In September of 2025, my work is generating the most income it ever has in my career. Yet, I'm being forced to shut down my successul operation, against my will, due to one cause alone: 95% of that revenue is being stolen by piracy and copyright infringement. I've lost more than $1 million to copyright infringement in the last 15 years, and it's finally brought an end to my professional storm chasing operation. Do not be misled by the lies of infringers, anti-copyright activists and organized piracy cartels. This page is a detailed, evidenced account of my battle I had to undertake to just barely stay in business, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem faced by all of my colleagues and most other creators in the field.
A few shots from Cabin Creek on Friday:
Yes, that is a basketball court installed across the road with an old aluminum road sign for a backboard. A closer shot:
One of my interests from my earlier railfanning years was the subject of abandoned lines. I had a fascination with exploring old rights-of-way that had been long since retired from service, some with the track removed and a few with nothing but a tree and weed-covered flat path through the woods to mark the fact that there had once been trains running there. The eastern end of the old Virginian Railway, B&O's Wheeling-Pittsburgh branch (from Washington to Wheeling), C&O's Paint Creek branch, the Elk River railroad, the Waynesburg and Washington narrow gauge line, and the C&O Keeney's Creek branch just to name a few are routes that one can only imagine what it was like to see steam locomotives roaring through what is now desolate woods.
Every once in a rare while, a railroad finds a reason to re-open an abandoned line, which to me is a great thing to see. Such a re-opening of a near-abandoned route happened on the Cabin Creek branch in southeastern Kanawha County, WV when a new coal mine was opened at Red Warrior in 1995. New track was installed from the mine all the way to the mainline at the Kanawha River, and to this day the branch sees between 2 and 4 trains daily.
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From Dan: Please Read
Please do not copy/upload this site's content to social media or other web sites. Those copies have been a critical problem for me, seriously harming this site and my photography/storm chasing operation by diverting traffic, viewers, engagement and income. "Credit" and "exposure" does not benefit this site or my operation, rather they threaten my ability to cover my operating expenses. Please read my full explanation for this notice here.
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To my regular readers, I offer my apologies for this heavy-handed notice, but unfortunately it has become necessary.
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