Western Railroad Discussion > UP Cajon Pass Race

Ride with us as we pace a Union Pacific freight down Cajon Pass along the public Forest Service road. This is a lot of fun and is one of the more interesting video clips you'll watch.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

Road was in nice shape didn't get into any of the tight squeeze places and worrying about sharp ballast at track speed and tires?

Was that still a patch of snow up there on the back of the mountains?

Very nice, must have been entertaining for the UP engineer too watching you out the side window. Now, either you're in some top secret hover car, or you're utilizing some serious amounts of image stabilization right?

Mr. MRL- now can I upload the MRL clips? <g>

I agree with MrMRL ... you must have some serious type of steadicam mount .... please tell us about it!
I much prefer shooting video to stills ... but that type of "chase" is far beyond my current capabilities.
Will

I like doing that on US30 in Nebraska but it can be hard to keep up at 60+ with the towns in your way !

MrMRL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Very nice, must have been entertaining for the UP
> engineer too watching you out the side window.
> Now, either you're in some top secret hover car,
> or you're utilizing some serious amounts of image
> stabilization right?
>
> Mr. MRL- now can I upload the MRL clips?
Yes very nice Todd, now about that stabilization ?, Ed

This was a test and I considered it a failure. The scene was captured with a unit called a Stickypod. Here is the link to the web site: http://www.stickypod.com

The footage was all over the place, but to salvage it I ran it through imovie's stabilization system to clean it up. You can see just how shaky it was by watching the speck of dirt on the lens. Watch how it moves in the video. In the original footage it was stationary in the same spot.

For Train Festival I am considering purchasing a gyro stablized helicopter mount that can also mount on the roof of an suv. When I say purchase, I mean just the mount and not the gyros. The units require a minimum of two gyros and they cost about $4000 each. I can't exactly justify their purchase, but I can rent them for $200 a week.

MrMRL, you can upload videos to the server as the system is now in production. If your video gets lost by the system I want to hear about it so I can look into it.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

Great video Todd, Thanks for sharing.

WoW....this is pretty darn awesome !! Could watch this all day.

Love TO new video capabilities.
Nice job on shake removal.
How you keep the dust off lens, teeth, hair etc?

TO worth the subscription.

Could almost be better if were to be done on a motorcycle...
except for that damn near head on with the Chevy truck...

Interesting perspective Todd.Regardless of road ownership ,I am thinking the train crews may get a little nervous about having a vehicle so close.Gotta love the flat tyre on the T/box
As one other poster mentioned ,H,way 30 in Nebraska is a good place to do this type of video from a safer distance.Love the new T/O feature ,as usual outstanding site,Regards,Daryl Kay.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/09 02:29 by DKay.

Nice alertness, had I been driving your vehicle I would have smashed head-on into the pickup at 1:22.

And, there is probably a graffiti artist somewhere who would enjoy seeing this clip, but almost certainly never will.

Mark

Amazing video!!! Looking forward to more!

I always enjoyed your videotape productions prior to Trainorders, BTW!

Interesting video . . but won't find me doing that . . geesh . .

When in doubt . . exercise sound judgment.
I wouldn't smoke . . even if cigarettes are 'legal' . . safety and health issues
just as important. Legality derives from many forces at work in society. 'Dogh



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/09 08:52 by Yarddogh.

Unless this stunt was coordinated with the train crew (which I doubt it was), it was another stupid maneuver that gives us safe and sane railfans a bad name.

Well, it is a road, so technically nothing could be done right? I am probably wrong here tho.

Todd, What would you have done if you had a tire blow out on that gravel/dirt road and all of a sudden your truck swerved to the left uncontrollably? It would not have been pretty.

silagi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Unless this stunt was coordinated with the train
> crew (which I doubt it was), it was another stupid
> maneuver that gives us safe and sane railfans a
> bad name.

What is your problem dude? Have you ever been to Cajon? This is a marked public road which the SP agreed to when they built the railroad years ago. It is accepted practice that motor vehicles can drive on the road. The webmaster did nothing wrong as the road does not close when a train comes along.

Why are you always trying to start something? The comment about a flat tire is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. Should I be panic'd when I drive on the freeway next to a semi truck that I am going to have a blowout and crash and die?

The funny thing is when I do a search in the discussion forums you always seem to comment on anything that you consider dangerous. For some reason you always seem to jump on the webmaster too. What are you some kind of wannabe cop or something?

alray Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> too. What are you some kind of wannabe cop or
> something?

Actually I have worked in law enforcement for the last 24 years and I have also been involved in Operation Lifesaver. I have seen human bodies after been hit by trains. I never said that was not a public road or that Todd was tresspassing. I was only commenting on it from a safety standpoint and from my eyes, that sure did not look very safe. Not a chance I would take just to get some footage of a train so that I could post in on TO. Maybe I am just a wuss.