u/Ill_List_9539

This year marks 20 years since I got this book at my kindergarten book fair. It was the book that introduced me to Titanic and started my life long interest in it. It’s crazy to think that it’s been 2 decades.

When looking at the layout of the deluxe suites on B-Deck, I’m a bit confused why the sitting room isn’t in between the bedrooms? It appears that the only options the occupants of the far bedroom have to get to the sitting room would be to go out into the hall and come back into the sitting room or to pass through the other bedroom. Passing through the other bedroom seems like it could have some privacy issues. As far as I know I don’t think there was a door to the private promenade from this bedroom either, only from the sitting room, so I’m just curious as to why they didn’t place the sitting room in the middle so both bedrooms could access it without anyone having to go out into the hall?

The second photo I included shows what Britannic’s starboard B-deck regal suite would have looked like, the private promenade being shortened into a private verandah. The sitting room/saloon is accessible to both bedrooms individually without any need to exit the suite as it’s placed between the bedrooms. On the port side it appears the suite has the same layout as on Titanic with the private 50 foot promenade and the chopped up layout. I included this because it seems with this re-design for Britannic’s starboard suite that the placement of the sitting room was at least noticed.

CSX 954 & 927 crossing the Peninsula Subdivision Trestle near Stones Brewing in Richmond, Virginia. This trestle forms the top level of the Triple Crossing just north of here in Shockoe Bottom. Just south of here is Fulton Yard.

Another one! Give your best guesses :)

I have a lot of fun doing these, here’s another one! Guess the ship based on these model photos!

Another guess the ship from the model! Good luck!

I know everybody’s probably tired of seeing this thing, but I saw the big guy pass through Central Pennsylvania yesterday. What a privilege. As someone who grew up in Roanoke, VA and is very much an N&W guy through and through, it was such an awesome experience and change of scenery to see the mighty and iconic Union Pacific thundering down the tracks.

Was just watching the most recent THG real time again and one thing stuck out to me in this clip. Right as the final plunge begins, the ship seems to roll side to side pretty noticeably. I do remember the port list corrected itself and the submerged port boat deck briefly surfaced again, but I don’t recall people explaining this extreme of a rolling back and forth (or side to side) motion. Did any of the few survivors further aft notice this? Seems the whole ship was rolling around. Also in THG’s previous animations it doesn’t appear to be this extreme.

Took these from the Blue ridge parkway back in September

I found another drawing I did of the titanic when I was 8. I based it on a painting that was on the cover of a model kit box. The smudge in the middle was from a spill years ago that got on the paper.

I don’t usually see much Aquitania stuff and I stumbled across this book online and decided to order it. The pictures are really nice and I feel the authors do a great job at being honest about the strengths and weaknesses of the ship. Overall, if you are looking for a good read on the life and career of Aquitania, I would recommend this book!

Some photos I took of the peaks.

Haven’t done this in a while and people seemed to enjoy the last few so here goes again! Guess the ship!

In May of 2025, I made a documentary about mountaintop removal in Appalachia. Here is a link to watch it.

https://youtu.be/dnGtTPb16_Y?si=isUWppfx2A8ayjlj

I am also currently sharing a massive photo archive of the Appalachian region and creating a full length documentary on MTR. If you are interested in following the creation of these projects check out the accounts below on Instagram!

Photo archive-

https://www.instagram.com/appalachia_archive?igsh=eGF0MzFpY3JpaDQ4&utm_source=qr

Documentary updates & project behind the scenes-

https://www.instagram.com/behindthescenesappalachia?igsh=MWRzejZlenQwbnRs&utm_source=qr

Some more context behind this project below if you are interested!

When I originally began this project in April of 2024, I had no intentions of filming or directing a documentary. I grew up in Southwest Virginia and my grandparents, who were born and raised in Bluefield & McDowell County, West Virginia, had had a significant impact on my life. Both passed away during COVID and with them died their stories of Appalachian life in the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s that I had grown up listening to. I left my home in SWVA shortly after that for Richmond, VA to start fresh and change the scenery. It has been great (I still live in Richmond), but a few years into my college program I began to feel homesick. Memories of my grandparents and their stories began to flood back to me along with many questions and curiosities. My grandfather in his later years had told me on several occasions that he wished him and I could take a trip down to Bluefield so he could visit his old home and his cousins. At the time, I was a very stubborn and insecure teenager, and even in Appalachia, the city kids tended to poke fun at those of us who were raised more rural. I had grown up on the outskirts of a city with a rural family and from an early age, distanced myself from any Appalachian “stereotype”. I had been to WV many times as a child and had NO desire to go back. Eventually my grandfathers age and health would ensure that even if I was interested, that trip would never happen and not going has been a big regret of mine. Unfortunately it wasn’t until after my grandparents passed that I finally began to embrace my Appalachian roots, too late to ask them the questions they would have loved to answer.
So 3 years into my program, I decided I needed to go back. I made a brief visit to my hometown in order to dig through some of my family records before heading off on a weekend in Bluefield/McDowell County, WV. I spent 2 days driving around McDowell & Mercer County seeing the sites and history I had grown up with as if I were seeing them all over again for the first time, free of the societal judgement I had foolishly placed on myself. I thought about my grandparents and my childhood memories on the VA side of the mountain. This one weekend had changed my life and all I had to do was come home. And thanks to that visit, for the last 2 years I have dedicated a lot of my time to traveling across the Appalachian regions of West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, Eastern Tennessee, and Western North Carolina gathering as much archival footage and photographs as I can. But as just I was beginning to reconnect with Appalachia, I was faced with learned about the elephant in the room: King Coal. I had always heard the arguments over it, Coal meant jobs, no coal meant no jobs, and anti- coal was anti- feeding your families. That was the narrative that was pushed and the one I ran with for a long time. I never thought to ask my grandparents their thoughts on it, despite their parents going on strike against the industry. It wasn’t until I read about (and eventually visited) Blair Mountain in nearby Logan, WV that I began to understand the complicated history of coal. With that came my introduction to Mountaintop Removal. While in Logan county, I noticed that some of the mountain ridges looked strange. Google earth and about a half hours worth of research introduced me to one of the most appalling environmental practices I’ve ever heard of. I was horrified that we were doing this to our beautiful and precious mountains and even more horrified to learn about the correlation between MTR and the various health crises facing local communities. Not to mention the lack of public knowledge surrounding all of it. I saw many beautiful places that are at risk of being destroyed or are currently being destroyed by MTR and my photographs are sadly some of the last images we will ever see of these mountains before they are dynamited into oblivion and disappear (especially in Raleigh and Boone County, WV). Many other communities were simply facing the all familiar decline that inevitably awaits every small town. This is when I decided to make a documentary. It was my senior year in college and I had been traveling Appalachia for about a year. I was looking for a topic to make a documentary on for my thesis and I knew I wanted it to be Appalachia related. The only problem was we were given a 15 minute time limit and the amount of photographic and film material that I had accumulated over the past year was far too great to narrow down into 15 minutes. I decided to use my recently gained knowledge on mountain top removal to make a short documentary introducing people to the concept and basics of mountaintop removal. I completed this documentary in May 2025 and graduated college that same month. Since graduating, I’ve had to shift my focus towards working at my job and paying my bills as any other adult. However, I didn’t want all of my surplus of photographs and videos to go unused so I have spent just about every single one of my weekends traveling back to Appalachia and gathering as many photographs and videos as I can. The goal has been to create full length (60-90 minutes) documentary expanding on the topic of Mountaintop Removal paired with a massive photo archive of the region. The documentary is currently in the works and will hopefully be completed by the end of the year. The photo archive I’ve only recently begun to share but there is much more coming! I’ve dedicated this project to my grandparents and I wouldn’t trade my experiences with it for the world. I love Appalachia, it’s where I grew up, and I hope this project does her justice!

Recently I purchased a copy of “Titanic at Two AM” by Paul Quinn. I used to read this book all the time from my local library as a kid and I have always loved how in depth and detailed Quinn’s descriptions are on top of all the survivor testimony but in thing that never clicked with me until now is that it’s odd he chooses to describe the sterns final plunge as more of a roll to the port side, dumping everyone into the sea, aside from Charles Joughin (who is seen in the painting). This book in my opinion is very accurate for the understanding at the time of publication (1994), and a lot of it holds up today I’m just curious why he chose to go with the the port roll? If I’m not mistaken don’t most historians agree it did list to port break but still went nearly vertical? Are there other survivor testimonies that describe or support Charles Joughins port roll? I know Joughins story wildly changes which is another reason I’m puzzled that a very accurate book would go with this.

These all came in the mail today! Super happy and excited to own 2 of the books (top 2) that got me into Ocean liners as a young 6 year old as well as 3 books I have never read before! I had a chance to briefly flip through them and so far I love all of the pictures and illustrations!