HerrDrayer

I haven't been too active on here for a long while because I'm a homeowner and a father now, and playing around with cameras takes a backseat to house repairs, yardwork, and child rearing.  But, I did manage to send off a few pictures to Trains Magazine about the new railfan viewing platform where St. Anthony Parkway crosses over the south end of the BNSF Northtown Yard in Minneapolis, parallel to the CP flyover.  Trains decided to print my picture of a Northstar commuter train passing by the platform in the February issue on Page 73 if you're interested in seeing my work.  They said they'd pay me, but the check hasn't arrived yet. 

How many of you have seen this TED talk? 

www.ted.com/talks/thomas_hellu…

If Norwegian public television can arrange to broadcast a week-long live broadcast of a ship sailing from Bergen to Kirkenes (a trip I've taken in the opposite direction), why couldn't a team of American railfans pool resources and a kickstarter campaign to broadcast a live documentary from aboard the Empire Builder?  Every Amtrak long distance train, and every short one too, has the potential to make great "Slow TV" content, and the act would help to bring positive attention to Amtrak, the host railroads, and property owners along the right of way.  I think it would be of the utmost importance that any commentary not be politically charged.  The goal would be to show Americans the beautiful scenery on view through the windows of the trains that we the people own.  When the trains are in tunnels or running at night through un-lighted areas, there would be plenty of opportunity to broadcast vintage footage about the trains that used to run those routes and other clips about the towns through which the train is passing at the time.  This would also lend itself very well to a boat trip the whole length of the Mississippi, Missouri, Columbia, and the St. Lawrence Seaway to name just a few.  Sadly, I doubt the Lake Michigan carferry would be a good match since it's just 4 hours of continuous Lake water...unless the event were well publicized ahead of time and the ship were accompanied by lots of other vessels.

The Hunger Games are good films for railfans. After all, the most luxurious transportation available between the districts is a train that may or may not use magnetic levitation. Curiously, the background of District 12 is decorated with highly conventional, painted steel coal hopper cars.  Meanwhile, the passenger trains run on what appears to be a strange cross between the Transrapid's guideway set on the ground and the aerodynamic shape of the Japanese superconducting maglev vehicles, all hauled by a locomotive whose shrouding looks like it was pirated from the Chicago and Northwestern's Twin Cities 400.  The set designer must have been a railfan though, as the best and most peaceful part of the train is clearly an homage to the Milwaukee Road's unique Skytop lounge cars. 31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqi…

To fit the cold, oppressive tone of the story though, the interior's metallic walls and dark upholstery make even the famously cool industrial design of the Henry Dreyfuss 1938 20th Century Limited look warm and welcoming. 

Okay, so my last journal entry is more than a year old, and quite a few things have changed.  My wife and I moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota in May 2013, then we bought a house just north of the city limit a few months later.  I survived my first Minnesota winter, which was the coldest, snowiest, longest in the last 20 years, and I've bounced from a railroad conductor job in St. Paul to working in the transit industry.  With CDL in hand, I am now in charge of 150+ bus drivers who run fixed routes and "dial-a-ride" services throughout the Twin Cities.  I was only a driver for about three months before my railroad management experience played a hand in earning me a promotion to street supervisor.  When we're short handed, I'll drive a route, but most of the time, I'm out in a car, monitoring my drivers in the field. 

During this past year, my wife and I have managed to see many plays and musicals, visit my family in Kansas, her family up north, vacation at the family cottages in Michigan, make some massive changes to the landscaping in our yard, renovate different parts of the house, and up our turntable count to five...though one is available for sale and one is on loan to a friend.  The dogs are well and enjoying their fenced-in back yard.  We also have a total of three gaming consoles in our home theater, as I gave my wife a WiiU for her birthday to add to the PS2 and PS3 we already had.  My wife's piano is finally in our possession too.  It had spent the last 10 years at her parents' house, but her father finally brought it to the 'Cities, and after a tuning, it gets played quite a bit now.  It still needs to be revoiced though.  It's more than 80 years old.  Yeah, things are way different now...especially now that I have a steady job and income of my own. 

I haven't been too active on here as of late, because budgetary constraints have prevented my wife and me from taking any major trips, and I'm just not the kind of railfan who goes to the same location all the time to shoot the same trains over and over again.  I'm the kind of railfan who documents his latest rail journey, then moves on...literally.  Anyway, in a few months time, I'll be active again and posting a subject I haven't touched much in the last 5 1/2 years: North American railroading.  Yes, I'm moving back to the 'states.  Twin Cities to be exact.  I don't plan to get started shooting and posting again until my wife and I are settled into a house.  In the meantime, I'll keep up with comments and faving as usual.