Well it's been awhile since I've taken any train photos, but an opportunity presented itself last night, so I took a couple last night.
As I was headed back from basketball last night, I saw that the beer run was sitting at Tennyson St. I love snowy evenings, so I thought I'd grab a couple night shots of this guy. I set the camera up on a tripod and then walked along the locomotive illuminating it with a couple blasts from my old Canon 299T flash. I'm pretty sure that the crew thought I was nuts (I was still in my basketball shorts and sandals), but that's alright. I'm pretty sure that I am nuts. I think I might have overdone the B&W conversion a little bit, but I still like the shot.
-ChrisWest Chicago, ILChristopher May Fine Art Photography"In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration." ~Ansel Adams
Your friendly neighborhood CNW fan.
Ah, Chris, you make me more jealous of your skills with every shot you take.
I like it, it makes me think of a cold, wet, rainy spring weekend. The B&W may have been ever so slightly overdone, but that adds to the mood of the photo. Very good job.
....Chris....That really sounds neat. Never heard of it being done like that. If I understand you correctly, your camera on the tripod is open and you pass by said train flashing with another camera / flash unit.
You would have to be open for a pretty long time exposure to give yourself time to walk by and do the lighting....I suppose....
It sure produced a nice shot.
Quentin
Quentin,
That's exactly what I did. The locomotive wasn't in very good light, so I had to provide some of my own.
With the camera on the tripod, I set it on manual and used a shutter speed of 30 seconds at f16. After I tripped the shutter, I fired the flash on the nose of the loco, and then walked/jogged down the side of the loco and added 3 flash bursts to illuminate the side a little bit.
The color version looks a little goofy because the flash output is very white (it's balanced for daylight) compared to the ambient light, which is orange thanks to the sodium vapor lights in the area. It didn't matter in the B&W version, which is why I changed it. Had I been interested in a color version, I probably would've used some of the flash bulbs I have laying around. I'd like to save those for special shoots, though (night shoot of 3985 & 844 on the Frontier Days train this year?). Flash bulbs are much yellower and would've blended with the sodium vapor lighting a little more seamlessly.
As it is, I think I'm going to spend some time tweaking the shot a little bit tonight. I plan to back off the contrast a little bit, and spend a little more time dodging and burning the shot. I really need to dodge the ballast a little bit (had I been more aware that the ballast was so dark, I might of even hit it with a pop of the flash), because it's starting to bug me when I look at the shot.
Won't mind seeing the result of the tweaks, Chris! Pre-tweak is certainly good enough, though!
I was able--barely--to catch the 6936 as it left Proviso this morning. By my bike computer it was on the move at 6:04, and I got into the yard at 6:06, in time to cross the tracks directly behind the theater car (I'm hoping there's no bad PR!). I was happy to hear more EMD-like sounds coming from the unit this morning (maybe because it was in a lower throttle setting).
I saw some nice pictures taken around Milwaukee later in the morning, including one by Kat Kube.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
i hereby declare today a smashing success!
one of the many reasons to skip class on a testing day!
goodness i never expected my UP roster to have such interesting power in it! E9s, passenger cars, the olympic unit, 3300, 1995, and now a DDA40X. with a challenger soon to follow.
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
Lord Atmo wrote:
Great shot, Max!
Does anyone happen to know roughly when the DDA40X acquired the green paint on the nose?
Nice Shot, Max. Thanks for sharing!
Dale, AFAIK, the green nose was part of the UP paint scheme in the 60's. I'm guessing that it was retained to give it a historic "feel."
thanks for the kind words, all.
and brian, that bridge is one of my fanning spots too. i've stood there with binnoculars many times. it's very fun to watch trains pass beneath you.
and lemme tell ya. the trip to catch the special was a whole other adventure. First i arrived in Altoona intending on setting up camp there till the special arrived. but a parked manifest was blocking my view of the mainline at my first hot spot and the other one was UP property. i'm sure the agents would boot me off with a train full of officers coming through. i took no chances and made haste to Fall Creek and waited on some bleachers at a trackside park there. a local came through during that time. had it not had one of those UP screamer horns, i would've assumed it to be the DDA40X. but nope. that train didnt come for another 3 hours. it finally showed up when i was on a trackside street when i got my first shots of it. then i floored the van to altoona where it turned out i was ahead of the train. that's where i took the shot i posted. i then had enough time to get into my van and pace the train through Altoona and again headed it off at Eau Claire. i shot a video of it on the chippewa river bridge. then i finally returned to school
whew. what a day!
Just a quick shot taken in Keenesburg, CO:
Nice shot, Chris! Is that some sort of team track area, fairly accessible, where one can actually get up close to and personal with freight equipment?
Pat and I spent a couple of hours on Monday running various errands--on foot. In the 90 or so minutes we were in downtown Lombard, we had eight trains go through, six of which were freights (it was the hour in which the eastbound scoot doesn't run, or we would have had one more).
Less than three weeks until vacation--details are falling into place! I was told today that we're Matt's adoptive grandparents. Good things will come in pairs--Joe's and Nora's families, Horseshoe Curve and Fostoria, my sister and Pat's brother, Gallitzin and Sauder Village, inclines at the Curve and at Johnstown, Ann Arbor to Zanesville...our lucky numbers are 5, 12, and 35.
After this hectic week of vacation, we have a guest for a week or so, and we'll do a bit of carchaeology in the Chicago area. He'll probably get me into trouble--it ought to be fun!
....Chris:
Really like your B/W photo....
Carl:
Lets have a good thorough report from that Johnstown.....Altoona area on the upcoming vacation. Lots of good stuff in that area.
Edit: And Carl, if you get to the observation area at the Johnstown Incline....just glance southward, and in that direction about 20 miles is our home area. Right at rt. 30 and 281 . The little home town.
And we intend to be there over the Memorial Day holliday time....
Dan
mudchicken wrote:It's the farm implement cross dock that was part of the depot complex there (CB&Q)....built out of bridge timbers and similar to a frame trestle bridges. They still unload an occasional piece of heavy equipment there. With the facilities at nearby Hudson, that dock sees little use other than company material use.
Ah...thanks for the info, MC.
Is that common practice: team tracks that primarily serve company purposes vs revenue cars?
Well today brought some interesting additions to my roster. Here we go:
The awesome UP SD70Ms have definitely settled in now. Coming in trios. Oh how I've waited for this glorious day! Seen behind the mighty trio is a patched SP GP40. While i loathe and avoid patched CNW spartan cabs, this does not apply to any other patched units. In fact I rather enjoy seeing them. a nice break from armour yellow (sorta) especially with 1459 in such a good condition.
Next up is this SD70M with a neat snoot SD40-2 (or "SNOOOOOOOT!!!!" in Atmonomian) behind him.
Boy this is quite an interesting tank car. never saw a UP tank car before. Or rather "scale monitor car" as this seems to read.
CNW 6000 wrote: mudchicken wrote:It's the farm implement cross dock that was part of the depot complex there (CB&Q)....built out of bridge timbers and similar to a frame trestle bridges. They still unload an occasional piece of heavy equipment there. With the facilities at nearby Hudson, that dock sees little use other than company material use. Is that common practice: team tracks that primarily serve company purposes vs revenue cars?
You don't get many industries any more that use railroads without having spurs of their own, which was the primary purpose of a team track. Construction equipment, like MC says, is a good one that's still left--or wherever they have to unload materials for pipelines or wind farms. I'm sure there was a track in Global 3 that functioned as a team track recently, when we'd send them trainloads of large pipe. Late last month, when we were out there, the pipe was still sitting in the yard, but the shipments had ended weeks before.
Glad we've made life interesting for you, Max!
The converted tank cars have the advantage of being able to be placed anywhere in the train, and not having serious speed restrictions placed on them. But that CNW car is one sophisticated piece of equipment, capable of lifting itself off its wheels and concentrating all of its weight on some of the shorter scales in use these days.
you made life interesting for me? you're involved with UP eh? yes i must thank the power desk for sending me SD70Ms.
I guess you could say I'm a little bit responsible for the day-to-day mix of cars on the manifest trains (westbound only, thanks!).
You might get a blue visitor tonight or tomorrow--UP 2001. Saw him leaving on one of the Butler trains today.
ah i saw him once before. would love to again if i can make it up there. i work tomorrow morning so i cant be out waiting tonight. but i appreciate the heads-up
westbound only? what yard do ya work at? and you're an engineer?
The "CRO1" in my signature suggests that I'm the senior car retarder operator--one of the guys who puts the "Pro" in Proviso.
The 2001 didn't show as going anywhere from Butler when I checked this morning. Meanwhile, UP 1995 was sent to Peoria, and I got the rare opportunity to see a new "colorful" KCS 70-series unit.
....Carl:
Can you tell anything about how the economy is doing by the activity thru your work place....? Is it anykind of indicator that might be reliable for such....
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.