Western Railroad Discussion > Storm Time on the Transcon

Yesterday I awoke to thunder crackling across the sky and bright purple flashes of lightning in my bedroom window, a theme here in The Little Apple as of late. Used to this routine I was able to roll back over and sleep another few hours. By 11AM "santafe199" and I were on the road in pursuit of a CSX led manifest. The eastbound MSIKC (Salina-Kansas City) is a bit unusual in the mid-afternoon daylight these days. After chasing this train east we dropped down to Lebo, KS on the Transcon, met up with TO member "lilwes", and would spend the rest of the day, very out of character to us, camped out at the Contour Road west of town.

They say "When Thunder Roars Go Indoors" but we disregarded that wisdom, preferring to stand near tall, electronic crossing signal equipment. Storms bubbled to the south, and then to the west, all we felt were sprinkles but lightning still was striking at a distance closer than 10 miles, close enough for us to be struck had mother nature chosen that fate, but instead she provided us some color to play with.

1) The anvil cloud from the top of thunderstorms to the south is in the background as BNSF 8101 powers a 3x2 sea stack west with...

2) BNSF 6548 drawing pusher duty. New thunderstorms to the southwest are just getting their first drops of rain to the surface.

3) As the DPU's faded west, BNSF 4002 entered the scene with a Q train in tow.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/16 17:25 by mg8711.

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4&5) The thunderstorm quickly drifted off to the north and began to die out as the sun neared the horizon, BNSF 7030 leads a produce heavy Z train east.

6) A splash of orange on the rear in the form of a former Schneider trailer is a noticeable splash of color on the dark backdrop of the eastern sky.

All shots taken at the Contour Road crossing west of Lebo, Kansas on August 27th, 2016
Thanks for looking!
mg8711



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/16 16:52 by mg8711.

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Perfect storm light in #1!

PQM

Beautiful shots! Those last three in particular are Outstanding!

Superb shots especially the last one

Nice work all the way around, Lucas.  Good to see you didn't become toast with the lightning around.

Russell Honey
Springfield, MO
My Flickr page

...and here's a sneaky shot of out intrepid young photographer working images #4 & #5!

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Number 2 has my vote.

Outstanding work.

Nice light and color palette on all! Very nice work!

Bob

Very NICE series!

Larry

Superb series all around, but #6 has my vote as the best of the bunch.  That cloud formation is something else...nice capture.  Thanks for sharing.

Kent in CArmel Valley

Nice captures Lucas--seems really good color even though the lighting wasn't on your side.
Brian Stevens

Ritzville Wrote:
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> Very NICE series!
>
> Larry

AGREED.....!!

Great light in #1.

FDF

Thanks gang for the comments! I appreciate it.
mg8711

Yeah, great work!