I would like to do more mixes like the road trip mix I did last summer. To refresh your memories, that mix CD was more like a mix tape than anything. It had two tracks, side one and side two, each “side” having ten or so songs on it. The songs were accompanied by little sound bites from educational shorts, noises from cars and general strangeness.

Doing that mix was really enjoyable and I’d like to do it again. I’d probably continue where I left off, making a sort of sequel to the road trip mix.

I’m not really sure how many people actually listened to the first one though. Most folks who are used to CDs or playlists wouldn’t really jump at the opportunity of being “forced” to listen to 40 minutes of continuous music with songs you can’t skip over.

If you haven’t listened to the mix, I’d like you to. You can download it here. Musically, it’s got something for almost everybody. But, like I said, the format (for some) leaves a lot to be desired.

But those who remember making mix tapes will get it.

How you can help is by letting me know what you think of the format and if you think it’s even worth doing another one like it.

So go go go go and download Hot Sun Beating on a Blacktop. You can listen to it on your computer or burn it to a CD. Go ahead.

And while you’re at it, why not check out my other mixes…

It’s not often that you see mention of Lewisburg or any of the Buffalo Valley of Central Pennsylvania noted in a publication. Even books covering the entire state usually leave out the area where I grew up. True, there’s not much to see there. Not much of wide historical value happened there. Sure, we produced a Civil War colonel, but he was killed at the start of the first battle. And I think he was probably from Milton anyway.

So when I came across this picture in the most recent issue of Trains magazine, at first I didn’t recognize where it was. But hey! It’s Lewisburg!

West Shore Railroad SW1 No. 8525 and Conrail GP10 No. 7554 exchange greetings at Lewisburg, PA on Feb. 4, 1987. West Shore acquired the ex-Pennsylvania Mifflinburg Branch in 1983, interchanging with Conrail at Lewisburg, where and ex-Reading line to Williamsport, Pa crossed. The Mifflinburg Branch was abandoned in 2008, and will be turned into a trail.

I saw the Conrail engine in its “Bright Future” blue all through my childhood. The West Shore Railroad rain a small freight line from Lewisburg to Mifflinburg. I think they were somehow part of the North Shore Railroad out of Northumberland (which has some of the best painted engines I’ve ever seen).

This picture, as most folks from Lewisburg can tell, was taken on the corner of 5th and St. John – where the two lines crossed. It was taken by a fellow named H.E. Brouse (I can’t find any info on him, if anyone knows anything, would love to hear it).

The line that the Conrail is on ran from Williamsport to Sunbury (and beyond), crossing the Susquehanna near Ted’s Landing. It was owned by the Reading Railroad. The West Shore train is occupying old Pennsylvania Railroad tracks that ran from Lewisburg to Bellefont. This was originally the Lewisburg & Tyrone Railroad – it included the two tunnels by Poe Valley and Coburn.

Here’s a map that might help…

Conrail, a huge railway, connected to the rest of the world via Sunbury (and south to Harrisburg). West Shore had a connection via Milton, I think. There’s a bridge there.

These days, the line that Conrail used through Lewisburg is owned by North Shore Railroad (and operated by the Union County Industrial Railroad – I think West Shore became this line). The line that the West Shore train is using in this photo is gone. You can still see the RR Crossing signs painted on a few Lewisburg streets at St. John (Front Street, for example). The old bridge that crossed the Susquehanna is still there. The line that ran to Mifflinburg is being turned into a Rails-to-Trails (at the outlandish cost of nearly $4 million dollars!). The rest of the line towards State College is accessible here and there – some of it is Rails-to-Trails.

The Conrail engine pictured here, GP10 No. 7554, started out in 1956 as a GP9 on the New York Central Railroad. After the NY Central and Pennsylvania RR joined to form Penn Central and after that went under and formed Conrail (long story short), it was rebuilt to a GP10. Sometime after this picture was taken, it was sold to Penn Eastern Rail Lines near Lancaster where it still bears its blue color and the same number . There are pictures of it here.

West Shore’s locomotive, the SW1 No. 8525, is a bit of a mystery. It was first owned by the Pennsylvania RR in the 40s and then by Conrail, who sold it to the West Shore RR when they started up in 1983. But after that, I have no idea. North Shore RR probably had some hand in it at some point (since the Union County Industrial RR controlled the West Shore Railroad). They seem to have had a few SW1s. Maybe it’s still in their roster. I wonder who I’d ask. Here are three other pictures of No. 8525 from the mid 80s in Mifflinburg.

I also wonder why I care so much about this kind of stuff. Maybe it’s because when you focus on specific things like a single tiny engine, you can learn about the big picture too – the rail lines, the mergers, the strikes, the towns the lines went through, etc. But while you’re learning about the big picture, you’re also able to connect it locally. Sometimes it can be as local as the corner of 5th and St. John Streets in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

Since my camera effectively died several months ago, I’ve really missed taking pictures. Sure, I’ll swipe Smartz’s camera from time to time, but it’s not the same as having my own.

My Pentax Optio 750Z was a fine, metal-bodied camera. It’s still basically functional, though takes pretty crappy pictures now. Over the several years of ownership, it’s traveled across the country five times, been dropped many times (two or three of those drops were while riding).

The most memorable drop was after taking some shots of trains at Horseshoe Curve, I was riding through Altoona and noticed that the camera was no longer with me. I turned around, retraced my route and found the camera lying upright along the side of the road. Along this portion, I was probably only going 35 or 40mph. It had some scratches and dents and was missing several screws, but after some duct taping, it was fine.

What I liked about this was that it was compact. I could shove it in my pocket and go. Also, it had great manual controls. Most point and shoots do not. Smartz’s camera, for example, doesn’t have much in the line of any manual controls that you can set from shot to shot.

Most of the photos that I take and “display” have a lot of post-camera work done on them (photoshop). However, that doesn’t mean the camera is unimportant. If I can’t get a decently lit shot or if it’s blurry, etc, no amount of photoshopping is going to change that. The source material is really important here.

Which is why I’m ready for a new camera. The Pentax is still ok for well-lit, outdoor scenes where things are fairly stationary. But over the years it’s gotten noisier and much less reliable. Smatz’s camera, like I said, is great, but 1) it’s not mine and 2) it’s been moody as of late, especially in lower-light.

I’m not sure what the future holds for me and cameras, but eventually, a new one will come along. I’d like something a bit larger this time. Something with a nice zoom on it. And something that does well in low-light. Financially, I can’t go the digital SLR route. Maybe next time.

For now (well, not as later), I think I’ll hover around the “prosumer” end of things. The Canon Powershot SX20 is a contender, as is the Nikon Coolpix P90. Both can be obtained for just over $300ish. That’s not a bad price if I’d like to have one by summer. I’ll have to do some more research here.

Any other suggestions of cameras in that price range would be helpful.

To check out the pics taken with the Pentax, look here. And here too. Oh, and these.

The Pentax has been mostly useless since early 2009. Here’s hoping that 2010 brings something new.

This is the most epic battle ever!

While skimming Netflix for decent Railroad documentaries (hint: there aren’t many), I came across a four volume series called Running a Steam Locomotive. Sounds like a lot of fun, no? I’ve always wanted to learn how to do this.

I know that you really can’t learn to run a steam engine from a DVD, but I figured it would give me a good basis. Turns out that I was right.

The first thing that I noticed about this DVD is that it’s a rerelease. Running a Steam Locomotive was originally filmed in 1980. The guy who looks like a hipster was a dead giveaway. This blond fellow with big glasses, mustache and questionable hat seems like he was taken right off of Capitol Hill, here in Seattle. But no, this guy wasn’t being ironic, he was just being who he was.

The program starts off oddly. I figured that since disc one was the basics, it would start with an overview of the engine. Nope, it starts off with how to change out a broken flue pipe inside the boiler. You start out inside the engine itself. It’s sort of like showing up on the first day and the boss doesn’t have time to teach you how to blow the whistle or start the engine because there’s a flue pipe that needs to be replaced using some special tools.

It’s an odd way to start, but kind of fitting and I found it interesting. You’re in the boiler with the engineer, Charles Daigh, and while he’s fixing the piece, he’s explaining why it needs to be replaced and covers a lot of how a steam engine works. Tom Scott, Jr., the fireman proto-hipster and engineer take turns covering different areas of the locomotive. It’s all a bit scattershot, but all useful.

Nearly every aspect of running a locomotive is covered: from starting up the fire (start it with wood and some kero) to warming up the cylinders to starting up and coupling the cars. Along the way, you learn about basic wheel alignment (what 2-6-2 means, for example), the suspension, electrical system, valves, regulators, lubrication and what the whistle signals mean (two long bursts means that the train is about to move – two longs, one short and another long means that the train is coming up to a crossing).

The railroad where this was filmed must have hosted a “How to Run a Steam Locomotive” class. At times, the engineer seems to be talking to other people rather than the camera. He also uses the tender (coal car behind the engine) as a chalk board. Pretty nifty.

One of the things that I really appreciate about this is that there’s no amazingly bad music accompanying it. Many, many train documentaries are filled from start to finish with insipid, canned Casio keyboard music. Generally, the soundtracks are embarrassingly horrifying and relentless. Thankfully, this chose to have almost no music in it. The music that existed was done by a jug band (over the opening and closing credits). This is probably because it was filmed in 1980. Somewhere around 1984, everyone and the brother got a Casio keyboard and decided that they were going to make music for crappy documentaries. Sadly, as far as train documentaries go, this is the rule rather than the exception.

This documentary was filmed at the Monticello & Sangamon Valley Railroad in Illinois. Now, it’s called the Monticello Railway Museum. The locomotive used in the film is their No. 1, a 1930 0-4-0 built by Alco. It ran until 1988. Monticello’s current roster features no working steam locomotives, but a few fine older diesels.

Anyway, if you’re interesting in this sort of thing, I guess this will interest you. It’s fairly technical and maybe a little dry, but very well done (by 1980’s standards – even by today’s standards) and very informative.

The DVDs in the rest of the set seem to be from different places. I’m not sure if it’s the same film company that did the original, but I’ll soon find out.

After watching everything an engineer on a steam locomotive has to do, I’m kind of glad that I’m not one. It all seems like a huge pain. The fireman, even though he’s got to shovel the coal and keep the fire going, has the better of the two jobs. I think I’d rather be a fireman.

I’m very all about cheap snacks, even (and especially) if I have to make them myself.

So anyway, I was standing at the checkouts at work when I saw a magazine called Fine Cooking. It had some fine looking crackers on the cover with the caption “Home Made Crackers.” I spent a ton of time looking through the stupid magazine for “Home Made Crackers,” but came up with nothing. For some reason, the inside of the magazine called the crackers “Three Seed Crackers,” which is a pretty crappy thing to do.

I was hoping to just jot down the recipe, but it was too long and I figured that it would be online somewhere. The Fine Cooking website has a ton of recipes! So I searched for “Home Made Crackers” and “Three Seed Crackers,” but came up with nada. So I typed in “crackers” and with a bit of searching found “Seeded Crackers.” Same crackers, three different names. Brilliant marketing.

Well, anyway, I decided to make these multi-named crackers. I don’t really care for seeds on or in stuff (same goes for nuts), so I just made salted crackers. Fun, no?

Here’s the recipe…

1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour; more for rolling
scant 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tsp. table salt
3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil (I used one part olive oil, one part canola oil)

Preheat oven to 450F

In a large bowl, whisk the all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, and table salt. Add the olive oil and 1/2 cup water to the flour; stir with a rubber spatula until it collects into a soft, crumbly ball of dough. Use the spatula or your hands to press the dough against the sides of the bowl to gather all the stray flour.

Set the dough on a lightly floured work surface and portion it into thirds. Pat each portion into a square. Set two squares aside and cover with a clean towel. Roll the remaining dough into a rectangle about 1/16 inch thick and 7 or 8 inches wide by 14 or 15 inches long. Whenever you feel resistance, lift up one edge of the dough and sprinkle more flour underneath before you continue rolling.

The recipe then rambled on about how to cut them and when to put the seeds on them. It warned “Don’t bother trimming the edges; rustic edges add character.” Awesome, huh? Edges add character. What I want more than anything from these crackers is character.

Bake these for about 10 minutes. The best thing to bake them on is one of those cookie sheets with the air in them. Hopefully you know what I mean. Otherwise, the bottoms could burn. They should be browned, but not burned. Quite tasty.

Sorry for the crappy pictures. They were taken with a webcam.

Nikki visited Seattle this past weekend and we all had a ball. We took her on a short tour of Seattle and the out lying areas. It was quite a bit of fun and we took pictures!

Check them out here.