Amtrak's westbound Empire Builder pounds the diamond at Duplainville, Wis., just minutes out of Milwaukee on a beautiful November afternoon. It was certainly a great moment to be trackside: beautiful sun, unusual warmth for November, decent color yet. Yet, the moment is fleeting, for this Sunday we turn our clocks back one hour and lose much of the opportunity to photograph trains after work – at least for those of us who live up north and work "normal" hours.
Sure, I'll make an effort to look for trains before work with the "found" hour of light, for a few weeks anyway. But even that opportunity is slipping away as November turns to December and the snow begins to fly. So weekends become even more precious for railroad photography, at least for a few months. Hey, at least the grass doesn't need mowing anymore!
The first weekend snowfall is always a good reason to make time to go trackside. But, usually sometime in mid January, the desire to go out in the cold is gone and you long for the first "warm" – above 35 degrees! – days that will start to appear in February. Hopefully, anyway.
So go out now, while there is still some color on the trees, while a sweatshirt is enough to hold off autumn's chill, and while the opportunity lingers. Because this moment is fleeting indeed.
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