30 Second Drill in the Dark

On a tip from a friend "in the know," and after my wife & I put the kids to bed, I headed out last night (10/6/2010) to photograph a unit ethanol extra on the New England Central Railroad here in Connecticut. The extra out of Palmer, MA, carrying loaded cars destined for the Providence & Worcester in New London, CT, and eventual delivery in Providence, RI, was to meet up with the NECR south end local in Willimantic, CT. The local job had brought up 80 empty tanks from the P&W in New London and hand them off to the Palmer crew to take back north. The south end crew would take the loads down to New London and give them to the P&W, who would be there around midnight. With two trains to choose from, I decided on shooting the northbound empty train.

After shooting them in Willimantic during the exchange, and then later in Eagleville on their northbound trip, I was debating on whether or not I should continue - the time was getting to be around midnight. But on my way out of the Eagleville Dam area, I said what the hell, let's try one more spot. Mentally going through the potential spots close by with the easiest setup, I decided to head for a crossing in the Merrow section of Mansfield, CT a couple miles north of me. The question would be if I could make it there ahead of the train or not.

As I pulled off of Route 32 onto Merrow Road I was greeted by a reassuring sight - dark crossing signals. Phew, a bit of relief that I was a bit ahead of them. But once I parked the car, they began flashing, suddenly putting me into rush mode. Now the question was could I get the light out, set it up and get a shot off?

Short answer was yep - within about 30 seconds from when the signals activated, to when the lead SD40-2 hit the grade crossing, I managed to set up the Lumedyne and click off a quick test frame before getting what I came for. Here's the result.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=340397

Not much thought in setting up the light (which if you're curious was a single 400 watt/second Lumedyne) - I shot from the hip, so to speak. Sometimes it's better to run that way, than to over think things. Plus I tend to second-guess myself at times, and screwing myself up. This time, I don't think that happened...I think it was worth heading a couple more miles north.

As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.

And yes, the crew knew I was there lighting them up - I've shot these guys on a number of other occasions over the past year or so, and they've never had a problem with it.

Thanks!
Tom Nanos
Lebanon, CT