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.

Yellow shed

Greene County, Virginia 

"There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.

"To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue.

"To avoid the second, he should lay a split of good oak on the andirons, preferably where there is no furnace, and let it warm his shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside. If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled his own good oak, and let his mind work the while, he will remember much about where the heat comes from, and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spend the week in town astride a radiator."

from A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold

Mockingbird

Mimus polyglottos - Greene County, Virginia 

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corn-cribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."  Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird

Foggy morning drive-by

Louisa County, Virginia

South River Road

Greene County, Virginia 

Yesterday was Candlemas, also known as Groundhog Day, which marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Today we are on the downhill side of winter. The winter here has been mild so far, and temperatures reached the upper sixties yesterday. It seems like spring is here already.

I have been taking advantage of the warm weather to photograph birds  even though I know that taking pictures of birds or kittens can get me kicked out of the Secret Guild of Really Serious Photographers. Next week: mockingbirds and chickadees, and maybe a steam locomotive.

Hope you will join us and thanks for reading Photography In Place.

Yellow garage

Charlottesville, Virginia 

"I was the worst hitter ever. I never even broke a bat until last year when I was backing out of the garage"  - Lefty Gomez

Pitchers and catchers will report to spring training in less than three weeks.

Parts and Service

Charlottesville, Virginia - 2012

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving down West Main Street in Charlottesville and noticed that these buildings were being razed so I stopped to take a couple of pictures. I had taken pictures here in 2008. The old garage was interesting and I liked the signs painted on the buildings, so I hate to see them go. Not sure what the Main Street Market Annex is going to look like, but it sounds up-scale, and I will miss the old garage.

Charlottesville, Virginia - 2008