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louis capwell

louis capwell

trains, photography, etc.

Posted on April 14, 2010December 29, 2011 by Lou Capwell

West Virginia

Earlier this spring, I went to West Virginia with a few friends to shoot some trains and drive some back roads. Here are the photos.





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Photos

capwell posted a photo: Northern Plains Railroad operates on some truly bleak, flat terrain in northern North Dakota. We raced to this spot outside tiny Tolley, ND because it showed as a lake on the map. Well, all we got was grass and heat distortion across a field. These ex-CP, ex-Guilford GP40s were originally purchased by the Boston and Maine. capwell posted a photo: Just north of Coleharbor lies the US 83 causeway over Lake Audubon. Because I am crazy, stupid, or both, I decided that launching the drone in extremely high winds was a good idea. The resulting shot is decent, but it was a nerveracking few minutes of fighting the assertive prairie breezes to get it. capwell posted a photo: DMVW coal loads enter the Merida horseshoe at Lost Lake National Wildlife Refuge, south of Washburn. In a few moments, the train will have climbed the steep grade to the crossing we stood at to get this shot. The sound of three EMDs pulling all those loads was nothing short of magical. The overcast skies we dealt with at this spot, were slightly less so. capwell posted a photo: DMVW grain and tanks, headed north to interchange with CP at Max, disturbs very little as it passes through Coleharbor last week. capwell posted a photo: The grain elevator at Norma, along the tracks of the Northern Plains Railroad. capwell posted a photo: A Canada-bound intermodal train skirts the many water features surrounding Kenmare, a town known for its wildfowl hunting. Between trains, we saw countless species of birds, which if you know me, was as much a highlight as the trains. The eagle-eyed among you may notice the Progress Rail demonstrator locomotive back there in the consist, serving as a mid-train DPU. capwell posted a photo: Two SD50Fs and a mixed bag of grain, tanks, and gons traverse the scenery between Garrison and Max, ND capwell posted a photo: A few weeks ago, we moved the two Washington DOT Talgo sets from Seattle to their eventual, final resting place of Anaheim. Moving twenty-six hand-built, incredibly complicated cars a long distance- longer than they'd gone in a good while- was not without a few pitfalls, but we eventually got them over the road in a little over two days. Of course the sights along the way were spectacular, as we followed the route of Amtrak's Coast Starlight, and I tried to tell the story of this funeral procession on rails as best I could. Here's the uniquely patterned glass that anyone who has ridden a Talgo set will immediately identify. Set against the sun setting in the Pacific, on its last ride before an unkind demise, these cars really showed their true colors to me. Wall panels cushioned with Spanish cork, Talgo-emblazoned lamps in the diner, the spectacular fiber optic-lighted map of the Pacific Northwest's coastline in the bistro cars' ceilings- these weren't ordinary railcars, and we won't soon see something this thoughtful on American rails again. capwell posted a photo: An eastbound Three Rivers, complete with MHCs, a heritage 10-6, and a string of Roadrailers on the end, passes under the 254 signals in Lilly. capwell posted a photo: A Conrail SD70 leads a snow-covered westbound manifest past Mack Truck on the west side of Allentown on a frigid winter day in December of 2000 more...
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