Showing posts with label military. Show all posts
Showing posts with label military. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 27, 2026

Pensacola, FL: 1911 Naval Air Station & Museum and L&N Roundhouse & Deopt

Naval: (Satellite, 28,962 photos!)
Roundhouse: (Satellite, this building has repurposed the roundhouse land. See the topo map below, there used to be a L&N railyard between Belmont Street and south of Heinberg Street)
Depot: (Satellite)

Old Pensacola posted
View of Pensacola Naval Air Station, June 1962.
USS Antietam (CV-36) at dock.

Old Pensacola posted
Aerial View of NAS Pensacola and USS Lexington, Circa 1970's

Today, a lot of the buildings are gone and the Coast Guard uses the ship docks.

Old Pensacola posted
Lady Lexington AVT 16 at Naval Air Station NAS Pensacola, Florida 1979

Old Pensacola posted
An official Navy photograph of USS Lexington (AVT-16) at Pensacola. The photo shows the Blue Ghost being readied for towing to Corpus Christi, Texas, in December 1991. There is a piece of heavy equipment (painted yellow) on the forward end of the flight deck. This device would be used to attach the tow cable to the anchor chain.

nps
"Pensacola Naval Air Station was the United States' first permanent naval air station, the first Navy pilot training center and the first naval installation to send pilots into combat. In 1911 the Navy secured an appropriation from Congress for a naval air service and within two years Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels ordered the creation of the first permanent naval air station at Pensacola, Florida, where the climate favored year-round flying."
"The Navy's first aircraft carrier conducted experiments here and the Navy's aerial photography school relocated here. Between 1935 and 1939 the air station expanded its facilities to include aviation mechanics and aviation medicine. Within the historic district are 55 frame and brick buildings, including residential, administrative and maintenance facilities. Particularly notable are the octagonal Armory and Chapel (1854) and six metal seaplane hangers (1916-1918)."
"Within nine days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Pensacola Naval Air Station adjusted its training schedule to accommodate 2,300 students per month, a 300 percent increase that produced nearly 20,000 pilots by mid-1943. These Pensacola-trained Navy and Marine fliers sank 63 German submarines and 161 Japanese warships and destroyed more than 15,000 Japanese aircraft while losing 451 aircraft to Japanese fliers. Pensacola made similar contributions to the U.S. military effort in Korea and continues its leadership role today as the headquarters for the Chief of Naval Education and Training. "

Evidently this base is also the home of the Blue Angels.
Michael Hobbs, Jan 2022

VisitPensacola
"When entering the museum, guests step foot onto a replica of the aircraft carrier Nimitz. The 8,000-sq.-ft. Nimitz Flight Deck Exhibit opened late last year and is filled with everything you might see on the real thing, from arresting wires and catapult tracks to deck edge aircraft elevators."

L&N Roundhouse


Pensacola History posted
Captured in 1926, this aerial view documents the bustling railway facility that was located north of Wright Street at 10th Avenue. The complex featured a semi-circular engine house (known as a roundhouse) and a central rotating turntable mechanism used to service, pivot, and reverse steam locomotives
Dickey Andress shared
Derek Reuben: PENSACOLA, FLORIDA 1926 L&N RAILROAD PHOTO TAKEN BY NAVY PILOT.

1944/44 Pensacola Quad @ 25,000

Frisco is now A&GC, L&N to the North is CSX, and L&N to the East is FG&A.
rail.guide

L&N Depot


Pensacola History posted
Train pulls into the L&N Depot in 1912
Dicky Andress shared
Daniel Bennett: Must have been beautiful


The new depot is bigger, but not prettier.
Street View, Jan 2022

I used this 1970 map to find the depot.
1970/72 Pensacola Quad @ 24,000


Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Lake George, NY: 1911 Steamboat Gift Shop/D&H Depot and 1755 Fort Whilliam Henry

Depot: (Satellite)
Fort: (Satellite)

Street View, Jun 20216

The fort is in the right half of this view.
Street View, Jun 2026

Bill Osborne posted six photos with the comment: "This is the Delaware and Hudson train station in Lake George. The D&H used to have a spur here to bring in wealthy tourists."
1

2

3

4

5

6

The tracks do not appear in the 1966 map. Today's Warren County Bikeway repurposes the railroad's land.
1955/65 Glens Falls @ 62,500

rail.guide



Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Gulfport, MS: History, Model Trains & Plane Museums and Ocean Port

Gulfport Museum of History: (Satellite)
TrainTastic! Train Museum formerly: Mississippi Coast Model Railroad Museum: (Satellite)
Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum: (Satellite)
Ocean Port: (Satellite)

Gulfport Museum of History


Street View, Jun 2022

This looks like it used to be the IC+L&N Union Station.
1954/58 Gulfport North and South Quads @ 24,000

Radios used to be big so they were packaged as fine furniture. It looks like this one has a big speaker.
Stephanie Martin, Jul 2024

This video highlights the railfan action at the museum. This photo is taken from the Amtrak platform along the CSX/L&N track so the train is going south on the CN/IC track. I presume that it is headed to the ocean port.
Facebook Reel

TrainTastic! Train Museum formerly: Mississippi Coast Model Railroad Museum


I found this museum while looking for the museum in the above video. It looks like they have a Lego town in the layout.
Ann Henderson, Jul 2024

This museum has a big building.
Street View, Feb 2016

Judging from the photos and videos on Google Maps, they have a huge normal layout and some smaller layouts. This stuck me as the strangest layout.
Cedar The Dentist, Aug 2022

And they have an opportunity for kids to blow off some steam.
Daniel Hill, Aug 2024

Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum


And just three blocks east of the model train museum is the plane museum.
Street View, May 2022

Curtis Martz, Aug 2022

S M, May 2021

Susan Sanchez-Vargas, Jul 2024
.

Ocean Port


The ocean port is still operational and rail served. It looks like it handles at least containers, Dole fruit and grain.
Satellite

This is the grain elevator that is at the end of the dock.
Bottomline Beatz, Sep 2024

I had assumed that the elevator exported grain and loaded ships. But the long conveyor on the left makes me think they unload ships to import grain.
Bottomline Beatz, Sep 2024


When I saw all of these military vehicles, I assumed the port can handle RORO ships. And note that in the above photo there are military vehicles loaded on train cars. And then I spotted the Liberty Peace in the background of this photo, which is a RORO that is 199m long and 32m wide.
Bottomline Beatz, Sep 2024

I wonder if the military vehicles were leaving the country or coming back home.
Bottomline Beatz, Sep 2024


Saturday, May 2, 2026

Whittier, AK: High Urban Density/Military Base

Alaska Railroad Depot: (Satellite, it is just a platform across the street from the cruise ship terminal.)

The only access from land is through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel.

Most of the people in town live in this former military base, which was the Hodge Building. It is now the Begich Towers Condominium and has about 200 apartments. I saw a comment that the town gets 24' (7.3m) of snow.
Street View, Aug 2011


Facebook Reel
There is a tunnel that connects Begich Towers to the school building because of the winter weather and the bears.
[A comment observed that you could tell that she was a city girl because she locked her van.]

In the summer, cruise ships come here so that people can visit Alaska for a few days.
Street View, Aug 2009

Alaska Railroad runs "cruise trains."
James James, Mar 2021

Or is this the "cruise train?"
virgil Ellsworth, Jul 2023

The town also has a ferry that goes to Valdez.
Photo, Aug 2016

The railyard appears to handle containers.
Satellite

The Buckner Building was the first part of the military base. It is now abandoned.
Robin Teagarden III, May 2025

tommorow.city
85% of the town's population lives in the Begich Towers. The deep-water port is ice free. The average temperature in winter is -21 Centigrade (-5.8F).
The tunnel is 4km (2.5 miles) long.
"The town also has a port, used by cargo ships, cruise ships, commercial fishing boats, and hundreds of vessels carrying recreational boaters, sport anglers, and tourists. It is an important part of the Alaska Marine Highway System, using Whittier as a terminal for its central-south routes and as a connection to the railroad that transports goods and passengers in and out of the city.
In summer, Whittier changes. Between May and September, cruise ships stop there for two and three days of the week to enjoy the glaciers and the nature in the area. In 2016, according to the most recent figures available, up to 129,894 passengers arrived by this mode of transport."