Life and Times of a urban railfan

                                  I know it has almost been two months since my last post and I truly apologize to my followers who read this blog, to tell the truth I just haven't been myself lately. I had lost my passion due to a number of reasons, mainly people. I began with my boss telling me I had to much time on my hands and increasing my workload in order to wear me out after work and it worked for a while. but from time to time it would work out in my favor to catch something rolling through in the early morning or the early afternoon right after work but with my van acting up, the weather, and my work/Life schedule it just kept me from getting out trackside like I wanted. In my last post I talked about making room for more railfanning and I have, but somethings just haven't worked out in my favor yet. But what began t...

           I know it has been a while since my last post, to be honest with you I just have been busy with work and other things that has kept me from the tracks. During my unwanted sabbatical I managed to get a few minutes in with the trains. The first being when I went on a fishing trip with our family ( this was a wanted trip by the way, not to be included in the unwanted sabbatical) during that trip we crossed a set of tracks belonging to the Wheeling and Lake Erie and I heard a train on the scanner as we packed up to head home. I figured that the train would be by us by the time we got to the crossing, but that would prove me wrong as I approached the crossing I looked out the window and saw the train about a quarter of a mile away. Stopping the van on the other side of the tracks I grabbed my camera and ran  back toward the tracks (this has been a little easier since I have been walking and losing some poundage) with only se...

A CSX auto rack runs through South Akron in a scene similar to what I saw as a kid          I was flipping through the April edition of Railfan and Railroad magazine the other  day and in one of the commentaries it was basically put that railfanning is one form of a persons work and entertainment for others. I can relate to this for the most part from the perspective of being entertained by the immensity and power of the motive power and the freight cars that are moved across the country everyday. It began with the walks me and my dad would take up to the end of the street while walking our dog, if we heard a train horn blowing for South street ( I was to young to know this at the time) we would wait and in a few minutes here we would see a train emerge from under the Main Street bridge and I would be treated to seeing a train. Over the years on various occasions I would go out with my dad not really railfanning but he would go to places th...

 I'm back, Really I didn't go anywhere just haven't had to much to write about in the past few weeks. While trying not to complain, the simple fact is I just got plain fed up with the scene here in Akron and Barberton. The construction of the new sewers and the Interstate has pushed most of us into a mile long stretch of track while I try to do new shots and be creative it doesn't always pan out, honestly just too many railfans in one area to suit me, plus I seem not to be in the top twenty percent of the favorites around here so couple that with a gas needle that didn't work, a bad wheel bearing, and a boss that seems to think I waste my time with the trains I was at my breaking point. When one reaches his or her breaking point there is only two options for them to choose and that is fight or flight, one can choose to fight through the discouraging situation or they can choose to do something different, I chose the latter. During the past month or so I happened u...

The Friday before this past Friday began my return to what I consider a normal schedule, for the most part work has taken up most of my time trackside and had cut into my other train hobbies pretty severely. So  Wednesday afternoon I get off work and go get gas and begin the drive to my usual spot where I park, the weather wasn't the best it was windy and cold ( need I mention that we had tornado warnings at 6 in the morning) so the weather was definitely not the best. Tired and beat down from work some hope had sprang through when some of the clouds began to clear and the sun came out but that was short lived. The first Train to cross my path was the Z-640 while I was crossing over the mill street bridge from getting gas, a quick right turn and down to Summit street to catch the ABC Railway crossing Summit street on it's way back to Brittain yard with the daily freight. The Conductor climbs back on board the 1502 after lining the switch back to proceed East After the A...

               To say the least the past couple of weeks have not been my favorite, in my last blog I talked about how my new year was off to a great start and how I expected great weather, well my friends that just has not happened yet. Almost every day this month including my birthday it has rained, only the first week in Jan did we have some snow and very little did we have, before the nice heat wave that came along with this wet weather. Shooting in the rain in the winter months is a challenge in itself, low sun angle coupled with a thick cloud deck only adds to ones lighting sorrows. The only time the light is good is between the hours of 1:00 and 3:00 the rest of the time it is too dark and having a lack of trains during suitable daylight hours creates its own problems. Along with this weather my work schedule has not been kind either to my passion and had lead to me being depressed and down. However today I p...

    Happy New Year to all of my friends and followers here on my Blog.  To say I will not miss 2016 is a understatement, while it had it's ups and downs I am just glad to be into the new year 2017, a new 365 page book that I get to write and I already have written an awesome first page. It is sometimes considered a old wives tale that how you begin your new year is how it will be. If it is any indication of the things to come just from yesterday I am going to have a epic year ahead. Let's begin on how my new year began, I spent the evening in church like I have been doing for the past 16 years and then I got up and went to service the next morning. Yesterday morning it was superb weather for January and not a cloud in the sky. After church I went out trackside to catch one or both trains out running, the Q299 and the L389  (I was fortunate to catch the latter), what better way to bring in the new year than with a mixed freight led by a clean SD70AC in pe...