A Brief Stop at the Jackson Yard

 It was my cousin's birthday party today.  Well, the daughter of my cousin which I guess makes her my cousin.  Anyway, my cousin lives in Kalamazoo.  It was a nice day for a drive.

Since the Jackson yard is on the way and I had a little time, I decided to stop there.  It wouldn't take me long to get some pictures.

It seems like there are always train engines in the yard. I was hoping to see some of the other type though.

I think this is a GP38 train engine and it was build by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors. 

EMD is no longer owned by GM though.  It is now owned by Caterpillar.

Anyway, I kind of liked the reflection.

So of course, I tried a couple different angles.

A far off shot.

The train engine just alone.

A shot with my telephoto.

One more before heading off.

A Stop at the Jackson Yard

 So on Sunday, we headed over to my cousin's.  It was a celebration of his daughter's birthday.

I made a stop at the Jackson train yard.  There was a couple of engines in the front.

I decided to get some different angles of it, because I could.

The engine pair.

As close to a frontal shot as I could get without getting on the tracks.

Another angle.

The other engine.

Another angle of that engine.

I kind of like this angle.

One more shot before moving on.

A Stop at the Jackson Yard

I decided to make a brief stop in Jackson since I had a little time to use.

 I rarely see these trains in action.  I think that might be a function of the fact that I only visit the yard on weekends.  I have to believe they work on weekends though.

 It is still pretty neat to see the engines and I usually get to take several angles while still staying on the right side of the tracks.

 An engine pair.  I think they use these as switcher engines.

 I used my bigger lens for this.

 Also this.

 Another shot of that one engine.

 A more or less side shot of the first engine I posted.

The lighting was just about perfect.

A Brief Stop at Jackson Yard

I decided that I wanted to head up north yesterday.  I was hoping to get some shots of the fall colors.  I ended up taking Michigan Avenue to M-50 to make my trek north.  That way sort of took me past Jackson, so I decided to stop at the Jackson yard.

 There wasn't much to see there.  There were about three engines.  One was parked kind of in the yard.  The other one was parked facing way, so it wasn't easy to get it.  And then there was this one.

 The lighting was almost directly on it, but I couldn't get a decent shot of the sky.

 It was in a good spot to get some pictures of the cab though.

And another angle of it.  I kind of liked the way the light was hitting it.

A Brief Stop at Jackson Yard

I made a stop at the railyard in Jackson on the way to Chicago.  It has been a while since I've been there and I usually see one or two trains hanging around there.

 The first thing I saw was an Amtrak train.  I think it may be the Wolverine, but it was unusual to see it in a siding.  I almost wonder if there was a problem with it because it was empty.

 One of the Norfolk Southern engines.

 Probably one of my favorite groups is Operation Livesaver.  Remember, keep a safe distance from trains.

 Another view of the engine pair.

And one more shot of the Amtrak train.  I posted one of these pictures on a train group I'm on and it turns out that this is the Positive Train Control test train for Amtrak.  Positive Train Control is the system that will stop a train if there is another train on their track.  I think it will also enforce the speed limit on the track.  It is an attempt to prevent another accident like the one in Pennsylvania. 

And Some Trains

On my way home, I decided to stop in Jackson to see if I could see some trains.

 Sure enough and the light was just about perfect for it.

 Another angle of that pair.

 These guys were out on the line, I think they were getting ready to head out.

Another angle of that first pair.

A Visit to Haehnlen Sanctuary

The Phyllis Haehnlen Sanctuary is about 6 miles or so northeast of Jackson, Michigan.  If you get off at the Race Road exit and head north until you get to Seymour Road.  Turn left on Seymour and go about 3 or 4 miles.  It's kind of easy to miss the sign so pay attention.
The sanctuary was originally owned by a hunter and when he died it was converted to a wildlife preserve.

 The sanctuary is a roost for many sandhill cranes and I was hoping to see a few but it turns out that wasn't the case on the night that I went.

 Oh well, this pair made for a decent set of pictures.

 If you live in Michigan, the legislature just voted to allow the hunting of these magnificent birds.  I'm not sure if the bill is a done deal yet but please cause to oppose this bill.

 I think this was an American Airlines 787 heading from O'Hare Airport to Heathrow Airport in London.

 The sunset was spectacular even though there were not too many cranes.

I'll have to come back here again.

A Brief Stop at the Jackson Rail Yard

Last weekend, I was thinking about going up to the Soo to catch a boatnerd gathering.  It didn't look like it was going to be nice up at the Soo, so I decided to head over to Sleeping Bear Dunes instead.  It turned out that the weather wasn't much nicer that way either but I already made reservations.

 Since US-23 is still kind of messed up, I decided to take I-94 to US-131 to get up to the Traverse City area.  That meant a stop at the Jackson train yard.  Sadly, it was raining over there, so I didn't feel like spending too much time out of the car.

 But the rain made for some nice puddles which actually make for some nice reflections.

 A longer view of the train.

One more shot before moving on.