The Siding

All images copyright by Jerry Custer

Home to the non-powered.

While 99% of my father's photographs are of engines, there are a few examples here and there of rolling stock, the random caboose or something else of interest he saw along the rails.

To the left is a seemingly endless string of Kansas City Southern hopper cars with fresh paint. I wonder if these were on delivery fresh from the paint shop?

Here is a close up of Conrail Twitty's tag on a freight car. He must have been a pretty prolific hobo as I have seen his work on a few occasions myself and those have been on outings with my son to watch trains.

From what I have read online, Conrail Twitty hitched a ride on the express to the sky, but he left his mark on the railway community and work lives on (much like my father's).

One of my favorite qualities of my father was his sense of humor, which I would describe as just the right amount of wrong. He liked to dabble in photoshop and the picture to the left is a result. It features some subtle edits to allow for maximum train capacity. Not one to leave well enough alone, he threw a school bus dodging a crossing in for good measure. Oh Dad!

Here is a slightly more obvious version of some photoshop shenanigans. He called this the DLW-1 Shorty. He was smart to use 888 as a number which works both ways. Almost reminds me of weird real life cousin to the RMT Beeps model train.

While not always, box cars can tend to be pretty basic in design. The State of Maine was a nice example of one of the exceptions to this general rule. My dad was a fan of this boxcar and had one in most of the gauges he collected. In terms of photography, I would wager that far less than 10% of his pictures are dedicated to things that are not engines, so anytime one made the cut, it was usually a pretty nice example of rolling stock or other railroading collateral.