|
Stuff and nonsense all about TRAINSPOTTER-USA |
 |
That's
me on the
left
there as you'll often see me at line side. Ian Holmes. I'm an ex-pat Brit living in Minnesota, USA. I've been interested in Railways of all sorts for longer than I can remember. In fact one of my earliest childhood memories is of running across the footbridge at the long gone Mablethorpe railway station, watching the trains in the station below me. Many Americans will be unfamiliar with the term "Trainspotter", to them I'll be a Railfan. I just prefer "Trainspotter". So, I thought, as I now live in the USA, what better name for this website than Trainspotter-USA.com. Being a Brit I will invariably use words and terms that some of you will be unfamiliar with. I will explain them as I go along. But if I should miss one, please drop me a line ian at iholmes dot com and let me know and an explanation will be forthcoming. There's 2 basic sections of the site the blog and the photo albums. The "Bashers Blog" as I call it will deal with my trips out trainspotting. A "Bash" is a trainspotting trip, normally undertaken by train. But as there is only one train a day in Minnesota (The Empire Builder) I won't be undertaking many train trips. But Bashers Blog has a ring to it. So Bashers Blog it is. I'll waffle on about what I see, whats going on and illustrate it with some photos. Some of the photos might be pretty darned good. Some others not so. But its all about what went on on the trip. In the photo album section I have planned some photo essays about some local shortlines and other exciting railway related stuff. For example I've been studying the Northern Lines Railway out in Saint Cloud, MN for a while and have lots of pictures of that. Also, a few years ago I had an excellent afternoon chasing a train up the Tehachapi pass out in California. It's more than a blog report so I'll put it in the Albums section. That's it really. For those of you technically minded souls, my camera is an Olympus E-1 DSLR with a Zuiko 40-150mm zoom lens. I also carry in reserve an Olympus E20 that I was going to get rid of when I got the E-1 but I can't bear to part with it at the moment. I've really had a resurgence of interest in the hobby lately and these links below are to a few sites that I have found interesting, inspiring and useful. I recommend checking them out.  |