Western Railroad Discussion > RailFanning Mistakes?

I posted this in the Eastern Side of TO but thought to inculde  the Western side as well ----> What is your Mistake when you have railfaned?? Big Or Small

Well I've had a few  Like Today when going to get a Shot of the W&LE i forgot to switch SD cards and had  the card full and another time I've gone out and forgot to put the
Batteries in the camera.   Feel free to share its ok we have all done it :)  http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,3827200
 

Jacob Schnee
Bellevue, OH

When seeing an approaching train on the montitor, jumping into the car to catch train in a certain locale, jump out of the car to take picture, but forgot the camera! Very annoying, worth a few terse words, lol!

Larry

Thinking you've hit the record button as MILW 261 rolls thru Toluca on the forner ATSF in 1998, but you didn't realize you hadn't until you went to pause and it started recording.....

In the pre-digital, motor drive days I have the camera all set up just the way I want it for what I think is a "primo shot". I have everything framed perfectly, exposure adjusted perfectly, the lighting is perfect, there is no clutter in the shot. The train gets to the predetermined spot where I want to release the shutter. I gently press the cable release to take the shot and - NOTHING!!! Why? I forgot to advance the film/wind the camera!!!! Dumb, dumb, dumb!!!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/15 19:35 by Railbaron.

Oh my, I've made so many mistakes it's hard to focus on any one.

But going to the wrong track is certainly one. A few years ago I was in Milpitas to catch the circus train departing. Only thing is that I was along the old WP, not the old SP, and the train snuck out of town without me noticing. I thought the headlight I saw down the tracks was the circus train, but it was just some random switcher.

I eventually recovered and caught the train going over Altamont.

Posted from iPhone

I did'nt carry a camera when I hired out as a fireman on tha SP in Eugene in 1962!

In nearly 40 years there I've been in on too many "railfan mistakes" to count, but the most common one for this shooter is not having enough patience to wait a shot out at some location. You get frustrated and think you've missed the train. You leave and sure enough, 5 minutes later it rolls right through the spot you had staked out! Something about Murphy & his danged laws...

Lance/199

Or how about not making sure the newly-loaded roll
of film was advancing and missing almost every single
Christmas-card-type shot of the SP 4449 at Andesite?
(In 1981?  I forget.)   I only got 3 shots.  Darn, darn, darn!

Lance ---
That has got to be the most common Railfan Mistake! 
Leaving after waiting at least an hour or more for a train
is almost guaranteed to make a train show up.  (I often
used to say that the presence of ralfans seems to scare t
rains away!  LOL!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/15 20:16 by Margaret_SP_fan.

Just the other day at Home Valley, Washington I pulled in with beautiful light on a bridge and a train off in the distance.

I wasn't sure if the train was stopped in the siding. What I should have done was launch the drone. I had enough time.

What I actually did was run over toward the fence so I could get a look at what the signal was showing. That was enough time for me to miss the shot of the locomotive nose in great light.

I did end up with a drone shot of the middle of the train on the bridge.

Posted from iPhone

Going through Tehachappi summit and finding a perfect rainbow going over the tracks.  Got out of the car, framed the shot and waited for a train.  And waited.  Then waited some more.
The rainbow slowly dissolved ... and not until I told this to my railfan buddies did it dawn on me that I could have the picture without a train...

Live and learn...

​​

Jim Montague
IRVINE, CA
Train and Nature photo Art

Forgetting to put a SD card back in the camera. 

Going to Bathurst st overpass in Toronto, CA back in 2009 with my dad to catch all the rush hour trains in and out of Toronto station. I was only 11 at the time but I wound up leaving the hotel (at 5:30am) with only half a roll of film. Ended up missing most of the interesting VIA trains and a CN freight bypassing. That's among one of the many I can think of

PQM

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In nearly 40 years there I've been in on too many
> "railfan mistakes" to count, but the most common
> one for this shooter is not having enough patience
> to wait a shot out at some location. You get
> frustrated and think you've missed the train. You
> leave and sure enough, 5 minutes later it rolls
> right through the spot you had staked out!
> Something about Murphy & his danged laws...
>
> Lance/199

Same here. I've got the "been there, done that" t-shirt.

Adam

atsf101 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thinking you've hit the record button as MILW 261
> rolls thru Toluca on the forner ATSF in 1998, but
> you didn't realize you hadn't until you went to
> pause and it started recording.....

Hmm, that sounds familiar! I think I've done quite a few of those.

There's been many railfan mistakes over the years. The one that most sticks out would be back in 2010 when I chased 3985 out of Topeka. Thought I hit the record button and what do you know it was the pause button. Not to mention my Camcorder battery was low. Never thought it would literally be the last time I'd see the Challenger running! Otherwise shot it at several spots along the ROW.

Or those days not bringing my camera along and missing good and rare power lashups.

Sylvester,



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/15 21:28 by BNSF7776.

I was with a group of our local railfan buddies filming the Santa Fe and the UP around 23 years ago around Victorville on a very hot day. I decided to walk into "The Narrows" to get a interesting shot. Sure enough a UP e/b arrives, I click my shutter and found out I had only one frame left on my film. It was a long hot walk back to my Bronco.

After graduating from my trusty $2 and 2 Cambells soup labels Brownie Camera, I got a 35mm Kodak Retinette.   My dad took my brother and I to an all day open house tour of EMDs plant at La Grange, Illinois in the early 1960s.   With new camera in hand I felt great.  Spent all day taking pics of everything.  Even the trade in locomotives like Santa Fe and GM&O, Alco PAs.  Had a great day until I found out my roll of film didn't thread and engage.   Bugs me to this day.  Lucky for me my dad had his camera too, and got good shots.

Hawkinsun  
Vay, Idaho

Hands down it was all my early years of railfanning and trying to make every shot "perfect", not experimenting enough with different lighting, angles, etc. Should have taken more risks and challenged myself more. Should have taken more shots of people. Ah, youth.

Tom

Posted from Android

Not sure if it counts, but 20+ years ago at about age 16, I ran away from home and ended up on a Southern Pacific train going from Medford Oregon to Eugene. I climbed in a gondola car late at night, and woke when the train started to move early in the morning when it was still dark. 

After riding for about an hour, and seeing the sights, I laid down to sleep. When I woke up, the train had stopped in a siding. I could not see if the locomotives were still there, so I decided to climb down and see.. Of course, the train left. And of course, my bag with food and jacket were inside. I tried to chase the train, but it was not any use. It was gone. 

Luckily, there was an open boxcar on a siding, and I spent that night cold and wet. Covered in plastic wrap from lumber. 

The next morning, there was a train that stopped in the sidiing, but it was headed south. I climbed in an empty boxcar and went home. 

One morning- in fact, my birthday- I flew to Toronto from the west coast. So after settling in, I made arrangements to visit a museum. Pulled out the camera bag from my suitcase, and it's empty! Later home called, I left the camera on the charger 2500 miles away. My brother was kind enough to send it next day air that evening.
Another time I was trying out a new camcorder... what I thought was the record button turned out to be for still shots only.