Whistle Stop ...

“There’s something about the sound of a train that’s very romantic and nostalgic and hopeful.”

       ~ Paul Simon

       ~ American musician

         ~ born 1941

The recently restored Dragon Cement Co. Inc. No. 1 railroad car located along the Ironton Rail Trail ~ which which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania ~ is depicted in this painterly, HDR image I captured on a late March afternoon in early spring.

A Whistle Sign can be seen in front of the car with the description: “This whistle sign once stood to the west of the Center Street Stiles Crossing on the Ironton Railroad. It was saved on March 1990 by John and Jim Rowland just prior to the scrapping of the railroad.”

In rail transport, a whistle sign ~ or whistle post or whistle board ~ is a sign marking a location where a train driver is required to sound the horn or whistle.

The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20^th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.

 

In 1996, Whitehall Township purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the Ironton Rail Trail.

 

Dragon Cement Co. is a cement supplier in Thomaston, Maine.

 

Drive Me To The Moon ...

“Fly me to the moon

Let me play among the stars

Let me see what spring is like

On a-Jupiter and Mars

 

In other words: hold my hand

In other words: baby, kiss me …

 

… In other words: please be true

In other words: I love you”

   ~ “Fly Me to the Moon”

 ~ song written by Bart Howard & made famous by the wonderful Frank Sinatra

 

  ~originally titled “In Other Words,” the song was written in 1954 by Bart Howard. The first recording of the song was made in 1954 by Kaye Ballard. Frank Sinatra’s 1964 version was closely associated with the Apollo missions to the Moon.

 

Frank Sinatra sang “Fly Me to the Moon,” but in the beautiful surreal of my imagination, those in this vehicle can say, “drive me to the moon” as they come upon a full Snow Moon gently dipping into the Little Lehigh Creek as a winter sunset looms in late February.

 

I created this image by blending my painterly, HDR shot of a vehicle motoring along the road at Lehigh Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania with my capture of the full Snow Moon over the West End of Allentown on February 24, 2024.

 

February’s full moon was called Snow Moon by many Native American cultures due to the typically heavy snowfall that occurs during this time of year. According to the National Weather Service, February is the United States’ snowiest month.

 

The Snow Moon was 2024’s only micro full moon. Micro moons appear about 10 percent smaller than a normal full moon and are about 14 percent smaller than the other extreme in appearance – a supermoon. Micro full moons occur when the moon is at its farthest point away from Earth in the orbit called apogee. Not only did the Snow Moon look smaller, but the added distance reduces how much sunlight can reflect back to Earth. This micro moon looked about 30 percent dimmer than normal.

           

This was the last full moon of the 2024 winter season.

 

As Summer Walks Away ...

“… the best of summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”

           ~ Sylvia Plath

            ~ 1932 ~ 1963

        ~ “The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath”

               ~ published 1982

Scattered leaves sprinkle a trace of the autumn to come as a man strolls down a path at Lehigh Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania, about to walk under the Interstate 78 Bridge that drapes above the peaceful parkway in this painterly, HDR image I shot on a late August evening as the light of the looming sunset tinges the Little Lehigh Creek, seen at right, with a golden hue.

The busy interstate that drives above the bucolic setting is an interesting juxtaposition, but the bridge does nothing to detract from the serene paths, natural scenery and the Little Lehigh Creek that flows through the length of the parkway.

Interstate 78 is an east-west highway running 144 miles from northeast of Harrisburg through Allentown in Pennsylvania, and western and northern New Jersey to the Holland Tunnel and Lower Manhattan in New York City.