Smallwood's Retreat

Charles County, Maryland 

Not far from the Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division grounds (scroll down to yesterday's post)  is Smallwood State Park. General William Smallwood served in the Revolutionary War and was the Governor of Maryland from 1785 to 1788. The Governor's plantation house and grounds overlooking the Potomac River were restored and opened as a historic park in 1958.

This Sunday is the third Sunday of the month, and we will be visiting the Mount Zion Baptist Church. Hope you will stop by on Sunday to see this interesting and well kept wooden church that was built in the late 19th century.

Thanks for reading Photography In Place.

Building 2012

Charles County, Maryland 

On an October afternoon we anchored just off the Potomac River in the mouth of Chickamuxen Creek and took the small inflatable boat into the swamps, following the creek until it became too small to navigate. We climbed onto the bank to stretch our legs, and noticed a road nearby. It was a pleasant day so we followed the road for about a mile and a half. There were neat buildings scattered along the way and I took a few pictures. The immaculately maintained grounds and numbered buildings suggested that we were on some kind of military reservation, but we encountered no one  until a security policeman pulled up in his car and politely informed us that we were in a restricted area and would have to leave. We told him we had come in off the river and he offered to drive us back to where the inflatable was tied up.

Turns out we were on the grounds of the Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center. Building 2012, though small, is characteristic of the buildings we saw on the grounds. Their purpose remains a mystery.

This building, near where we landed, appears to no longer be in use.

CSX Westbound

Charlottesville, Virginia 

This CSX train is one of several a day that pass through Charlottesville with empty cars over track operated by the family owned regional Buckingham Branch Railroad.  This picture was taken behind the Charlottesville Amtrak station as the train was entering the "diamond" interchange with the Norfolk Southern mainline. Amtrak's Cardinal also operates over this track.

The January 2012 issue of Trains magazine ran a 12 page feature on the Buckingham Branch which operates from Doswell, which is near Richmond, to Clifton Forge.

Before Photoshop

Long before Photoshop came on the scene, photographers were busy manipulating images. This postcard, postmarked May 26, 1949, was mailed from Eganville, Ontario to Norwich, New York with a 3-cent Canadian postage stamp.The handwritten message on the back of the card reads:

Guess we have caught most of the fish here.

Be home soon. 

Cecil and Ellen

Winter sunlight

Greene County, Virginia 

Chickadee

Poecile carolinensis

"That whimsical fellow called Evolution, having enlarged the dinosaur until he tripped over own toes, tried shrinking the chickadee until he was just too big to be snapped up by flycatchers as an insect, and just too little to be pursued by hawks and owls as meat. Then he regarded his handiwork and laughed. Everyone laughs at so small a bundle of large enthusiasms." 

from A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold 

Seaboard Air Line Locomotive 358

This is another photograph from the group of old prints that I came across in a bin at the Richmond Book Shop in Richmond, Virginia back in December. The photographer is not known.

Seaboard Air Line No 358 was a 2-8-2 Class Q-3 "Mikado" locomotive built in 1924 by Baldwin Locomotive Works. The air pumps mounted over the headlight give No.358 an unusual look. The engine and tender together weighed 490600 pounds. I believe this locomotive was scrapped in 1952.

 See other railroad photos from this group here and here.