 |
| Southern Pacific Diesels - Truckee 1997 |
 |
| Southern Pacific Tracks - Truckee 1997 |
By 1996, years of financial problems had dropped Southern Pacific's mileage to 13,715 miles (22,072 km). The financial problems caused the Southern Pacific Transportation Company to be taken over by the Union Pacific Corporation.
But as we can see, there were still Southern Pacific locomotives rolling on the tracks in 1997.
 |
| Soo Line - Central California 1996 |
" . . . [the Soo Line] is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (MStP&SSM), which was commonly known as the Soo Line after the phonetic spelling of Sault . . ."
So, "sault" is pronounced as "soo." Didn't know that.
I guess this was taken somewhere on the route to Yosemite. There's railroad stuff to be seen in Escalon, so maybe I saw the boxcar there.
 |
| Northbound SMART Train - Marin County 2026 |
SMART: Sonoma-Marin Area Rapid Transit. We'd been meaning to take a ride on it for a while, finally entering a date into the Google Calendar. Senior Citizens ride free! Whoa!
We took the train up to Windsor in Sonoma County (the end of the current line). Some fun views on the way up.
 |
| Wetlands, Oaks - Marin County 2026 |
 |
| Toyon Berries, Railroad Tracks - Marin County 2026 |
 |
| Railroad Tracks, Wetlands, Electrical Towers - Marin County 2026 |
Getting some steps in back of Costco while my car was getting some routine service. Nice views! (Tracks are for the SMART commuter trains.)
Also, lots of new Kias parked by the side of the road. (Already posted a photo.)
 |
| BART, Freeway - Oakland 2004 |
 |
| Railroad Yard (Union Pacific) - Oakland 2004 |
Photos taken while riding BART for work.
 |
| Casa Lola - Sacramento 2025 |
 |
| Streetcar - Sacramento 2025 |
Casa Lola photo taken while walking back to our hotel after a restaurant meal.
 |
| Cab Forward Rods and Drivers - Sacramento 2025 |
 |
| Cab Forward Articulated - Sacramento 2025 |
"Southern Pacific 4294 is a AC-12 class 4-8-8-2 cab-forward–type steam locomotive that was owned and operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). It was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) in March 1944 and was used hauling Southern Pacific Railroad's (SP) trains over the Sierra Nevada, often working on Donner Pass in California. Today it is preserved at the California State Railroad Museum (CSRM) in Sacramento, California." --Wikipedia
The locomotive is so large that I had to use the iPhone's wide-angle option to get a (stretched) photo of the whole engine. A Sony RX100 was used for the top photo.
In 1958 my father and I were visiting Southern Pacific's Taylor Yard in Los Angeles when I came across some cab-forwards decaying on the tracks. So I have a 67-year old photo of the soon to be scrapped number 4149.
 |
| Southern Pacific Number 4149 Locomotive - Los Angeles 1958 |
 |
| Baldwin Locomotive No 13 - Sacramento 2025 |
 |
| Silver State - Sacramento 2025 |
Many of the exhibits present the various pieces of railroad equipment as works of art.
There was a nice historical perspective exhibit concerning the role of Chinese emigrants in the building of the railroad through the Sierra Nevada.
 |
| Museum Exterior - Sacramento 2025 |
 |
| Pioneer Square - Sacramento 2025 |
A visit to the Sacramento Railroad Museum! Wow . . . high on our priority list. The GPS got us there without any problem . . . and, a parking spot was easy enough to find. Wow!
 |
| Kyoto-Kansai Airport Express (Kyoto) - Japan 2024 |
 |
| Railcar (Kyoto) - Japan 2024 |
OK, so now we had to deal with our fully loaded suitcases, taking a taxi from the hotel to Kyoto Station, then navigating intricate corridors and escalators to the correct platform.
But we did it!
 |
| Kids on Train (Tokyo) - Japan 2024 |
 |
| Mildly Air-Conditioned (Kyoto) - Japan 2024 |
"Weakly air conditioned car" is the Google translation of the kanji on both of the cars. We were there in November so it wasn't that hot outside. I don't think we noticed whether or not the cars were air conditioned, mildly or otherwise.
Below, an extra shot of train tracks taken in Nagoya station.
 |
| Train Tracks (Nagoya) - Japan 2024 |
 |
| Autumn Mountains (Tanekura) - Japan 2024 |
 |
| Breakfast (Tanekura) - Japan 2024 |
I got up and wandered around outside viewing the colorful autumn hillsides and the rain-caused mist.
Then, a nourishing breakfast in the inn and a taxi ride back to the Sakakami station for the train back to Takayama.
 |
| Train Arriving, Sakakami Station - Japan 2024 |
 |
| River from Train - Japan 2024 |
 |
| Fields, Houses, Clouds - Japan 2024 |
Some photos taken from the Hida Express train from Nagoya to Takayama.
We last visited Takayama in 2016. We were supposed to go there in 2023, but typhoon-related weather canceled that idea.
This time our plan was to use Takayama as a base for a couple of side trips. We located our hotel pretty easily, walking there luggage free! (We had used a luggage forwarding service to ship our suitcases from Tokyo to Takayama. Worked perfectly . . . would recommend for any future Japan trips.)
Walking to our hotel we couldn't help but notice the crowds jamming into the main tourist streets in town. But we weren't surprised. After a Family Mart dinner we went for a short walk in the evening after the crowds thinned out.
 |
| Night Street (Takayama) - Japan 2024 |
 |
| Suidobashi Station Train Passing Through - Japan 2024 |
That evening we walked under the Suidobashi Station train tracks for a dinner at Katsukichi.
"Patronised by literary greats like Yasunari Kawabata and Yukio Mishima, Suidobashi's Katsukichi has remained largely the same since first opening its doors in 1962. The heavy-set wooden interior evokes memories of days gone by, but the menu has managed to hang with the times: fried in corn and sesame oil, the tonkatsu is made with fine, freshly sourced meat and feels about as light as a deep-fried dish possibly can be."
Very nice!
 |
| Katsukichi Interior (Tokyo) - Japan 2024 |
 |
| Katsukichi Meal (Tokyo) - Japan 2024 |
 |
| Rice Paddy (Chiba) - Japan 2024 |
 |
| Takataki Station Sign (Chiba) - Japan 2024 |
We took the antiquated Kominato train to the Takataki Station, passing by rice paddies and other rural sights.
Wikipedia has a succinct description of the station: "Takataki Station has a single side platform serving bidirectional traffic. The overgrown ruins of an opposing side platform remain. There is a small station building with a waiting room, but with no ticket gate."
For some reason I didn't take a photograph of the overall station, so I have to rely on the next photo found on the internet. Don't know who took it, but thanks!
 |
| Takataki Station |
 |
| Kominato Railway (Chiba) - Japan 2024 |
We wanted to return to Kurashow restaurant for lunch. We've been there twice and really enjoyed our meals there, but they're no longer at their old location. It turned out to be quite a journey from our Tokyo hotel to Kurashow, now located in a semi-rural part of Chiba Prefecture.
We got help from Mr Yoshihoto Minagawa whose family lives in Chiba . . . he was able to figure out the necessary train schedules and wrote them out for us. Quite helpful!
 |
| Train Schedule to Takataki Station - Japan 2024 |
 |
| Tracks (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
 |
| Tram (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
Top: some evening photos of the Hakodate rail tracks for their tram service. Possibly quite extensive and convenient . . . but we never got around to using it, alas.
Below, a daytime photo of one of their colorful trams.
 |
| Tram (Hakodate) - Japan 2024 |
 |
| Tracks, Railroad Buildings - Owens Valley 2024 |
 |
| Boxcar - Owens Valley 2024 |
I made a quick stop at the Laws railroad museum. Quick, because the temperature was over 90 degrees F (32.2 C.)
Of note: this is the second railroad museum I've been to recently that doesn't have a steam engine on display! ("In the shop.") Annoying.
 |
| BNSF - Idaho 2024 |
 |
| Railroad Building #1 (Colfax) - Washington 2024 |
 |
| Railroad Building #2 (Colfax) - Washington 2024 |
These extremely photogenic ramshackle buildings were located around the corner from my motel!
Top photo taken with an Olympus E-M1II / 25mm lens combo. The bottom one was taken with a Canon G5XII.
Alas, the Canon vanished during one of my recent Los Angeles trips, and, to make matters worse, Canon no longer manufactures that camera. What's interesting is that it's commanding a premium price when listed as used on eBay, far above what I had originally paid when new.
