Graybeard's Great Modoc Northern Odyssey |
About Us On New Year's Day, my better half bought me an HP M22 pocket digital camera with the hope that it would get me out of the house more often. While I often eyeballed trains and railroads, I have not done any railroad photography since the very early 80s. Back then, when I first migrated to the mid-Sacramento Valley from Southern California, I dragged my vintage Argus C44 everywhere taking photos and slides. A late in life first born son changed all that in a hurry. To this day, I am not sure where those photographs are hidden in our archives. One photograph, taken on December 28, 1979, is of one of the very last Western Pacific F units in actual service. The engine was idling at Keddie and seemed poised to be used for snow clearance in conjunction with an adjacent flanger. There still exists a standing household reward for locating that print. Around 1992, I purchased a VHS camcorder and videotaped trains, especially visiting steam, for several years until the camera died from overwork. My first foray into the field was in mid-April, when we traveled to Dunsmuir for three days. We were greeted by a not-unexpected six inches of overnight snow and I was able to have a lot of fun photographing trains with a snowy background. The highlight of that trip was stumbling upon the UP 1983 parked in fresh snow just north of Mott. With its beautiful WP on the nose and heritage paint scheme and the unmarked snow, I had a keepsake photograph. I've been hooked every since. |
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My first extended road trip was a four-day run to Tehachapi, parking the Graybeard Special at Bealville each night. During my first day, I had a run of 26 trains in 14 hours. Most of those images are still being edited, but you are invited to visit my first few Tehachapi web pages. |
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I am not quite sure when I first heard about the Modoc Northern Railroad. I suspect that it was on my first visit to TrainFoamers.com. There, I found links to Craig Bass' MN pages on The 'Net and became very interested in a hurry. From there, I was directed to some very special Yahoo Group web pages dedicated to railroads in northeast California and southeast Oregon. I have been hooked on the Modoc Northern ever since. |
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About Us continued |
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