I'm not sure what most people would call it but I prefer to think of it as grabbing the opportunities that present themselves. Once again I set out to take some photos and the one I like the best is not the one I went looking for.
I knew a steam train was running today so that was my target. But while I was waiting for it I noticed a thistle growing by the track and the bees that were feasting on it. So I quickly grabbed some shots. Not as sharp as I would like as they were hand held and not with a macro lens either. Still here it is.
Oh and the train did arrive. The locos were moving to Valley Heights depot ready for the weekend's activities.
Note to those in the Sydney area. The Mt Victoria Train Festival is on this weekend with displays and events all over Mt Victoria. See here for details. Included in the events are steam trains rides from both Mt Victoria and Katoomba. Should be a fun weekend.
A view of Mt Isa with the chimneys of the mine in the background. The mine is the reason for the town's existence and it dominates the town.
There was a time when the Railway Station was one of the important buildings in the town. It was the place for farewells and greetings and it was the centre of the town's transport. In many towns the station has disappeared entirely or just been left to rot.
Fortunately a few survive and are cared for by the community. Some lucky ones still serve at least some of their original purpose even if like this one it is only one train a week, in each direction, that stops here.
In the late 1950's fins and space imagery was the latest thing. Cars that had changed little since before WWII were adorned with these items to convince the buying public they were the latest thing.
A scene below the blast furnaces of a steelworks. As one train of molten steel is moved away another is loaded.
That is molten steel that is flowing into that wagon. It will be taken to another building where it will be poured into moulds to create slabs that will later be rolled and pressed into steel products.
Earlier this month Orso posted an article on the colour of trains. This is a response showing the colour of NSW (Australia) diesel (and an electric for good measure) locomotives during the era of government ownership, ie. up to mid 1990's.
The first diesels in NSW wore a scheme that was basically the same as that used on some steam locomotives.
The next colour was introduced during the mid 50's and was known as Tuscan. It was still used into the 70's.
In an effort to modernise the image of the railways a new colour was introduced which was soon known as Candy.
This proved to be an expensive scheme to paint so a simplified version was adopted for older locomotives. It was known as Red Terror.
The 90's bought a new colour scheme that was to be the last before the system was privatised. It became known as FreightRail Blue. A version of this survives today as the corporate livery of Pacific National but with different shades and design.
Electric Locomotives
Originally electric locomotives had an unique Maroon colour but later they wore the same scheme as the diesels.
I photographed this spider a couple of days ago. I believe it is a St Andrew's Cross Spider but the yellow bars are the opposite way to the previous ones I have seen. It is a different spider? The web is the same and is the origin of the name as I understand.
I caught up with this fellow striding through a park. I'm not sure what he is but his exaggerated movement got my attention.
Sometimes (ok often) I go out to take one photo but come back with another. That is what happened here. I was in a spot where a rail line passes through a park and was intending to take a couple of photos of trains when I saw these growing at the base of the embankment the railway is on.
I took this a couple of weeks ago. I haven't seen Swallows like this around here very often.
The quality may not be the best as it was taken at full zoom and hand held but still needed cropping a bit.
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Recent Comments
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jd said:
actually I had a tripod in the car but don't usually use it when shooting action shots like a moving... read more
on A Bee and A Train -
gcgal said:
[this is good]Love the steam train but you know the bee photo came out quite good even though you didn't have what... read more
on A Bee and A Train -
dk said:
heh; hand-held is my usual...I can seldom be bothered to haul around the tripod, lazy photog that I am. The... read more
on A Bee and A Train -
thanks gcgal read more
on A Bee and A Train