Steam & Excursion > boiling water in better days

Since last December so many people here on TO.com have been following all of the abhorrent shenanigans going on inside the once-proud Union Pacific Steam program. The fact that one solitary personality could cause a highly respected, multi-billion dollar global corporation to fall from a state of high grace into such an off-the-chart and shameful state of public perception was utterly unthinkable just a few short years ago.

Yet here we are, with the one of the most beloved steam/heritage operations on the planet ground to a complete halt. Depressingly, not a steam-assisted wheel has turned for many moons. And by all [trusted] accounting it looks like many more moons will pass before Uncle Pete boils water again (…if ever). His black eye just keeps getting blacker.

Although it’s probably foolish to say this, it’s really not my intention to start yet another round of acrimonious arguments. I merely wish to offer 2 things to the TO gang: a sincere statement & a photographic image. They are as follows:

1. Deep in the heart of this die-hard Santa Fe fan there is both a raging frustration at what I see on the “other side” of my playfully imagined railfan fence & an unshakable belief that I will once again see my beloved arch-rival send superheated water vapor into the atmosphere. Let it be so…

2. From Marysville, KS here is a digitally gathered collection of pixels taken during the cool of the evening back on a delightful Tuesday, October 12, 2010. These were amassed with my VERY 1st (month-old) DSLR camera, during my VERY 1st chase of UP 3985*. I had not thought to bring a tripod with me on this banner day, so I have my brand-new, still shiny digital Nikon camera crammed up against a dirty old pole. The illumination was graciously supplied by an SUV driven by the Union Pacific special agent assigned to otherwise droll security duty that night. There were to be 4 eyes keeping a close watch upon the 3985 as she slumbered the night away! (And I’m here to tell ya the special agent’s ‘K-9’ partner was not nearly as amused with the observation of night time photography as his human counterpart was… ;^)

Maybe UP (& all other) steam fans will allow this image of a 3985 in happier health to fill a ‘nostalgic gap’ until Uncle Pete gets back on the track…

Thanks for showing me the light!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

*I will shoot her again some day, after Uncle Pete tidies up his house a bit…

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Lance the mood of that photo tells the tail well. You can see the light coming, but it will be a while, but it's coming. Well done my friend!
later...Wes

Wes Chiles
Topeka, KS

Very nicely done!!

Bob

Outstanding, Lance. The feeling of the moment and the massive beauty of the 3985 captured perfectly. Fine use of the sepia tone, too, to recreate a sense of memory, one that we all hope that we will be able to experience again.

Timeless.

MC
Columbia, Missouri

ironmtn Wrote: > Fine use of the sepia tone, too...

(chuckling sheepishly) Thanks for that compliment, Mark!

But... (insert an "awwwhhh shucks" kick-of-the toe type gesture) I really didn't "use" anything. I just let the camera do its thing, and the image just came out this way. I did very little Photoshopping before posting it here. Just straightening, cropping & a touch of sharpening is all I did with it. Like I mentioned above, my new DSLR was only a month old so that meant I had NO idea what I was doing behind it. In those early digital days (for me, anyway) I was still of the idea that the digital 'brains' inside the camera would take care of everything in all situations. I had been told by a good friend & fellow MRL engineer up in Montana that I could just set a digital camera on "Program" and it would take care of everything. At this point I still didn't have a clue how to set a digital camera up for extended time exposures. I took the shot posted here in Program mode, which arbitrarily gave me an exposure of 1.6 seconds @ f4 with the ISO bumped up to 1600. The only control I had was to open up to 22mm (near-maximum wide angle) just to fit the 3985 into frame. (I had to: I couldn't move the pole I was crammed up against...) As for the Sepia tone, maybe the headlights on the UP Special Agent's vehicle caused the Sepia quality of the exposure. Funny how things work out... /:^0

Lance



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/14 15:07 by santafe199.

Take heart, Lance. Your railroad will soon be boiling water again, as the 2926 nears operational status in Albuquerque. I think we are all looking forward to that event, an AT&SF 2900 under steam again.

Very nice picture!

Thank you Lance for the post ... a beautiful image ... well done


Odyssey
Evergreen, CO