Yes, in this picture you can’t see his foot, but I’m saving that for another picture.

It’s that time again.  You know where these came from

You didn’t think you’d get through all this time without a train photo, did you?

Sorry for MDP’s temporary hiatius over the last week.  Things got busy in the MDP photoquarters and we didn’t have a chance to update everything.    So, in honor of tomorrow’s ravens game, here’s a ravens picture. This is a bit old, but only by a year. That’s just a significantly out of date jersey.

This ship just coincidentally happened to be docked in the Inner Harbor as I was walking by testing out a new – old camera I had bought on e-bay. As a test subject it worked well.  since I don’t work in Baltimore any more I don’t get to see the ships coming and going as watching them dock is always interesting.

One more shot where you can see what’s required to reload the engine with coal for a one mile round trip.

Sorry to keep everyone in suspense for so long.    Those past two photos were from the B&O musuem steam fest two weekends ago.   Here we see the tank engine #4 (named St. Eslizabeth for the hospital in DC where it used to run.) lumbering into the station. 

Here’s another clue.

I’ll give you a few guesses where this came from

What an end to the season.  I mean, it’s just like last years pointless rally, but at least this year we hurt Boston and I think that makes us all feel warm inside.

Happy Maryland Monday to all:  Here’s one last shot from the grand prix.

A shot of two clock towers in downtown Baltimore.  To the left, the BromoSeltzer tower.  To the right, the top of Camden station, now the sports legends museum.

Here’s another shot I’ve always wanted to take in the inner harbor. It’s a view up from the lobby of the Hyatt.   It always seemed so fancy to me.  With it’s three glass elevators in the middle of two outstretched arms of rooms, the hotel just draws me in.

While I was in the inner harbor the other day, I noticed this statue of the former governor and mayor Schaefer.  I had heard about it back in 2009, when it was erected, but never noticed it standing there before.  It’s intentionally set back from the harbor in a quieter spot near a garden.

The Grand Prix is coming this weekend to the streets of Baltimore.  As a result entire sections of town have been turned into racing grandstands. The streets are filled with protective barriers.  If that wasn’t enough to tell you there is a race on the way, stacks of tires are the final touch.

Nothing says car racing like protective stacks of tires.  As a child playing video games I destroyed more than a few of these obstacles.   These are the first I’ve seen in real life and I have to say I’m surprised that they use brand new tires. I’d always assumed that used tires went into these towers.    I don’t know if I’d leave stacks of new tires on the streets overnight.

Still having logistical issues accessing pictures so I’m pulling today’s picture of the Mt. Pleasant plantation house (currently the clubhouse for the golf course) out of the reserves.  Got some great stuff for tomorrow.

I don’t always travel with the same camera.   So sometimes I forget about the special features of one individual camera.  On Saturday, I remembered that the tiny camera I had brought has a really neat panorama tool.     So I tried it out and I think it worked well.  You can click into today’s picture to see the whole thing.

MDP took a trip to see the O’s on Saturday.   It was predicted to be so hot that it was difficult to get rid of some extra tickets we had for the game.   However, with a win and a with a generally good home team crowd, you barely felt the heat.  As you can see on the screen the official temperature of the game was 101 degrees.

Early graves in this church followed a typical pattern of progression through time.  The earliest wouldn’t have any symbols, but then you would see a symbol of Death’s head.  A little later you would see cherubs, then followed by the design of an Urn and Willow.  These progressed as customs across the country were being affected by new religious and somewhat political thought.    Here in the graveyard of a single denomination church it’s effects are still seen.  This example shows just a willow tree so it’s at the tail end of the period where these styles were found.

The great thing about Taylor’s chapel aside from it’s historic significance as a building is the graveyard behind it, which contains samples of grave design over the course of two centuries.  This is a concept I knew little about until I visited with Bryan who studied historic preservation and who provided today’s photo.  The symbolism on gravestones evolved through many different phases, and MDP will try to give some examples of the early and most significant ones.  Today’s marker is later than some of the others and it shows a finger pointing in the air, which symbolizes the hope for this person in heaven.

This is the 7th hold of Mt. Pleasant golf course.  A little history about the course: it was, like many older public courses, once a part of the professional golf tour.    In fact it was the place where Arnold Plamer won his second professional tournament.

Over this long holiday weekend, frequent commenter Bryan said, (I am paraphrasing, but still using quotations) “lets go golfing, and bring your camera because I’m tired of looking at bridges.”  So, what came out of that is today’s picture, not of a bridge, but from a bridge. 

 This picture was taken from a bridge over Northern Parkway in Baltimore.   However, this bridge is special in that it’s not for cars or pedestrians.  It’s a golf cart bridge, built to spant the two halves of Mt. Pleasant golf course.

You may not know that there is an MDP e-mail address.  For two years I faithfully checked it about once a month.   Then somewhere around last November, I just stopped checking.   It just seemed like nobody ever wrote to it.  So, of course, that’s when everyone wanted to write to MDP.  I am thrilled that people have remained engaged after three years of this site’s existence and I appreciate every comment and e-mail, so thanks so much.

I have to apologize to Rick and Claire C.  They were kind enough to send today’s picture, taken by Claire, over a month ago, after the Kinetic Sculpture Race in Baltimore.  As they described the race and this entry:

“This is a photo of the most famous entry, ‘Fifi Is a Lucky Dog.’ They not only have to be able to pedal thru the streets of Baltimore, but have to be able to navigate in the Baltimore Harbor, a short course at the Canton Waterfront.”

I have always been amazed by the ability of the entrants in the Kinetic Sculpture Race.  Thanks for sending Rick and Claire, and thanks again to everyone who has written or commented.

Do you remember when it was called the Jumbotron?  I suppose Sony has left the novelty screen business by now.

We are interrupting our trip to Denton.  Today we picture the Fifth Regiment Armory.  If you’ve ever driven down Howard Street you’ve likely noticed this building.  Or if you’ve taken the light rail (and I don’t blame you if you haven’t) in Baltimore you’ve likely seen this building at the top of the train’s run down Howard Street.

For quite a while, it was the largest indoor space in the state.  It was home to the 1912 Democratic convention wherein Woodrow Wilson was nominated as candidate.

The sculprutre above the door is called and also reads “For the Glory of Maryland”

Which brings us to our second subject and the reason why we interrupted our trip to the eastern shore.  Today, funeral services will be held for William Donald Schaefer.   The flag atop the armory is at half mast in honor of the man who was Mayor of Baltimore, Governor of Maryland, and later the Comptroller of Maryland.

Thanks to Bryan, who will be working at the ceremony, for the picture today’s picture.

It’s on.  Lets keep the streak alive.    It’s sort of like that guy two years ago who resfused to leave his rooftop until the ravens won, except you know…strange as it is, here we are trying to keep on winning.

Though, I now have many new things to post as I’ve been busy taking photos for a while.   I’m tempted to keep posting a picture from Camden Yards as long as the O’s keep this winning streak alive.  Today’s shot comes from yesterday’s opening day, courtesy of Bryan.

At the end of Sunday’s game I heard an announcer say that this was the first time the O’s started a season 3-0 since 1997 and it was the first time they had done it on the road since the 70′s.

Just two more days until Camden Yards opens for the year.  Thanks to Bryan for allowing me to photograph his opening day tickets.

As spring training is well under way, it will soon be time for another group of pictures from the ballpark.

I apologize for the lack of a post yesterday which was caused by unexpected travel.

Here we have Seven Foot Knoll lighthouse.  It was built in 1855 and stationed in the Chesapeake, not too far from it’s current home.     The lighthouse is a “screw pile” lighthouse, which means that the supports were literally built to turn into the bottom of the bay like screws would fasten to wood.   Like most of the others of it’s kind, Seven Foot Knoll was autmated in the middle of the last century.  In the 80′s it was moved to it’s current location in downtown Baltimore.

Today we have a snow covered Homewood House on the Johns Hopkins Campus

As the Ravens head to their playoff game this weekend, we have a shot from the halftime show earlier this year that celebrated the anniversary of the Raven’s superbowl win.

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.

Just a shot of the ravens stadium taken from the upper deck of Oriole Park.

Sorry for the delay in MDP this morning.   This guy doesn’t really have anything to do with Maryland, but it’s a neat picture.

Here’s a shot from the Inner Harbor boat parade last Saturday.   Believe it or not that blur is a boat carrying a lot of people dressed as Santa singing Christmas carols.   Based on what I saw around there this blurry picture is probably how many holiday revelers will remember that night.

File it under awesome.  This is the board from the TV show Homicide.  It’s in Koopers Tavern in Fells Point.

What do Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Omaha, and Missouri (yes, the whole state) have in common?

There are only five places with a team from the MISL (the Major Indoor Soccer League).   The MISL plays their soccer games on fields that are sized down to hockey rinks.   They also have a basketball-like system of scoring where goals are worth two points.  That is unless they are kicked from beyond the three point line, at which point they are worth three.

Those from out of state may never have heard of this, but the Blast has been in Baltimore since 1980.  Their many championship season banners are proudly displayed all over the First Mariner Arena.

A boxcar from outside the B&O Museum.

Just a shot of harbor east from across the harbor.

Most people just ask for a picture.  This guy went in for the whole deal.  The bird, cool character that he is, knew exactly how to respond.

I remember from my childhood a day when my father came home from a business trip with the tourist book from the town he had visited. He didn’t have much to say about this place and I remember that in the tourism guide there was a picture of railroad tracks, which were made to be a major attraction.  To this I remember my father saying something along the lines of this: when a town is so boring that they have to promote it with a picture of railroad tracks, it’s probably not somewhere you want to go.

To that end, even though I’m showing you the tracks becasue I’m out of highlights and because the retaining wall of old railroad ties is pretty cool,  I still have to say that Boring MD is far from the most boring place I’ve ever been.

It’s hard to confirm this outside of the internet, so if you have any knowledge you should feel free to add to the discussion.  However, I understand that this building, which is today the post office (the sign from which you saw earlier) was the train station for the Western Maryland railway, around which the town of Boring grew.

It’s been a while (at least a week) since the last, completely self indulgent, train picture went up.

However, if you are like me and you are wondering about the status of modern day trains, this is an opportunity to share a great article on the shape of American railroading  that ran recently in the Economist.

Yesterday’s picture was a gauge from a railroad car inside the B&O museum.  (You are all undoubtedly suprised) That particular car, which will be pictured some other day, is used to measure the clearance of tunnel walls.  You need the gauges to tell you how much clearance you have.   

 Almost directly across the way from that car, sits the pullman coach on which this seal is painted.   It ran on the high end Royal Blue line from DC to New York.  (a route which I talk of here)  I like how companies used to tout their home towns and states, and I enjoy thinking of all the people along the mid-atlantic who must have gazed at this seal as the train rolled into their town.

You might not be able to guess this picture’s relevance to the state of Maryland.  Rest assured it was taken in Baltimore.  This might give some MDP followers a clue as to what this gauge does.  You can probably guess the genre of machine from which it comes.  Some may have actually seen it before.   Regardless, I think it’s a nice picture, and I am also using it to make a (very weak) connection to tomorrow’s post.