A 757 of a Different Sort

 Like I said in my last post, I had bigger fish to fry in Bellevue.  Those bigger fish came in the form of Berkshire engines.

The Nickel Plate 757 (no relation to the Boeing 757 but almost as cool) belongs to the Mad River Nickel Plate Museum.  

The 757 called Bellevue, Ohio its home.  It was built in 1944 by the Lima Locomotive Works and remained in service until 1958.  It was originally designated to be donated to the City of Bellevue but Bellevue could not find a home for it.   It was donated to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum in Strasburg.

In 2017, the Mad River Museum and the Pennsylvania Museum negotiated a deal that would return the locomotive to Bellevue.  And in 2019 that happened.  The museum has restored it to a display capability and I believe the plan is to store it inside.  They didn't have the millions required to convert it to a living locomotive but this is still pretty cool.

While it was nice to see an engine with the number of my favorite airplane, it was even cooler to see the Nickel Plate 765.

Especially since that one is a living, breathing locomotive.

There is something magical about a steam engine.

Given the sounds they make, you would swear they are actually alive.

It looks like the Fort Wayne folks did some work on her.  She looks like she at least got a new paint job.

One more shot of the 757.

I thought I was going to head out but I decided to look for another spot where I could catch it.

This spot was a little better because I was shooting with the sun instead of against it.

My only complaint is that they had it facing the caboose.  I would have loved to get a front shot of it.

It backs out.

Kicks off a little steam.

And it blows out the lines.

It starts to head back.

It wasn't going all that fast.

A blow of the whistle.

Another angle of that.

Blowing out some of the other lines and the picture that made the trip worth it.

I had to get a couple more pictures.

And one more.

Doing Some Aerial Trainspotting

 I was thinking about heading over to Grand Haven on Sunday.  The Great Republic was coming in but then I got to thinking about the crowds that would be there, so I decided to head down to Ohio instead.  There was a special treat waiting for me in Bellevue.  More on that in the next post.

As I was thinking of heading over to Grand Haven, I got as far as M-52, so I decided to take it down to Ohio.  I remembered that it would land me west of Deshler, so I ended up making a stop in Deshler first.  I didn't see any trains when I got there, so I headed east to Fostoria.  As we got to North Baltimore, I saw a train heading towards Deshler, so I headed back there.  I arrived in time to catch it.  I was using my drone but I wasn't expecting it to come down this track, fortunately, my drone moves fast enough.

One of these days, I would like to catch a northbound train and this watertower.

A shot of the old train station.  It would be nice if they would make an effort to restore this.  I could see a restaurant/viewing area here but I have a feeling it will get torn down first.

The tower there.  I think CSX still uses this for storage.

These posts are kind of out of order.  After Deshler, I made a stop in Fostoria.  I didn't hear any trains, so I moved on.  I had bigger fish fry.  After I fried those fish, I headed back to Fostoria and I arrived in time to catch this train.  I recognized where the whistle was coming from, so I was able to get my drone in position.

Again, I was not expecting it to make a turn for the other track.  But I liked the way this was illuminated.

And it heads to the west.

This train was coming from the south.  It also ended up heading west.  I was not expecting this, so I had to hurry my drone over here.  Fortunately, I caught it in time.

And one more shot.

A train coming from the west.  I anticipated this one.  So I was able to get this shot and I was fairly happy with this shot.

It passes the F tower.

A Norfolk Southern train heading to the east.

The Texas State Bobcats at Eastern Michigan Eagles

 Today was football day, so I couldn't get any ship pictures.  It looked like it was going to be nasty because it was raining this morning but it cleared right up around game time.

This was my favorite picture of the bunch.  You can go see the rest at Hustle Belt.  Eastern Michigan crushed the Bobcats by a final score of 59 to 21.

The Cuyahoga Heads for her Namesake River

 And this was the ship that I wanted to catch.

Whenever I get a chance to catch the Cuyahoga, I try to catch her.

She gets alot of work but she is also old.

Every time I see her, I think it is going to be the last.

I would had to see that because she is beautiful ship.

Anyway, I think she loaded stone from the Bruce Mines but I don't remember.

She was heading to Cleveland, which I do remember.  

I kind of wish this were Saturday because I could have caught her on the Cuyahoga.

Oh well.

It was a nice day and the rest of the week wasn't so nice.

The bow shot.

And she turns to the river.

One more shot with my regular camera.

And then I switched to my drone.

Again she is a nice looking ship, if a little bit rusty.

I think she is the last example of one of the early war, World War II ships.

A beam shot.

She continues on.

And then I headed to Marysville.

Again, I wanted to get as many pictures as possible.

I hate to think as she's going to scrap that I didn't get enough.

She comes closer.

And then I switched over to my littler lens.

The almost beam shot.

The beam shot.

And she continues on.

I had some trouble getting a parking spot at St. Clair, so I couldn't get the other ship. 

The Cuyahoga was a little closer than I liked, so I just took my drone down to the river.

I couldn't quite get a beam shot.

And one more picture.  Like I said, she was heading to Cleveland.  That meant she would be there sometime on Monday.  Since I work, it would be difficult to catch her there.  I would like to because I would love some shots on her namesake river.