Davenport, North Dakota.

In mid-May this year, my blogger friend, Terri, posted a photo challenge about the color purple. That post is here. I mentioned in a comment to Terri that one of my favorite dominoes games is “Mexican Train.” I always grab the little purple train engine for my marker and I call it the “Purple Train” partly because of Prince’s song, Purple Rain. I’ve set the publication date for this Travel Tuesday post to June 6 as a further homage to Prince as his date of birth was June 7, 1958.

I remembered a photo I captured in June of 2017 of engine No. 261 out of Minneapolis, (Prince’s hometown,) while it was at Davenport North Dakota for a special excursion. I decided to rework the photo to create an image of a Purple Train to share with you. At the time I first worked on the photo in 2017, I used Luminar Flex, a predecessor to Luminar Neo to give the old steam engine a mystical look. That look was in part due to my use of an Orton Effect tool.

The train’s highly reflective surfaces looked blue because of the nearly cloudless sky. I realized that a rework of this image in Adobe Lightroom Classic would take but a few moments. I opened a virtual copy of the image in Lightroom. All I had to do was hit the HSL dropdown and find the blue hue control. I moved the slider about 50 percent to the right and stopped when I thought the image created a pleasing purple pigmentation (sorry for the alliteration >grin<.) For a look at the image in 2K HD, click on the photo to view it on my Flickr site.

As a concluding salute to Prince and his song “Purple Rain”, I asked ChatGPT to write a poem referencing the song and my image of the purple train engine. Here is the poem generated by the AI tool:

In the land where melodies reign,
A tale unfolds, the Purple Train.
Its rhythm carries souls afar,
Guided by the midnight star.

With wheels adorned in violet hue,
It glides upon the tracks so true.
A symphony in motion, it’s seen,
A tribute to the song, Purple Rain.

Its whistle echoes through the night,
A haunting call, a timeless flight.
Passengers board, hearts light with glee,
Seeking solace in the melody.

Inside the carriages, dreams reside,
Bound together, side by side.
Eyes enchanted by the cosmic glow,
As Purple Rain’s enchantment does bestow.

Through valleys deep and mountains high,
The Purple Train takes to the sky.
Whispering secrets in every gust,
Love, loss, and dreams they discuss.

With every station, stories unfold,
Tales of passion, fierce and bold.
In every heart, a purple flame,
Ignited by the Purple Train.

Oh, Prince, your legacy lives on,
In melodies that dance at dawn.
The Purple Train, a tribute divine,
A journey through the grand design.

So, come aboard, dear dreamer true,
Let the Purple Train carry you.
To lands where music reigns supreme,
And love’s transcendent, like a dream.

Thanks for humoring me on my three-part experiment with ChatGPT. This post is a tome in honor of the Artist Formerly Known as Prince on his birthdate week. I am updating this post on May 26 to acknowledge the loss of another musical legend, Tina Turner, who departed from this world earlier this week.

Next week, in the final part of my ChatGPT experiment, I ask ChatGPT to write a short story to accompany my photo illustrations. Comments on the photo, the post, or the poem are welcome. What do you think?

John Steiner