyer, I am, too.) The state authorities that grant our licenses used to consider it undignified, uncouth. Some decades ago our Supreme Court declared that it is protected free speech. Almost all of the many billboards are for plaintiff personal injury firms. That’s where the big money is.

What I really like about this image, though, Is the rhythmic parade of concrete railroad trestle supports, colorfully splashed with graffiti and receding into the background. 

May need to dip into the archives for a bit. It’s been unusually cold for unusually long by our standards, and it’s about to get colder. This old guy ain’t wandering around  outside.                  

VANISHING POINT

A railroad line emerging from downtown, heading for the Mississippi River. If you wait long enough, you could see the Amtrak train going to Chicago.                

THE RAILS

 

All of the elevated trestles seen here are railroad lines, a block or two closer to the Mississippi than the building in yesterday’s post. Some of them will return to ground level, some will rise onto a bridge over the river. The line that comes in from the center of the left edge has emerged from a tunnel under the Arch grounds.                     

ENGINEERING

Part of the mechanism that moves the wheels on the Big Boy locomotive. I have no idea how it actually works. There is a big water tank and boiler, formerly powered by coal and now by diesel fuel. That creates steam which makes something or other turn, which in turn is connected to a series of levers and wheels. That's as far as I go with the concept.                 

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?

The Big Boy locomotive didn't travel alone. Several other cars trailed behind, including a modern engine for some extra push. The companion cars didn't seem to have a purpose other than to show off the primary colors of the Union Pacific railroad. Why or how would you experience the UP? Private rail companies don't carry passengers in this country.              

I HEAR THAT TRAIN A-COMMIN' IT'S COMMIN' ROUND THE BEND

As the massive Big Boy locomotive left St. Louis it made a stop Monday morning in the suburb of Kirkwood, a town big enough to have an Amtrak station. There was quite a crowd but I squeezed my way to the front, looking for a clear shot. The backlighting was terrible but this will do. 

As the train pulled to a stop right in front of me it let go a mighty blast of its whistle. Ow! The sound meter on my phone said it was 113 db but I bet the reading would have been higher if the phone hadn't been tucked into a holster. Half a minute of that can cause ear damage according to some web page I found (so it must be true). I haven't experienced the like since maybe the last Led Zeppelin concert I attended.         

BIG BOY

So here's the reason for the expedition. Back in the 1940s the Union Pacific Railroad built 25 gigantic locomotives called Big Boys. There are now several in museums and this one, Number 4014, in working order that occasionally go out on tour. It passed through St. Louis Sunday and Monday.

The thing is simply gigantic, too big to get all of it in this picture.  132 feet / 40 meters long and 1.2 million pounds / 544,310 kilograms! See https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/4014/. It spent Sunday parked on a major railway passage on the edge of downtown, inside a fenced enclosure. I would have had to wait an hour or more in heat and brilliant sun to get in, which is beyond me these days. I took this by reaching to the top of a high chain link fence, propping my camera on top, pointing it in the general direction and hoping for the best.

Big Boy made a brief stop in the suburbs yesterday on its way west and I got some better shots.               

RAILROADS

Moving on. I'm not particularly a railroad aficionado, other than having commuted to high school on the New York subway. I've loved trips on the TGV in France and the Shinkansen in Japan but the U.S. has nothing that compares. Of course, before the day of ubiquitous air travel it's how we got around. St. Louis' Union Station was one of the great junctions of the nation.

I went out yesterday trying to shoot a railroad event worth seeing but had limited success due to crowds and the heat. I'm going to make another attempt this morning and hope to have something to show tomorrow. This old passenger car parked behind Union Station will do for today.            

MY TOWN

Although I've been in the St. Louis area since I came to college here in 1967, I do not live in the city proper. It has a small and declining share of the metropolitan population. We have sprawling suburbs. This one is now considered inner ring, older by local standards. According to Wikipedia

Webster Groves' location on the Pacific Railroad line led to its development as a suburb. In the late 19th century, overcrowding, congestion, and unhealthy conditions in St. Louis prompted urban residents to leave the city for quieter, safer surroundings. In 1892 the developers of Webster Park, an early housing subdivision, promoted the new community as the "Queen of the Suburbs", offering residents superb housing options in a country-like atmosphere, as well as a swift commute to downtown St. Louis jobs.  

That may have been just real estate promotion but it's still a nice place to live, although passenger trains haven't come here in decades. Now the old station houses a model railroad club.

       

THE MIDWEST

                Typical view in this territory. The location is a short walk from my home.                 

RAILROAD ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI

There is some complicated theory about why Chicago, rather than St. Louis, became the railroad hub of the Midwest US. We are more central but, if nothing else, Chicago doesn't have that big river in the way.

This is an old, big rail bridge across the Mississippi. It is on the southern edge of downtown with three hard arches crossing the river. I don't know what the boxy, blank building on the right used to be, or how someone hung out that window to paint a simplified face. Must have had some cliff climbing skills.       

Golden West

John Wayne wouldn't recognize it.  Nor would Giacomo Puccini. I don't know if the name and logo on this hopper car has something to do with the corporate owner or whether, perhaps, it carries grain. The graffiti looks sort of like the style of Pacific Northwest Native American art.

I threw some flash on this, which is what makes those reflective bars really pop out. We are into trains here in the heartland.                       

Burlington Northern & Sante Fe

I'm sure I've mentioned it here before. There is a railroad tunnel that runs below the Arch, coming out at the north end of its surrounding park. The track runs through a passage in Eads Bridge and then north to wherever. This exposed part runs over what used to be the foot of Washington Avenue before all the renovations. You can just see this trestle in the second picture of the last two days' posts.            

Bring Back American Railroad Jobs

Ruins of the Cotton Belt depot, north riverfront.  

There is a big anti-Trump rally on Sunday starting at 2:00 in Citygarden. I'll be covering it. https://www.facebook.com/events/1843569069255135/
             

Perspective

If only people had some kind of camera in the late Middle Ages, painting would have come a lot farther a lot faster in the Renaissance. Taken on the East St. Louis Riverfront.

                   

Back To The High Contrast Stuff

The June 1 theme day was shadow and highlight. I mentioned in my post that I had edited other similar pictures and planned to run a few.

This was taken a few paces away from the June 1 photo but turned around to the north. The structure in the upper midground is part of a conveyor system that moves grain from barges on the Mississippi to grain elevators off to the right. The bright structure in the background is the Stan Musial Bridge.