FRIENDS OF AMTRAK PHOTO GALLERY - Page Thirty-four

It's a cold and wintry day at Palmer, Massachusetts, in January 2005. Here's Amtrak's Boston-Rensselaer Lake Shore Limited connect coming right at us, and some other rail fans, at full speed. A great sight.
Happy Holidays from Friends Of Amtrak. Here's hoping 2008 brings peace, prosperity and even better rail transportation!

Camera: Olympus 5060 digital camera with telephoto conversion lens.

Here's Amtrak's Southwest Chief arriving in the picturesque little town of Lamy, New Mexico, on a beautiful June, 2007, afternoon on its way to Albuquerque and Los Angeles. The train was full and pretty much on time. Lamy's a great place to visit. The station has been beautifully restored, very pleasant food is available for the picnic tables under nearby trees and there is even a very nice 1950s dining car open on a siding to serve lunch and dinner. The town is an easy drive from Santa Fe, which will soon have a brand new service to Albuquerque, and one can connect to both the westbound and eastbound SW Limiteds via the Santa Fe Southern. The whole New Mexico scene is evocative both of traditional American railroading and of a hopeful future. Lets hope that with its new budget and growing appreciation for both long-distance and corridor/commuter rail Amtrak can build a truly balanced transportation system -- and that boarding a train in places like Lamy means really good service.

Camera: Olympus E-333-dslr with Sigma 55-200 telephoto lens.

It's a frigid January, 2008, and here is the Grand Canyon Railway's daily train just outside the small city of Williams on its way to the canyon. The beautiful train, and the entire railroad operation, is a magnificent throwback to the days of Santa Fe, which once owned the line. The Grand Canyon Railway is quite an operation. In the summer it runs two round trips, at least one of which is steam hauled. It is owned by the same company that once operated the Harvey House restaurants on the Santa Fe route, and now owns magnificent hotels in Williams and at the canyon. Of course, the Grand Canyon is an incredibly busy and sometimes crowded destination, and so the train not only is a relaxed means of travel, but a relief from the Route 66 strip, gas guzzlers and full parking lots. Poke around Williams a bit and one sees considerable evidence of this 400+ employee railroad's rolling stock (and equipment waiting to be refurbished), and the care with which its facilities are maintained. To see additional photos taken on this trip visit my Attic site http://www.trainweb.org/theattic/

Photo taken with Olympus E-330 dslr and Olympus 70-300 zoom lens at approximately 500mm (35mm equivalent).

It's a beautiful Saturday, March 8, 2008, in Berkeley, California. On the right, my grandson Theo and his dad Obie are watching the arrival of Capitol Corridor train 729 on its way from Sacramento to Oakland. In a few minutes we will be departing on #728 for an afternoon at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. This was Theo's first train ride -- something we had planned since he was born, almost 4 years ago -- and it was everything one could hope for. Great views, friendly staff, spotlessly clean train and windows, and while there was no 'dinner in the diner,' there was one heck of a breakfast burrito. For your friendly photographer it was quite a happy experience as well. To see such high patronage, new trains, the light rail extension into the Sacramento station, and the magnificent museum one more time, was a real pleasure. And of course, there was Theo, who loved the museum and, I suspect, will become a real fan of trains, like so many of his fellow Californians. Now if only more states would get on board and give all our kids and grandkids something to replace gas guzzlers, horrendous traffic, and the absolutely mind-numbing incapacity of our generation of politicians to address the infrastructure and environment.

Camera: Olympus 510 dslr with 11-22 Olympus wide angle zoom lens.