iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Regional with Sprinters top and tail roars through Sharon at speed

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

A decent Friday afternoon rush at Ruggles

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Some really great stuff in the Arboretum today

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Bike lane corridor of emerging color at Forest Hills

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Best tree of today's ride. Clifford the Big Red Trike in the foreground.

Image: a fiery orange and red tree in a park setting next to a busy intersection. In the foreground of the picture is a large red recumbent e-trike.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

*New England intensifies* Looking over Worcester from Holy Cross

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Colors just starting to change in the Arboretum

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I used to post pictures of a very similar arrangement in the rural US under the tagline #smalltownbigbypass. In many cases, the bypass sucked all the commercial activity out of the old downtown. See Vinton, IA

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Saw some decent battery under-cabinet lights at Costco on Sunday, and wow do they make a difference for layout lighting.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Only picture I can easily find of the prototype www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture....

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Cool new layout thing is an eBay find, an Atlas Trainmaster custom painted as C&NW 1698 with its one-off experimental paint scheme. C&NW had H-16-66 "Baby Trainmasters," not the big ones, but given that those don't exist in N, I'll take it.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Epic use of Awareness Cones in the Arboretum tonight

Image: the metal frame of a bench on a stone surface with woods in the background. The body of the bench is missing and in its place are four orange traffic cones sitting on various parts of the frame and a sign saying "bench out for repairs."

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Nothing new to anyone, but as someone just beginning to explore cycling in Boston, the available comfortable network has an infuriating number of small/medium gaps that would be *technically* easy to fix (the politics are harder). Pictured: Clifford the Big Red Trike in the Arboretum.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

St. George Hellenic Orthodox and the Schenectady Labor Temple, next to each other behind City Hall

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Greenmarket days are one of the only times that the Jay St pedestrian mall seems to feel really vibrant

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Schenectady has built a gorgeous two-way bikeway on Franklin Street. It's two blocks long and doesn't connect to much on the downtown end, but hey, it's nice!

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Something to be said for a rural getaway

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Couldn't resist the vivid colors in this view along Amory Street

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Today's layout arrival is huge: I finally pulled the trigger on a factory lighted Olympian Hiawatha post-1955 set from Kato, which I got at an excellent price.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

One of my N scale white whales arrived--an Atlas Shay lettered for the Manary Logging Company. Manary+successors operated out of Toledo, OR, near where my grandmother lived, into the 1950s. Doesn't fit my layout but has nostalgic value. It's the only one of this road name I've ever seen on eBay.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

It was definitely already heading in that direction, but the main line and SC branches maintained fairly constant 30/60 minute headways until 1979. John Allen has a great table in one of his papers that I cited:

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Rare non-locomotive new model train post, because it's cool: a well flatcar (for transporting heavy equipment) belong to Allis-Chalmers, a major manufacturer in West Allis, WI.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Layout is very much under construction but it's good to run some trains

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Started reorganizing my N scale locomotive storage. Still to come: probably another storage unit of the same size, covering Rock Island, Milwaukee, CB&Q, UP, and a variety of other smaller roads.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

At 11:37 this looks like a pair of North Shore or CA&E cars in the IC yard near Grand Central Station? Wonder what's up with that. youtu.be/9HrF1w2VTXk?...

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

I do, in a whimsical way, prefer the Bar Nunn approach in its honesty to redevelopment that totally wipes out that the area was once an airport. L to R: -The Glen, Glenview, IL -Stapleton, Denver -long-stalled South Weymouth Naval Air Station, MA

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

TIL I learned about Bar Nunn, WY, a suburb of Casper which: a) Is named for a livestock brand, itself a pun on a family name b) takes its urban form from the fact that it used to be an airport and the neighborhoods were laid out along the runways. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Nun...

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Took Clifford the Big Red Trike for a spin to check out the new Jackson Square Greenway. It doesn't currently go much of anywhere but it's a pretty decent public space!

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Newest addition to the layout: a custom-painted Kato SD40, an ex-CGW unit renumbered to its C&NW number after the 1968 merger. Nice when somebody out there made what you needed!

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

It is absolutely dystopian out in Boston right now

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Very amused by this condo building amenity in the Seaport: a mini dog park complete with fake fire hydrants for the dogs to piss on.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Think my new backpack says clearly enough where I work?

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Figured out how to extract stills from the video I accidentally took last Wednesday. Here's Reading & Northern T-1 4-8-4 2102 crossing the Lehigh River at Glen Onoko with a long excursion train.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I think this shot does the best job showing the length of the damn thing

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

And pulling out on Thursday morning

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Not the best shot in the world but here's 4014 putting on a smokeshow after reversing direction to pull into the Jim Thorpe station on Wed night.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Think this is my favorite of my shots of 4014 (the Big Boy) leaving Jim Thorpe this morning.

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Power for the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway today was this A-B pair of F units. Fun ride into the Gorge, and thank God for relatively effective A/C. Alas, the dome car was sold out :(

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

One of the local book shops is emphasizing the train thing with their displays

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Sandy Johnston @sandypsj.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

But seriously, this is a gigantic locomotive that is virtually impossible to fit into a shot in an Eastern setting like Jim Thorpe, and that whistle has physical power at close range.

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