Connected with Jreb again; engine choices; Kings Mountain

[Bill Richardson]

   I thought Jreb had folded up.  Last two times I tried to open it, I got a "not found" notice.  Today I tried again, same result.  Then I opened the Facebook page.  I don't do Facebook, not a member, but I looked into the Jreb FB page to see if there was any info about the Jreb website, and found the new link.

   In the last year or so, whenever I looked into the Jreb website, I saw that almost all posts were older, and old.  Hardly anything new.  Looked like Jreb was taking a nosedive.  Then I got the "not found" notices.

   It's good that Jreb is still going.  Last 10 times or so times I looked in, I saw only visitors as being on, usually no members, besides myself.  Sometimes there would be one member.  I rarely saw a new post.  Looks that way now.  One night I saw that there were 125 visitors and one member.  I usually saw a visitor count of 20 or more, usually more.  Looked like there were a lot of people interested in Jreb.  Looked like the members had abandoned it.  Somebody told me two or three years ago, maybe four, that people were shifting to FB.  I don't know why.  FB is very limited, in my opinion.  A website like Jreb is much better.

   I haven't made many train photos in the last couple years.  It was getting mundane.  I used to see engines with other road names and other colors, from 2014 when I started, until 2018 it seems, but then all that faded out, or nearly so.  Then I started looking for the rebuilds, in new paint, especially the SD70ACU engines, the former UP SD90MAC.  I have several photos of those in the UP paint, including one set of photos showing two of them hooked together, at Danville, KY.  I posted one or two of those on Jreb before it started having trouble.  Since they all got converted and repainted, I happened to be in the right place at the right time now and then and saw a few of the conversions and got photos.  Last time I saw one, at Danville, it was among two other engines, and breezing through the yard.  I grabbed a photo, but then found that my camera was set on macro.  The photo wasn't bad, but not good; deleted.  Those are my prime choice these days, among NS engines, except for Heritage units.  Looking through some of my photos a bit ago, I found some of an SD70ACC.  That was another one I was looking for a while back.  I just saw on here a photo of a string of SD70Ms going to PRLX.  I guess NS is getting rid of their remaining SD70s.  There is a rebuild by GE that I was looking for a while back, as something of new interest.  Can't think of the model number right now.  I guess their new paint has faded some by now.  I wonder what is new now?  I haven't kept up with this stuff.

   Today I saw that NSYorktown was interested in Kings Mountain.  He posted photos from the 501 road bridge.  Years ago, I went back along the high ground beside the cut, on the north side of 501.  There is a dirt lane that goes back through the fields along there.  The gate used to be open, but is now closed.  When my wife and I first went back there, over 10 yrs ago, we saw where people had been dumping, for years it appeared.  From the gate, which was open back then, and no signs to keep out, the dirt road goes through a field area, then makes an S-turn going down to a lower level, which is over the north end of the old tunnel.  That dirt, partly gravel lane, goes on back a few hundred yards, then curves and goes down to the track.  There is a fork off that road that goes left, away from the cut.  I saw some dumping before I got to the S-curve, and a lot of it down on the next level, where there is a steep slope, and people dumped their trash.  I have seen plenty of dumping here and there.  Last year, my wife and I drove down to McCreary County, KY.  I wanted to drive a side road that went around Franklin Hollow; got around the head end and then found a closed gate.  End of that.  I stopped at a Forest Ranger office to ask about that.  The Ranger said the road had been closed for around 4 years because of dumping.

    Anyway, at Kings Mountain, I went back in there a few times all together.  One time in winter I walked back to the north portal of the old tunnel there.  I have a bunch of photos of that place on my tunnels page of my website:  Railroad-Engines-Bridges-Tunnels.  I included one here, and one showing that dirt/gravel road--facing out in this photo, on the 2nd level.  I never drove down to the track.  I parked where the road started to go down again, and walked down, then had to walk along the side to the tunnel.  I hurried, before a train showed up.  This was not in the cut, so there was plenty of room to get away from the track if a train came.   I'm not recommending that anybody go there, especially careless people.   That road has a closed gate now, and it is a long walk back in there, so I doubt people would be going in there.  Besides that, it required 4x4.

   On the south side of the 501 bridge, a lane goes down to the track area.  I have been down there, and seen other people there, rarely.  Last time I was there, last year it seems. I met two guys, senior citizens, former RR employees from Canada.  I think they used to be on train engine crews.  They were on a RR photo tour.   They were there when I got there.  I stayed a half hour or so, then left.  I'm thinking two trains came while we were there.  I have been there other times for photos, and waited for trains.  Got waves from some train crew members, including parked trains.  It might be posted now; don't know.  I hope not.  Good place; morning only, for the light.  Again, I'm not recommending this place; only gabbing a little.  It is not a place for kids or stupid teenagers.  By the way, one day when I was there a train passed through with a UP 2002 heritage engine, blue, Salt Lake or something.  I have a photo of it on my website, in the heritage engine section.

   Now a plug for my photo prints.  I have an Etsy "shop", "Bill's Photo Prints".  I have for sale 8.5" x 11" prints of RR engines, and outdoor nature scenics.  I don't have a lot on there, around a dozen RR photos, and other.  If interested, people could look up my shop, or my name.

   Most of my photos from this year were made at Fulton, KY, Canadian National RR.  We were visiting relatives.  One day I was surprised to see a TN train, a road name I didn't know about, and there are many.  That was interesting.  Another day, I saw a KCS engine at the head of a parked train, out of town near a road.    Maybe I'll see some interesting engines around the Danville/Somerset region.  Not as much traffic now days it seems.  I check the Danville, Ky yard now and then, but usually see very little.  I seldom get to Burnside.  Earlier this year a friend and I went out in the Keno area to get photos of trains, and saw some.  I went alone one day before that and got a few.  I might post some on here.  I thought about it months ago, but it looked like Jreb was about done.  It's still going, I reckon.

   

[E. Hodgson]

Jreb will be hosted for the foreseeable future, the wealth of information contained is still very much usable, I have had some issues with the host moving from server to server as they see fit, which caused some extended downtime every time as I sorted out broken links and other issues, but after a stern discussion about the amount of money paid vs quality of service they have "upgraded" me to a dedicated box and assured me I wouldn't have issues in the future. We will see! I would love to see more and younger rail fans come back but I fear the ease of use of Facebook is hard to compete with the younger generation which has helped move people away. I have stated in the past Facebook is terrible for keeping information in a easily searchable format such as this, what you post today, is gone tomorrow, years down the road the information is long forgotten.

I would love to see a grass roots campaign to attract more users to come and post pictures, sightings, and information here but with work and life I just don't have the time to organize or be track side to help. If anyone wants to take that up we can organize incentives, contest (aka photo contest, small giveaways), get together to promote usage I would be happy to support that in anyway I can.


Eric

[JCagle]

   I thought Jreb had folded up.  Last two times I tried to open it, I got a "not found" notice.  Today I tried again, same result.  Then I opened the Facebook page.  I don't do Facebook, not a member, but I looked into the Jreb FB page to see if there was any info about the Jreb website, and found the new link.

   In the last year or so, whenever I looked into the Jreb website, I saw that almost all posts were older, and old.  Hardly anything new.  Looked like Jreb was taking a nosedive.  Then I got the "not found" notices.

   It's good that Jreb is still going.  Last 10 times or so times I looked in, I saw only visitors as being on, usually no members, besides myself.  Sometimes there would be one member.  I rarely saw a new post.  Looks that way now.  One night I saw that there were 125 visitors and one member.  I usually saw a visitor count of 20 or more, usually more.  Looked like there were a lot of people interested in Jreb.  Looked like the members had abandoned it.  Somebody told me two or three years ago, maybe four, that people were shifting to FB.  I don't know why.  FB is very limited, in my opinion.  A website like Jreb is much better.
/quote]

I think the past 4 or 5 years have been hard for many of us that kind of kept things going around here. E.M. had to pull the plug on his original hosting at one point, so we had to do a little bit of a pivot. Luckily Eric offered to give some server space and host it. Things kind of dropped off traffic wise after the change of hosting. I know for me personally I had 2 kids, a wife with cancer, and trying to keep up at work (50-60 hours a week) and just live for a little bit and JREB became a backburner thing. It almost seemed like nobody was counting on it any more so it was easy to push to the backburner.

I know for me personally, I'm in a totally different position than I was even just a year ago. I have a lot more free time these days and I feel a little recharged. Over the past week or so it has been on my mind to maybe check in and see what was going on. I'm coming up with a list of some things I would like to work on to get things a little more modernized. Hopefully we can get things a little more lively around here. Maybe get some of the old hands back involved and get some new members.

[NS O SCALER]

Last time I was down at Kings Mountain (2018), the road from up top, down to the tunnel was gated off by the railroad.  Was told by an NS signal maintainer, that it was gated off due to "illegal activity" going on down there.   Last time I drove that road (pre 2018), I ran into some unsavory looking characters that kind of gave me the willies!   And I'm from the Chicago area, but wish I had a gun with me, just in case.....