Category Archives: Travel

Power for a Factory

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The Dearborn factory required a large power generation facility and, in days gone by, this was provided by a large steam engine driving generators.  This machine is now nicely preserved.  The scale of it is a bit hard to represent.  The cylinders are huge and the controls are substantial.  You can climb up on top of the whole thing to see how it went together.  Surprisingly, this is not a place that was getting too many visitors which meant I was able to nose around in relative peace.  It is hard to imagine what it would have been like when this enormous piece of engineering was in use and was generating the power for the plant.  Now it is idle but it still looks imposing.

Quite a Locomotive

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I know a few of the regular readers of the blog are in to trains so I hope this one pleases them.  The Henry Ford Museum covers all sorts of engineering endeavors including a selection of rail vehicles.  This was one of the last things we saw before we left so I didn’t explore very much.  However, there was one rather large steam locomotive on display.  This thing was a beast and I imagine it was quite the sight when it was in regular usage.  Our visit coincided with the running of Big Boy after restoration so something similar to this can been seen for real once again!

Automated Chevy Bolt

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The Chevy Bolt is not the sort of car that would normally grab my attention.  This one did though.  It was at The Henry Ford (even if it is a Chevy) and it is tricked out with all sorts of sensors.  I assume it was some sort of development tested for automated vehicles.  I could have made the effort to go and read whatever was written next to it but that seemed far to much like hard work.  I guess I am the sort of person an automated vehicle is designed for if I can’t be bothered to even do that!

The Big House

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My nephew’s graduation took place at Ann Arbor MI.  I had not been there before but the main graduation ceremony was held in the football stadium.  It might be able to hold 100,000 but on this day there were not so many.  We had more space to spread out than would be the case in a football game and behind the stage area was left empty. While we waited for things to “kick off”, I figured I would grab a panorama or two of the Big House.

Two Special American 737s – At Last

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American Airlines has painted a number of its jets in liveries of the airlines that went into it over the years.  It happens that, as I write this on a plane, I just saw an A320 in American West colors as we taxied out.  They painted up three 737s in special schemes and I had a poor record of seeing them.  Two of these, the TWA scheme and the Reno Air scheme, both showed up at DFW while I was there waiting for a flight home.  The TWA scheme landed just after I got there so I saw it while riding the inter-terminal shuttle.  I then had it taxi out past me a little while later.  Sadly it took off from the other side of the field.  The Reno jet followed later and it did take off from our side so I felt like I had finally checked out something that had evaded me for too long.

The Mad Dogs Aren’t Gone Quite Yet

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The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a jet that has had its time and is now rapidly disappearing from the skies of the US.  However, they aren’t all gone.  American Airlines has been a big user but the arrival of 737s and A319s means they are heading to the desert in large numbers.  I had assumed that meant they were a rarity but DFW is clearly still seeing a lot of them.  I was taking a shot of any of them that showed up since I might not get many more chances.  I have, of course, shot them a lot of the years but this was a nice final encounter.  Strange how pleased you are to see something that used to be a bit of a yawn.

Changing Landscapes By The Second

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The weather while we were in Jackson was rather variable. Our first day was pretty sunny but it clouded over and the second day had clouds constantly moving through.  You would get patches of sun showing up periodically but it was generally overcast.  As you looked to the hillsides surrounding the valley, there was hardly a moment when things were constant.  Light might pick out the terrain briefly and then a cloud would roll in and obscure the view completely.  There was always something different to see.  Even though the conditions were not great, it was still gorgeous to watch the constant evolution.

Big Horn Sheep Safely on the Slopes

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The end of our wildlife spotting trip in Jackson took us around the back of the elk refuge.  Alongside the road is a slope which is very popular with the Big Horn Sheep.  It has steep sides and food for them to graze on.  The terrain renders them safe from the predators that might otherwise bother them since they are the ones with the advantage on such a steep and craggy slope.  There were families of sheep scattered along the slope.

They weren’t very far away from us but, seeing as they are not large, they didn’t fill the viewfinder.  Our guide carried a spotting scope which gave us a really close view.  It also allowed you to get a quite impressive photo using only your cellphone since you could hold it up against the eyepiece.  I did shoot with the bigger camera too, though.  Some of the sheep moved up on to the ridge line where they were silhouetted for me to photograph.  It was fun to watch them move around as they were constantly walking to the next good food source all while they were perched on some pretty precarious spaces.

Whose Trains Are These?

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Chicago was a stop off on a work trip.  We were on final approach to O’Hare and I was looking out of the window at the industrial areas that surround the airport.  There are rail tracks scattered throughout these areas so seeing trains is not a surprise.  However, I was a little caught out by what appeared to be some old Metra commuter cars parked up in one space.  They have clearly been out of use for a while.  If anyone knows who they belong to, please let me know.