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Member Perspectives September 19, 2022
Maximizing Western Canada's huge economic potential key to building a stronger economy
by Susannah Pierce – President, Canada Country Chair, Shell Canada Limited Tamara Vrooman – Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Airport Authority
Susannah Pierce – President, Canada Country Chair, Shell Canada Limited Tamara Vrooman – Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Airport Authority
Economic Strategy Industry and innovation Natural Resources Resources and the Environment
As published by Susannah Pierce and Tamara Vrooman in the Calgary Herald
With Parliament returning, the federal government must turn its attention to developing a serious plan to grow our economy. As part of this plan, the government must focus on measures that enable western Canadian businesses to scale and access growing global economies looking for safe and secure natural resources the West can provide.
With its extensive natural resources, Western Canada has long been both a robust economic engine in Canada as well as an established world leader in many crucial economic sectors.
Despite already accounting for nearly 40 per cent of Canada's GDP, untapped potential remains. Successfully and sustainably bringing the immense natural wealth of Western Canada to international markets will drive country-wide prosperity.
The federal government must realize that, as the pace of change facing Canadian businesses accelerates, companies need to be agile and adapt to remain competitive and generate long-term economic growth. To help them do this, the government should address four key areas.
We have a million unfilled jobs in Canada right now, with the West seeing the lowest unemployment rates in Canada. To grow our economy, the government needs to address worsening labour and talent shortages.
At the federal level, this means collaborating more closely with provincial, territorial and municipal governments, and with the private sector, to better understand labour market needs across the country.
In short, Canada needs a comprehensive strategy that looks at immigration, reskilling and up-skilling, new training approaches and talent pipeline management systems all working together.
Canada's agricultural sector, anchored in the West, is a world leader in quality, innovation and sustainability. With over 100,000 farming operations and 85 per cent of Canada's farmland, the continued competitiveness and sustainability of the western agriculture sector is vital to Canada's economic expansion.
But the agriculture sector continues to be constrained by extraneous regulation. The sector needs a regulatory regime that is robust, adjustable and evidence-based. Enabling innovation and economic growth, particularly exports, must be a top consideration for regulators. As Parliament resumes, the government must continue to support and incentivize the agriculture and value-added food sector. This includes continuing to partner with western Canadian businesses on research, product development and the commercialization of the sector.
As Canada's gateway to over 170 trading economies around the world, western Canadian ports handle $1 of every $3 of Canada's trade in goods outside North America. But the capacity of Canada's West Coast to serve much-needed long-term export growth is quickly becoming constrained by shipping terminal congestion and a lack of warehousing and industrial lands.
We must make major, strategic investments in Canada's trade infrastructure to grow and sustain our economy. We can't wait a decade to move projects forward. Because of its strategic location, Western Canada can power major economic growth if we are prepared to eliminate barriers and renew and strengthen infrastructure to meet long-term goals. The government must commit to a trade gateways strategy that will set the tone for investments across all levels of government and the private sector.
As the world transitions to a lower carbon future and as the geopolitical environment realigns in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Western Canada can provide secure and safely produced energy that growing economies need. Our new "green helmet" should reflect the role our low carbon energy, natural resources and critical minerals can provide to countries in need.
It is crucial the government acts to improve Canada's regulatory environment to help attract the investment capital needed to create new energy assets, including liquid natural gas and hydrogen. Government needs to act with a sense of urgency and clarity to make sure we take advantage of our ability to support the global need for energy and natural resources. Getting out of our own way will promote responsible extraction, value-added processing and end-use manufacturing here in Canada.
A strong Western Canada is critical to a strong Canada. And Western Canada has the goods the world needs. Adopting these priorities will not only support western Canadian business but will lead to a more prosperous Canada.
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L'Eau Kenzo Pour Homme by Kenzo will charm with its unpredictable, exhilarating and energetic scent, created by the French perfumers. They have embodied the idea of an impetuous development of the civilization and the fast pace of the important events in the history of humanity. Its unique composition unfolds with the freshness of citrus and wood notes, filling the image of a man with charisma and individuality.


Extension Educators from across the state report on crop progress in their areas. Generally crops are maturing quickly with the warmer temperatures this week. Stalk rots are a concern in corn and growers are encouraged to check fields and prioritize harvests accordingly.
Welcome to two Extension Educators who started this month: Katherine Caswell in McCook and Michael Sindelar in Clay Center.


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Central Bank of Barbados: Political Tool or Facilitator of Economic Development?
Posted on April 29, 2013 by David
Submitted by the Mahogany Coconut Think Tank and Watchdog Group
Sir Courtney Blackman, first Governor of the Central Bank
Dr. DeLisle Worrel
We are not a bit surprised that former Governor of the Central Bank, Sir Courtney Blackman is blaming both the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party for the current financial woes. We are also not surprised, that the current Governor, Dr. DeLisle Worrell, is saying that the existing financial sector stymies or does not support innovation and creative enterprises. In layman's terms it really means, that those citizens with startup enterprises, cannot get them financed.
These two statements show beyond a shadow of doubt that the current crisis, is not going to be abated by the noise coming from the apologists of the government and opposition. When stripped of their diplomatic sheets, they convey a bankruptcy rampant in both of these political dinosaurs (BLP and DLP). The simple truth is that both parties have paid nothing but lip service to creating a new entrepreneurial class and have bogged themselves down in economic models that are no longer relevant. We are left with ego based arguments from economists, who are merely singing for their political supper.
Both Governors have failed to admit that the Central Bank itself is a model of a decaying economic management structure that can scarcely move beyond collecting data and regularizing the commercial banks. The Central Bank itself can do little to facilitate any radical changes in the economy. Indeed, it was Dr. Blackman himself, who once stated that the Governor of the Central Bank is "a creature of the Minister of Finance". We believe that his statement justifies our position about the relevance of the Central Bank in economic planning. The Minister of Finance is a politician first and foremost, if Dr. Blackman's position holds true; it means that Governors of Central Banks are actually political creatures!
Recently, while addressing the Barbados Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, the current Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. DeLisle Worrell, suggested that the Barbados financial system is "failing" innovators. Dr Worrell told his audience that he did not have the answers for filling "gap" which exists between traditional financing and that for new business in such areas as energy and culture. Such an admission from the Governor would not have been good news for the hundreds of citizens trying to get their businesses off the ground.
When we examine the two positions of the Governors, we are forced to ask: What is the real function of the Central bank. Is it merely a political tool or is it incapable of assisting with the emergence of the new economy?
We believe that a $100 million Fund should be immediately set up, to jump start small businesses. We also believe that the establishment of at least six Entrepreneurial colleges, with rolls not exceeding 200 each will assist in developing present and future business persons.
It is time for political gymnastics to end and real progressive policy changes to be made. It is also time for the role of the Central Bank to be revisited.
This entry was posted in Barbados Economy, Barbados Labour Party, Blogging, Democratic Labour Party and tagged Central Bank of Barbados, DeLisle Worrell, Sir Courtney Blackman by David. Bookmark the permalink.
0 thoughts on "Central Bank of Barbados: Political Tool or Facilitator of Economic Development?"
millertheanunnaki on May 1, 2013 at 1:49 PM said:
@ Observer | May 1, 2013 at 11:20 AM |
Observer, the miller-being hundreds of intellectual light years away from the action- just had to make a small input into your, as usual, erudite and blindly enlightening observations.
But before making input into the economic meltdown scenario could you please explain the 'partisan' conclusion reached in the following observation you made?
"Dr. Worrell seems to have been arguing that in the weak global economic environment and the structure of the barbados economy, growth in real gdp that is compatible with maintaining adequate reserves is challenging at best. Mr. Arthur , Mr. Mascoll, Mr. Hoyos and others seem to differ and appear to be suggesting that we can find growth from domestic sources and still maintain adequate reserves. For me, the burden of proof lies with Mr. Arthur, Mr. Mascoll and Mr. Hoyos on this one. The trend in the reserves is a downward one so i am with the guy who says be careful with the reserves."
How can Dr Worrell be against a stimulus package of $90 million but remains silently in favour of a $600 million proposed Capex stimulus without similar warnings of the severe negative effects on the foreign reserves that are not dwindling but fast disappearing day-by-day?
Just look out for the flight of capital and remittance of retained profits in the coming months as investors and foreign-owned businesses lose confidence in the local economy.
Don't you think that the burden of proof also lies on the Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler to explain how he intends to finance the $600 million plus the massive deficit on the current account resulting in a fudge of the overall deficit to an imaginary $1.2 million?
Given the prevailing financial market conditions this fiscal gymnastic exercise could only be performed by prescribing large doses of taxation on economic activity.
We know your observations can be most informative and at times exceedingly appealing.
But you seem keen to remain not as a participant 'observer' but as just a partisan critic in the BU gallery of theatregoers. Are you prepared to sit on the proverbial fence while your store of knowledge remains hidden and selfishly insulated from the possible pool of solutions to the economic crisis facing your dear beloved country?
Why not use that insightfully analytical skills of yours and come up with some options the Minister of Finance can consider for his inevitable date with destiny and make the country pay the economic Pied Piper his due?
Living above your material means without making major alterations to your lifestyle can only result in a date with the devil of destiny called Bankruptcy.
When do you think, Observer, will such a rendezvous occur this year?
PS: We also note how you purposely circumvent the tease made by David (BU) regarding the arrogantly silent indifference of the PM to shed some light on the fiscal and financial adumbration cast by the MoF. Are you going to take the bait and "observe"?
"what sources of paddling do we need to develop:
1. means testing for some social services;
2. Revamping and/or elimination of statutory bodies
3. Reduce energy costs across the economy;"
These "observations" were put on the table for some time now and were blatantly rejected or totally ruled out by both the MoF and PM; and even yourself when you were at a different point of observation before February 21. What has changed in less than 3 months to inform your keen sense of urgency for radical change?
You need to come with some new or different proposals. Or are you now willing to support a programmed of privatization and public sector restructuring (aka manpower rationalisation)?
Don't be afraid to call a spade a spade and call for significant changes like a 50:50 funding arrangement for the UWI, the disbanding of some statutory boards (CBC for example) and the outsourcing of functions aka privatization. What about the sale of majority interests in the air and seaports?
Even your great admirer, ac, is coming around to the idea of jumping on board the bandwagon you seem keen to roll out for hire.
Observer on May 1, 2013 at 2:28 PM said:
well Miller my observation of the $600ml is that the projects are all foreign financed on the one hand and secondly add to foreign exchange earning capacity.
For me the real question will be whether the private players or statutory corporations (with government guarantees) can come through with the finance to execute these projects in a timely manner.
I am and have always been supportive of greater efficiency in delivery of public services.
Miller I must admit to being lukewarm on certain aspects of privatization, though some may become necessary to close the government's financing gap.
Our experience with privatization of major utility type activities ahs not been all that good. We have LIME and BL&P as examples. I worry about ending up with monopoly providers (airport, seaport, sanitation, water) who may not be all that efficient and not very accountable.
To me the privatization push is partly coming from a private sector which instead of seeking out now markets and opportunities are looking for a new, safe, protected, local monopoly type activity to exploit. The state for all its limitations has provided this private sector with first class air and sea links, educated and healthy workforce and law, order and security. Can this sector not innovate and help us out. Miller I am sure you are not on board with providing this new source of largesse for the same old staid private sector.
For me public transport is already largely privatized. There is already a surplus of private providers on the lucrative routes. Will private providers service the rural routes like where I live?
I am in favour of health care, Education, Water and sanitation remaining in public hands, but I am not so sure that the Statutory Corporation model works. You seem to lose the controls of the public service but not gain the efficiencies of a competitive private sector. There has to be a way to exercise greater control over the expenditures of these entities and means testing certain services so the better off can contribute.
@ Well Well | May 1, 2013 at 12:53 PM |
Very informative video into the thinking of our young people. The miller is not surprised at the views expressed. The current generation making up the social and moral rules is just saddled with hypocritical materialistic values.
How can we condemn, penalise and treat as a criminal a young man for smoking a plant that Mother Nature allows to grow freely while enjoying the tax benefits ensuing from the smoking or drinking of the 'by-products' of similar plants Nature has allowed to flourish? Isn't that the "heights" of hypocrisy and "lows" of double standards?
Smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol is morally and legally OK and fiscally most attractive but using marijuana grown locally or imported is a cardinal fiscal sin, morally corrupting and deserving of a criminal record that would be like a millstone around your neck to earn a living in this social cesspool of profound ignorance and bigotry. No wonder the young are laughing at us and preparing for another 1937. This time it would not be the whites instructing the blacks to 'control by any means' the black masses but the black elite giving orders O tempora! O mores! à la société Barbadienne plus faux.
David and Miller we get so many Red Herrings from our interest groups including the private sector. For example, we hear the criticism about the Alternative Energy legislation.
My sources tell me that the legislation being spoken of is really important for those players who want to be Independent Power providers. BL&P cannot be happy about this and must be lobbying hard. I wonder if the government (by this I mean the technocrats as well as the Ministers) is strong enough and informed enough to stand up to the lobbying. As a concerned public we should be putting pressure on our government to defend our interests. At least BREA is trying a thing.
However, my sources also tell me that for those households, businesses and organizations that simply want to cut their energy costs by say installing windmills and/or solar panels, the incentives in BIM are among the best in the world, the legislation is not really an issue and there are some attractive financing packages out there. But its easier to line up behind a political party that promises to return to the good old days of energy subsidies, and some largesse from privatizations than adapt and take advantage of what is on offer.
The paralysis in the face of this great economic challenge comes from many areas of our society.
David on May 1, 2013 at 3:57 PM said:
@Observer
BU is not aware that our system of governance (regulators) accommodates 'lobbyists'? Please expand.
This government has been put back in office and they need to get the job done.
Enuff on May 1, 2013 at 3:29 PM said:
Ohhhh? Do you repay loans with Barbados dollars or generate FOREX from roads?
Well Well on May 1, 2013 at 3:32 PM said:
Unfortunately for these administrations, the young people already know what is best for them and they are fully aware that they will shortly be the ones in control of this earth, unlike our ancestors and some of us who are still alive today, the young generation has recognized this current system for what it really is, and realize that unless they do something change it for their benefit and the benefit of the rest of the world, our future is doomed.
@ Observer | May 1, 2013 at 2:28 PM |
Come on Observer, not even ac is swallowing that baloney of a fudge to impress the impressionable. And we know you don't fall into that category. How can a country with junk bond status attract commercially viable financing for locally engineered and 'back-hand-a-d kickbacks awarded capital works?
Not even your man in charge of the whole Estimates pappy show can come up with ( sorry, adumbrate) with a list of potentially implementable and viable projects to attract Private Partnership interests without obtaining the approval of the credit rating agencies, IDB and IMF prior to issuing letters of comfort and guarantee. As you know these longer-term financial commitments are indeed more than just contingent liabilities but are real debts taken on the balance sheet. Pop goes the weasel as far as the fiscal heart monitor is concerned.
We need to first deal with the Four Seasons fiasco and the Almond Beach confusion before we can even examine any future FDI dreams. You know very well that foreign investors would not be coming up with any forex unless the government cleans up its fiscal act and sheds the excess baggage. Investors are not out there queuing up to invest in Barbados's greatest attraction i.e. tourism. The Sam Lord's Castle refurbishment was a project deemed attractive to foreign investors (and this is an informed observation) but which sadly has gone off the radar because of stupid partisan politics being played out by an myopic administration and less than energetic Opposition.
The only source of funding that Bim can explore with any chance of immediate success is in the area of alternative energy and the green economy where "philanthropic" investors might be prepared to take a risk on a brighter and greener future for this little fallen paradise.
The question is: Does this administration have the political intestinal fortitude the size of the " Piece of the Rock" 'goadies' to 'facilitate' the process is a timely fashion by bringing in the necessary legislation and telling the local vested groups interested in maintaining the fossil-based status quo to go piss in their own fuel oil tanks?
David I never saw yu as naive. Surely BL&P are going to seem to defend their interests in the energy sector. In these areas where major changes are required pressure from the public is a necessary component the world
I thought the pier head, cruise terminal and the lab were the major projects that make up the 600ml in capital projects, and as far as I am aware these are expected to be funded with foreign funds. I was always led to believe that the lab was crucial to any exports of meat products from bim. Roads are shovel ready and do not use much forex (or so I am told)
How can the public join the cry when a communications policy has not been crafted by the government to resonate in a way to make people make the connection? i.e.a shared position. The government needs to disrupt the minds of ordinary citizens from their comfort patterns. So far it has failed.
Miller come on you know that there is very little linkage between The government bond rating and Foreign Direct Investment.
FDI is pouring into Guyana and Suriname with much lower credit ratings than Bim.
David…………..the government's mind is also stuck in a comfort pattern or else they would be preparing the masses for the truth instead of adumbrating nonsense……………lobbyist groups of concerned citizens should now organize to disrupt the delusion that is festering the administration and which the opposition is impotent to acknowledge and voice.
There are currently 59 countries with junk bond status.
http://nationalforex.com/2013/04/21/countries-junk-bond-ratings-standard-poors-fitch-moodys/
I think many of them attract fdi
The guvment is incompetent. We like too much icing and dressing!!
Thanks for this article form Not Taken out of Canada.
Banks should determine who is sending money abroad: tax report
Canadian banks and other financial institutions should be required to find out the beneficial owners of corporations or trusts that are transferring money overseas, according to recommendations in a new report on tax evasion by Parliament's finance committee.
The all-party finance committee reported Wednesday on the results of a lengthy review of tax havens, but the study immediately drew criticism from NDP and Liberal members who said its 11 recommendations are too vague and will do little to halt the tide of money flowing into offshore tax havens.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/banks-should-determine-who-is-sending-money-abroad-tax-report/article11664697/#dashboard/follows/
They have no choice…………the government needs money for programs that will benefit the country, they have big plans and not enough money to get it done, if people are tax dodging, then you get scenarios like Barbados, out 1/4 billion dollars due to delinquency and cannot access the money for social programs.
JUST ASKING on May 1, 2013 at 10:11 PM said:
Somebody on this Blog said that the central Bank Governor should not be walking amongst the Living and something about Astral Projection—LOL LOL LOL–you all people can be cruel !
BAFBFP on May 1, 2013 at 11:00 PM said:
I wish I knew you personally … we would get on just fine …
millertheanunnaki on May 2, 2013 at 7:01 AM said:
That might be so but with the investment money (mainly from China) chasing after commodities and resources to 'fuel' the massive manufacturing plants in the Far and SE Asia.
What does Bim have to attract any FDI floating around and looking for a profitable home? A dying sugarcane industry that the Doctor posing as the MoA is fooling Bajans he is seeking to resuscitate by appealing to the capitalist conscience of the Japanese after making hundreds of millions from selling vehicles and parts to the local market? Where in the current year's Estimates can we find any provision for capital investment in the ICU project to revive agriculture? Is any of the $600 million so earmarked?
BTW, what is the actual production output for the year for the industry on its last legs?
Look, Observer, let us get real and face up to the challenges we are up against instead of all the spin you are trying to pull here. What kind of FDI can Barbados "pull" at this stage? We can't get foreign investors to take on the Four Seasons despite paying millions in finder's fees to a charlatan.
The list of thee 59 countries with junk bond investment labels are either large investment attractive domiciles with great commodities producing potential or with pools of very cheap labour like Bangladesh. Does Barbados have a similar investment profile?
Do we hear you say: "Oh yes, we have a highly educated workforce!"? But educated in what? Skills that are in demand in today's technologically focused world and not mass produced academic certification from the UWI paper qualification mill?
Sorry to ask, Observer, but are you not selling Bim short when you seek to make mediocrity the standard of attainment this country has found itself aiming for despite having some of the most academically qualified and professionally trained persons per square kilometre when compared to those countries with similar junk bond status?
It is rather doubtful if any of those countries on the junk bond list are in the same range as Bim on the UN HDI rating scale. What have we done with our massive investment in our educational and social capital? Where is the ROI to show?
Given what this country has expended in education and in social capital to-date, don't you think we should be 'punching more above our weight' in terms of economic performance and development? Where is our pride and industry? Instead of feeling proud of the junk bond label around our neck and feeling mediocrely at ease with countries we stupidly and arrogantly used to make fun of and laugh at their 'valueless' devalued paper money, shouldn't we be fighting in the same economic weight division as Singapore, Malta and others with social and geophysical profiles fashioned in a crucible of similar modern developmental and political challenges going back to the 60's?
Sorry for the diatribe but you of all people must know that forex in the form of FDI is the economic lifeblood of this nation if the people are to maintain their materialistic opulent lifestyle.
Our commodities exports are gone; tourism is contracting and new investment in this industry is ceding to places in the region like Cuba and even JCA; remittances from returning nationals are drying up as the passing parade led by Father Time takes its toll (God bless "piece of the rock" for a few more solar revolutions); international business in the financial services sector is under tremendous pressures and threats of closure machinated by the OECD vested interest and lobby groups.
The ship called SS Barbados is leaking forex fast and heading for the impecunious shoals of Bimini, what do we do Captain Observer?
What do you see through your telescope as you survey from the masthead the oncoming storm of gloom and doom reported by the messenger many moons ago? And as fate would have it the Emperor and his courtiers conveniently ignored the message and sought to verbally shoot the messenger. Only a child would have the balls to tell the Emperor and his ac-type sycophants the bare truth not to throw the miller overboard but take his grain of truth to heart.
BAFBFP on May 2, 2013 at 8:55 AM said:
To my mind Oby successfully (for me anyway) threw a good dose of optimism into the pot, and you want to douse every shit out …. wah you doing man … Stupse. Optimism is a major ingredient in problem solving. This whole discussion started at the micro level, problems and alternatives and closed out with Macro considerations that hold promise (for me a member of the uninitiated). Wah you trying to be a wet blankety fah nah? Gi' mah somet'ing to hold on to or stay thy tongue good friend ..
David on May 2, 2013 at 9:25 AM said:
A key take away from this discussion so far (at the micro 🙂 ) is that we have to change the way we deliver finance options to the entrepreneur/SME business class.
Well Well on May 2, 2013 at 10:15 AM said:
Unbiased delivery of financing to small businesses will be the trick in such a small knit incestuous society…………..obviously, there will have to be interactions not unlike Carib Export (just an example) of people from other jurisdictions who do are not political yardfowls, hacks or pimps for any one or the other political party and who do not themselves display political ambitions that always somehow finds itself being used where lots of money is concerned to funnel the money in a direction for which it was not intended………..installing people from other jurisdictions other than Barbados, who have no connection to the local political environment, to distribute funds for businesses might be the better idea.
millertheanunnaki on May 2, 2013 at 11:56 AM said:
@ BAFBFP | May 2, 2013 at 8:55 AM
Agree that OPTIMISM is the way forward.
But before we can go there we must ALL admit we have a very serious problem on our hands.
Like the alcoholic person in need of help and recovery we (including ac, CCC and this DLP administration) must first admit we have a problem and a major one at that. We need to stop burying our heads in the sand and living way above our means while our local version of the Titanic sails headlong towards the approaching economic iceberg. There is still time to avoid this pending economic meltdown, you agree BAF?
A serious dose of reality check and frank communication with the people must be immediately forthcoming from our political leaders instead of hiding behind Chinese walls in the ivory pagodas. In short it's time we stop with the lies and cover up and come clean before progress and confidence in the future can be undertaken.
If so then jump on board the flagship SS Enterprise Barbados and stop with the State controlled model. Entrepreneurship and State control of economic activities are anathema to each other.
The longest journey begins with the first or one step .
ac on May 2, 2013 at 1:00 PM said:
One of key factors that influence an econimc is cionfidence a message that when delivers wether by leadership or market indicators is a necessay ingredient in helping the economy move foward . ….All the doom and gloom rhetoric has nothing to offer expect to stiffles and paralyse an already bad situation and stop the foward movement of progress by instilling fear and pessimisim in the minds of many..The govt has already put an 11million stimulus package in the economy which will bring growth and jobs
@ ac | May 2, 2013 at 1:00 PM
"The govt has already put an 11million stimulus package in the economy which will bring growth and jobs"
The more the mother monkey climbs the more she shows her true lying colours. If a $11 million package can do such wonders just imagine what a stimulus package of $90 million could do?
Is this the same ac that only 3 months ago was diametrically opposed to any stimulus package?
But, ac, when are you going to have your cathartic moment and admit that we are facing a very serious economic situation that cannot be blamed on the BLP this time around?
Admit you have been wrong and we can move forward in throwing ideas in the problem-solving mixing bowl to arrive at workable solutions.
Or are you too big-(headed) for such political soul-searching concessions?
Artaxerxes on May 2, 2013 at 4:21 PM said:
These DLP supporters are not willing to admit that the Barbados economy is in trouble, despite the "feel good" agenda they continue to push. This administration has not fully articulated any policies that would restore confidence in those of us who are thinking rationally. Those of us who prefer not to buy into DLP propaganda, but rather critically analyse the situation and call it as it is, are labelled as singers of "doom and gloom". Yet, in no uncertain terms, the Governor of the Central Bank expressed similar views as was being expoused by the Economic Society, ICAB, the private sector, UWI professors, journalist, and many individuals on this blog.
Ironically, during the first four years of their first term in office, this DLP adminiatration masked their constant failures and inability to govern, by blaming the BLP and the prevailing economic crisis, while constantly referring to countries like Greece. If one fully analyses Greece's situation, for years that country was manipulating their national accounting figures, in gain access loans from the international lending agencies. So Greece's situation is somewhat unique.
Imagine, Stephen Lashley defence for his ministries inability to hold secondary school sports, was to blame the BLP for not fixing the stadium, when they had five years to do so.
Coming to the end of the their first term in office, members of this administration became evidently very silent, only to resurface with much vocal vigour during the election campaign. Their silence must be attributed to the fact that Barbadians became tired of the blame the BLP retort, so they had to put up and shut up. Knowing that, now in their second term, they can no more blame the BLP or the recession, they have now gone back to sleep, and their silence has become extremely deafening. The sleeping giant has climbed the bean stalk, to return to his castle in the sky, so he could resume sleeping.
miller are you so daft not to realise that the 11million stimulus is to generate forex for a longer period of time and the b the stimulants are far more reaching than the 90million which would have put hands into barbadians only to generate finance for a shorter period .without little or no long term' or continuous benefits. the consumer shops pays bill' saves' or whatever and that would be the only stimulant derived, Then what ! . The economy needs to move forward towards recovery . The last thing it needs now are band aids and the 90million stimulus is just another gimmick with no realistic goals towards a recovery..
Dr Love on May 2, 2013 at 6:21 PM said:
Are you Frakenstein.?
Stimulus.
Like you can "high Voltage a corpse"
Now I know we are on an island but let at least our thinking and understanding be Universal.
The whole World is on the verge of collapse and Barbados is like the size of one flake of Dandruff on the Worlds skull and of about as much consequence.
We are of NO consequence.
Only to our selves,and we should get to understand that
.As much as our ego may hurt.
WE had a paradise which the greed and corruption of the Governing bodies have dragged into the Mire.
We are UNCLEAN in the eyes of the rest of the World,we are (until we wake up and get real and do some real housecleaning) a HASBEEN, we are now a NON destination.
We have lost our VIRGINAL AURA,and now are touristically veiwed like some old "Mary" once the pride of Nelson street now a little slack and scruffy and DEFINATELY not something to be BOASTED about.
Not exactly an item off the Top Shelf.
How does one stimulate and old slag, a worn out and corrupt creation,when all around is Chaos and a World Economy in tatters,what make up and lipstick and (pussy hair) wigs may we apply to this corpse to "Stimulate "it to make it appear desireable to a Tourist market which has shrunk to a corpse itself..
We seem to take some perverse satisfaction in the fact that Tourists that get shot while shopping in our main city streets in Broad daylight, advertise for the sake of 5 minutes fame.
"That they will come back" and that "they do not hold a grudge"
I read that rubbish and I think "these peope are insane"
so does everybody else I have asked the opinion of.
Barbados is now , a side channel in the ,voyages of the tourist.
Our World image is Shot,
We have no law , we have judges that do as they wish, a DPP that changes the Law as tho he were a Dictator,I do beleive we have a Prime Minister, a SHY individual so I hear, altho this is non verifiable,as there are so few sightings,as to render a true opinion as doubtful.
WE have Murders that are NOT murders, and very GRATEFULL shot visitors.
Raped women,who are so befuddled (in the opinion of the Chief of police) that they do not know one of us from the next.
To put it bluntly
"Barbados is one very Screwed up destination" if it were a person by now it would have been "Committed" toBlackrock Mental.
But to get back to reality, firstly ac, you must FIX the WORLD.before you can fix Barbados.
In Barbados before this is all over ,I beleive the police and others will be shooting rioters in the street and disposing of recalcitrant individuals without as much as a blink..
When this cancer of corruption finally bursts it is going to take us all down with it.
Seethroo Mugabe, at the helm.
Someone who beleives he can just ignore and cover up a stinking dead corrupt corpse and the smell will just go away ,is just the person we need at a time like this.
ac as much as you will refuse to admit it ,there is NOTHING we can do, we are SUBJECT to the ways of the Hurricane,what you are doing it "pissing into the wind" and thats all you will get back.
There is no quick fix or stimulus,.
Yes Lemeual will talk about ILKS and people of.
Alvin will run in with his magic wand and pretty ribbon to put on a jar a magic Bajun 1,000,000,000$ Jam of which we MAYBE can sell millions.
ac as much as it may make you kak your Knickers, we are in real trouble that all the rhetoric, sweet talk and balony in the World will not fix.
About the best we can do to surrvive, is shrink.
Go back to basics. We got all we need to do it,coconuts, green banana, kitchen gardens and Camaraderie.
But will we??
Not a chance in Hell
Barbados now is Corrupt to its very core.
Remember this whole thing got to collapse and disintigrate before it can resurrect.
They talk about man destoying the world, Balony !!
He will only destroy the part that supports him and the World will rollon happily without him.
The happenings in Barbados are only the Micro of the same Makro happenings in the whole World.
Dont look for help, the rest out there do not care about Barbados ,they are still too busy grabbing a bigger share of whats left..
Dr. Love…………….don't hold back, tell me how you really feel………..if what you just said did not wake the readers up, i gotta tell ya, nothing will………..i am sitting in North America watching events unfold, i don't believe people are still pretending to be deaf, dumb, blind and oblivious.
BAFBFP on May 2, 2013 at 8:18 PM said:
With all this mess, why did the two political parties swipe tooth and nail to win the last election …? What is in it for either of them? Surely the problems are insurmountable with the type and level of talent that they have placed before the public … what is in it for either of them? (I foolish fah truf ..)
Baf………..you forgot, the cookie jar…………the piggy bank……………the treasury, i a sure there is still some money lurking somewhere.
That is why pressure must constantly be applied to them cause they wanted the power so badly, they did whatever it took to get there hoping things would get better, let them keep it, but from where I am sitting, it is plain to see that things are getting worse and will continue to worsen over time……………..that is the nature of things right now. Be careful what you ask for cause there is always a chance that you will get it and then don't want it anymore. Ha!
Bush Tea on May 2, 2013 at 8:54 PM said:
Excellent analysis Dr Love.
Yuh got ac speechless….
..now can you see what yuh can do with Well Well fuh we…
Bushy…………you still have not explained the ILO fiasco………..
islandgal246 on May 2, 2013 at 10:23 PM said:
Well Well Bushie is asking you to close yuh mout for a change. Waaait do you talk in your sleep??
ac on May 3, 2013 at 5:06 AM said:
Dr Love and others wunna could keep burning the candle of FEAR. However there are others including ac who keeps burning the candle of HOPE for a better tommorow!
Some people see things and say WHY? While others say WHY NOT.?
Well Well on May 3, 2013 at 9:13 AM said:
AC……………explain this…
http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2013/05/02/cow-down-but-not-out/
Islandgal………………Bushie is just trying to get away from explaining why he misled me about the ILO and shenanigans the little play boys get up to at the ILO conferences they attend overseas at taxpayers expense………..Bushie did not expect the ILO to start exposing everything………..Bushie, i will not go away.
Bushie and Island………..you can't expose some things and keep others hidden……….that is when international agencies come in and expose the rest for you……….are yall not learning anything??

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
U.S. to Give Haiti Extra $100 Million for Transition
May 24, 2004 | English, Nation-Building
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will give Haiti an extra $100 million this year to help the interim government establish democracy after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's ouster in the poor nation, a U.S. official said on Monday.
The United States had already earmarked $60 million for the Caribbean country. Following a deadly revolt that swept Aristide from power, it promised to find extra funding for interim leaders it helped choose to fill the vacuum.
The additional $100 million will help train police, plug the government's budget gap and pay for U.S. advisers to work with Haitian ministries, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in an announcement before a donors' meeting.
"In a lot of different ways, I think this money will contribute to the full return of democracy to Haiti," he said.
Boucher said Canada will host an international donors conference by July 15 for the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, which has a history of coups and autocratic leaders.
The United States came under fire for allowing Aristide's ouster. It sent forces to stabilize the country only after flying him into exile Feb. 29 as rebels closed in on the capital.
After Aristide's fall, and the arrival of a 3,600-strong U.S.-led force, the United Nations (news – web sites) appealed for $35 million in emergency aid. But donors have appeared reluctant to provide the funds.
Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, installed by a U.S.-backed council of prominent Haitians, has not received major long-term pledges to build up the hapless police force, fund the government or prepare for elections in 2005.
The Canadian conference could look at long-term commitments, Boucher said.


text:
Language/Region
ITAM: Optimize Your Data Center Software Spend
Last updated: November 08, 2017 Brent Bluth
ITSM and ITAM
I recently studied the Gartner report titled Redefining IT Asset Management for the Digital Age by analysts Victoria Barber and Roger Williams published March 30, 2017. The report is available for download here.
The authors define what a technology asset is—and what IT asset management (ITAM) is:
"A technology asset is any digital technology that generates business value through the processes it supports by virtue of the information it contains or provides access to. At a high level, the definition of ITAM is very straightforward. The following is Gartner's simplified definition:
IT asset management (ITAM) provides an accurate account of technology asset life cycle costs and risks to maximize the business value of technology strategy, architecture, funding, contractual and sourcing decisions."
Barber and Williams then follow up the definitions with a statement that has particular stopping power:
"This simplification was necessary because the detail and specificity of existing definitions were constraining ITAM. ITAM that manages only 'capitalized hardware and software' no longer makes business sense in a world of virtualization, cloud and IoT. Self-constraining traditional approaches are too narrowly focused to support business needs in an increasingly complex and constantly changing world."
I latched onto the phrase "in a world of virtualization," perhaps because it was just this past May that Ivanti unveiled License Optimizer for Servers that takes Software Asset Management (SAM) into the data center.
The truth is, increasingly complex data center environments compound an organization's spending on software assets. License Optimizer for Servers provides enhanced visibility into the data center. This transparency penetrates layers of virtualization and clustering to enable proper reconciliation and optimized software spend.
You can learn more about License Optimizer for Servers here.
Here's a quick overview of its capabilities:
Discover Data Center Assets – The solution automates the discovery of on-premise hybrid cloud virtualization environments, including VMware, Hyper-V, Oracle VM, and IBM Power Virtualization.
Achieve Vendor-Specific Visibility – IT departments can uncover high-value infrastructure software assets from vendors like Oracle, Microsoft and IBM. The technology performs deep, agentless scans of Microsoft products, including SQL server instances, Active Directory, and SharePoint Servers. The solution also scans for IBM products like DB2, DataStage, and WebSphere, among others, without impacting network performance or overhead.
Realize Asset Dependencies – Customers can better understand their assets and the relationships between applications, databases, virtualization, clusters, and storage. The solution also clarifies which processes are running on servers versus ports, which can help teams more easily identify where problems are stemming from and reduce fix and recovery times.
Simplify the Toolset –  Approximately 50 percent of organizations have 12 or more discovery tools, and 11 percent have more than 30. By offering an integrated solution, License Optimizer for Servers reduces the number of tools required to serve multiple-data use cases and vendors.
Save Time and Resources – Now users can perform discovery with little effort—even in large multi-site data centers with agentless scans across Linux, Unix, and Windows servers. The solution automates the discovery of license versions, editions, installations and usage, and reduces performance impact on the environment—with no need to install additional agents.
Minimize Audit Impact – License Optimizer for Servers takes the guesswork out of asset management by providing verifiably accurate and up-to-date discovery data at any given moment. It encourages a proactive approach to SAM and helps mitigate the risk of vendor audits, which can result in huge penalties.
About Brent Bluth
Brent Bluth has nearly four decades of experience crafting marketing content for high-technology and professional services organizations, including Ivanti, LANDesk, FranklinCovey, and Data General Corp., and is known to share his political and family limericks on social media. He and his wife, Kathleen, have four children and eight grandchildren and make their home in Sandy, Utah, near Salt Lake City.
Posts by Brent Bluth
Top 10 Reasons Service Mapping Can Accelerate your IT Service Management Capabilities
Ivanti Product Update - October 2022
Going All In: Why Customer Zero Is the Ultimate Gift to Your Customers – and Your Own Team


SureCrete's TruCast™ concrete colored hardener is premixed, dry-shake, colored powder concrete hardener. It is used for coloring and hardening freshly placed concrete flatwork to produce an aesthetically pleasing pavement with a surface that is substantially harder and more wear-resistant than regular concrete. This coloring method can be utilized for concrete applications (salt finishes, broom finishes, rotary finishes, etc.), as well as vertical surfaces and other types of architectural concrete.
Extensive quality control measures ensure uniformity of color and virtually eliminate color drifts. SureCrete's dry shake concrete color hardener, a blend of specially selected and grated hard aggregated, architectural cement, plasticizers and synthetic oxide pigment, produces a brilliant, streak-free, non-fading, wear-resistant surface including stamped cement.
Why SureCrete's TruCast™ Concrete Color Hardener?
Our cement color hardener powder pigments have been formulated for better UV stability and longevity than is typically expected out of currently available color hardeners. Color Hardeners can be used to dramatically increase the vibrant color depth of any decorative concrete surface you are working with. Typically associated with stamped concrete projects, the use of dry powder color hardener can be a more cost-effective tinting product to use in lieu of integrally coloring an entire slab.
How Do You Apply SureCrete Color Hardener Topical Powder Tinting?
Color Hardener is hand broadcast evenly to the surface of freshly placed concrete when the concrete reaches the point where no bleed water remains on the surface.
To develop the proper bond and sufficient density, the moisture for wetting the hardener must come from the concrete substrate. SureCrete Color Hardener applied in two shakes, with two-thirds implemented in the first shake and one-third in the second shake (holding back a small amount of touch up work).
After the first shake, the surface floated. Do not trowel between applications.
Apply the second shake perpendicular to the first application in a uniform manner.
Float in and trowel to the final finish desired. Install construction or control joints as soon as possible.
Care should be taken during hard steel troweling to prevent trowel burns, especially at tooled joints and edges.
Coverage Varies wildly based on application method.
Question: How Much Color Hardener Should I Use?
Answer: The generic application method described above is used to achieve the colors listed on the color chart, however this can be varied to get deeper and richer tones as desired.
SureCrete's TruCast™ concrete colored hardener is premixed, dry-shake, colored powder concrete hardener. It is used for coloring and hardening freshly placed concrete flat work to produce an aesthetically pleasing pavement with a surface that is substantially harder and more wear-resistant than regular concrete. This coloring method can be utilized for concrete applications (salt finishes, broom finishes, rotary finishes, etc.), as well as vertical surfaces and other types of architectural concrete.


Maine Central Tracks in the Snow.
Exposed on Fujichrome 100 with an F3T fitted with Nikon 80-200mm lens.
In the heat of summer sometimes it's nice to remember how things are in the winter.
Looking compass south on the Maine Central at Lincoln, Maine in the Winter of 1996.
The trick is exposing so there's some texture in the snow without making the image so dark that the snow appears battleship gray and the shadows become opaque. Controlling flare helps.
A Bit of Colour for the Summer.
I arrived back in Dublin aware that LUAS had a couple of trams working the Red Line in colourful advertising liveries. As I was on the 747 bus passing the city centre from the airport, I noted one of these working its way toward the Docklands.
Although I've been gone a few months, my memory of LUAS timings had the wheels turning in my head as the bus wandered its circuitous path through Dublin's inner city.
By the time the bus arrived a Heuston Station, where it terminates its airport run, I calculated that the brightly coloured Citadis couldn't be more than a few minutes away. So, with my luggage in tow, I marched toward my preferred morning location.
Just then it came into view.
The shade of yellow on the front of the 'Join Me' LUAS tram reminded me of the Portugese multiple units I photographed in April. Lumix LX7 photo.
Thankfully, it made a prolonged stop at Heuston, giving me time to dig out my LX-7 from the camera bag and reset it. I'd last been making multiple exposure HDR images of real 747s at Logan!
Air France 747 at Boston's Logan Airport on the previous evening.
Southern Pacific at Roseville, December 1989.
Tunnel Motor and a Donut Shop.
Trains crossing vast western vistas make for compelling images, yet, back in 1989 I also made an effort to document western railroads in ordinary urban environments.
in December 1989, this Southern Pacific eastward freight was easing up to the east end of Roseville Yard, preparing to depart for its run over Donner Pass. Its EMD diesels with 20-cylinder 645E3 engines pulsed their dynamic sounds of power.
Southern Pacific 8233 at Roseville, California. Exposed on Kodachrome 25 with a Leica M2 with f2.0 50mm lens.
I framed it up in the trees and featured a non-descript donut shop that was part of the scene. Also, I placed my car in the photo. Soon, I was rolling east on I-80, thinking about where to catch the freight on the grade.
Exposed on Kodachrome 25 with a Leica M2 with f2.0 50mm lens.
Southern Pacific's Roseville Yard, February 1990.
Although we weren't expecting it, we caught this BNSF westward freight near Reno Junction and followed it for many miles.
Western Pacific was built by virtue of improved bridge design. Steel tower-supported viaducts, such as this one, allowed for relatively inexpensive construction of very large and tall spans. More than a century later the bridge remains in service.
I opted for this view of the famous Clio Viaduct west of Portola, California, where 11 years earlier, I'd exposed a Kodachrome slide of Union Pacific's Challenger from nearly the same angle.
For this photograph I use my Nikon F3T and Fujichrome slide film.
Personally, I like the bit of glint reflecting off the second locomotive.
Union Pacific's Encina Hill in eastern Oregon on June 12, 1993.
Looking west on the Union Pacific. I exposed this view on Kodachrome 25 with a Nikon F3T fitted with a f1.8 105mm lens. Kodachrome had excellent dynamic range that allowed it to capture detail and color from the brightest highlights to the deepest shadows. Look carefully. Follow the tracks around the bend to the right; a train has passed, but the exhaust from its helpers can still be seen illuminated by the setting sun.
Pleasant Valley siding on Union Pacific's mainline in eastern Oregon is aptly named. I made this image on Kodachrome 25 while traveling with Brian Jennison.
We'd driven up from Nevada to intercept Union Pacific's Challenger, locomotive 3985, that was running trips toward Portland. The weather was excellent and this was a good excuse to photograph this remote but scenic section of heavily traveled steeply graded mainline.
I remember the scent of sage and the wide open skies and the relative quiet; qualities I associate with the great American west.
Tomorrow: BNSF on the Western Pacific!
Colorful Consist Crossing the Connecticut River.
We were waiting for Pan Am Southern's westward empty autorack, train 206. This was just the gravy: Earlier Mike Gardner, Brian Jennison and I, had already had a productive summer's day following the Mass-Central and caught Amtrak's Vermonter in perfect light at Millers Falls.
As we waited for 205, Pan Am's dispatcher routed its eastward counterpart, loaded autorack train 206 (destined for Ayer, Massachusetts), through the yard at East Deerfield to get it around a track gang.
Pan Am Southern train 206 crosses the Connecticut River at East Deerfield, Massachusetts on the evening of July 10, 2014.
This was an unexpected bonus! The train was led by a colorful consist of General Electric diesels. A Union Pacific Evolution-series was up front, followed by a curious former Conrail and/or LMS DASH8-40CW lettered for Canadian National and sublettered for CN's subsidiary Illinois Central. Trailing was a common Norfolk Southern DASH9-40CW.
It's just as well I shot this as a digital image and not as a color slide. I couldn't have fit all this information on the slide mount! (Although I did exposed a frame of black & white film).
We never saw Pan Am's 205 that day.
Nor did we catch the following unit grain train with BNSF locomotives leading. You can't win all the prizes.
Black & White in the Modern Age.
Here are a few views I made with my Rolleiflex Model T of Mass-Central's former Boston & Albany branch on July 10, 2014.
Why black & white? Why film? Why in 2014?
Mass-Central GP38 1751 crosses the Route 32 bridge in Ware, Massachusetts on July 10, 2014. Exposed on Tri-X using a Rolleiflex Model T with Zeiss Tessar lens.
Former Boston & Albany freight house at Gilbertville, Massachusetts along the Mass-Central's Ware River Branch on July 10, 2014. Exposed on Tri-X using a Rolleiflex Model T with Zeiss Tessar lens.
Exposed on Tri-X using a Rolleiflex Model T with Zeiss Tessar lens. The film was processed in Kodak HC110, dilution B (1 part developer to 32 parts water) at 70 degrees F, for 6 minutes using three agitation inversions every 30-60 seconds.
Mass-Central 1751 works north of Gilbertville on July 10, 2014. Exposed on Tri-X using a Rolleiflex Model T with Zeiss Tessar lens.
There's no question, digital photography is easier. If I desire a square black & white image, all I have to do is set my Lumix LX7 to a 1:1 aspect ratio using a switch on the camera, and set the 'photo style' to 'monochrome' using the function button.
This set up procedure takes just a few seconds, and I can switch back to color quickly and easily whenever I choose.
Working with the Rolleiflex is more cumbersome; the camera is klutzy to load, it only makes 12 frames per roll of film, and the film takes about an hour to process in the darkroom (dry to dry). Then I need to cut and sleeve the negatives and then scan them for presentation here.
Yet, I still do this. Not for every photograph, not on every outing, but I still go through the motions of using black & white film.
2) It gives me a subtle 'retro' quality that I can't really get from digital.
3) It allows me visual continuity: I've been making black & white railroad photos since the 1970s. Why stop now?
4) I can still do it: I have the cameras, the film, the darkroom and the skills to get great results.
5) The B&W film medium is known to be archival. I process my film using a two bath fixer, permawash and rinse for 15 minutes in clean running water. They are stored in archival sleeves. Barring the unforeseen, the negatives I processed should still be in good condition for viewing in 50 to 100 years, maybe longer. They will need no extra attention regarding 'back up', except to store them in a safe dry place.
This last point is not true with digital photos. I make three backup copies of every digital image and store them in separate locations, but digital remains an ephemeral media. Hard drives, DVDs and all other existing means of commercially-available digital storage will, in time, go bad. Hard drives can fail, suddenly, completely and without warning. The information will be lost. The photos will vanish. Like the tide coming in on a child's sandcastle, the images in their digital form will be washed away, forever.
Mass-Central at South Barre, Massachusetts. Exposed on Tri-X using a Rolleiflex Model T with Zeiss Tessar lens.
A cropped section of the above photo, enlarged to show detail. One of the flaws with WordPress web media is that images are automatically compressed which lowers the quality for ease of display.
Tomorrow: Colorful consist on a bridge!
On the Old Nickel Plate Road, April 1988.
New General Electric DASH-8s Nose to Nose.
In April 1988, I was exploring locations along Conrail's former New York Central 'Water Level Route' west of Dunkirk, New York. Parallel to this line was the old Nickel Plate Road.
Where the former New York Central Line was a highly engineered grade-level route and crossed the terrain on high earthen fills, Nickel Plate was built to a lighter standard and used plate girder viaducts over the valleys of rivers and streams.
Lighter engineering often results in more interesting photographs.
Exposed on black & white negative film using a Rolleiflex Model T with f3.5 Zeiss Tessar lens. By using a 645 'superslide' insert, I obtained a rectangular negative size instead of the more common square associated with the Rollei T. This gave me a more conventional photographic aspect. In retrospect, I've found that I prefer Rollei photos made in the square format.
I caught this Norfolk Southern freight working toward Buffalo over a tower-supported plate-girder trestle near Westfield, New York.
At the time, Norfolk Southern had recently purchased a fleet of General Electric C39-8s and tended to work these long hood first. I found this arrangement fascinating and so I made a variety of images of the big GE diesels working 'hammer head' style.
I exposed this image using a Rolleiflex Model T with fixed f3.5 Zeiss Tessar lens.
Twenty-eight years ago I made this photo. It was the day after Conrail began single-tracking the Boston & Albany route. On July 21, 1986, track forces had cut in CP83 at Palmer, and CP92 in Springfield, removing the old number 1 (westward) track from service.
The remains of the second diamond crossing with Central Vermont are in the foreground. A westward empty autorack is taking the new switch at CP83 in front of the Palmer Union Station.
Palmer to South Barre, Massachusetts.
Trying to see the railroad differently; I've been photographing the former Boston & Albany Ware River branch for more than 30 years, so finding new angles is a bit of a challenge.
On July 10, 2014, I met Mike Gardner, Paul Goewey and Brian Jennison in Palmer with the expressed goal of following Mass-Central's daily freight northbound.
It was a bright morning following a night of heavy rain and mist still clung to the valleys. Mass-Central was working with GP38 1751, one of two locomotives acquired last year and custom painted into a variation of the 1950s-era Boston & Maine 'Bluebird' livery.
Thorndike, Masschusetts on the morning of July 10, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo.
After the train passed Thorndike, (a few miles from Palmer yard), it slowed to a craw then stopped unexpectedly. Trees had fallen on the line. This delayed it while crews cut the trees with chain saws. In the mean time, Paul showed me an angle near Forest Lake that I'd never seen before.
Track speed on the line is a casual 10 mph. The trick isn't trying to keep up with the train, it's trying to stay focused on the subject. In addition to the slow running, Mass-Central spends a lot of time switching freight cars, and often in places that aren't conducive to summer-time photography.
A plow warning signal near a crossing at Forest Lake. Mass-Central still retains many of these simple steam-era signals. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.
Mass-Central at Forest Lake where the water is covered with lilly pads and other growth. Thanks to Paul Goewey for showing me this angle. Canon EOS 7D with 20mm lens.
Where? Ware. That's right. Mass-Central 1751 crosses the old bridge over Route 32. Lumix LX7 photo.
The Whistle Stop at Gilbertville was closed so I opted to feature the station building that is often blocked with cars. Canon EOS 7D with 20mm lens.
Or, for an alternate view. . . .
Pastoral scene near Barre Plains. Canon EOS 7D with 20mm lens.
South Barre is as far as the Mass-Central goes. Beyond that the old B&A branch is abandoned. Having done well with the northward run, we opted for lunch, then moved on to other lines.
I worked with three cameras; my Lumix LX7 and Canon 7D, plus my old Rolleiflex Model T. (This isn't the same old Rollei, that I used back in the 1980s, but one similar to it.) Unfortunately, it wasn't functioning perfectly in the morning, and I missed a few photos before I got it working. Now, to process the film!
South Barre, where Mass-Central reaches the old mills by way of a spur that crosses Route 32. Lumix LX7 photo.
On evening July 2, 2014, my brother Sean and I returned to Overbrook. I wanted to get there a bit earlier to focus on SEPTA's electric locomotive-hauled rush hour services, including the named 'Great Valley Flyer.' Also, I wished to feature the signaling more closely. Those vintage Pennsylvania Railroad position lights won't be around forever.
The lighting was more diffused than the previous day, but this offered different opportunities.
SEPTA Silverliners meet at Overbrook on July 2, 2014. Here we have a classic view that features the trains, the railway station and ornate passenger shelters, plus SEPTA's connecting bus. If every town could only be as fortunate as Overbrook! Lumix LX7 photo.
SEPTA's Great Valley Flyer crosses over at Overbrook. Pat Yough had warned me of this in advance, so I was prepared. Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.
Only a handful of SEPTA's suburban trains run with electric locomotives; most are EMUs. Canon EOS 7D photo.
SEPTA's Great Valley Flyer, one of the system's few named trains. What other modern commuter operators have named suburban services? I wanted to feature the train passing the tower.
SEPTA's Great Valley Flyer doesn't serve Overbrook. Lumix LX7.
Often it helps to revisit locations several days in a row. Becoming more familiar with a place, helps to find different ways to photograph it.
Yet, with familiarity comes the risk of complacency. When a subject becomes so familiar that you stop seeing it in new ways, have you lost the edge? Is finding a new place the best time to make a photo, or at least perceive an opportunity?
Overbrook is hardly a new place for me, yet it is also one I've yet to master.
Rule 290, Restricting, displayed in classic Pennsylvania Railroad fashion using a reverse diagonal row of lights on the second head.
An inbound train approaches Overbrook. I was happy to catch a train with a restricting aspect displayed on the opposite signal. Canon EOS 7D photo.
Minutes later an express train zips through Overbrook on track 2. Notice the signal on the far side of the tracks has cleared to 'Approach'. Canon EOS 7D photo.
One last view. This outbound express tends to run with a locomotive hauled consist. I positioned myself to feature the locomotive and the tower. Lumix LX7 photo.
SEPTA at Sunset, Neshaminy Falls – Tracking the Light Daily Post.
Overbrook retains much of its Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line heritage. Not only is it a surviving portion of four track line, but it retains an active tower, traditional PRR position light signaling, plus its old station buildings and historic signage.
Outbound SEPTA Silverliner V approaches Overbrook on a sunny evening, July 1, 2014. All the elements are here, but what is the best way to put them together in a dynamic image? Can one photo really do Overbrook justice? Canon EOS 7D photo with 100mm lens.
It remains a busy place with a regular interval SEPTA suburban service and Amtrak Keystone trains.
Curiously, it features track-work dating to an earlier era of railroad engineering. It is located on a sweeping curve with a full set of crossovers set in and around the station and low-level platforms.
Without getting into a detailed discussion on modern railroad engineering, let me just say, that there's no way an interlocking and station would be situated like this today.
Looking west on the Main Line: The interlocking at Overbrook is a vestige of steam-era railroad engineering. Today railroads wouldn't consider placing crossovers on curve in the middle of a busy station with low level platforms. Note the signal displaying 'Restricting' with a classic PRR aspect. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens. July 1, 2014.
Yet, for all this historic railroad interest, Overbrook is a challenging place to make photographs. The curvature which adds so much character to the place, also makes it difficult to find a satisfactory photographic angle. While there is lots of antique infrastructure, it's hard to find way to include it in balanced compositions.
Further difficulties are caused by nearby trees and a large overhead arched bridge that cast shadows on the line.
On successive evenings, July 1st and July 2nd, 2014, my brother Sean and I visited Overbrook to watch the evening parade of trains. Working with my Lumix LX-7 and Canon EOS 7D, I exposed images from a variety of angles. I was particular interested in featuring the old Pennsylvania signaling.
A vintage PRR position light signal (designed by A.H. Rudd) displays 'Approach Medium'. This signal is controlled by Overbrook tower, one of several classic interlocking towers on the Main Line in suburban Philadelphia. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.
Outbound SEPTA local at Overbrook catches the evening sun on July 1, 2014. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.
Why make one photo when you can snap away! Which do you like better? The closer image or the distant one?
SEPTA logo catches the evening glint at Overbrook on July 1, 2014. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.
Sean Solomon checks the SEPTA app on his iPhone.
An inbound SEPTA local pauses at Overbrook station. The shiny silver train makes for a dynamic subject, but does this convey the spirit of Overbrook? Lumix LX-7 photo on July 1, 2014.
An eastward Amtrak Keystone passes Overbrook Tower. The signal displays Approach Medium. Canon EOS 7D photo.
Cab car trailing. Remember the Metroliner? Long gone, but the cab cars survive—for now.
An outbound Silverliner IV accelerates away from Overbrook after 8pm on July 1, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo.
Tomorrow, Happy Birthday to Tracking the Light!
Overbrook Part II to follow.
Amtrak Keystone Catches the Sun at Wayne.
The Last Twinkle of Glint.
On June 30, 2014, Pat Yough and I arrived at SEPTA's Wayne Station minutes before sunset. We'd already spent a productive afternoon and evening catching the evening rush-hour on the former Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line.
I was interested by the 'around the corner' light effect west of Wayne. The nearest eastward SEPTA train was half an hour away. Thankfully, this Amtrak Keystone arrived before the sunset.
Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens set at ISO 400, f9 at 1/500th of a second. White balance set to 'daylight' to avoid allowing the camera to balance for sunset conditions which would have minimized the reddish-orange effect of sunset.
For this image, I've cropped the leading former Metroliner cab car, and focused on the trailing AEM-7 and Amfleet coaches. The AEM-7s are running on borrowed time and I was happy to make this simple graphic image of one of the old electrics.
Calculating exposure wasn't easy. My initial guess for exposure was about a stop too bright. I manually dialed the f-stop downward as the train entered the frame and the glinting sun reflected back towards me.
I've made many images like this on slide film. Kodachrome was a particular good means of capturing the glint effect. Its combination of a black & white film base (using a traditional silver halide grain structure) plus a wide exposure latitude tended to produce excellent results.
This day, Pat exposed a slide on Fujichrome, but I was limited to using my digital cameras.
Tracking the Light Daily Post: SEPTA at Bryn Mawr.
It was a bright afternoon on June 30, 2014, when Pat Yough & I arrived at Bryn Mawr. We'd been photographing the former Pennsylvania Main Line west of Philadelphia.
Bryn Mawr is a Welsh name. Pronunciation is tricky. It's a great place to photograph the evening rush hour. The station is relatively open. The tracks come up a slight ascending grade, and since there's a set of crossovers, there's no fences between tracks that make for unobstructed images of westward trains.
SEPTA AEM-7 2302 leads an outbound rush hour stopping train at Bryn Mawr on June 30, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo.
Panned view of SEPTA AEM-7 2302 westbound at Bryn Mawr on June 30, 2014. Lumix LX7 view.
SEPTA Silverliner Vs approach Bryn Mawr on June 30, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo.
To the west of the station is the old Pennsylvania Railroad interlocking tower. It's in sad shape, but survives as a reminder of the old order.
We spent about an hour here in nice light before working further west.
SEPTA Silverliner Vs catch the glint at Bryn Mawr on June 30, 2014.
Close-up of SEPTA Silverliner Vs at Bryn Mawr on June 30, 2014. Canon EOS 7D photo with 200mm lens.
SEPTA Silverliner Vs depart Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on the evening of June 30, 2014. Canon EOS 7D photo with 200mm lens.
Not as long as it used to be.
NJ Transit's Dinky approaches Princeton Junction on June 30, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo.
There's something fascinating about a branch line. A single meandering track, often built for the single purpose of linking an important town or industry with the mainline. Branch lines are simple railroads; light appendages; feeder lines.
Once upon a time branch line passenger trains were part of the fabric of American transportation. A single engine and coach might traverse the line several times daily to meet through trains on the mainline. The conductor on the branch was a friendly chap who may have worked the line for years.
Mainline conductor directs passengers to the Dinky at Princeton Junction on June 29, 2014. Canon EOS 7D with 200 mm lens.
The Dinky arrives at Princeton Junction on June 29, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo.
Take spin, it isn't very far.
View from the Dinky towards a Trenton-bound train on the mainline. Lumix LX7 photo.
Princeton Junction on June 30, 2014.
New Jersey Transit's Princeton Branch is the shortest regular scheduled branch passenger train in the United States. A pair of electric EMU's scuttle back and forth on the train to connect with the Northeast Corridor at Princeton Junction.
Until a few months ago, the branch served a handsome old station in Princeton. But the ever wise transportation visionaries decided this was too good to continue and forced a trimming of the line, moving its terminus further from downtown. It's an old story, new again.
End of track near Princeton. The short branch was made even shorter. Exposed with a Lumix LX7 on June 30, 2014.
Someone said something about it being cheaper to run a bus? Better than an electric train?
Might the Princeton Dinky join the hundreds of other branch American services that once dotted the pages of the official guide? There's always that nefarious illusion of 'progress' often offered as the explanation for ill-minded change.
Smiles at Princeton Junction on June 29, 2014.
Princeton Junction, New Jersey, June 29, 2014.
Views on the Long Tangent.
The former Pennsylvania Railroad at Princeton Junction is on an exceptionally long level tangent and on fast track. A headlight appears as a twinkle. Minutes pass. The rails begin to sing and the catenary starts to resonate. Then a train blasts by at more than 100 mph!
Amtrak's Acele Express blasts through Princeton Junction at more than 100mph. Exposed with a Lumix LX-7.
It was here that my father captured the United Aircraft TurboTrain on trial at speed back in the 1960s.
Princeton Junction is also where you can switch to the 'Dinky', which traverses NJ Transit's shortest branch (recently made even shorter) to Princeton.
Old Pennsylvania Railroad position light signals (modified with color aspects) remain standard on the Northeast Corridor. Exposed using a Canon 7D with 200mm lens.
On the evening of June 29, 2014, an Amtrak Keystone train approaches Princeton Junction. The old PRR tower is on the right. An eastbound Keystone from Harrisburg was bearing down at the same time. The two trains passed at the station with a closing speed of more than 200 mph!
Think fast and act faster; I had only a few moments to turn around and catch this running meet between Amtrak Keystone trains. Both are moving at more than 100 mph!
An NJ Transit train from New York Penn Station pauses on the platform at Princeton Junction. Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.
An eastbound New Jersey Transit train from Trenton glides toward Princeton Junction. Since track 1 is out of service, passenger will board from platform extensions to track 2. The fading light of this June evening made for an atmospheric image on the busy North East Corridor. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.
Tomorrow, Tracking the Light takes a spin on the Dinky!
Print of George W. Kowanski made by Richard Jay Solomon from a digital file that I exposed one year earlier to the day.
On the first anniversary of his final run, retired locomotive engineer George W. Kowanski holds a photo that I made of him in front of his locomotive at Grand Central Terminal minutes before he took the throttle for the last time.
New York Penn-Station, June 2014.
Once upon a time, long long ago, Pennsylvania Railroad's New York City terminal was among the world's greatest railway stations.
Its architecturally enlightened design cleverly blended classical motifs and modern engineering on a colossal scale. Electrified lines brought long distance trains directly into the station. It was beautiful and functional.
Fifty one years ago the wrecking balls put an end to the fairy tale. Although, from what I'm told, in its last years the old Penn-Station was a tired, tatty vestige of its earlier days. Yet, New Yorkers were justly disgusted when the Pennsylvania Railroad ruined its once-glorious gateway to the city.
Madison Square Garden, which as someone famously pointed out, is neither! Pennsylvania Station is below.
In its place, PRR built the present uninspired maze of passageways and escalators. I find it more confusing than Heathrow Airport. It looks something like mall, feels a bit like an overgrown bus terminal, and seems to have very little to do with railways until you descend into its bowels to hastily board a train.
In June, I decided I'd try to make some photos of the place. After all, it is Amtrak's busiest station, thus noteworthy.
Philadelphia you say? I'll give it a shot!
Penn-Station was mobbed with railway passengers, all trying to get someplace.
Brass railings, a vestige of earlier times. Drop down into the roar and odors that characterize New York Penn-Station and board a train for New Jersey! (That's what I did).
One of the World's Shortest Subway Routes.
Lumix LX-7 photo at Grand Central of the New York City Transit Authority's Times Square Shuttle.
I was making my way from Grand Central toward Penn-Station and took a few minutes to photograph New York City's famous Times Square Shuttle using a Lumix LX-7.
Although I've been making subterranean photos since the 1970s, I find that the digital photographic medium makes the process much easier, and my results generally are better.
In the 1990s, I made many New York City subway photos using a Nikon F3T with Ektachrome 200 and various filter combinations to compensate for artificial light conditions.
Calculating exposure was difficult, and despite the filtration my color balance was never 100 percent.
For these images, I set the camera for 400 ISO, selected the 'A'-mode (Aperture priority) and set the aperture to f2.0, dialed in +1/3 exposure compensation (my standard override for interior photos), and allowed the camera's auto-white balance take care of the artificial light.
New York subway's tiled signs are a vestige of another era. After leaving the Times Square Shuttle I made my way to a change of trains to bring me south to 34th Street.
Tribute to the Golden Age of American Railroads.
America's most famous station, New York Central's crown jewel, and in 2014, a great place to photograph; that's Grand Central Terminal. It was also my gateway to Manhattan in late June.
I'd taken Metro-North from New Haven.
When I arrived, I had a few minutes to re-explore the station and make a few photographs. I wasn't alone in that regard. It seemed like everywhere I turned there were people aiming iPhones, or staring through the viewfinder of cameras.
The vast space of Grand Central's main concourse with its trademark information desk and celestial ceiling makes for a compelling urban scene. It's makes for complete contrast to New York Penn-Station's maze of uninspired passageways that looks more like a run-down 1970s-era shopping mall or bus terminal. I was heading there next, by subway.
Grand Central Terminal in the 1920s, before tall buildings blocked out the light.
Tracking the Light Mystery Photo!
(if you're viewing via Facebook, you'll need to click to see the whole image).
Leave a comment (comments feature is toward the bottom of the post) if you think you know the location of the photo (be as specific as you dare). If you are really clever, you can include the approximate date of exposure! Or you may wonder in silence.
I've deliberately left in several visual cues that should make this something less than impossible to identify. Here's a tip: it's not in Germany! (or Ireland!) 🙂 Another tip? Something useful? Reminds me of a comic.
Powell and Mason Car on Columbus Avenue.
Cable Car on Columbus, exposed on Kodachrome in 1994.
This isn't your typical cable car image. Where photographers, myself included, have often focused on San Francisco's exceptionally steep hills, where cars appear to cling precariously to tracks, instead I've tried to make the most of one of more level sections of the cable car system.
I exposed this on Kodachrome 25 this using my old Nikormat FT3 with a secondhand Tokina 400mm lens.
This exceptionally long telephoto was very sharp but had very shallow depth of field. I used this quality to set background highway traffic, include some MUNI Trolley buses, out of focus, thus helping the viewer concentrate on the main subject—the famous cable car.
Although a simple image, there's a lot to see in it. Despite my use of selective focus, the path of the cable car track (with its trademark central conduit) leads the eye beyond the car and around the corner toward Powell Street.
Aiding my effort was the rich afternoon sun for which San Francisco is often blessed. There's an exceptionally pleasant quality to Bay Area sunshine that is best experienced in person, but has made for a great many photographic opportunities. I miss that quality of light when I'm not there!
Tracking the Light Daily Post: Mixed Pair at Ennis, County Clare.
By this date it was unusual to find pairs of small GMs working passenger trains in Ireland. Mixed pairs (dual-cab 141/181s and single-cab class 121s) were even stranger, but not unheard of.
I was in position on the platform at Ennis to catch the arrival of this Gaelic Athletic League special that ran with 134 and 163 and a set of Mark II carriages. The crew wasted little time in running around the train in preparation for returning the empty train to Limerick.
Exposed on Fujichrome Sensia 100 with a Contax G2 Rangefinder fitted with a 28mm Zeiss Biogon lens.
I had only a few minutes to make this image of the locomotives on the Limerick-end of the train before it departed. If you look carefully, you can set a shunter coupling the locomotives to the carriages.
I've always like the effect of dusk in this image. For me it serves as both a graphic and a symbolic role. However, I'm not completely satisfied with the composition. The orange cone in the foreground is distracting and the radio mast at the far right annoys me.
As I recall, I didn't have time to refine my angles. Before I could relocate, the driver sounded the horn, throttled up and was on his way!
Back in the 1980s, I'd buy my film at Frantek in South Hadley, and then return via Holyoke, where I'd almost always find the Boston & Maine switching. Back then the old Connecticut River line was busy with through and local trains.
On a typical day, there would be between three and four freights daily, plus the nocturnal Amtrak Montrealer.
Holyoke itself generated a fair amount of traffic, and the yard there was always full of cars. Pioneer Valley Railroad interchanged with B&M at the south end of the yard. During the day it wasn't uncommon to find one of PVRR's EMC SW1s or Alcos working Holyoke industrial trackage.
The old Boston & Maine station at Holyoke, one of a handful of surviving railroad stations designed by noted architect H.H. Richardson (also responsible for the station in Palmer, Massachusetts, which is routinely featured in Tracking the Light.) Canon EOS 7D photo.
Vestiges of Holyoke Yard on June 22, 2014. Canon EOS 7D photo.
Old mill buildings on the canal in Holyoke. All quiet on a Sunday morning. Lumix LX-7 photo.
Lyman Street in Holyoke on Sunday June 22, 2014. Lumix LX-7 photo.
Pan Am's EDPL crossing a canal bridge in Holyoke on June 22, 2014.
Pan Am's EDPL crossing a canal bridge in Holyoke on June 22, 2014. Lumix LX-7 photo.
Sunday, June 22, 2014, I revisited Holyoke. The railway scene is very much changed from the 1980s. Most of the yard is gone, as are the majority of the customers it once served. The Montrealer hasn't operated in decades, and the volume of mainline freight is now carried by Pan Am Railway's lone symbol freights EDPL/PLED (East Deerfield, Massachusetts to Plainville, Connecticut).
Now, Holyoke is on the eve of rail revival. It will soon host a new station for the Knowledge Corridor, and in a few months time will be a stop on Amtrak's re-routed Vermonter. Hopefully, an increase in freight traffic will soon follow.
The old mills and factories in Holyoke make for a fascinating post-industrial setting.
Holyoke City Hall rises above a sea of red brick. Canon EOS 7D photo.
TRACKING THE LIGHT DAILY POST: Pan Am and the Post Office.
American Scene: Sunday June 22, 2014.
North Hatfield, Massachusetts on the Connecticut River Line. Lumix LX-7 photo.
I wonder how much longer small town post offices like this one at North Hatfield, Massachusetts will survive.
On Sunday June 22, 2014, it offered a classic setting for Pan Am's southward EDPL (East Deerfield, Massachusetts to Plainville, Connecticut).
I'm always looking ahead. Nothing is static. What may soon change? What common every day scene will soon pass into history?
North Hatfield, Massachusetts on the Connecticut River Line.
Running Numbers; Springfield, Massachusetts on a Sunday Morning.
Amtrak train 145 with Memorial Bridge.
Most Amtrak trains working the line between New Haven, Connecticut and Springfield, Massachusetts consist of two-car push-pull shuttle sets with a GE P42 at one end and a former Budd Metroliner cab car at the other. The exceptions include the daily Washington-St. Albans Vermonter and some weekend services.
On the morning of June 22, 2014, Amtrak P42 150 leading train 145 on the former New Haven Railroad at Springfield, Massachusetts passes below Memorial Bridge. Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D fitted with a 200mm lens.
On the morning of June 22, 2014, Amtrak P42 150 leading train 145 on the former New Haven Railroad at Springfield, Massachusetts. Memorial Bridge spans the Connecticut River between Springfield and West Springfield. Exposed with a Lumix LX-7.
Train 145 is a relatively new service that runs Sunday only from Springfield to Lynchburg, Virginia. Photographically, it offers an opportunity to feature a P42 leading a relatively long train in nice morning light on the former New Haven line south of Springfield.
Lets talk about hardware and software for a minute. What?Why?
I mention this because I've found in my years of writing about railways, a majority of people have never considered the significance of train numbers versus equipment numbers.
This may seem pedantic, but it is an important distinction.
A train is a service, while locomotives, passenger cars and multiple units are equipment. Take these photos for example: we have Amtrak P42 number 150, leading train 145. The locomotive number solely specifically identifies that individual piece of hardware; while the train number identifies the service.
Locomotive 150 only operated on train 145 as far as New Haven, where was replaced by an electric for the run to Washington (there another diesel took over for remainder of the trip to Lynchburg). Interestingly, later in the day I caught engine 150 again, this time leading train 54, the northward Vermonter.
Being There; Don't Hate Me for My Luck!
Palmer, Massachusetts, June 22, 2014.
Sunday, June 22, 2014 confirmed Mike's wisdom. I'd headed to Palmer to meet my frient Tim Doherty. Before leaving the house, I searched in vain for my scanner, but departed without it. I was coasting on intuition.
Moments after stepping out of the car at CP83 in Palmer (where CSX crosses New England Central) to say 'hello' to Tim, I heard, above the dull roar of road traffic, the distinct sounds of eastbound train's dynamic brakes.
I said to Tim, 'There's an eastbound train, and it's very close.' I flicked on the Lumix LX7 that was hanging around my neck and stepped promptly toward my preferred trackside location at CP83. As I did, I heard the lead axles of a six-motor GE rattling across the New England Central diamond a few hundred feet to my west.
I had just enough time to set the exposure and frame up a nice view of CSX Q012 passing CP83's signals with the old Palmer Union Station (now the Steaming Tender Restaurant) to the left of the old Boston & Albany mainline.
Eastbound in the morning sun. CSX's Q012 has a clear signal at CP83 in Palmer, Massachusetts. Total elapsed time from my arrival in Palmer to the passage of this freight? Less than 2 minutes.
The Lumix Lx-7 cycles relatively quickly, so I was able to make a second grab shot, just a few moments after the first.
There's a 30 mph speed restriction on the diamond for freight. As the train rolled through, I said, 'we can catch this again.' And, off we went on the first of a long-day's railway photography adventures.
I knew this because CSX's signals at CP83 are approach-lit, and only light when something has actuated the track circuits between CP83 and CP79 (located at the east-end of the controlled siding). Also, when a signal has been cleared, a train must close.
Again, we had just enough time to get in position for photography.
Not having time to waste more than a moment in conversation, I replied, 'Yes, a westbound is very close. Less than four minutes away.' A headlight appeared to the east as I made the comment.
"How did you know that?" The diners asked, as if I possessed some blind precognition. "The signal shows 'clear' for the main track," was my honest reply, but I may as well answered in ancient Greek.
What's this? A westward piggyback train in the afternoon? On a Sunday? I'm not one to argue, but I was surprised to see it. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.
Customers at the Steaming Tender wave to the passing freight. Lumix LX-7 photo.
A tight view of CSX Evolution-series diesels rolling toward the Palmer diamond on the evening of Sunday June 22, 2014. Lumix LX-7 photo.
My luck?—Being in the right place at the precisely the right times. However, I made my own luck. By keeping my ears open and my eyes on the signals, I knew to act quickly. Stop, look and listen, right? There's no mystery there.
Fresh Paint on the Eve of Merger—July 1, 1994.
It was a fresh clear morning in Oregon. I was photographing along the Oregon Trunk on advice of Brian Rutherford. This route was jointly used by Burlington Northern and Union Pacific and traversed some stunning scenery.
Having hiked into a choice location in Trout Creek Canyon, I was rewarded with a Burlington Northern grain train in nice light.
I was impressed by the solid consist of freshly painted company hoppers.
Kodachrome 25 exposed with a Nikon F3T with 28mm lens.
The next day, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe announced merger. Although a year of merger machinations and approval processes would entail before BN+SF was consummated, it was the end of an era for BN (and Santa Fe).
For more on railroad mergers see my book North American Railroad Family Trees available from Voyageur Press.


text:
Movie Choices
Vancouver Week in Widescreen: Outdoor movies and film noir
by Staff on August 3rd, 2017 at 9:13 AM
FILM NOIR The Cinematheque is back at it with this latest celebration of American cinema at its seamy and stylish best. A musical "courtyard wingding" serves as the official opening for this year's film noir series on Thursday (August 3), followed by screenings of Double Indemnity and (the Sam Fuller–penned) Night Editor. Look for The Maltese Falcon, Kiss Me Deadly, and Gun Crazy in the coming weeks.
THE BLACKCOAT'S DAUGHTER Directed by Oz (son of Tony) Perkins, this highly praised thriller comes to the Vancity Theatre for two nights, on Friday and Sunday (August 4 and 6).
Video of The Blackcoat's Daughter | Official Trailer HD | A24
LES BONS DEBARRAS The tale of a 13-year-old hellion bent on keeping mom all to herself, one of the all-time classics of Canadian film gets a free screening at the Cinematheque on Wednesday (August 9).
CINEMA IN THE PARK The Harmony Arts Festival brings a series of outdoor screenings to the West Vancouver Community Foundation Stage in John Lawson Park, starting on Friday (August 4) with Hidden Figures, followed by E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (August 5), Zootopia (August 6), From Russia With Love (August 7), Jurassic Park (August 8), and In the Heat of the Night (August 9).
Video of Hidden Figures | Teaser Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX


This is a bugfix from the last update (8). If you noticed you can not save an ellipse. You can paint them and modify them but there was no chance to persist them.
With this patch you will be able to do this!
So check out the latest version of the JavaFx-3d-Editor.


text:
{-# LANGUAGE TemplateHaskell, OverloadedStrings #-}
module Monto.DiscoverRequest where

import           Data.Aeson.TH

import           Monto.Types

data ServiceDiscover =
  ServiceDiscover
    { serviceID :: Maybe ServiceID
    , language  :: Maybe Language
    , product   :: Maybe Product
    } deriving (Eq)
$(deriveJSON (defaultOptions {
  fieldLabelModifier = \s -> case s of
    "serviceID" -> "service_id"
    label -> label
}) ''ServiceDiscover)

instance Show ServiceDiscover where
  show (ServiceDiscover s l p) =
    concat [ "{", show s
           , ",", show l
           , ",", show p
           , "}"
           ]

data DiscoverRequest =
  DiscoverRequest
    { discoverServices :: [ServiceDiscover]
    } deriving (Eq)
$(deriveJSON (defaultOptions {
  fieldLabelModifier = \s -> case s of
    "discoverServices" -> "discover_services"
    label -> label
}) ''DiscoverRequest)

instance Show DiscoverRequest where
  show (DiscoverRequest s) =
    concat [ "{", show s
           , "}"
           ]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Patriots outlast Wildcats, 42-39
Wilson's triple with 1.2 seconds left seals the deal
By Ben Stroup - [email protected]
Olentangy Liberty's Addison Bailey (13) lofts a shot over Newark's Steele Meister during the first half of Wednesday's non-league showdown in Powell.
Ben Stroup | The Gazette
Matt Wilson hit five three-pointers, including an ice-cold triple with 1.2 seconds left to lift the Olentangy Liberty boys basketball team to a thrilling 42-39 non-league win over visiting Newark Wednesday night in Powell.
The Patriots, thanks in large part to their defense, led 14-8 after a quarter, 20-14 at the break and 29-24 heading into the fourth. They didn't allow a point until midway through the opening quarter and led 12-4 after Wilson cashed in on back-to-back three-pointers.
Newark's Grant Burkholder beat the first-quarter buzzer to make it a 14-8 game, but Liberty, thanks to buckets for Nick Metzger and Alex Okuley, jumped out to an 18-8 edge early in the second. Again, the Wildcats didn't score until Newark's Steele Meister converted a three-point play with 4:22 left in the half, and they trailed 22-14 before Burkholder sank a floater at the 4:03 mark of the third.
The Wildcats managed to claw all the way back in the fourth. Ethan Stare opened the quarter with a three to cut the deficit to two and, after Wilson hit a three and James Hummell cashed in on a couple free throws, Newark used an 8-0 run to storm in front.
The Wildcats still led, 37-34, with 2:41 left, but a Hummell layin cut it to one before a Jackson Mikola block and pin-point outlet pass turned into a three-point play the hard way from Hummell.
Newark's Austin Rose tied it at 39 with 1:47 left, setting up the final sequence. After dribbling out most of the clock, Wilson drilled the game-winner from the wing in the final seconds. Okuley then stole the ensuing in-bound pass to put the finishing touches on the win.
Wilson finished with a game-high 17 points while Hummell added 11 and Okuley finished with eight.
Burkholder (13 points), Meister (12 points) and Stare (nine points) shouldered most of the scoring load for the Wildcats.
Olentangy Berlin 69, New Albany 53
The Bears used a dominant second quarter to pull away and a were solid down the stretch, outscoring the visiting Eagles 19-13 in the fourth quarter to notch a non-league win Wednesday night in Delaware.
Berlin, which trailed by a point after a competitive opening quarter, outscored New Albany 18-7 in the second to take control.
Mathios Abenet led the Bears with 25 points while Sam Dunn had 25 of his own to pace the Eagles.
Defiance 49, Olentangy 44
Harrison Ronnebaum had a huge sequence late, coming up with a steal before driving the length of the floor and converting a three-point play to pull the Braves within three with 2:20 left, but the host Bulldogs slammed the door from there to collect a win in the semifinals of the inaugural Grube Family Holiday Classic Wednesday at Defiance.
Defiance sealed the deal at the free-throw line as Bradyn Shaw went 8-f0r-10 in the final 1:37.
Ella Hazelrigg calmly connected on a pair of clutch free throws with 14 seconds left to lift visiting Buckeye Valley to a 32-31 non-league win over Graham Wednesday in St. Paris.
Hazelrigg led the Barons with 12 points while Emily Huston and Molly Meier chipped in 10 and nine, respectively.
BV, which improved to 7-2, outscored Graham in each of the first three quarters before holding on late.
https://www.delgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2022/12/web1_IMG_8963-2.jpgOlentangy Liberty's Addison Bailey (13) lofts a shot over Newark's Steele Meister during the first half of Wednesday's non-league showdown in Powell. Ben Stroup | The Gazette
By Ben Stroup
Hi! A visitor to our site felt the following article might be of interest to you: Patriots outlast Wildcats, 42-39. Here is a link to that story: https://www.delgazette.com/sports/100203/patriots-outlast-wildcats-42-39