How to Fix Backlit Photos in Lightroom

Backlit photo - before and after

Here's a common problem. You see an interesting subject but the light is behind the subject. This is called "backlit" for obvious reasons.

Maybe you can't move to a spot with better light, or the subject is a train that's moving and you have to get the shot now. You take the photo anyway and you end up with something like this:

Can we make this better?

To quote Bob the Builder, "Yes We Can!"

The quick version of what we're going to do in Adobe Lightroom is:

• Boost shadows
• Reduce highlights
• Increase saturation
• Deal with noise 

Let's get to it.

What Does "Backlit" Mean?

Let's define what "backlit" means. It's defined as "illuminated from behind" meaning that the light source is farther away from the photographer than the subject is, and the light source is in the same direction as the subject.

It could mean that the light is directly "in line" with the subject, silhouetting the subject; or it might not be in line and simply causes deep shadows like the photo above.

Why is Backlighting Bad?

First off, it isn't always bad. In portrait photography you often want backlighting - often combined with a little flash.

However, in landscape or railfan photography, backlighting is usually undesired. Why?

The main reason why backlighting is bad are the deep shadows it causes, which obscure details. A secondary problem is the sky, which is often too bright or pure white from the camera trying to expose for the subject and "blowing out" the sky.

How To Fix Backlighting in Lightroom

In Adobe Lightroom, there are two main things you can do to fix backlit photos - boost the shadows and reduce the highlights.

If you use other editing programs, the process is likely similar, but I'll go through the process with Lightroom.

The basic steps are the following:

1. Boost Shadows by about +50
2. Reduce Highlights by about -90
3. Increase saturation
4. Deal with noise
5. Make final adjustments

Boosting Shadows

In Lightroom, open the image in the Develop module and go to the Basic panel. Try boosting the Shadows to +50 and see how it looks.

Backlit - boosting the shadows

This definitely brings out some detail on the "dark side" of the locomotive, without significantly affecting the brightness of the rest of the photo. Note that the grass in the foreground is a bit brighter too.

Boosting the shadows is a lot easier if you shoot in RAW format with your camera, if you can. RAW format files have a lot more information in them than a JPG file does.

Now we reduce the highlights.

Reducing Highlights

In Lightroom, take the Highlights slider in the Basic panel and slide it down to about -90.

Backlit - reducing the highlights

What we're doing here is reducing the brightness of the sky. As I mentioned above, the sky is often too bright in backlit photos so bringing the highlights down usually reduces the sky's brightness.

If the sky was totally blown out (pure white) then this won't do a lot but it will help. For blown-out skies, you may need to add a graduated filter in Lightroom and reduce the brightness of the sky further. You may also have to reduce the saturation in that filter because totally blown out skies often have an unwanted colour cast to them.

Increasing Saturation

Backlit photos often look washed out, so they benefit from a little colour saturation.

In Lightroom you have two sliders that directly affect how much colour is in the photo: saturation and vibrance. They both affect the intensity of colour in the image but vibrance is a little more subtle than saturation is. This article explains the difference well. Think of vibrance as a gentle way to boost colour where it's needed while saturation is a colour fire hose. A little of the saturation slider goes a long way... but sometimes you have to go wild with it.

Backlit - adding saturation

Now I'm sure you're saying - "hold it, that looks terrible!" That grass looks totally unrealistic.

I agree. Let's fix it with a graduated filter. I dragged it up from just below the horizon to overlap the bottom of the locomotive and horizon a bit, then reduced the saturation in the filter to -40 to partially compensate for the saturation added above. I didn't fully compensate because I wanted a bit more colour in the grass than the original.

Backlit - fixing the grass with a graduated filter

So that looks pretty good. We're almost done.

Dealing With Noise

The problem with boosting shadows in images is that you also boost the digital noise. In film days we'd call this "grain" but with digital images it is noise. Basically, digital cameras record some information for dark areas but not a lot. If you increase the exposure in mostly black areas, this lack of information shows up as noise or pixelated, blocky details. Have a look at the image below, shown at 2:1 size.

Noise in boosted image

You can see how grainy it looks. Also, I haven't sharpened the image yet beyond the default of +25, so we have to do that... but sharpening can often make noise worse, so we have to balance the two.

One very important slider in Lightroom that deals with sharpening is the "Masking" slider. I never knew about this slider when I first started using Lightroom and I wish I had!

If you have the Masking slider at zero, basically you are applying sharpening to the entire image. Often you don't want or need to do that. In our working image we'd like to sharpen the edges of the locomotive and the details on it, but we don't want to sharpen the sky and we probably don't want to sharpen the grass very much. The Masking slider allows us to decide what parts of the image we should sharpen. I'll write more about that sometime but for now this article gives a good overview of sharpening in Lightroom.

Here's the same closeup after aggressively sharpening at 111 (masking 57) with luminance noise reduction of 44.

After sharpening and noise adjustment

Final Adjustments

A few final adjustments will finish the job. I decided the image could use these adjustments:

• White balance adjustment - temp +350, tint +2 (I thought the original was a bit blue)
• Brightness +0.36
• Clarity +10
• Post-Crop Vignetting -12

Here's the final image.

After final edits

I hope you'll agree this image is a lot better than the original. It won't win any awards but it is definitely an improvement.

Final Comments

This might seem like a lot of work, but one of the great things about Adobe Lightroom is that you can put these into a preset and apply them - bang - all in one shot. I've developed a "backlit" preset to do all this in a few seconds, and then I do whatever minor tweaks I feel are necessary to finish the photo. This takes editing time down from 10 minutes to 1 minute. I hope to package these presets up soon and offer them as a download, but for now you can make your own preset with the settings below, or experiment with other presets like the 101 Lightroom Presets Pack from Digital Photography School.

These are the edits I made to this image:

• Shadows +50
• Highlights -90
• Saturation +71
• Graduated filter with exposure -40
• Edge masking 68
• Sharpening 111
• Luminance Smoothing 44
• Exposure +0.36
• Clarity +10
• Post-Crop Vignette -12
• White Balance adjustment

Thanks for reading along!

Further Reading

• 5 Reasons Why You Need Adobe Lightroom
• Editing a Night Photo in Lightroom
• Recommended Camera Settings for Railfans
• A Lightroom Editing Example

Disclosure: This post contains one or more links that are affiliate links, for which I may earn a commission if you follow the link and purchase something from the site that they link to.

Lethbridge's High Level Bridge

Potash train crossing Lethbridge's High Level Bridge

Lethbridge, Alberta hosts the largest conventional trestle railroad bridge ever built, the High Level Bridge. This bridge was started during 1908 and was completed in 1909, and is just over a mile long at 5,331 feet (1,624m) and rises 314' (95.7m) over the Oldman River.

This colossal structure crossing the Oldman River replaced the more circuitous original route over the St. Mary's River. The bridge was built by the CPR with 12,200 tons of steel and 17,090 cubic yards of concrete, among other materials.

Train crossing the Lethbridge trestle

The bridge was built with the use of a "traveller". This large device was basically a large crane on rails, and it was used to build each section of the bridge.

As that was completed, it was rolled forward on the newly-constructed piece to begin the next section.

The traveller was built on site and placed the last girder in June 1909.

I suppose this method would require a lot of confidence in the bridge piece that you had just completed! (image at right from the Crowsnest Pass Railway Route site)

Looking through

It's interesting to compare this bridge with the Salmon River trestle, the second longest railway bridge in Canada.

• Length: Lethbridge - 5,331' (1,624m); Salmon River - 3,920' (1,194m)
• Height: Lethbridge - 314' (95.7m); Salmon River - 195' (59.4m)
• Towers: Lethbridge - 33; Salmon River - 51

It's notable that the Lethbridge viaduct has 35% less towers yet is 35% longer.

Lethbridge's towers are much wider than most (67' / 20m) and the spans between towers are also longer than most (97' / 30m).

Everyone likes to look at this bridge

The bridge dominates the area and is easily accessible by foot. I've walked under it on the public paths along the river and you can easily see the western end by parking in the Heritage Heights area of western Lethbridge and walking over. It casts an impressive shadow on Google Maps.

I first visited Lethbridge in August 2013. I was lucky to spot a train crossing the bridge but didn't get the head end. You can see that photo above in black-and-white.

I visited again in May 2016 and spent several hours around the bridge one beautiful evening. I parked in Heritage Heights and clambered down to the Oldman river. It's quite a long trip down!

The bridge is quite impressive from all angles. It's difficult to capture the entirety of the bridge without being very far off. I took a little break and just sat and took it in.

Just taking it in

After quite a while, I started back. I heard a thrum in the distance and it turned out to be a potash train, led by a trio of Union Pacific locomotives. They looked tiny way up there on the viaduct.

UP 5522, 5374 and 5546 crossing the Lethbridge viaduct

The train went on and on and on. I think the speed limit is 30 MPH on the bridge but it could be less.

Canpotex cars on the Lethbridge viaduct

Unfortunately this bridge appears to be popular for suicides. I noticed prominent "no trespassing" signs at the end along with a large "LIFE IS WORTH LIVING" sign with a phone number for the Suicide Crisis Line (1-888-787-2880).

If you're ever in the area, I highly encourage you to check this bridge out. It's very impressive.

Videos

I found a few videos of the bridge that you might like.

• Crossing the bridge on CP 8765
• CP 2816 crossing the bridge
• Manifest freight train crossing

For More Information

• Construction of the Lethbridge Viaduct
• Alberta's Largest Railway Bridges
• The Bridge, Then and Now
• In Search of Haneyville, history of the line

Other Bridge-Related Posts

• CN's Salmon River Trestle in New Brunswick
• BNSF's High Line Bridge in North Dakota
• CN's Fraser River bridge outside Prince George, British Columbia
• Ex CN Hiram Creek trestle in New Brunswick
• Book review: North American Railroad Bridges

Patience, or my lack of it

Scott Bourne wrote a great article about patience in photography, especially with outdoor photography. He wrote that "sometimes you just have to wait for the weather to play ball."

It's great advice. I just wish I had patience.

If you've ever been out to photograph a sunrise or sunset, you'll know that conditions change rapidly. One minute's golden glory turns quickly into a fairly boring morning sky. You have to act quickly... but you have to have the patience to wait for the right moment.

Waiting for the Sun

Back in the summer of 2014 I was heavy into my Manitoba grain elevator project. In August 2014 I was on a two-day trip to photograph every elevator in the southeastern corner of Manitoba. I was on a timetable (planned in detail in Excel), with about 15 minutes allocated to photograph each elevator. Patience was not factored in!

I was at Nesbitt to photograph the former Manitoba Pool grain elevator outside town. The day was partly cloudy and the sun was not out when I arrived, which led to this rather bland photograph.

OK, I guess

I mean, it's all right, but it was nothing special.

I could see that the sun was going to come out, so I cooled my heels for a few minutes, driving around impatiently looking at different angles and waiting for the sun. After about 10 minutes the sun did come out and man, it made a difference.

This one, I like

If I hadn't waited, I would have had to live with a so-so photo. I know I may never see some of these elevators again and I tried pretty hard to capture good photos of each one. Sometimes that wasn't possible, but often with a little patience, and willingness to consider other angles, I was able to capture the elevator properly.

Waiting on a Train

Promises, promises

We've all been there... waiting for literally hours for a train to come. When I lived in Fredericton, New Brunswick, I would go up to McGivney to wait for trains on the CN mainline there.

The signals might show green but they were no promise of an imminent train. It could literally be more than an hour after a green signal appeared for a train to appear... if not longer.

Long-time readers may remember my disappointment at McGivney back in 2008 when my son and I were waiting for a VIA Ocean detour. He was as patient as I could ask for but we left... just before the train came through.

I'm fortunate in Winnipeg that there are a lot of trains around, and if you're willing to move around, you can find one or two. Still, there are times when I hunt for an hour or two and really come up with very little.

Patience... Not One of My Virtues

Spooky CN signals

If you've ever railfanned with me, you'll know I don't sit still for long. I am not one of those who sits in one spot for hours on end. I wish I could, honestly, but I get bored.

Fortunately, I can force myself to stay in one spot if I need to. I went out on the night of October 30th to do some night photography, because I had carved a big "CN" in my pumpkin and wanted to photograph it by the tracks.

I went down to Lorette on the CN Sprague subdivision and set it up by the signals... the green signals. I took a series of photographs, some of which turned out and some did not.

I knew a train was coming... eventually. I kept pacing back and forth, looking down the track and checking the time. I'm not very patient! Eventually I saw a headlight in the distance from Winnipeg. That's a 7 mile stretch of straight track.

I waited... and waited... and waited... that train seemed to take a long time to travel that 7 miles.

My "patience" paid off with this shot of the CN intermodal train rolling past.

Streaking at night

I hope the CN crew saw my pumpkin!

Patience Pays Off

There are definitely benefits to being more patient. This article lists a few, including lowering your stress levels and helping you make better decisions.

In some cases, patience is absolutely critical to meeting your goals.

For example, a lot of people want to lose weight but they aren't patient about it, which leads to the many "lose weight fast" fad diets that don't work. It takes a lot of time to lose weight and you can't rush it.

I've been working to lose weight since the beginning of this year. It's taken many months but I've lost the 25 pounds I wanted to lose to get to a healthy weight.

In this case, patience has paid off for me.

Did you know there are exercises to train your patience?

How's Your Patience?

It's your turn - how patient are you? Leave a comment!

Further reading:

• Read Scott's article
• Finding patience

Why Wear a Poppy

Poppies at the Bény-sur-Mer cemetery in France

For our thanks, in giving, if oft delayed,
Though our freedom was bought - and thousands paid!
And so, when we see a poppy worn,
Let us reflect on the burden borne
By those who gave their very all
When asked to answer their country's call
That we at home in peace might live.
Then wear a poppy! Remember - and Give!
- excerpt from "Why Wear a Poppy" by Don Crawford

Just a quick post to honour our soldiers, who have fought and died for our freedom and our way of life. I want to honour the sacrifices of the men and women who protect us from myriad dangers, and I want to thank their families who endure the hardships of being military families. Thank you all.

Please consider supporting our troops through the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services. They have a lot of great programs like the Support Our Troops Fund that supports soldiers and their families, and the Soldier On program to help sick and injured soldiers.

Layover at Dorval

After my recent trip to Saint John, NB (see Saint John Railway Scenes and CN 406, Times Two), I hopped on a plane back to Winnipeg. Well, actually, I took two planes... a little prop plane to Montréal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (aka "YUL") and then a jet from there to Winnipeg's James Armstrong Richardson International Airport.

I had a three-hour layover in Montréal. I decided that I wasn't going to just sit around playing with my computer or phone. I knew from a past layover that the Dorval VIA / AMT train stations were within walking distance, and since I like to walk, this could be done!

Dorval is on the CN Kingston subdivision and the CP Vaudreuil subdivision.

These Shoes Are Made For Walking

VIA 6414 at Dorval

I was fortunate that I was only a few seats back from the front of the plane, so I was able to deplane quickly and zoom out of the airport. I walked through the acres (hectares?) of parking garages and open air parking lots toward the Dorval train station.

It is a good 15-20 minute walk at a brisk pace.

I was carrying my camera bag (a Lowepro SlingShot 102 AW, if you're curious) and my laptop bag, so by the time I reached the station I was a little warm and my back was a bit sore. No worries!

The AMT and VIA stations are quite close to each other but they are separate. AMT has a pair of tracks with little one story shelters beside them, and VIA has a full train station beside their own pair of tracks. There is a tunnel that goes under all four tracks so you can go to any platform without crossing tracks.

VIA at Dorval

I looked at the AMT schedule - displayed on the station outside - and determined that nothing was coming until 13:02, so I walked over to the VIA station.

VIA 35 showed up very soon after I arrived, with VIA 6414 for power. You may remember that 6414 was the Loto Quebec unit when they were still wrapped, and was derisively labelled as "the Turd".

Spotting the consist at Dorval

In the photo above, you can see the second engineer looking back to spot the train at the right place on the platform.

There was quite a crowd on the platform but it did not take long for everyone to get on or off the train. I elected to shoot video with my iPhone as the train departed.



The consist was 6414 / 3451 / 4177 / 4118. I noted that VIA 3451 had a poppy sticker on it already.

After VIA 35 left, I went inside to check the schedule.

VIA schedule at Dorval

Nothing for an hour. Off to AMT.

Agence Métropolitaine de Transport

I knew I would have a bit of a wait for the next AMT train, but I was hoping for a freight train to come along. CP, CN and CSX all come through Dorval at different times, and on my last visit to Dorval I caught a CP freight.

I paced around by the AMT side for a while, but nothing came along until the scheduled AMT train, led by cab car 3017.

AMT 3017

They sure have a lot of horns on these cars!

I was on the wrong side of the sun but I had decided to stay here because I would have the fence in the way on the other side. Maybe wrong, maybe right, but that's the decision I made. It's important to think of these things if you have time to do so.

After a very brief stop, they continued on their way and I shot AMT 1325 pushing the consist westward.

AMT 1325 at Dorval

AMT 1325 is an F59PHI locomotive.

The End

The next VIA train was VIA 34 at 13:18 and the next AMT train was after that. My flight to Winnipeg was at 14:40 so I thought I might be pushing it a bit to wait for VIA with a long walk to the airport after that, so I set off for the airport.

In the end I was glad I didn't hang around, as the security line was pretty long and I didn't have a lot of time to wait before my flight boarded. It was the right decision.

But Wait, There's More

I neglected to mention earlier in this series that I took a few photos of NB Southern switching in Saint John that week.

GMTX 2639 in Saint John

GMTX 2639 and NBSR 911 were switching the west end of the Dever Road yard (aka "Ponderosa yard"). I took a few minutes to watch them do their thing. There is no really good angle to photograph units here without this upward look to them.

When I last saw #911 in December 2014, it was still HLCX 911. Since then, NB Southern purchased the unit and patched it to be NBSR 911. It still has the crossed out "Union Pacific" on the side, but I'm sure it will be repainted into green and yellow like the rest of the fleet eventually.

NBSR 911

For now, enjoy the patch job.

Just One More Thing

Totally not train related, but I also spotted a couple of cruise ships in the Saint John harbour.

Cruise ships in Saint John, NB

The big one was "Anthem of the Seas", a new Royal Caribbean International behemoth delivered in April 2015. This monster is just over 1/3 km long with a capacity of 4,180 - 4,905 passengers. It has a crane on board to lift a "NorthStar" observation capsule up to 300' above sea level, and an indoor skydiving simulator, as well as many other amenities.

"Anthem of the Seas" in Saint John, NB

The smaller vessel was the Disney Magic. This vessel was launched in April 1997 and can carry up to 2,700 people even though it is not much shorter than the Anthem. The Magic is definitely not as tall!

"Disney Magic" in Saint John, NB

Maybe the excursion train I saw on October 11 had been carrying cruise ship passengers?

See Also

• Canadian Railway Observations guide to railfanning Montreal (PDF)
• My last Dorval railfanning visit
• Back to the start of this post trilogy

Disclosure: This post contains one or more affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any item from Amazon via that link, I receive a small commission from Amazon at no additional cost to you. Just so you know.

CN 406, Times Two

After missing CN 406 (see previous post "Saint John Railway Scenes") I tried again on the next two days with some success!

These days CN 406 leaves Moncton in the early afternoon, arriving in Saint John late in the afternoon. They usually have a quick turnaround, dropping their cars and picking up the cars to go back to Moncton and onward. Since NB Southern does all the local switching in Saint John (except for the potash terminal), they don't have much to do and can get out of town quickly.

CN 406, The First

On October 12th I spotted CN 406 pulling out of the yard at about 5:40 PM. I raced down Rothesay Avenue (which parallels the CN line) and decided to get it at a little private crossing I shot at years ago (Gerry Drive, here)

I popped my 70-200mm lens on my camera and started shooting.

CN 5653 at Coldbrook, leaving Saint John

I stepped across the tracks to try the other angle. Keep in mind they were half a kilometre away and not moving quickly.

CN 5653 leaving Saint John

I hopped in my car and hit the road. I wasn't sure where I could catch them, so I fell back onto my own knowledge and headed for Hampton.

I like Hampton because it's not far from the highway, and it has a nice station there. I photographed it back in September 2011 after chasing CN 406 in the area.

I walked around a bit, looking for any angle that might feature a bit of fall foliage and yet have some light. With an eastbound freight at sunset, you don't have many options.

The fall foliage was really nice, though.

Eventually I decided to shoot at the main crossing in town, to grab a "coming" shot by the station and then get the lead locomotive just past the crossing with fall foliage behind it.

As the train approached, one car stopped at the crossing as the lights started... then darted across as the gates started to come down.

Jackass.

Way to go, GWD-361.

ANYway, here's the "coming" shot with CN 5653 passing the station. I was shooting with a low shutter speed (1/40s) because of the low light at 6:30 PM.

CN 5653 passing the Hampton train station

Unfortunately, I messed up the "going away" shot. Nothing's in focus.

CN 5653 blurring through Hampton

It was a short train and I shot the tail end too. This turned out better.

Tail end of CN 406 in Hampton

So that was CN 406.

As I returned to Saint John, the coming sunset was pretty special, so I searched for a spot to try to capture it. I ended up just upriver of the Reversing Falls bridge to capture this scene.

Sunset near Reversing Falls, Saint John

CN 406, The Second

In the afternoon of the 13th I learned that CN 406 left Moncton around 1 PM and was expected in Saint John around my quitting time. I left work and headed up Rothesay Avenue, wondering if I was too late. I decided to go to the Lafarge concrete plant just beside the highway (here) and hope I wasn't too late.

I had just arrived when I heard the horn of the approaching train. My camera was in the trunk and I didn't have time to get it out, so I jumped out of the car and snapped a few photos with my iPhone as the train passed.

CN 2326 approaching Saint John, NB

It had the same consist as the previous day (2326 - 8000 - 5653), but 2326 was leading because they were coming to Saint John this time.

After the (longish) train passed, I headed back into Saint John. To my surprise, I saw that 406 had stopped for a few minutes and then got started again. Maybe they had to throw a switch? I'm not sure why they stopped.

Regardless, this allowed me to get ahead of them and I took a video of the train as it entered the yard. Be warned, it's long, as the train was long and slow.

I was surprised that someone gave my video a "thumbs down". Who does that? :)

Every post needs a kitten

I didn't have time to stick around to see it leave, as I headed up to Oromocto to visit my mother. She had a kitten!

So that was CN 406, twice.

In my last post of this trip, I related how I took some time between flights to railfan the Dorval train station in Montreal on the way home. READ ON!

Until then...

• Previous post
• Last time I railfanned Dorval

Saint John Railway Scenes

NB Southern #911

I was in Saint John, New Brunswick last week for work. I didn't have any specific plans for seeing trains, as I wasn't sure how long I would be working each day. As it happened, things went pretty smoothly so I did see some trains.

My plane landed in YSJ (Saint John airport) pretty much on time at 17:35, and fetching the rental car and luggage was quick. One big bonus of small airports is doing the renting in sight of the only baggage carousel!

I decided I would head straight to the former train station in Rothesay to photograph it with the fall colours. I had a hope in the back of my head that I could catch CN 406 passing by (to reproduce this), but I wasn't counting on it.

As I approached Station Road by the Rothesay station, I saw the last couple of tank cars on CN 406 roll by on their way to Moncton. Missed it by that much. You can't catch 'em all.

There was no point in pursuing them. It would have taken a lot of time to get back to the highway and the light was failing.

Fall colours and the Rothesay train station

At least I got the shot I wanted.

I headed into Saint John. As I drove along Rothesay Avenue, I spotted a set of locomotive headlights on the track leading to Courtenay Bay / Irving Oil / Irving Paper. I headed up and found GMTX 2226 working the crude oil terminal at Courtenay Bay. The sunset light was pretty sweet.

GMTX 2226 at sunset

I thought about staying to watch them switch, but I decided against it and continued on along past Island Yard. I was going to head to the NBSR Dever Road yard and see what was going on there before turning in for the night.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this excursion train at Harbour Station!

NBSR 9801 and an excursion train at Harbour Station, Saint John

I believe they had taken some people from a visiting cruise ship out for a spin. I saw a large cruise ship leaving Saint John that night.

In the photo above, you can see the crewman walking back to the cab. I must have looked pretty comical running back and forth as I wasn't sure which direction they were going. As it happened, they headed toward the Dever Road yard / NB Southern yard.

The train had NBSR 9801 with the three ex VIA Rail coaches (5448, 5471 and 5537) along with their "new" #508 and the Metis. NBSR 2317 was on the other end.

NBSR 508 and the Metis

The light was pretty low so I was shooting with a 1/20s shutter speed, meaning the blur was inevitable.

They took off and I gave chase. I decided I would try to catch them crossing the Reversing Falls bridge. I got to the Falls well before them, so I parked and ran up the hill to get a broad view of the bridge.

This was at 7:15 PM so the sun was already down below the horizon. Tricky light!

NBSR crossing the Reversing Falls bridge

I decided to stick to my original plan and headed to the Dever Road yard. I didn't think I would beat them there, and I was right. They were rolling under the Green Head Road overpass when I arrived.

I did managed to catch them passing the night switcher, NBSR 911. I like how this turned out.

NBSR 911 and the excursion train, by night

That was it for me for the night.

In part 2 I shared my catch of CN 406, twice.

Until then, you might wish to read about my visit to New Brunswick in 2011..