
RAILS IN THE WEST TEXAS DESERT, JANUARY 26, 2010
Pentax K20D
Sigma 17-70 DC at 26mm
1/3000 sec. f5.6
ISO 400
This shot was taken from the rear sleeping car vestibule of Amtrak's westbound Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited on the old Southern Pacific (now Union Pacific) main line through the Chihuahuan Desert somewhere between Alpine and El Paso. It reminds me of these lines of T.S. Eliot from "The Dry Salvages":
Fare forward, travellers! not escaping from the past
Into different lives, or into any future;
You are not the same people who left that station
Or who will arrive at any terminus,
While the narrowing rails slide together behind you.
Click the photo for a large, screensaver-sized version.