Standing in a bit of an odd place. The track in the foreground is the why at the north end of Roseville yard. The train Station used to be here. Residential area behind me. The train is coming off the Valley sub into the yard passing Old Roseville. Taken in 2014
Leaving St. Louis on the afternoon edition of the Missouri River Runner. October 18, 2009. Passing a derelict interlocking tower on the right.
My favorite shot of the night's outing west of town.... BNSF eastbound stacks sail through Control Point 18.9, just west of Lonetree, ND in the middle of a heavy snow squall. I don't know for sure what track speed is here, but they were doing 55 or 60 MPH.
Taken Thursday, local NS Train P85 makes its way north at Killian, SC with a former N&W SD-40-2 built in 1975:
Nice shot Curtis! What's your secret for taking a properly lit photo with a bazillion watts of headlight pointed straight into your lens? I can't take this sort of photo, as my camera thinks I'm standing on the surface of the sun and my picture turns out way underexposed.
Sorry, didn’t know. It is right where the tracks turned off of the main line to enter the old stub end passenger station at St.Louis.
One way to beat that is focus on a predetermined spot on the track, and when the loco reaches that spot, trip the shutter. You can also bracket your shot a bit, if the over/underexposure is a problem.
I need to see if my camera (a seven year old Nikon D5100) can automatically bracket when the shutter is tripped. I normally avoid any composition that allows a head-on headlight in the lens, so I give up some potentially neat shots.
Is running long hood forward here a random situation, or is it a survival of former N&W/SOU/NS rules ? Dom
I'm not sure Dom, but this local runs some 70 Miles from Columbia, runs around its train and returns with the unit running the other way. So, I'm thinking it's random. Neat for you to think of N&W and SOU with this. I'd forgotten about their preference to have that long hood forward!
I believe in the long hood forward days, both SOU & NW ordered the units with the control stands mounted in a reversed position from most other railroad's control stands, to make it more convenient and comfortable for the engineers. However those units could be operated short hood forward, just that it was more awkward for the engineer.
I go by that tower on an almost daily basis on my run from Hannibal to St. Louis and back. We call it Grand Ave. Wether that is the correct name I can’t say but it works for us on the train.
