"New" Member

[T. Mahan]

Greetings,
Just wanted to say hello to the group, as I am a "new" member.  I say "new" because I had an account a while ago and was a "read only" sleeper member. After meeting a group of the JREB guys and gals in Chattanooga, thought I would become more active, seems like a great bunch of folks.
As for a quick Bio, I am from Lexington, KY originally.  I grew up watching trains at 'Bishop' (CNO&TP) Milepost 85.5 behind Fayette Mall. My grandparents took me on a few of the Lexington to Chattanooga Steam trips.  After my first semester of college, during 1998/99 I hired out with CSX and worked as a conductor on the Hoosier and LH&StL subs in Louisville, KY.  After 6 months I had enough of 24/7 of being on call, was rough for a young 19 year old. I joined the Air National Guard in 2001 and lived back and forth between Lexington and Jacksonville, FL. Sometime around 2003 I hired out with RJ Corman in Lexington on The Old Road.  I worked for that "Railroad" company for about 2 years.  I was mainly Conductor/Switchman, after an injury thanks to a shotty repair job; I dispatched for a few months, and then eventually got my Engineer License.  In 2006 I got a full time Air National Guard gig here in the Jacksonville, FL area.  Although I live about 45 minutes south of Jacksonville proper, I try to swing by NS's Simpson yard and FEC's Bowden yard.  As for CSX a lot of trains but same old GE garbage they don't want to wander too far from Waycross, GA.  I live about two miles from the south end of Solite siding on CSX's Sanford Sub (Jax - Orlando). 

Like most railfans, I got sucked into the photography side of the hobby.  But I do not claim to be a photographer, just a railfan who takes pictures of trains and has enough knowledge of a camera to be dangerous.  I hope that I can contribute to the group, maybe being able to give a few 'heads ups' from the 'horses rear' of the NS system.  I do have some O-Gauge trains, and a small garden railway.  I collect locomotive operators manuals, and anything else railroad related that seems 'cool' at the time of purchase.

For what it's worth I post picks to Railpictures.net, rrpicturearchives.net, and occasionally flickr. I can also be found on facebook as well!
http://railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=7809
http://tjm6515.rrpicturearchives.net/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjm6515/
https://www.facebook.com/tjm6515

TJ Mahan
Green Cove Springs, FL

[Ponce de Leon]

Well.....welcome back! Man, that's an interesting resume of work experiences in a relatively short period of time. How do you like sunny Florida vs. Lexington?

RF

[T. Mahan]

Howdy Ron,

First I want to say I enjoy your collection of images and articles I see posted everywhere on the internet ;-)

I will say I miss Lexington and counting down the years until I retire and can move back to the Central Kentucky area.  I'm in the interior part of Florida, so kind of boring, you can only go to the beach and Walt Disney World so many times before it gets old.  Now if I lived further down state or on the water so I could fish every chance I get, that would be great.  But in the long run, I miss the seasons and the diverse landscape of Kentucky! As for the railfan scene, Jacksonville is probably the best Florida has to offer, NS, CSX, and FEC.  CSX has volume but a lack in motive power variety.  NS mainly runs in and out at night, and FEC seems to run their trains far and few between.