The Shot

Sometimes on a train-watching outing, I get some decent photographs but nothing really special. Sometimes I get nothing but duds. Occasionally... I get a shot I'm really pleased with... The Shot.

On Saturday afternoon I went out with the kids to run a few errands and shoot a few trains. I headed toward my usual spot near Diamond to try to catch VIA 692 aka the Hudson Bay returning from its long journey from Churchill.

I had a little detour, though, because when I drove over Pembina Highway I saw the headlights of CN 532 to the north. I did a quick turnaround and went into St. Norbert to wait for 532 to roll by. I didn't want to go too far south so I set up at the crossing of Avenue Ducharme to get them. I did not have to wait long. In fact, I was still slapping the tripod up when CN 532 came around the bend. Faded SD75I CN 5628 and shiny ex-BNSF C40-8W CN 2199 were the power for the long train.




After they passed, I continued on my way up to Diamond. There were quite a few CN maintenance vehicles around and a foreman had a block from mile 10 (the hotbox detector) out to mile 17 or so. This meant that all trains had to call the foreman for permission to pass through his block, so I could get some advance warning.

I was not there long before I heard VIA 692 call through loud and clear to acknowledge that the foreman had given them permission to pass through on the north track at 30 MPH. I set up the tripod with the Canon S3 on it for video, and waited for the train.

I should mention that the outside temperature was -11C according to the hotbox, but the wind was howling. My hands were almost completely numb after VIA passed. I think I need to toss some light gloves into the camera bag!

Anyway, here's VIA 6455 leading the usual consist of two engines, baggage car, two coaches, diner and one Chateau sleeper car.




Here's my video. Note that my tripod is a little broken and the wind of the passing train twisted the head around a bit!


VanBilly1 shot the same train at St. James Junction a few miles east of me.

That was all well and good. I heard CN 117 calling for permission to go through the block, so I shot them coming the other way. I had already packed up my tripod, and I didn't feel like standing in the cold cold wind again anyway, so I just shot stills.


Dash-9 IC 2724 and ES44DC CN 2292 were the power for this intermodal train. You can see by the light that the sun was getting close to the horizon. This was at 5 minutes to 5 PM.

Yes, yes, Steve, all good, but where is this "shot" you are talking about?

I figured there were not going to be any more trains on CN for a while, and with darkness approaching I thought I'd try my luck on the CP mainline 10 minutes north. I drove up to the elevator at Makwa and saw that the west-facing lights had a green light on them.

In fact it was red over green over red by the elevator at Makwa, which is Canadian Rail Operating Rules rule 416, "Limited to Clear"... "Proceed, LIMITED speed passing signal and through turnouts." From Makwa (mile 11.1 of the CP Carberry subdivision) there are two main tracks east to the yard at mile 1.7, so the eastbound train would be switching to the other main track, hence the LIMITED speed.

This was good! It meant there was probably a train coming soon. I headed west toward Rosser village, straining to see a headlight in the falling dark. I passed through Rosser and continued west toward the grain elevator at Meadows, figuring if nothing else I might get a bit of sunset on the side of the elevator. As I was on the straightaway approaching the elevator, I saw headlights on the track on the other side of the elevator. I was hoping that I could get there in time to get the train passing the elevator.

Well, you might have guessed that I did get there in time. Here's the Shot.


I mean, seriously, look at that sky! I could not have asked for a nicer colour.

The train rolled on by and I gave pursuit. It was going a good 55-60 MPH (speed limit 60) so I did not pass the head end until near Makwa where they had to slow to that LIMITED speed. By this time I had my "nifty fifty" 50mm prime lens on to try to grab what little light there was. I did this panning shot of CEFX 1050 as it rolled on by, and the engineer gave me a few toots.


I was super pleased with myself for getting that elevator shot, and I think I need to try some more sunset shots!

You can view the complete consists in my sightings database, as always.

NortheastFoto

A friend on Google+ pointed me to http://northeastfoto.com, a community of photographers in the Northeast USA. They have a lot of great train photos in their transportation section. Check it out!

If you haven't tried Google+ yet, why not give it a try? There are some absolutely fantastic photographers on there and I am learning a lot while enjoying some great photography. I'm here if you want to check out what I've been doing.

Reprocessing

As I continue taking photographs, I'm learning more about post-processing.

In the film age, post-processing was done in the darkroom with selective dodging and burning and other techniques. I don't know a lot about the film techniques because I've never developed my own photos.

In the digital age, post-processing begins when you open the digital file (hopefully in RAW format) in your favourite editor. For me it's either Canon's Digital Photo Professional or Paint.NET. Cropping, changing exposure, sharpening, saturation... there are so many ways you can change a photo. One could wonder at what point a photograph ceases to be a photograph and is instead a digital construct.

Here's a case in point. I started a photo theme on Google+ for bridges. I looked for a bridge photo of my own and decided on the Chaleur crossing the trestle near Gascon, Quebec. This is the original image. The only processing done to this is to resize it.


Now this is a heavily reprocessed version of the same image.



You can see I cropped it a bit. I used Paint.NET and ended up with four layers:

1. foreground and bridge and portion of engines
2. train cars
3. yellow on engines
4. sky

I then manipulated each layer separately. For the foreground I cranked up the saturation to make the green trees and the rusty bridge "pop". I dulled the shine on the baggage car. I pumped up the saturation on the yellow of the engines but not very much. I tweaked the sky significantly with brightness, contrast and saturation.

Just for comparison... I blogged about my Chaleur chase with David Morris back in 2007. At that time, I posted this photo. It's not the same image but only a few seconds later than the above image. I don't remember the processing but I'm sure I cropped a bit, maybe tweaked the brightness and/or contrast, and resized it.


What do you think? Do you prefer the original, or the heavily reprocessed version? Are the changes too much? Does it still look realistic? I'm very curious to hear what you think of this particular image, and image manipulation in general.

CN 347 And 199

I shot CN 347 and CN 199 in the past few days. First, here's CN 347 heading out of Winnipeg, throwing a bit of snow.


CN 8930 was the sole unit on the train, which consisted of a lot of empty centerbeam flat cars and some miscellaneous freight. I think their speed was being restricted, because I was able to leapfrog them a couple of times as they rolled along the Rivers subdivision. For the third photo opportunity, I decided to try a few panning shots. This was the best of them.


The next day, I managed to grab CN 199 passing by Carman Junction.


Someone today said that trains have grown more boring with the endless procession of containers. In some ways I agree but there is something fascinating about a two mile moving wall.


CN 2236 was the DPU (Distributed Power Unit) engine on CN 199, only the second time I've seen a DPU on 199.

More Photos of 6200

Dave Dineen posted some great photos of freshly-painted HLCX 6200 in Saint John. Please view his album.

UPDATE: He also posted a video of his chase of HLCX 6318 / HLCX 911 / HLCX 6200 - all leased power.

Destruction of Enterprise Fawcett

I was sad to hear that the historic foundry in Sackville, New Brunswick was destroyed in a serious fire on Wednesday. The CBC reported that the fire started with two large explosions Wednesday evening, and flames as high as 10m were seen as fire crews from the region fought the blaze. CTV reported that the fire was extinguished early Thursday morning but the building is essentially destroyed.

The building housed Enterprise Fawcett, a company that made cookstoves, furnaces and heaters, one of the few remaining foundries in the world. It was started as the Dominion Foundry Company in 1852. The company employed either 25-30 or 60 people, depending on which news report you read.

The building was destroyed and rebuilt after another fire on July 29, 1908, according to Bill Hamilton. The same fire destroyed the original railway station nearby. The foundry building was designated a Local Historic Place.

I found an aerial photo of the foundry (and the railway station) in the book. The photo is dated May 30, 1931 and is from the New Brunswick Provincial Archives.


The foundry's railway tracks appear to be two tracks inside the complex as well as a track beside some kind of covered platform.

In 1931 the train station had two tracks, and in fact there were two tracks there until fairly recently. Note at the bottom of the photo that there is a third track.

Now look at this track diagram from the August 1988 CN Car Control Manual. I've circled the Enterprise Foundry name. You can click on the image to see the whole manual.

• D78 - Enterprise Foundry Co. 730 feet
• D79 - Enterprise Foundry Co. 400 feet
• D80TT - Crane and Team Track 165 feet

D72 through D76 are listed as storage and marshalling tracks, a little over 1400 feet each.

Does anyone know when the tracks into the foundry were removed?

HLCX 6200, Repainted

Here it is! I don't see the chevrons on the rear, nor the usual bay windows that NB Southern uses, but otherwise it looks complete. I think the white lettering under 6200 says "SD40-2".

I'm told it was on the westbound freight train tonight. I'm guessing HLCX 6318 will get a new coat of paint very soon.