Trackside with Erik and Mike, Vol. 37: August 22, 2005

[Anonymous]

I voted for Mike. I miss shooting the Oil Cans on Tehachapi Loop !

[Anonymous]

I voted for Erik, IC over CP anyday.

[udohaubmann]

Hi,

Difficult vote again - I chose Mike. Great train shown in full length, and interesting lighting. But I have to admit Erik´s shot is great too - also good for a win!

Udo

[aussiecsx]

TextTextTextMike, Great shot of this train to capture the full length of a train thats relativly long is quite rare. I live in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales AUSTRALIA where we run coal trains of up to 108 cars and i can only think of a few spots that i could get a shot of the whole train well done top marks.

Regards
Greg

[jimmac230]

I preferred Erik's over Mike's CP photo. Now if Mike had went with the UP's heritage unit, He would have gotten the vote hands down. Just kidding.... Both photos are great. I'm a firm believer of keeping a camera around just in case of those unusual situations where the train may have something unique or different with it and catch it on the fly.

[PRRK4s1361]

You blew it Eric...if you had used the first shot of the IC units (going away) it would have been a very difficult decision but since you went with the 'in-your-face' look, that did it. I went with Mike's; very clean lines, no clutter detracting from the subject. Still, keep up the great work, guys.

[DICKK]

I voted for mike. Even though it looked like a giant millipede, it caught my eye more than the other.

[Anonymous]

TWO PEAS IN THE SAME POD! MIKE'S PHOTO BEING SLIGHTLY MORE INTERESTING DUE TO THE LINEAR PERFECTION OF THE TRAIN AND R.O.W. BLUELANTERN

[dknelson]

If Bergie's is the Alpha, does that make Mike's the Omega?
Let's all take shots of sulpher trains! Last one in's a rotten egg!
Dave Nelson

[FrankStratton]

I had to vote for Mike's shot, a whole (75) car train of oil cans and a single locomotive would seem to be a rather rare sight. A well framed shot too.

On the other hand I hope that someone got some rooster shots of those IC units. It is hard to believe that one would see (3) fallen flag Illinois Central units together like that in 2005. Both of Eric's shots seem to be missing something, almost like he wasn't in the right spot, too close to the rails maybe. Those rare IC units needed more of a broadside shot to do them justice.

[tmcc man]

i went with mikes photo becuase he fit the entire train into the photo. The train looks really cool especially since one loco is pulling it all.

[shawnbecher]

While seeing the IC units together is great, the photo iteslf has too much white space (the sky). I liked Mike's photo better because there is more color to it even if the nose of the loco is in the shadows. I have taken many shots like that myself.

[sporegonfan]

I will admit it was a difficult choice this week. But I went with Erik's because I like the brighter colors in it. However, it probably would have been a better shot if taken a little more from the left: show that all three locomotives are IC. In this shot, it's hard to tell.

[mandelswamp]

Erik and Mike, you provided another tough choice. Mike, I tend to favor the Canadian railroads and I liked the fact that your shot captures that long line of tank cars. However, as you mentioned yourself, the locomotive is in shadows so that subtracted from the photo. I decided to vote for Erik's picture because I felt it truly captured the train's snaking progress from siding to main and was therefore the slightly better picture.

[kolechovski]

I like Mike's photo, but Erik's seemed far more visually appealing to me. It was also at a unique angle, and showed some less common locos and had better lighting.