Transit Tuesday - Day 84

Wet Tide - Day 72

Geared Up - Day 46 #CY365

Day 46 - Geared Up. This large bevel gear is most likely from a Voith gearbox or wheel set for a transit bus. It is about eight inches and diameter and weighs about 24 pounds with the attached bearing assembly. It makes an excellent door stop. Canon 7D, 1/125 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens.

#bdad - Bus Driver Appreciation Day

Today is International Bus Driver Appreciation Day. I hope you took time to say thank you to a bus driver. For 6 years I worked at Hampton Roads Transit with a great group of bus operators (transit speak for drivers) and mechanics who get 50,000 riders to their destinations every day in Southeastern Virginia. They start each day early, at around 4:00am, and the last bus completes the final run of the day 22 hours later at 2:00am. They work long shifts, many work split shifts, weekends and even holidays. Bus service is a 365 deal.

Bus driver appreciation day is on March 18th because that is the anniversary of the very first bus service launched in Paris in 1662 using horse-drawn vehicles. According to an article on Wired it was the brainchild of French mathematician, inventor, physicist, philosopher, and author Blaise Pascal. Fellow geeks know Pascal as the inventor of an early calculating machine forerunner of modern computers and the programming language PASCAL named in his honor.

Canon G10, 1/200 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200.

Grand Central Terminal

- This is the Main Concourse in the center of Grand Central Terminal. The space is cavernous being almost as large as a football field. In the elaborately decorated astronomical ceiling the sky is backwards, and the stars are slightly displaced. It is said that when the Vanderbilt family learned the ceiling was painted backwards, they maintained that the ceiling reflected God's view of the sky. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/20 sec @ f/4.5, ISO 400, 8mm circular fisheye lens.

Still Shiny

- The Tide light rail has been running for six months now and I get to ride just about every weekday. I am proud of what a great job my old colleagues at HRT have done in operating and maintaining the trains. It is right on schedule and the railcars still gleam like they are new. Canon G11, 1/160 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 200.

Cable Power

- Massive electric motors drive the cable winding machinery for the three San Francisco historic cable car routes. The Cable Car Barn & Powerhouse was built in 1879 and then mostly leveled by the 1906 earthquake. Rebuilt on the same site the powerhouse continues to pull the cable cars up and down the steep streets of the great city. More than 140 years later the cable technology is still fascinating to watch. The Cable Car Barn & Powerhouse also houses the Cable Car Museum where you can watch the system at work. Canon G11, 1/8 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800, converted to black and white.

East Bound Tracks

- The east bound tracks of the new Norfolk Virginia Light Rail near Curlew Drive and Military Highway. Canon G11, 1/640 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200, converted to black and white.

Coyote Tower

The Northwest Tower, popularly known as the Coyote Building, is a 12-story art deco building in the Bucktown neighborhood in Chicago. It was completed 1929 and is considered the first art deco skyscraper in Chicago. In the 1980's it became home to the Tower Coyote Gallery, reportedly named because artists thought the building resembled a howling coyote. The picture was taken at the Damen stop on the Chicago 'L' Blue Line. Canon G11, 1/500 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200.

112 - Earth Day

From 365 Project

I work in public transit so I want to highlight public transit's contribution to saving our planet. An individual switching to public transit can reduce his or her daily carbon emissions by 20 pounds; that’s more than 4,800 pounds a year. This is more than the combined carbon emissions reduction that comes from using energy-efficient light bulbs, adjusting thermostats, weatherizing one’s home, and replacing an older refrigerator with a high efficient refrigerator. Canon G10, 1/200 sec at f/8.0, ISO 200, 12mm equivalent focal length/

97 - Sail Rail

From 365 Project

The new Valley Metro Light Rail sails into a station near the Phoenix airport. The new light rail line began service in December 2008 and like other light rail lines across the country it is a huge success. Canon G10, 2 second exposure at f/8.0, ISO 100, 11mm equivalent focal length, mounted on a Joby Gorillapod SLR and fired with a wired remote.