Alarm bells ring at 0500 hours, it’s time to seek out the damage from continuation of a relentless winter storm. Sleepy eyes gaze the surrounding forests slumped as if they can’t bear anymore damage from frozen droplets cascading among the Laurel Highlands and the tops of the Alleghenies. Navigating once was pavement now transformed into trails of inches if not a foot of snow to the nearest offering of warm, caffeine infused beverages. The time where I find myself most apt to create an image is nearing, and I’m on the pseudo road again. Not far, though, I’ll find myself perched atop a snow covered hill, praying that the road less traveled I parked myself stays that way not to spook a driver into over reacting to a random, out of place vehicle housing a photographer trying to stay warm and seeking shelter from a 3 day winter event. A familiar transmission crackles over the radio, I bundle up and walk to the ledge overlooking an increasing blue landscape. Taking it all in at the transformation this valley has seen over the decades, wondering what it was like to see the Western Maryland above and the B&O dominate the region. The supports of the Salisbury Viaduct illuminate from a faint westbound headlight, snow still falling, temperatures still not rising, freight negotiates the curves, and the shutter button is pressed.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
