Trackside with Trains

I entered another "Trackside with Trains" reader favorites poll from Trains magazine. The theme for this installment was Trains Along the Water. I took this picture in Alviso, a small formerly unincorporated area of San Jose. It was a cool, still, March morning. The water was undisturbed except for the faint steps of a few waterfowl. Their mirrored reflections can be seen in the lower left corner of the picture. Last time I submitted a picture to "Trackside with Trains" back in March it garnered enough votes for a respectable third place showing. I'm crossing my fingers for a slightly better showing this time. I'll update and link when I hear the results.

It's been quite some time since I've been out anywhere taking pictures of trains (or anything other than grand kids). I will have to remedy that situation very soon. I need some ferroequinology paparazzo therapy. Update - 6/1/2012 Well this is rather disappointing. I didn't even make the cut. There were three reader submissions, none of which were mine. There's always the next one!

Cool Morning Sunrise

Westbound Amtrak Capitol Corridor #523
Originally uploaded by sharkzƒan

Just wanted to share a sunrise with folks because I have really been neglectful of my blog as of late. We have a grandson on the way so we've been pretty busy with baby shower preparations and just general grandparent stuff. That sounds really wierd to be speaking of myself as a grandparent! Ack!

Amtrak Capitol Corridor

Amtrak Capitol Corridor, originally uploaded by sharkzƒan.

I took this in Alviso on a calm morning. The lack of a breeze provided a great reflective surface on the water.

Connections

Through my Flickr page I've been corresponding with folks all over the country (and the world for that matter) who have the same interest in railfanning. I was contacted by an individual who wanted to use one of my pictures for their blog. I was quite honored that they would think highly enough of it to want to display it to their readers. I gave him permission to use it. Come to find out he's a conductor for Amtrak and does the Capitol Corridor run from Sacramento to San Jose. He may very well have been on the the train in the image in my last post. I haven't heard from him confirming that, but we'll see. It seems like a consistantly smaller and smaller world as we barrel headlong into the communications and social networking era. Here's a link to his blog "Bad Iron"

I Think It's "The One"

You would only understand this term if you were an enthusiast. So this is "the one", at least until another, grander one comes along. You can also view it large on my Flickr page