I was out fairly early in the morning of October 22, looking for trains before heading to work. It was quite dark, even as it approached 8 AM, so I put the 50mm lens on my camera as it is the most light sensitive lens I have. I say that like I have a lot of lenses - I have 3.
Anyway, I was at Diamond when I noticed a CN eastbound train approaching. I shot CN 5701 East as it approached Diamond, then shot over the engineer's shoulder here as they were about to split the signals right at Diamond.
I tweaked the image a fair bit to get some light into it. It's grainy because it was shot at ISO 1600, shutter speed 1/320, F/1.8. I probably could have lived with a shutter speed of around 1/200 but it would not have made that much difference.
I gave chase. It was an intermodal train but there were no DPU engines as far as I could see. I never did catch the number. I heard CN 545 talking to them and I figured they were going to meet somewhere. I picked a spot on Wilkes Avenue that I thought was likely and I saw headlights approaching from the east. It was 545 with CN 4765 leading CN 4776, both GP38 engines.
I wasn't sure where exactly the meet would occur but it would be very near me. I was worrying that 545 on the south track would block my view of the meet, but I got lucky and managed to capture it.
That was it for that morning!
2 comments:
Good timing and location for that meet, Steve. I have had a very few such experiences, and photographed even fewer, since it is such a matter of timing. However, I'm planning a Trackside Treasure post with the photos. My first was in 1978, and included some of 4765's wide-cab sisters.
Thanks for sharing,
Eric
I got lucky... sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
I always look forward to your posts!
Post a Comment