Recent Digital Photos
by Mike Condren

52 Years of Railroad Photography
1960-2012

Mike's Main Railroad Web Site

May 3, 2012

This southbound freight is seen approaching the Main Street crossing in Van Buren, AR.

This northbound freight is stopped at the fueling station near Main Street in Van Buren.

May 19, 2012

A group in Bartlesville, OK is trying to raise money to restore a former ATSF caboose and tank car for display with the ATSF #940 2-10-2 at the former joint MKT/ATSF station. Here we see the 10am train leaving the station for its trip southbound on their track to Tulsa. The passengers are riding in RDC-1s owned by the Great Plains Passenger Train company.

At the station we found the ex-ATSF caboose in fresh primer in its restoration.

The train returned around 11am. We shot it at the 5th Street crossing.

The Katy coaling tower still stands just west of the junction with the former-Santa Fe/now SKOL.

May 20, 2012

We were returning from helping my mother celebrate her 91st birthday in Van Buren when we discovered the sunset. This sequence of photos of the May 20, 2012 Solar Eclipse were taken just east of Westville, OK. The first shot uses the standard lens, the second is using the 70-300mm lens at 300mm, and the final image shows the cropped version of the second image.

May 21, 2012

This DPU is stopped at the refueling station near Main Street in Van Buren, AR.

These are the engines on trains as seen from the South 28th Street crossing in Van Buren, general freight to the left, lead units of unit coal train on right.

When I got to Memphis, I decided to spend some time at the Kansas Ave Hot Spot. My first train was this stack/bare-table train with 5-units, only the lead unit was running.

The next train was the westbound BNSF J B Hunt container train.

Next was an empty unit coal train composed of brand new drop bottom hoppers. It was siting on the westbound "Southern" track of Broadway before crossing over to the BNSF tracks and having to wait a short while for the stack train to clear the way.

May 25, 2012

I found this at the west end of Southern Ave. headed east with a string of intermodal cars.

When I crossed the BNSF tracks at McLemore, I spotted this train south bound. I turned around and returned to the crossing and got these shots.

I then caught the train at the South Parkway crossing.

May 26, 2012

When I left Memphis, I spotted this train when I crossed over the UP (former MP) tracks on I40 in West Memphis.

June 2, 2012

Returning from a visit in Bartlesville, I spotted a full moon near sunset. When we got home, I discovered that is was full and bright from our backyard deck. Note the mountain ranges which show on the perimeter. This picture turned out to be clearer than my shot of the super moon.

June 3, 2012

In Van Buren, I found this eastbound freight waiting to leave the east end near the South 28th Street crossing.

June 5. 2012

Late in the afternoon, my son Matt and I headed west from Memphis to the west end of the UP intermodal yard in Marion (Ebony), AR to attempt at shot of the setting sun during the "Transit of Venus". Just before Sundown, an eastbound UP intermodal appeared in the distance. I took the following shots of the sundown showing Venus passing across the path of the sun as a dark spot. This has been described as a once in a lifetime event as it will not happen again for 105 years. I then shot the intermodal as it crossed AR 147 near our position.
Between the shots of the sun and the train, I had to change the camera settings from ISO 100 at 1/4000 sec to ISO 1600 at 1/100 sec. At home on my computer, I then had to PhotoShop all of these images, including enhancing the shadows of the train shots.

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