I seem to make it a habit to only visit Caliente when it is not so very caliente. The only thing hot last Friday in Tehachapi was the Exhaust from the Tier 4 and Tier 3 GEs heading up grade getting ready to make some Uturns
Some more from my 2008 visit of the Canadian Science and Technology Museum: IMGP1716_Portland_4-4-0_CN_40_for_upload by Mike VE2TRV posted Apr 23, 2016 at 5:22 AM Nice little 4-4-0 built by Portland in... 1872! Gotta love the shiny bits and the big stack...
Fuel pad at NS West Virginia Sec Dickinson Yard south of Charleston,WV. The CSX engines brought in the Red Circus Train. This pic is part of the circus train for the workers and preformers. The animals and flat cars are in Charleston. Curtis
My final week in GA and I had a chance to get down to Sparks, GA and snap a not so good picture of the private GP9 thay use for moving rock cars at the quarry operation there. And finally a triple header in Tifton, GA that was hauling a string of crude oil cars.
Taken about a month ago, an NS coal train moving north from the Port of Charleston, SC. Yes, this is imported coal moving to a utility somewhere in VA and this was one of many moves. We live in an amazing and often baffling age.
A few days ago, I caught the local leaving town. Mission Mountain Railroad's custom unrepainted..... :
I haven't posted in this thread yet as I don't see many trains in the daylight. However, one morning last week, I caught this short Northwestern Pacific train crossing Corona Road in Petaluma near where I work.
Wish I could find more information on how this operation is coming along. Progress in restorations and picking up customers would be nice to see. Seems like the railfan grapevine lost interest a few years back.
My impression is that it's chugging along. They don't run during the day very often so I don't think they're as photogenic as one might like. And I'm not sure anything positive or negative to report on any plans to go further north.
Yesterday, I tried something I have always wanted to do--long time exposures. I drove out of town at 9:00PM to Gassman Coulee Trestle, west of Minot, ND. I climbed up the hill overlooking the valley and the trestle, and set the camera and tripod up. The wind was blowing 25, and gusting 40 MPH, so I was bundled up. I must have looked a real sight, if anyone noticed me up there! The first train was a westbound manifest freight. It was slowly chugging upgrade, digging into the grade west of Minot. The leader's headlights were blindingly bright.... This exposure on my Canon Rebel T5, with the kit 18-55mm lens. 18mm, 396 sec at f/10. I played with the settings, as the moonlight was going behind the clouds, and while doing so, a nearly silent eastbound stack train eased downgrade. 18mm, 397 sec at f/13. The files are quite noisy. Not sure how to fix that without software after the fact, or bumping ISO lower. Any ideas? This is my first try at this, so I wasn't expecting pro results, but I like the way it came out regardless.
Prototype for Atlas sectional track on Monday. This has been sitting here for quite a while, I believe at some point CSX will be replacing the track that crosses US Route 30. This crossing has been an almost constant pain in the a$$ for local travelers for last few years. Apparently there is a culvert/drain pipe under the westbound lane and it has collapsed in some form twice now. 20160418_101255 by Adam Henry, on Flickr I stopped at the crossing near the end of the Utz factory on Sumday for a couple of shots for my personal layout, to get an idea of building height and details around the unloading area for cooking oil. 20160417_111000 by Adam Henry, on Flickr 20160417_110954 by Adam Henry, on Flickr I also caught an ICHABOD victim on Friday while making a delivery in Mt Airy, MD 20160422_093002 by Adam Henry, on Flickr 20160422_093008 by Adam Henry, on Flickr
I'm more interested in the tank cars, I have a few that I need to weather up, this will come in handy. Thanks !
Great stuff Hemi! Quite the commitment to work the set up and do so in a cold wind. If the files are noisy, it certainly doesn't show. Yes, I suppose you could force the ISO lower, but your shots look great to me just as they are. Thanks for posting!
I've seen a hi rail pick up pulling some kind of trailer pass behind where I work a couple of times, but again, it's always dark. The SMART trains are supposed to be running later this year and right now they've been doing testing, but I have yet to see the car sets.
I saw one of the SMART Carsets as it came through Roseville on the back of an autorack train a few months ago. It blew my mind, because it looked like an LRV, but it was behind the dpu, not on a flat at. It wasn't till later that I realized what I'd seen. Very weird that it was behind the DPU. The generally don't do that. No picture as it was 9 @ night and it was making posted speed.
New Oxford, PA . A group is raising money to purchase this property from CSX to preserve the station. I think they are pretty close to reaching their goal, if not already.
John's reference to a hi-rail made me remember this heavy hi-rail hauling seven gons while CSX was repairing our line ten years ago after Hurricane Katrina. BTW, what are "SMART trains"?
There used to be a great local hobby shop there I think. Was it Paul's? If it's the place I'm thinking of, it featured two prototype passenger cars positioned in a V-Shape. Stopped there several times on vacations and was in heaven.