Western Railroad Discussion > Testing my friend, the Smoky Valley

In the past few days, I’ve been talking with a few of my friends here on TO about the computer nightmare I was in. I thought I was staring disaster right in its (ugly) face. In the transfer from old computer to new it looked like I was going to lose an estimated 20,000 image scans plus about 14 years’ worth of PM comm with fellow members. Stuff that was absolutely irreplaceable. Also seemingly gone were over 10,000 songs in my iTunes library, about 60% of which were recorded in 2008-10 from my own massive vinyl collection. A collection I sold in its entirety just a couple of years ago. Also gone was the connection to my Photoshop subscription. I was ready to kill somebody…

After unloading on the shop’s ‘tech’ guy where I bought the computer, he told me I could find my missing desktop folders in “This Computer”, and he gave me a pathway. I found some of the folders, but 35-40% were NOWHERE to be found. Mainly missing were over 2000 scans from Art Gibson, Tom Gildersleeve, Jim Watson, Len Kratz, and a small army of other great photographers. Scans I had set aside for future threads. When the tech guy heard my tale of woe, he finally told me he always records everything before re-arranging someone’s desk top before the transfer process. He told me I could rescue everything by bringing my external hard drive in. Ok…….

He did get me re-connected to Photoshop. The 4 test images below were edited just this afternoon. Hopefully he can follow through with this pre-recording procedure. If so, it looks like I’ll be back in “business as usual” in a week or so. Keep your fingers crossed…

1. A&SV 4 approaching the extremely rural Lark Rd crossing west of Enterprise, KS. The A&SV has been busy installing new crossties, about 1600 worth. And they’ve also dumped several hundred tons of ballast. That work can be seen in this image…

2. The 4 is seemingly lost in a Kansas corn filed. Seen here at 300mm from the Jeep Rd crossing west of Enterprise. I use Jeep Rd as the dividing line between Enterprise or Abilene for image locations…



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/25 14:23 by santafe199.

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Arriving back at Abilene:

3. & 4. Here’s the train back at Abilene (KS) being spotted at the passenger dock. This is an angle I’ve never really used before…
Four images taken July 23, 2025.

Thanks for looking!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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Great to hear you're making progress with your computer and looks like your scanned images will be available soon.  What an ordeal- 

Here's hoping Lance. Can't imagine that happening to me. Fingers crossed!!! At least as best as my arthritis will allow it.

Ex South Omaha Terminal Alco S-1 #4. The other one is ex SOT as well. Do they still have it? What other units do they have? Thanks, Lance

 

Sorry, as far as I know the #4 is ex-Hutchinson & Northern #4, which I shot slides of in the early 80’s. Did H&N acquire it from SOT???

Posted from iPhone

Lance,
I'm glad to hear your new computer may be on the path to recovery. I've been through losing files to a computer that just stopped dead, never to be recovered, kinda leaves a hollow spot in your stomach. A lot like my slides, negatives and photos that left with the first wife. Hopefully your tech guy can deliver. While nothing electronic is gauranteed I recently backed up enormous amounts of edited images on a massive USB drive but then again I had a USB drive that became unreadible. We sure can smash a lot of data into our computers! Recently my car key decided to not be recognized by the car's computer and declared me a car thief preventing me from starting a car I've owned for 14 years. After 2 weeks the dealer got a new computer a a key, programmed it and called to tell me it was ready. I went to leave the dealer and the car lit up the anti-theft system and it wouldn't start. Today they tell me the new key was defective but my old key worked just fine and the car starts right up. Grrrr. Electronics.

I'm also happy to see Smoky Valley upgrading their track. It has been somewhat rough looking over the last few years. Ties and crushed rock don't come cheap.
Be well, take care,
Gonut

 

santafe199 Wrote:
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> Sorry, as far as I know the #4 is ex-Hutchinson &
> Northern #4, which I shot slides of in the early
> 80’s. Did H&N acquire it from SOT???

Yes, they did.

Lance: maybe you’ll agree or not; I always preferred running locomotives WITHOUT computers. Still prefer cameras with film but trying to live with/learn digital. Stories like yours reminds me why I’ll hang on to my slides until it’s time to tie up permanently. Best of luck with your computer. No matter what your work; and the time you’ve spent sharing is appreciated by many including me.

Posted from iPhone

Thank you, B of B! Nobody misses Kodachrome any more than I do. But I have to say that going digital in ‘09 has opened up my shooting creativity more than I could have ever imagined. Throw in home photo editing (Photoshop) and I’m very happy with what I’ve been able to do. There’s NO way I could do with slides what I can do with digital. There’s so much more flexibility. And the cost for slide film and processing would be completely out of the question… 🥺

Posted from iPhone

Hurrumph! Toward the end Kodak processing was taking your photographic life into someone else's
hands. I can count 4 or 5 times they screwed up once in a lifetime shots. At least digital gives you a
better than average chance at getting a good shot. Other thing is that digital doesn't deteriorate over
time though I'vce got a Kodacolor shot at Tule Lake CA taken around 1953 that still looks great.

Out