This site has featured many train pictures, but I don’t think it’s ever featured a model train. So as one last holiday shot and as a farewell to 2010 we have this model (not to scale) of a Western Maryland coal train.
Monthly Archives: December 2010
30
Dec 10
Sunken Road
MDP is back after a three day break for the holidays. Today’s picture comes from Antietam, it’s a shot of the sunken road, also known as bloody lane as viewed from the observation tower. The stretch of land on the left of this shot was where the second (out of three) phase of the battle took place. You can imagine the carnage that results when hours of battle are compressed into such a tiny space of land.
23
Dec 10
Holiday Travel
The holidays are here and people are thinking of travel. A discussion with co-workers made me wonder how the average person traveling to Maryland would fare in today’s traffic vs. that of the past. So, naturally, I wondered how a person travelling to Maryland today would fare vs. someone riding the rails in 1890.
It turns out that not much has changed. In the late 1800′s the B&O’s Royal Blue service could have brought my coworker’s college aged child and my other coworker’s elderly parent from New York to Baltimore in 4 hours. On the way they’d enjoy the lovely accommodations pictured above.
By the 1900′s the Royal Blue’s time would be reduced even further. Today the bus that the child is taking and the car that the parent is taking will be lucky to match that time.
22
Dec 10
Welcome to Hancock
Why not make a theme out of these signs. This one is especially interesting as the signs were actually printed on the backs of older ones. If you look at this from behind you see a jumbled mess of old signage.
21
Dec 10
Welcome to Mt Airy
I am a big fan of signs like this one welcoming you to Mt. Airy. The picture at the top left actually features the town’s school house, and famed railroad bridge.
20
Dec 10
Ravens Stadium2
Just a shot of the ravens stadium taken from the upper deck of Oriole Park.
17
Dec 10
Rockville Courthouse
A while ago, in fact a long time ago, we toured Rockville and ended with this picture of a statue outside the old courthouse.
The other day I noticed that the base of the statue was quite ornate. It made me wonder if the year 1891 played some sort of significant part in the town’s history. Upon doing some research, I discovered that the year 1891 appears on this base because, not surprisingly, that was the year the courthouse was built. It was the third courthouse built on this site.
Since that day, as is the trend with many municipal buildings, they’ve decided to add buildings rather than tear down old ones and replace them with larger courts. It seems to be a trend across many towns that somewhere beginning in the mid 1800′s buildings were built for more permanent use.
16
Dec 10
Deer Tree
MDP has been having a bit of a logistical problem with work taking up a lot of time and the night taking up the time that remains. So posting a sting of holiday shots has been the temporary solution. Hopefully this rather abstract shot of a tree and a light-up reindeer (named blinky) won’t push you away.
Going forward, I’m developing (pun intended!) plans to adapt to the environment, to consistently use the tripod, and to start taking night shots of historically significant parts of Maryland. I’ve got a list of places right next to my desk, so stay tuned for some excitement.
