....And they're telling us the forecast is for 4 to 8" of the stuff starting tomorrow afternoon and continuing on into Friday mid day.....Think they may mean business this time because the "Low" system is tracking to go just south of us putting us on the "nasty" side of it.
Edit: A bit of trivia {not for the geese}, but this evening on Indy TV local news was a story from last night's storm. Straight line winds from 80 to 100 mph near a reservoir just north of Indy and expensive homes along it...had Canadian geese blown off the lake area and smashed them into homes and some thru the windows and killed upwards of 100 of them.
Quentin
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)
Just a quick note to all of you who may have reason to visit our fine state: you have to be especially careful of one piece of the Coloradoan Weathermen Vernacular. I've come to realize that if a Colorado weather report calls for a trace amount of snow, it generally means they have no clue and that one can expect anything from sunny skies to several feet of the fluffy white stuff.
At the moment, I'm kind of believing the latter is the more accuratefor this morning's call for "a trace to one inch in the metro area." After leaving cantor practice at church, I found 3-4 inches of "trace snow" on my car, and near white out conditions on the streets going home. Doh!
I thought about grabbing the camera and trying to get a shot of the beer run sitting at Tennyson, but resolved that when the train was barely visible to the naked eye, it would be far too diificult to get on film...er...sensor. You'll all just have to imagine the drama of barely visible trains tonight. Sorry.
P.S. MC - what's it like in your neck of the woods? If this is what it's like up here, I don't really care to imagine what that extra little bit of upslope lift is giving you down there!
-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
Railfanning Tuesday on the Racetrack,switch heaters suppling heat.
Amtrack Cascade Loco seen outbound. Two new looking KCS De Mexico
Locos inbound. Couldn't see Willow Spgs from I-294 8pm blowing snow.
Interesting day indeed.
eolafan wrote:Good morning all....still in Minneapolis this morning with -15F (real temp)/-37F (wind chill) temps....brrrrrr, I can hardly wait to go outside this mornng....OH YES I CAN!!!!
Oh wow....
I remember temps like that...I went to college in Duluth, MN. Guess thats why I enjoy living in Texas now.
...but look at that speed as you fly across the road!
Dan
comedy of errors. The tripod moved a little. Timer was set at 2 seconds not 10. I was trying to show how tall the corn was on June 26 near Aledo.
Clear skies and a bright moon out there now, but Oh, My! The bug's showing five below, and officially it's -1.
Back to work.
Emma, I had a couple of spectacular shots taken on the C&O at Alleghany, Virginia (yes, the spelling is correct). Spectacular place to shoot trains, spectacular power on a spectacular coal train. Spectacular camera strap across the whole thing. Talk about kicking oneself!
Poppa_Zit wrote: We did it. Officially, from 51 degrees at 2:45 pm to -1 at 10:00.50-degree drop in 7.25 hours.
We did it. Officially, from 51 degrees at 2:45 pm to -1 at 10:00.
50-degree drop in 7.25 hours.
Chicago's weather empitomizes the "F-word".
Fickle.
It got to 4-below at midnight here in the suburbs for a 55-degree drop in 9.25 hours. Now I'd like to see it go the other way, which I'd say was near impossible.
Emma - Congrats on picking up the XT and the 18-250mm! I've used XT's before, and they're tremendously capable cameras. I haven't tried the 18-250 yet, but I've read a lot of good stuff about it (Pentax rebrands it and sells it as a DA series lens, so I read a lot of reports about it in my Pentax forum over at DPReview). They should both serve you very well for general photography.
Don't worry about using it full auto, either. Despite what anyone says, learning to see is the most important part of photography. By setting your camera on Auto, you're allowing yourself more time to worry about the shot rather than the settings on the camera. There's plenty of time to learn about shutter speeds and f stops.
Oh yeah, don't kick yourself too hard, either. There's only one way to learn and that's by doing. I guarantee you that EVERY photographer does "silly things" a lot. Even the Henri Cartier-Bressons and Ansel Adamses (and dare I say it - the O. Winston Links) of the world make/made mistakes. I have a terrible habit of merging the tops of trains with the horizon. One would think that I would learn sooner or later, but it's seeming to be much later than I'd like. So don't be afraid to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.
Besides, it was just a minor niggle critique anyways. I really liked your composition of the shot. By offsetting the subject to the right 1/3 of the frame, you made a MUCH more pleasing shot than if you had just centered the shot and ignored the environment that the train was working in. As it is, I was able to get a sense of place with your shot instead of just another mug shot of a train. The late Gary J. Benson talked about "Trainscapes." I think it's very important to put trains in the environments in which they operate. You seem to have an eye for that. Keep it up!
PZ - That's a rather abrupt drop. Maybe Illinois weathercasters will be able to use to the Colorado method of weather prediction soon: If you don't like the weather in Colorado, wait 15 minutes or drive 15 miles. More often than not, that's not much of an exaggeration!
Thanks for the reasurance that I am not going blind. Actually I have to admit that I was shooting at whatever size that the camera came set at. I just got the camera(a Digital Rebel XT with Tamron 18-250 lens) and and that trip was the second time I had used it and the first time to phtograph trains. Needless to say I was using it on full auto most of the time because I am still trying to figure out how to use the camera. I did reduce the size of that image before I submitted it because it was larger than the maximum pixel width that railpictures lets you upload. And of course now I am kicking myself messing up a good shot by only getting part of the freight car on the left in the shot. I seem to do silly things like that every once in a while for some reason. Oh well. When I figure out how to use my camera better then I should really be able to have some fun with the manual controls.
Happy Railfaning,
emmar
Got back from Michigan in the rain; in the time it took us to get a few things at the store the wind came up and the temperatures dropped noticeably. The Bug at the High School is saying six above; we're expecting to go down to zero. It was the first time I ever heard reports include a "flash freeze" warning, and it was probably necessary. Glad we could make good time in Michigan and Indiana!
Now, to a question I couldn't get to before leaving: cars in the CNW 612700 series were among the first to be gotten rid of as a consequence of the overbuilding of incentive-per-diem box cars in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was about 1980 when CNW obtained these cars from the St. Lawrence Railroad (two different NSL series were involved). The square plate on the doors originally had a National Railway Utilization Corporation logo (two arrows facing opposite directions); CNW placed its logo on the same square plate "because it was there."
So....What's all this talk about Global Warming????
Just spoke to a friend up in Mason City, Iowa. The temperature there is 6 below and the wind chill is 27 below.
Interstate 35 through there is closed as are just about all the local roads in and around the town.
They are in the grips of a full fledged blizzard with whiteout conditons.
It is interesting to note, however, that the Unipn Pacific, operating over the Spine Line, is still operating.
Big storm coming tonite to the Windy City. Snow, white-out blizzard conditions, high winds, arctic cold. The TV weather geniuses say we may set a record for the biggest temperature drop in recorded history today -- as much as 50 degrees.
Went out to run errands at 2:25 this afternoon. Truck exterior thermometer said 51 degrees.
Got back one hour later. Thermometer said 36 degrees -- 15 degrees in one hour.
As I write this at 7 p.m. it is 15 degrees. Brrrrr!
Emma - The shot looks good to me as well. I haven't submitted any pictures to that site, but I've gotten the impression over time that their general demeanor with regard to submitted pictures is "how can I reject this?" Blurry may simply be the "raison du jour."
I did some magnification of the image, with expected results. What density did you shoot at, (megapixels) and did you reduce the size before you submitted it?
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Emma,
Tough break. If you have Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or something along those lines, you might try adding a touch of Unsharp Mask to the shot. Just enough to give it a little snap (sometimes shots lose their critical sharpness because of resizing and such).
As it is, I think Railpictures is getting a little nutty about sharpness, because the shot looks good on my monitor. Composition is good, though I might have been turned a little more to the left. Cutting off the covered hopper is a tiny bit distracting to me. Otherwise, very well done. Thanks for sharing!
P.S. If you get a chance, can you get a shot of the "Dinky" one of these days. There's a picture of the "Dinky" back in the 1950's or so in Don Ball, Jr's book, The Pennsylvania Railroad: The 1940's and 1950's. It would be fun to see what it looks like today.
Well I finally went railfanning today. Here is a link to a picture that I took today in Bound Brook, NJ but look quick because it got rejected by railpictures.net so it will only be up for a week. I will try to get some other pictures on here tomorrow and tell everyone a little about my trip, but for now I need to go to bed. Oh, by the way the reason for rejection was that it was blurry and I am still trying to figure out how it is blurry. Maybe my computer screen keeps me from being able to tell that my picture is blurry.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewreject.php?id=476028&key=181015362
Y6bs evergreen in my mind
Your friendly neighborhood CNW fan.
Glad things are going ok so far Carl.
Max that boxcar sure is a neat catch. I wonder why it was done that way.
i'm planning to get some BNSF action, myself. probably when it's warmer and i can tolerater standing around outside waiting for the train.
but i DID get some more action in Altoona this morning before work. just a few shots:
MVPPR was getting ready to leave. and yeah, i know you can see me in the mirror. i was unable to exit the car for a better shot.
here comes the roadrailer! i know...that stinkin' Bush! but there wasnt time for a do-over shot, so i kept it. i know many people dislike those catfish, but to be honest, i'm quite fond of them. in fact, they're my favorite -9Ws of all time (with ATSF in second place)
speaking of heavy duty power, i was greeted by a neat trio of them.
due to interest in CNW rolling stock, i will continue to post any of the more interesting ones i have seen. and this morning, i caught 2:
it's been a while since i've seen one of these. ACF hoppers if i'm correct (please correct me if i'm wrong, somebody). but hey. it was there and so it gets a part in my roster
now THESE are cool! only the second that i've seen ever. and the first good shot i have of one. all other CNW boxcars that i have seen didn't have the logo on the door. i thought that was pretty cool to see!
Thank you all, from both of us, for your kind words. We're headed up to Grand Rapids tomorrow morning (daughter is flying directly there), and will be at services both Sunday and Monday, returning home Tuesday.
I was always rather intimidated by Pat's dad, who struck me as kind of gruff (and definitely bigger than I!). But he always made me feel like a welcome addition to their family, and my girls couldn't have had a nicer and more appreciative grandfather (and great-grandfather). This wasn't unexpected, and Pat's mother seems to be holding up all right, so far.
The railroad has also been good--there are three days of paid bereavement leave allowed, and in addition, UP allows an additional week of unpaid leave if necessary. So I had today to help Pat run some necessary errands (and see a little action on BNSF at Western Springs and LaGrange).
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