Steamed Up for Christmas

Every year the Roots of Motive Power runs one of its steam locomotives for the Christmas Train or Holiday Express to the delight of steam fans, children and many others. This volunteer Willits, CA organization gives away free rides and a warm serving of hot chocolate to each and every one of its passengers on its short track around the ballfields on the eastern side of Willits off Commercial street. It's a holiday favorite looked forward to by many every year. This year it was raining but that didn't seem to deter many as there were riders all day long. Thanks to the Roots of Motive Power and all the work that they do. Merry Christmas and God's love and blessings to all, chris All images were created with a Canon EOS Rebel T1i and a Canon 28-200mm lens. Basic camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 400, F 8.0 shutter speeds varied. #teamcanonusa

Roots of Motive Power Steam Up

This last weekend I went to the Roots of Motive Powers annual steam up. Roots is is an all-volunteer organization of roughly 700 members in Willits, Ca. It was founded in 1982 to preserve and restore steam- and diesel-powered equipment that was used in the California north coast logging industry from the 1850s to the present. They have an amazing collection of both working and non working equipment probably one of the best collections in the United States. During the steam up the public was free to walk all over the museum and watch a wide variety of equipment in use. They could also ride aboard one of the steam trains on the circular track that runs around the facility. Roots members were available to answer their questions and demonstrate how the equipment works. I had a marvelous time and a very difficult job in choosing what images to share. God's love and blessings to all, chris All images were created with my little travel camera. It's a Canon EOS T1i camera with a Tamron 18-200mm lens. #TeamCanon, #WithMyTamron

Red Skies of Wyoming

After listening to the rain patter on the roof off and on I wasn't quite willing to crawl out of my warm bed. This was day twelve of my trip to Colorado and Wyoming and I was still at my sister and brother in law's house. I remember lying there thinking," Is it too cloudy to give it a try? Is it too rainy?" Luckily my brain won over my body because I dragged myself out into the dark with my camera gear and headed towards the Hat Creek Breaks north of Lusk Wyoming. There were gaps in the clouds that promised an incredible sunrise as I occasionally pushed on the wipers to clear the windshield of rain drops. By the time I was half way to the breaks the sky started turning a flaming red. It turned out to be just fabulous. I photographed the breaks first where I managed to get a little damp! Next I headed out to the Hat Creek School House which I had noticed from the day before. What a grand old school! It was easy to imagine what it must have been like back in its prime with kids playing on the creaking swing set. After the sun rose I headed back to the breaks to create a panorama. Then I drove back to Lusk and photographed two coal trains passing each other on the outskirts of town. I never did count the cars but they run through town about every half hour. I'm guessing they are all close to 125 cars each. I finished up the morning photographing the light shining down onto the prairies and some Pronghorns near the local golf course. God's love and blessings upon your days, chris All images created with a Canon 7D and a variety of lenses.

Steamy Saturday

Saturday morning I went to the Roots Of Motive Powers "Steam Up"in Willits where I live in Northern California. They had an incredible display of working steam equipment up and running from steam locomotives to steam cranes and a shovel. They also had several steam donkeys and a stationary steam engine in operation. In addition to steam equipment they have an impressive display of both logging and railroad equipment as well. To the crowds delight they were offering train rides on their loop track around the property with vintage cars pulled by a steam locomotive. All of the Roots volunteers were very friendly and knowledgeable about the equipment they were operating. It was a great look at the industrial might of a time gone by. God bless, chris All images created with a Canon 7D. Camera was in AV mode, ISO 400 shutter speeds and F stops varied.

Santa Train

Yesterday was quite the adventurous day with a lot of playing taxi and driving people here and there. While waiting for the the road home to open up due to an accident we went down to the Roots of Motive Powers "Santa Train" in Willits. Santa Claus came in on the steam train for the kids and the childlike adults. They were serving much needed hot chocolate and cookies that were enjoyed by all. Lenore, Grandma, Annika and friend Manzy rode the train while I stayed on the ground and did some photography. The cab crew invited me to ride in the locomotive but I declined because it was going to be the last run of the day and I wanted to photograph it. It turned out great because it was so cold out making the steam really stand out. God's blessings and a Merry Christmas to all, chris For you steam fans the #7 locomotive was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. It was built in May, 1910 and is a type 2-6-2T

Playing With Trains

Today Lenore and I were over in the Sacramento Valley on some business. I have never seen so many Tundra Swans. There were thousands of them in the Marysville area off of Highway 20. The lighting was terrible though. It was fog, fog and more fog. What a wonderful treat to get to see them.

On our return trip Lenore had to stop to make a 911 call about a possible drunk driver that was weaving all over the road in front of us. While she was making the call I stepped out to photograph a Union Pacific freight train that roared down the track in front of us. It's a humbling feeling to have thousands of tons of steel bearing down on you when you are standing near the track. I was well off of the track about twenty feet or so and it still gives you thought as to what might happen to you if the train derailed at that point!

God's love and blessings to all,

chris