Hello, and welcome to something a bit different!

In the last couple years, and especially more recently, I've found myself getting more into model railroading than I have simulators or even going trackside anymore (especially as some of the more interesting engines, signals, cars, etc are killed off). I've been participating in the regional Cornfield Free-mo meets for the last couple years, as well as being part of the local University of Illinois Illini Railroad Club. Between those and train shows in the area, I've been enjoying the hobby - despite how expensive it is!

Model kits are a good way to bring down the cost a little bit, sometimes more than others. Over a year ago, I bought this undecorated kit of an ExactRail PC&F boxcar and have sat on it ever since, with the intent to build and paint it for my own home railroad. I discovered after opening it up that zero exploded parts or instructions of any kind were included, which wasn't really ideal as there were a few particularly small detail parts that I couldn't quite determine where they went. So, I shelved it for the time being. Cue another end-of-year sale at ScaleTrains, and a year after I'd bought the kit, I picked up a few plastic hoppers and, more importantly, an assembled version of this boxcar dressed for the Milwaukee Road. Now I had a perfect item to compare the kit to...

​So, let's build!

With 2024 finally having come to a close, it's time again to look back on the year - even if I'm a bit late to getting to it. As with most things, it usually ends up as a mixed bag - and indeed that is the case for my own 2024. This year has been a struggle on the job and financial side of things, and the near total silence regarding the immigration case for my wife has also been a bit of a downer, too. Car troubles and expenses only serve to cause more problems. Still, despite all that, there's been good this year. On the photo side of things, this year has been one of the best. So much has happened in that sphere it's almost hard to comprehend.

Throughout 2024, I've photographed more interesting railroad subjects than I could have possibly expected. Trains and areas in what I call the "local bubble" have been the primary focus and with great success. From more classic Illinois Central "Deathstars" to local shortlines to the infamous RoadRailer, it's been incredibly busy just in my little corner of central Illinois. On top of that, I've made jaunts to catch some unique one-offs such as steam engines, office car specials, heritage units, rare leaders, and even a solar eclipse for good measure. All this goes without talking about the big trip to the Deseret Power! Suffice to say, this year has been busy, and in a very good way.

Consciously or not, everybody has a bucket list. Usually experiences, like seeing certain bands live, or visiting a special place, or even just meeting artists or actors - they vary a lot, essentially. Everyone's list is different from another person. For myself, I've managed to cross off a lot of items on my list - seeing my favourite band live, traveling to various places, collecting certain items, the works. The bulk of my bucket list, though, is made up of mostly things or places I want to photograph. Getting to shoot the UP Big Boy? Check. Shoot every set of ex-Wabash signals on the Bloomington District? Check. Plenty of RoadRailer photo spots - yep, check. Plenty of signals - Trilights, Semaphores, CPLs and PLs, R2/P5s - checked most of those off. There's always just been this one thing that always felt just out of reach though, and that was a proper electrified freight train.

Well, after a last minute surprise roadtrip, I've finally checked another big ticket item off of my bucket list thanks to the Deseret Power Railway.

I sometimes wonder where all the time goes. I was doing some asset cleanup and adding the latest batch of photos to the photo gallery when I realized I haven't posted a single thing in over a year. I've started posts, nearly finished one, but just never finalized them and hit post. Funny how that works out.

In the past year, a lot has happened. Some things to do with photos and trips and the like, others quite the rollercoaster of personal life events and such. It's hard to really know where to begin with it all.

I guess a train photo is a good way to start, or something like that.

With December coming to a fast close as always, the year nears its end. 2022 has been a whirlwind year, As most years go, it was a rollercoaster at times, with high highs and and deep lows. In some areas, I did a lot this year, and in others, very little. With this year, I added thousands of miles in trips to my car, visited new places and shot in more states than in any previous year, as well as some very different adventures that have made quite the impact on my life. Many connections, many things... busy, busy year.

​A lot happened this year! Let's start from the beginning...

If there's one constant in this world, it's that things don't stay the same forever. It's the nature of the world, things have to change - some of them are big, sweeping changes or outright replacements, other times its just details. When it comes to the world of trains and railroading, you see a lot of changes of all shapes and sizes. Some are for the better unquestionably, such as improving construction standards on tanker cars, but others are unquestionably terrible, such as BNSFs recent Hi-Vis attendance policy that keeps engineers and conductors away from home and family alike and offers no flexibility.

Other changes... they don't have any real impact on the world or railroading at large, but yet we find their negative effects regardless. Perhaps it's just a visual change - functionally everything is the same, but it doesn't quite look or feel the same. This is exactly what has happened at the small community of Lodge, Illinois this year.

Night time photography is one of my favourite types of photography. The challenge of shooting in dark conditions is one that takes some adjustments compared to usual daytime shooting, but when it works, it's often absolutely spectacular. Such is the case when looking up at the stars - a challenge to photograph, but when it works...

There are many night time and night sky types of photography, though I only practice a mere handful. Primarily a more basic type of light painting, using the headlights of locomotives passing by to illuminate a subject and act as their own focal point as they shoot across the frame. However, I've wanted to expand those horizons a bit further and try a different type of long exposure photography - by pointing my camera up to the sky.

Star trails are something I've wanted to try for a while now, but committing to actually doing them didn't come easy. They take time and careful setup on the camera side, and it's easy to screw up and waste all that time. All it would take is one tap on the tripod and a few late hours have now been wasted. Learning to use my intervalometer properly was also necessary - for the last year or so I've had all the tools but not the know-how. Thanks to some quick tutorials and tests at home, I had figured out how to work it all properly.

The question then, is what to shoot? Yes, I could just go to a dim parcel of land anywhere and look up, but adding in a subject to a star trail photo takes it to the next level, and I wanted something more than just the trails themselves.

Thanks to light pollution maps and some previous knowledge, I knew exactly where to go. It only seemed fitting to visit my favourite control point on the NS Bloomington District - CP Osman!

How do you describe the craziest year of your life?

I don't know. I don't think there's one right answer. I do know that this year was insane from start to finish. I put almost 20,000 miles on my car over the course of the year crisscrossing my home state, flying up and down the northern edge of the American south, venturing north to the Marquette Iron Range and to the cold fields of Minnesota, and so many farm roads across neighbouring midwestern states, I couldn't even begin to plot out a path of where I've been. Then there were the additional, oh, I don't know, 8,000 miles of travel by air, bus, and train that took me to and across London, England. Christ, I've been moving around a lot this past year.

Where do I really begin?

The rumour mill had been saying it for about two years at this point that the IAIS QJ 6988 would be doing a few runs when the official announcement came that this oddity would be performing fundraising excursions for local fire departments in Iowa in August 2021. From what I gathered, 2020 excursions were supposed to have happened, but, well, the obvious. But, with extended boiler time, the QJ had a few weekends to do things in 2021 - and they used them well!

As the dates for trips for my summer and fall began to pile in and organise themselves, the QJ happened to line up really nicely. Slated at less than a week from the Big Boy 2021 trip, it would be a tight squeeze for sure - one that meant I had barely enough time to put out a few QJ shots before the Big Boy would envelope the next few weeks of my life. In trying to get the photos and words edited and put out with that big trip, paired with the next few coming up, the QJ fell by the wayside, and I never really made note of it here except for the photos that appeared in the gallery one day.

Well, I'd say it's about time to correct that!

With 2021 being chock full of trips and photo opportunities alike, it's been a very busy year to say the least. Late summer and fall were really intense - a weekend with the IAIS 6988, then just a few days later embarking on the Big Boy 2021 tour, and the back-to-back London/Drumsheds and MILW261 trips (not to mention the LS&I trip a month and some change before it all). It was just packed. So, of course, there has to be something to round it all off.

Well, in that case, I took another adventure up north to Wisconsin to see the Soo Line 1003, where I participated in the Trains Magazine photo charter with the little 2-8-2. Now that was quite a weekend, and quite a send off as my last trip for the year. Clocking in at three days including transit, this little outing would prove to be quite the experience indeed.