These photos come from my visit today... I haven't been to
this place in years, but pass by it almost daily now. Inexcusable!
Reardon
For some reason I can't explain, this image started me thinking
of Hank Reardon, from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
Power, strength, purpose.... Hard steel doing a hard job.
A lost evening
In the museum is a railway train station display.
They quite literally built a turn of the century
train station in the building, tracks, train, and all.
Inside the waiting room, inside the station, inside the museum.... stands
this chair and stove. All alone in one corner.
In the dim light, I can see the ghost of a man sitting
in that chair, all night long, waiting for his love who
never arrives.
I rebuilt the photo to fit my thoughts...
In perspective
This photo, I sat and waited for. About forty five minutes, just sitting
against a tree and watching the people. Along the way I took
almost one hundred photos, but this image is the one I
waited for. I knew it was coming.... all it took was patience.
Brass
On top of an engine, inside the museum building, are these brass
parts. A steam whistle, some steam outlets....
I can see a proud engineer crawling out on that engine
everyday to polish this brass, knowing few people besides
he would ever see them. But... he would.... he would.
All aboard!
Turned black and white, and turned old.... this photo
from this very morning could have been taken one
hundred years ago.
Home is where the nest is
There are engines on display out front of the museum,
and tucked away under one, visible to a careful eye, birds
have made a home. What once powered dreams.....
Preparing to leave......
Ready to go.... checking the brakes.... building pressure.....
Even without the engineers calls, the tension builds as the
creature stirs to life.
A light in the wilderness
On a lonely track through the wilderness, a man stands.
Watching from miles away as a train plows
through the night. Sparks from the stack and two glowing red
lights out front make the engine look like a fire breathing
dragon....
Arrived
Train of cars ready.... all that's needed is an engine. Fresh from the
rigging shed she rolls... proud and alive with powerful steam.
Decades after her sister engines have been scrapped, she still
pulls a loaded train every day. The men who care for her have
traded days of their life for her soul, keeping her breathing
despite the call of railway hell, the wrecking yard.
I watched a mechanic give this engine a loving caress as it
rolled off to work.... leaving no doubt.
A ready hand....
Ready to capture a loaded train of cars.... the engine reaches
out with it's coupler, not complete, not fulfilled, till the load is
hooked and under way. Like a proud man searching for work...
3 comments:
They are all excellent photos. . but arrived. . that is magazine worthy.
Looks like a wonderful place. You reminded me with your photos why I neede to get to the Dayton museum again, now I know there are other museums I need to check out. One I hope I'll see again, is the shipwreck museum up on Lake Superior.
I loved it up there, my boss with the corporate plane owned several businesses in the area and we were able to fly into Pellston and spend a day or two every once in a while. It was the perfect stop for me, water and fresh air and Cornish Pasties and big lumberjack breakfasts and trees and machines and shipwrecks.
Your additions perfected it. . and I got the Reardon on the first read but what you added to it explains it well. One of your best posts, in many ways.
These are beautiful, Art!
(Art does art.)
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