Johann Marsbar Posted February 3, 2022 Author Share Posted February 3, 2022 13 minutes ago, Chris116 said: What reason do PATH give for not allowing photography? On my second visit to Chicago around 2004/5 I spent a day doing as much of the 'L' as I could. All the staff were friendly and helpful with drivers inviting me into the cab while they changed ends so I could get some better pictures. That was until I got to the Yellow line (Skokie Swift) when I took a photo of the empty cab of the train we had just arrived on I got screamed at by the driver and conductor that taking photos was an act of terrorism! I put my camera away but when I got off to change trains I mentioned to a staff member what had happened and that it had surprised me as everywhere else the staff had encouraged me with my photos. The member of staff asked me if I wanted a photo of the Skokie train and when I said yes he took my camera and walked over to the Skokie train and took a couple of photos. He gave me my camera and as we got on the Red line service told me that what had happened was totally wrong. The PATH thing was actually introduced a while after 9/11, although New Jersey, in particular NJT, got very funny about photography after that date and it took a while to return to a sense of normallity, something that regularly appeared in a column called Boberwatch (named after Police Chief Bober) in Railpace Newsmagazine at the time!. It's enshrined in the PATH Rules & Regulations that you a) - Need a Permit and b) Have to be accompanied by a PATH representative. If you download their rules & regulations on this page.... https://www.panynj.gov/path/en/rider-info.html and scroll down to pages 17-20 you can read all about it ! As I say, I've taken a few at Harrison and in the WTC station since that came in and haven't been pulled up for it. The security paranoia was one reason I stopped going to the US between 2005 and 2009 as it seem to reach ludicrous proportions around that time. We were accused of being "terrorists" for daring to take a photo of an MBTA trolleybus at Waverly turning circle in Boston during 2004 (!) but, thankfully, that mindset seems to have died out nowadays. Last time I was questioned about my motive for taking photos was shortly after taking this one in Chicago in 2013..... ...though the member of staff in question was a bit half-hearted about it and the moment I started speaking, he rapidly worked out I wasn't local ( crazy tourist..) and went back to what he was doing elsewhere on the platform! 5 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted February 3, 2022 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 3, 2022 I got shouted at by a Metra Employee at Geneva in 2005 so just caught the next train to West Chicago. No other problems at all. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted February 4, 2022 Author Share Posted February 4, 2022 I was only back in the UK for about 3 weeks as I had booked on another Aviation tour to the USA - this time starting off at Washington DC and eventually working its way down to the "Wings over Houston" airshow in Texas - an event that was actually cancelled in the end due to severe weather! The only real opportunity for any rail photography on this trip was when we spent three days in Washington DC at the start of the tour and I can't remember whether I actually dropped out of one of the days activities to do my own thing or we actually had two free days in Washington. We flew out to DC on a Continental DC10 from Gatwick to Newark, with an onward connection (DC9/727 or something most probably) to National Airport in DC. Our Hotel in Washington was adjacent to L'Enfant VRE station, which turned out to be rather useful. The first day was definitely a free day for the participants, so I wandered over to Union Station where this elderly GM bus was still being used in some capacity - possibly as a "heritage" vehicle - by Washington Metrobus, as there was an early 1920's bus from another operator parked under the arches behind the bus.... I was lucky to find one of the former Washington Terminal SW1 switchers, now Amtrak #738 and dating from the late 1940's, still in the WTC blue livery..... ...and from Union Station I eventually made my way out to Alexandria where I took this shot of a yellow line Metro train.... Up early the following morning, I spent some time on L'Enfant station where this VRE GP39-2C was pictured.... The main activity for the day was a long guided tour round the Silver Hill storage facility of the Smithsonian to view their extensive aircraft collection. At that stage, the brand new Udvar-Hazy Centre Museum complex out at Dulles Airport was still way in the future so anything that they couldn't display in the downtown DC Aviation museum was stored out at Silver Hill - and it was rather a lot of exhibits! Most of the things we saw in 1998 are now on display out at Dulles, though some are still being restored. I went there in 2016 and it is a very impressive place, though one particular exhibit that I was looking for was nowhere to be seen. At Silver Hill there was a complete Felixstowe F5 flying boat hull that had been constructed as a cut-away version back in the 1920's when they were being built in the US...... .....but it obviously hadn't made it out to Dulles yet, which is surprising given its educational value. Once back in Washington, I spent some time by the rail tracks again, where this Amtrak service is pictured coming off the Potomac River bridge and heading for Union Station.... Another vantage point saw VRE GP40PH-2 #V22 on an outbound service passing the Tropicana "Juice Train"....... Whilst back on the L'Enfant station platform, this CSX northbound freight passed, headed by GP40-2 #6246... 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted February 4, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 4, 2022 2 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said: Another vantage point saw VRE GP40PH-2 #V22 on an outbound service passing the Tropicana "Juice Train"....... A very handy photo . First time that I have seen a roof shot of these cars. I now need to repaint my HO scale roofs from silver to orange 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted February 5, 2022 Author Share Posted February 5, 2022 (edited) On the third day in DC I decided to take a run up to Baltimore to look at their Light Rail line which had opened in 1992. To vary the route, I first travelled out on the MARC service to Camden station in Baltimore which uses the former B&O (now CSX) line between the two cities. This route has the lowest passenger train frequency of the two routes, though it has been expanded a bit more in recent years. MARC #69, a GP40WH-2 dating from 1994 is seen in the (somewhat reduced in size from its heyday) Camden station in Baltimore...... I think they are now down to just one loco of that type in the fleet, and that is used for MoW/Emergency work only and lives in the MoW yard out at Odenton. The Baltimore Light Rail runs past Camden, but on this visit, after a look round the Harbourfront area and a visit to M.B. Kleins model railway shop - which was still downtown in Gay Street in those days - I only travelled on the Light rail out to the BWI Airport terminus, where I caught the free shuttle bus (nowadays provided by First Group...) out to BWI station on the North-East Corridor, from where I caught a MARC service on the former PRR main line back to Union Station in Washington. The rest of the Light Rail system would have to wait until 2003 to be covered in ful on one of my trips. Amtrak AEM7 #915 passed BWI station whilst I was waiting with a northbound service..... The final photo taken during the time in DC was this CSX freight passing L'Enfant station, headed by GP40-2 #6249 From Washington we headed south and the only other rail interest seen was at the US Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, near Newport News, VA, where a few rail exhibits were on display. A "USA Tank" in a narrow gauge configuration...... An S160 2-8-0 which was used on the Ft Eustis rail system into the 1970's..... A caboose off the base network.... Together with a rather lost looking DB First Class coach and one of the emergency CKD "kits" for a 4-wheel box van for use on the European rail network.... Amongst the other exhibits at the Museum, this Hovercar, looking as though it came straight from a Gerry Anderson Production, has to be the highlight !! Just needs Mike Mercury to complete the scene........ It was a long trip on the coach down to Atlanta, GA, via Charleston and Savannah, and we then flew to Houston for the "Wings over Houston" airshow. The day of the show we did at least get to the airfield and were allowed inside for all of about 20 mins, before we were turfed out once it had been cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. We returned to the Hotel, and within a few hours, the weather turned really nasty - so much so that by the following morning there had been 17" of rain recorded !! Thankfully the system had passed through by then, so we did manage to get out to visit a Shopping Mall (!) on the coach, and then ventured to Galveston to visit an air museum there which had opened specially for us. After a visit to NASA the following day, we flew back that evening from Houston on a Continental Airlines DC10 to Gatwick. That was then it for North America until September 1999..... . Edited February 5, 2022 by Johann Marsbar Duplicate photo 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted February 7, 2022 Author Share Posted February 7, 2022 After going on the joint Todays Railways/Travel Bureau trip in 1998, that had made me aware of the various Travel Bureau tours to the USA and, as I still didn't have any urge to drive over there at that time, I subsequently went on 3 of their trips over the next few years, before a decision was made, in conjunction with a couple of my fellow travellers on them, that we would be better off doing our own trips over there! The first TB trip of the three was one that covered from Denver over to Salt Lake City, so in September 1999, the tour started with an LHR-EWR flight on a United 777 for an onward connection to the (new for me) Denver International Airport on a DC 10. The first two nights were spent to the west of Denver at Wheat Ridge with the first day of the trip covering the Coal Creek Canyon area, though the weather for the first couple of days was indifferent, to say the least. C&NW Operation Lifesaver liveried #8830 an AC4000CW lead the first train we saw, heading downhill with a loaded coal train.... Whilst SP liveried #311 (still not renumbered into the UP fleet), an AC44CW, brought up the rear..... The westbound Amtrak "California Zephyr" turned up sometime later, with the F40 doing most of the work by the look of it..... and this was followed by the "American Orient Express" - the only time I ever saw that train...... From Coal Creek Canyon, we headed west to the Georgetown Loop Railroad for a visit and a ride on the line, but it was rather damp which tended to spoil the visit, particularly the views from the train. The line has changed owner since then, so I'm not sure how much of the stock we saw is still based there. The Shay we had on our train certainly isn't as that is now at the Colorado RR Museum. GL #15 is a GE built 47 Tonner that was new to an operator in Hawaii in 1943. This one has since moved to the Cumbres & Toltec. #14, a 3 truck Shay, built by Lima in 1916 was our train loco for the day..... #140 (and #130 beyond it) were GE built U4B locos ex US Gypsum and still appear to be based on the line today... 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted February 8, 2022 Author Share Posted February 8, 2022 A few more photos than usual for this post, but mainly due to most of them being taken at the same location ! For our second full day of the trip we left our Super 8 at Wheat Ridge and headed north to Loveland for a visit to the Great Western Railway HQ. En route, we called in at Longmont where this ex Conrail loco was stabled....... I'm assuming it was either GWR owned or Omnitrax, but it doesn't appear on any of the rosters for either Company that I have looked at online. This problem resurfaces for some of the other locos which were scattered around the GWR premises when we reached there. On arrival at Loveland the camera was kept busy by the variety of locos - most of which were owned by parent Omnitrax - around the place. This one states it is a GP38-3, but the Omnitrax roster online lists it as a GP35, ex D&RGW. There were a few of these about the place in that colour scheme. This looks like a GP9, but despite the Omnitrax lettering, the #2005 in their roster is an SW series switcher.............answers on a postcard.... An SW1500, again not listed in any roster I've looked at...... Another GP35/38 ex D&RGW, wich is at least lettered CORP for Central Oregon & Pacific RR GWR #1621, a 1953 built GP7 ex CB&Q...... Former Midsouth #1048, a GP10 dating from 1952..... Your guess is as good as mine....... The Omnitrax roster lists an SW900 of 1955 ex B&O, but it may be an even older GWR loco. Omnitrax #101, a 1959 built GP9 formerly owned by C&NW..... NW&P #4423 an ex SP GP9R of 1956...... GWR #914, an ex SP SD of 1955......... Omnitrax SW1500 #2630, ex SP dating from 1972, with former Midsouth GP10 #1061 of 1957 behind it..... The visit certainly kept the camera busy, and I didn't actually photograph everything that was there, which would be the standard procedure nowadays with a digital camera!! 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mike_Walker Posted February 8, 2022 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 8, 2022 (edited) The appearance of the mystery grey switcher screams ex-ICG SW14 rebuild to me but I've just checked the "bible" (Extra 2200 South) and it appears all the SW14s were rebuilt from original ICG SWs of various models. It could, of course, be that the B&O reference is a red herring. The RR Picture Archive lists five SW14s under Omnitrax, all of ICG heritage. Call me a nerd by all means, but if I'd have been there I would have been recording the EMD frame numbers stamped on every loco which would have given the definitive answer - I've had many strange looks over the years doing that! 2575 is almost certainly the former SP SW1500 of the same number - it bears all the classic SP hallmarks as does 2630. 3029 may be stencilled "GP38-3" but the loco clearly started life as a GP35, note the fan arrangement of two 48" flat top fans with a 36" pan top between and a paper air filter box where the original turbo exhaust stack would have been. Many GP35s have been rebuilt over the years replacing their original turbocharged 16-567D3 2500hp engines with a Roots blown 16-645E 2000hp lump making it the equivalent of a GP38. The -3 indicates it also has modern micro-processor controls added. DRGW 3029 was that company's first GP35 delivered in 5/64 and there is a picture of it in this livery, albeit faded, on the San Joaquin Valley RR (another Omnitrax shortline) in 2012 on the RR Picture Archives site. 2005 is of course a GP9 and was new as SP (T&NO) 430 (b/n 21414 f/n 5437-2) and later became SP 3353 then Longhorn RR 2005 whose livery it still wears in your picture. The LHRR was an Omnitrax property. Edited February 8, 2022 by Mike_Walker 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 #3029 history: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/serialThumbs.aspx?id=29260&mfg=EMD #2005 history: http://rrpicturearchives.net/serialThumbs.aspx?id=21414&mfg=EMD #2575 history: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/serialThumbs.aspx?id=35811&mfg=EMD The captions for these pictures usually list all units in the picture. The one of interest may not be the main subject of the photo 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 I think #767 is (or became) an EMD leaser: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=17445 but I can’t find a picture of it in the particular colour scheme in Johann’s picture. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
caradoc Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 On 03/02/2022 at 16:28, Johann Marsbar said: The PATH thing was actually introduced a while after 9/11, although New Jersey, in particular NJT, got very funny about photography after that date and it took a while to return to a sense of normallity, something that regularly appeared in a column called Boberwatch (named after Police Chief Bober) in Railpace Newsmagazine at the time!. On my last visit to the US in 2017 I made a few trips on NJT and on one, after arrival at Hoboken walked back to check the loco that had propelled us. I was challenged by a member of staff, who was OK about it but did say 'no photos'; This was less than a year after the fatal crash at Hoboken (September 2016) so perhaps understandable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted February 9, 2022 Author Share Posted February 9, 2022 (edited) After the morning visit to the GWR we continued north to Cheyenne and then headed west from there with a rather hit/miss selection of attempts to get lineside on the UP all the way across to Laramie. We didn't actually intercept much moving during our trip, with these 2 being the only trains seen on (or rather, off) our route, which seems to be at CP 543 according to the board on the Signalling Bungalow... Light was going by the time we got to Laramie, so after a quick visit to the downtown area and seeing one passing train at least, we descended on a large shopping mall to stock up on cheap pairs of jeans and the like, before retuning to Cheyenne, where we were staying overnight at another Super 8, adjacent to the tracks on the western exit from the City. The following morning dawned nice and bright, so some time was spent close to the Motel watching passing traffic. UP #6736 (AC4400CW) leads an eastbound past our photo line..... ...and a rather mixed bag of NS, WC & SP liveries on another eastbound is led by UP #2615, a C36-7.... From there we headed downtown for a view of the yards from the bridge by the station, where this MoPac caboose was a surprise find.... ...and AC4400CW #6778 leads what looks like an empty eastbound train of coal hoppers.... The programme for the day was actually to cover the UP line west of here again, but our van certainly didn't do that - the other one might have done though. As there was a total complement of railway modellers in our van, we headed south to Denver and parked up somewhere in the vicinity of Caboose Hobbies for about 3 hours, , which actually allowed me time to catch the light rail Downtown, where I had my first introduction to the, then developing, US Craft Beer scene, taking lunch at a local microbrewery. I didn't realise just how big this development would actually end up being, and it certainly affected my travel plans on later trips to the US (and Canada) in this Century! The chap driving our "van" was a keen G-Scaler and I finally went mad and bought one of the Bachmann G-Scale streetcar models when I got back to Caboose Hobbies after my trip Downtown, thus acting as the catalyst for my Garden layout that I started a few years later. The more contemporary RTD Light Rail is seen here at I-25 station.... We then continued south to Castle Rock where we were to stay for a couple of nights at another Super 8. . Edited February 9, 2022 by Johann Marsbar 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted February 10, 2022 Author Share Posted February 10, 2022 The next day of this tour still ranks as one of the most enjoyable days that I've spent on any of my trips abroad - the destination for the day being Palmer Lake on the "Joint Line" south of Denver to Colorado Springs. The weather was perfect, as were the photo opportunities afforded by the decent frequency of rail traffic. It gave an indication of the day to come when this SP liveried pair of locos on a southbound train at Castle Rock were discovered close to our Super 8 Motel, having parked up to visit the delights of McDonalds...... Heading south in the vans towards Palmer Lake, this BN/BNSF liveried SD40-2 pair were captured sitting on a Northbound service at Larkspur... Whilst the first train to appear at Palmer Lake was a southbound headed by this SD70MAC combination.... One surprise was this GP39-2 hauled train of Boeing aircraft sections.... I think we took a lunch break at the place with the red roof visible in the above two photos, where various Craft Beers were on offer ! Livery variations continued on most trains..... ...with a rather clean Santa Fe "Warbonnet" lead #647, trailled by SF SDF40-2 #6964 and BN SD40-2 #7117. Even a C&NW liveried unit put in an appearance as a mid-train helper..... A northbound manifest behind an SD40-2, with an SD45-2 behind it..... An SD40-2 (7288) and SD42L (7127) pair..... ...and finally another northbound run led by an SD70MAC...... All in all an excellent days entertainment (not all the photos I took are here), and that evening we all ended up in the Castle Cafe in Castle Rock for a meal. That must have been the first occasion so far on the trip that both "vans" dined at the same place, as it was the first time I came across the rather suspect Travel Bureau meal bill payment fiasco which has been previously mentioned on another thread on here some time back, the TB Tour Leader being the driver of the other van....... 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted February 11, 2022 Author Share Posted February 11, 2022 (edited) The following day we left Castle Rock and headed west to our next overnight stay at yet another Super 8, this time in Grand Junction, CO. En route, we called in at the Georgetown Loop at Silver Plume again - mainly as the weather was rather better than our earlier visit - and I found this elderly school bus (Dodge chassis?) parked up and for sale. Wonder if it ended up being preserved in the end...? From there we headed west to Intercept the east and westbound California Zephyrs in the vicinity of Gypsum, CO. An eastbound freight behind SP SD40T-2 #8365 and DRGW SD40T-2 #5401 put in an appearance first though.... ....followed by the EB CZ....... ...and then the WB...... The eastbound had this pair of Private Cars on the rear - "Imperial Leaf" and "Golden Moon"... We caught up with the WB again at Glenwood Springs..... Grand Junction had this pair of locos engaged in yard duties - SF GP38 #2307 and BN GP38-2 #2338..... Following an overnight at Grand Junction, we then headed off to Price, UT for a couple of nights (in yet another Super 8...), where we spent a lot of time linesiding the route over Soldier Summit..... More of Soldier Summit in the next posting. . Edited February 11, 2022 by Johann Marsbar 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted February 12, 2022 Author Share Posted February 12, 2022 We had the best part of two days covering the line from Helper to Soldier Summit (and beyond) before it was time to return home. Quite a bit of film was duly expended as we chased trains along the line, with at least one diversion to cover a spur off the main line at one point. A lot of the locos around there at that time were still in D&RGW livery, as seen by this pair of mid-train helpers..... The two vans on the tour were operating fairly independently on this part of the trip, but ours was the first to decide to attempt a visit to the Utah Railway depot, where we were welcomed with open arms and had a guided tour of the place and were given booklets, a calendar and a Utah Railway Baseball Cap each. Needless to say, the other group headed there themselves the next day when they heard about our reception!! SD40-2, #9002..... SD35, #2959...... General view of the depot with a selection of SD40-2's...... It wasn't just DRGW & UR liveries we saw, as UP and SP colours were also in evidence. UP AC4400CW #7245 brings up the rear of a westbound..... A mixed DRGW/SP bag at the head of an eastbound manifest.... ...and the solid blocks of mid-train helpers on the coal trains were a sight (and sound) to behold..... After our time staying at Price, we then had a drive to Salt Lake City where we picked up a United 737 flight to ORD and a 777 back to LHR. One of the last photos of the tour was this meet on the western slopes of Soldier Summit as we were on our way to Salt Lake City airport...... The Travel Bureau trip had been a worthwhile exercise, so I returned to the US with them on a tour the following year. 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted February 12, 2022 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 12, 2022 Lovely photos. I didn't know about Soldier summit when I rode Amtrak over it in 1995. I thought there was another railway up one valley then realised it was the line we were on but higher up going the other way. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted February 12, 2022 Author Share Posted February 12, 2022 8 minutes ago, jamie92208 said: Lovely photos. I didn't know about Soldier summit when I rode Amtrak over it in 1995. I thought there was another railway up one valley then realised it was the line we were on but higher up going the other way. Jamie The original slides are a lot better than the scans, as I've only got a rather chap and nasty "scanner" - which is basically a light box with a 2 megapixel camera in it !! It worked fairly well, and it was a fairly quick way of scanning in my 21,000 slides to get them in a digitised state. I've still got all the slides, so if I need a decent copy of any of them I can get them done at the Transport Museum with a decent high-tech scanner! The other problem I found is that by the late 1990's I had swapped on to Jessops own brand of slide film, rather than Kodak, a film made by Agfa I believe. This has aged reasonably well, but not as good as the Kodachrome ones. The bigger problem was when Jessops stopped selling their brand and I had to change over to Fuji slide film for the last 5 or so years before I went totally digital. The Fuji slides discoloured quite badly in a relatively short timeframe (10 years or so - when I started digitising my slides) and my cheap "scanner" didn't like it at all, as may be aparrent in some of the next installments. Just wish I had gone over to digital earlier than I did, having bought a "point and click" Sony one in 2004 after trying out an identical model which we used at work. My last slides were taken in 2006 when I upgraded to a Fuji Finepix, which I still use today, a somewhat longer time period than any of my various SLR's lasted! 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted February 12, 2022 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 12, 2022 I started in B&W with a Kershaw King Penguin then acqired an Ilford Sportsman which I used until 1974. My first UK pictures were taken with the Sportsman and the Perutz colour that I used has aged badly. I bought my first SLR, a Yashica TL electro in 74 but mainly took colour print film. Usually Kodak but some of that has not aged well. I then started usi g Kodachrome and also Fuji and a bit of Ektachrome. All those seem to have aged OK. I bought my first Olympus OM1 in 78 after the Yashica froze up in a snow hole on top of a hill in the Penni es when I couldn't photograph a fabulous sunrise. The OM1 was my fathful friend for 30 years and I then went digital but stayed with Olympus. My 2nd Olympus DsLR is an EM10 and I'm very happy with that. As to scanners. I bought a really good Epson 850 as a moving present to France. Thathas the preset masks for both slide and pri t film and has do e very well with over 10,000 images s anned during lockdown. There are some very good preset editing options to use when the scanni g is in progress. I've had to teak a few afterwards but overall it's been well worth the expense. I look forward to more of your pictures. Jamie 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 The next trip I did to the USA was in April 2000, though I was only passing through on an Aviation Tour which was heading somewhere else for the bulk of the trip. It didn't help that the part of the US that we visited didn't have any railways - the island of O'ahu in Hawaii - so the 6 photos shown here from that island are obviously not of trains! The seventh photo is of a genuine US built steam loco we saw on the trip, but it wasn't in the USA..... We left LHR on an Air New Zealand 747 and then after arriving in LAX, entered the USA and then caught another Air NZ flight from there on to Honolulu where we spent 2 full days at a hotel located on the beachfront at Waikiki. Visits were made during our stay to the Marine Corps Air Station at Kaneohe Bay....... and the USS Arizona Memorial/Ford Island, where some elderly aircraft were lined up........ Our visit there corresponded with the filming of the movie "Pearl Harbor" and, despite never having watched it, my guess is that this nice regular line up of (dummy) aircraft was duly dispatched in one of the scenes by the attacking Japanese aircraft ! In addition to the aircraft, there were a number of vintage military vehicles there being used for the filming. Local transport around Honolulu was represented by this bus photographed near our hotel..... When we visited Hickam Field the next day, we were able to observe some filming for the movie being undertaken around the USS Missouri. A helicopter being used for the filming hovers whilst three USAAF P40 Warhawks flying over the ship....... The white structures to the right of the photo mark the end of the USS Arizona Memorial. They had moored a couple of stored warships close to the Missouri, with the rest of the scene being presumably filled by the wonders of CGI.... The afternoon was free in Downtown, and I discovered this 1951 built liner, the SS Independence, moored in the harbour area..... At that time it was being used for weekly cruises around the Hawaiian Islands and has since been scrapped - though the latter part of its life was certainly mired in controversy...... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Independence From Hawaii we then caught another Air NZ flight, this time onboard a 767 to Auckland via Tonga for the main part of the trip around New Zealand. I did manage to squeeze in a fair bit of rail interest there, including managing to get the tour to divert to look inside Gore goods shed on the South Island.... Restoration of NZR K92 2-4-2, an 1877 product of Rogers Locomotive Works , was still taking place at that time. This loco ended up buried in a riverbank between 1927 and 1985 before being exhumed for preservation! The loco is owned by the same person who runs the Croydon Aircraft Company - a vintage aircraft restoration company that we had just visited on the tour. I asked him about the loco whilst we were at their airfield and he said there would be people working on it at Gore that day, so we called in to look at it... 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted February 13, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 13, 2022 We visited Oahu in 2008 and rode this remaining part of the narrow gauge line but not sure if it was operating back in 2000. However after riding the train we got to the USS Arizona memorial location too late to get in. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 6 minutes ago, roundhouse said: We visited Oahu in 2008 and rode this remaining part of the narrow gauge line but not sure if it was operating back in 2000. However after riding the train we got to the USS Arizona memorial location too late to get in. I knew there was a preserved line somewhere in Hawaii, as a couple of chaps who were volunteers there came on another (rail based) trip I did to NZ back in 1993. We didn't venture anywhere near the area that the line seems to operate when I was on the 2000 trip though. Hawaii is somewhere I'd like to return to at some stage though as it seemed a good place to get away from things!! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 1 hour ago, Johann Marsbar said: I knew there was a preserved line somewhere in Hawaii, as a couple of chaps who were volunteers there came on another (rail based) trip I did to NZ back in 1993. We didn't venture anywhere near the area that the line seems to operate when I was on the 2000 trip though. Hawaii is somewhere I'd like to return to at some stage though as it seemed a good place to get away from things!! Here’s a topic on the Hawaiian Railway Society operation at Ewa: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73487-hawaiian-railway-society/ The society was founded in the early 1970s, but I don’t know when they actually started running excursions. There is a tourist line on Maui: https://sugarcanetrain.com/ though that is currently closed, with no definite date to re-open. and another on Kauai: https://www.kilohanakauai.com/plantation-train There are many remains of railways on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island. Most were 3 foot gauge, but the Hawaii Consolidated Railway on the Big Island was standard gauge. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted February 13, 2022 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 13, 2022 3 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said: I knew there was a preserved line somewhere in Hawaii, as a couple of chaps who were volunteers there came on another (rail based) trip I did to NZ back in 1993. We didn't venture anywhere near the area that the line seems to operate when I was on the 2000 trip though. Hawaii is somewhere I'd like to return to at some stage though as it seemed a good place to get away from things!! The line on Kauai will feature, eventually on my European and rest of the world thread. There was an article in Trains Magazine few years ago about the Oahu line. I will have it somewhere. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted February 13, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 13, 2022 We caught the Superferry to Maui, picked up a rental car and managed to get a ride of the Sugar Cane railway albeit in one direction only as my other half drove back to the southern terminus to pick me up before flying back to Honolulu. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 (edited) On 13/02/2022 at 09:57, roundhouse said: So they didn’t do a blowdown on the trestle? Edited May 1, 2022 by pH 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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