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Author: Jim Pearson

Where did my love of photographing trains come from?

Where did my love of photographing trains come from?

Road trips don’t always have to be somewhere far away or a long number of days on the road. As most of you know I’m pretty much hooked on trains! As such, I hit the road usually at least once a week to search for new and different train photos for my Facebook page, online sales store and also my website.

So, where did my addiction to photographing trains come from anyway?

PCC & St. Louis Railroad, Conover, Ohio

Well, I can’t really say for sure, but I’ve told my sister April and others that I think it comes from when we lived in Conover, Ohio, about a block away from the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, then commonly referred to as the Panhandle Route, which was was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. Of course I was only about 2 when we moved from there, so my sister and others say I couldn’t remember trains from that young an age. As for me, who knows for sure.

It possibly came from our mom’s brother who was my Uncle Willard Moore, who was a yardmaster at the then L&N Railroad’s Atkinson Yard here in Madisonville, Ky. I can’t however say that I ever recall going out to the yard to visit him there, but here again I was still young. I do remember walking the spur line that went to downtown Madisonville which came out to the bulk oil plant that ran alongside of the Government housing projects where I grew up most of my young years. We’d hike the tracks to downtown which was the center of the universe for a young kid back in the day when downtown was the happening place.

L&N Depot, Madisonville, Ky – (West Ky NRHS Photo Archive Photo from the Harold Utley Collection)

I recall passing the L&N depot when I’d walk this line with my brothers or friends. Can’t say I remember any passenger trains stopping there then, but I know they did when I was a kid.

I guess I can truly say that I recall the most when this addiction began of photographing trains, at least that I can remember for sure, was in Germany!

I had just finished a graduate course in Photojournalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Communication at Syracuse University in 1978 where the US Air Force had sent me for training to be a Photojournalist (PJ) where I worked with Combat Camera until I retired in 1995. My first duty assignment was at Rhein Main Air Base, just outside Frankfurt Germany. This is where I met the Grant Family. Norm was our photo maintance man and he along with their son Dale and his wife Gloria, were all into trains and we struck up an instant friendship that carried us pretty much through our whole lives. Norm recently passed away, but I’m still good friends with Gloria and Dale (who is an engineer for BNSF Railway now).

Jim Pearson watches a maintenance operation from the cab of a German Steam engine outside Frankfurt, Germany in 1979. (Photo by Norm Grant)

I can remember to this day our train trips to downtown Frankfurt’s main train station where we’d spend countless hours photographing trains from the platforms there. I guess then Germany and Europe in general was the place I fell in love with photographing trains. During all my travels, in the three years I was stationed in Germany, I always included photographing trains somewhere, on a regular basis.

After I left Germany and was assigned to Norton AFB in southern California where that love of photographing and chasing trains didn’t change at all and has continued through today.

People say why and I say why not! LOL Everyone’s got a hobby of some sort and this one has served me well over the years by taking me to places I might never of gone and allowing me to make friends with fellow railfans from around the world.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! So, expect to see a few train pictures here from my travels!

Me changing film at Lepzig, East Germany during an photo assignment in the area after the fall of the Eastern Block walls and fences. (Photo by Jose Lopez Jr.)

 

Catching up…

Catching up…

April and Jim at the Combat Camera Reunion Banquet. - Photo by Ken Hackman
April and Jim at the Combat Camera Reunion Banquet. – Photo by Ken Hackman

We’re not doing a very good job of keeping our roadtrip blog updated and I for one will attempt to do a better job this year.

Our major trip last year was a 30 day cross country trip to my Combat Camera reunion in Ontario, California in September. This is the fourth year in a row we’ve made the reunion into a road trip and as usual we had a great time. The trip was long and when we got back home we both were tired and glad to be back. I think we went beyond our budget, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Jim, Kimmy, Emily, Brad, Brad, April and Lexie at Canyonlands National Park. - Photo by Jim Pearson
Jim, Kimmy, Emily, Brad, Brad, April and Lexie at Canyonlands National Park. – Photo by Jim Pearson

I think the major highlights of our trip to me were spending time with my nephew Brad and his family. We rented a condo at Moab, Utah. We’ve both been here before and wanted to make another stop as there’s so much to see. It was great to see Brad, Kimmy, Lexie and Emily as it had been way too long. Brad is stationed in the Air Force in Colorado and we joined up with them after visiting a couple days there.

Canyonlands National Park, Utah. - Photo by Jim Pearson
Canyonlands National Park, Utah. – Photo by Jim Pearson

One of my favorite new places there was Canyonlands National Park. What a impressive place to visit! We went separate from the kids as they didn’t want to get up and out quite as early as we did. We did meet up for a picture there and it’s one of my favorites from the trip.

Dinner in the French Quarter. - Photo by our Waiter!
Dinner in the French Quarter. – Photo by our Waiter!

We stopped a lot of other sights along the way of course ranging from seeing the Space Shuttle in LA, the stars at night in Joshua Tree National Park, The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas and the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, just to name a few of the major highlights. When traveling we try to keep our drives to about 350-450 miles a day to give us plenty of time to take pictures and see the sights along the way.

This year my Combat Camera reunion is in San Antonio, Texas in October and I’m looking forward to spending a little bit more than two days, as we did this year, and seeing more of the sites. Plus my new knee will make life much easier for getting around. It was a bit of a pain this year.

However, before that we’ll be heading off in June for my nephew Kenneth’s high school graduation. Looking forward to getting back on the road, other than short local trips around Kentucky. 

Family Reunion trip…

Family Reunion trip…

2013 Pearson Family Retunion-webWell, this post is a bit later than I had planned, but here it is! We all had a great time attending the 2013 Pearson Family Reunion in Springfield, Ohio. As you can see from this group photo we had a pretty good turn out this year and hope for an even better one next year.

We decided that it will be in Springfield, Ohio again next year, but at a new location which is yet to be decided. The date has also been set so those that want to mark their calendars the next reunion will be on June 22, 2014 beginning at 1pm.

Xavier, Damion and Elaina
Xavier, Damion and Elaina

It was great to visit with cousins and Aunt Jean to catch up on a lot of what everyone has been up to since we last got together! Everyone got to meet their newest cousins from Kentucky, Xavier, Elaina and Damion! Hope more of the family can make it next year as we all had a great time and plan for an even better time next year.

Off to the Pearson Family Reunion…

Off to the Pearson Family Reunion…

Moses and Marie Pearson at the farm on Satler Rd.
Moses and Marie Pearson at the farm on Satler Rd.

Well this morning April, myself, David, our brother, Chrystal, Aprils daughter, and three of my great-great kids, Elaina, Damion and Xaiver are off on a long weekend roadtrip to our annual family reunion. This year it’s at Springfield, Ohio which is centrally located for most of the family that lives in Ohio.

Family reunions are always a great way to catchup with what’s going on in everyone’s life and I always look forward to them. Hopefully this year we’ll have a good turnout from my grandfather Moses and grandmother Marie Pearson’s descendents. They had 15 kids, our dad, John Alexander Pearson being one of them.

Of course we’re also looking forward to visiting two different Renaissance Festivals that will be happening this weekend close to Springfield. One at George Rogers Clark park that is during the Colonial Times and the other being at Harveysburg, Ohio. Should be a fun weekend and we’ll post some pictures and updates as the weekend progresses!

2013 Pennington Folk Festival

2013 Pennington Folk Festival

Anyone that knows Kentucky music or thumbpicking has heard of Eddie Pennington. This past weekend they had their annual festival in Princeton, Ky where Eddie lives and I took a short road trip, about 30 miles, on Saturday to hear Eddie and his family play. Of course I wasn’t disappointed as I’ve been a fan of him and his music ever since I attended my first concert in the woods at his farm. We at the paper have done several stories on him and so we’ve know each other probably almost as long as the 17 years I’ve been working for The Messenger Newspaper in Madisonville, Ky.

Anyway, I made my way there yesterday afternoon and shot several video clips with my Nikon D800 that I’ve strung together into a 30 min video that I’ve posted below that I thought our viewers would enjoy.