Eastern Railroad Discussion > Rail fanning Mistakes?

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 :) 

Jacob Schnee
Bellevue, OH

October, 1998. I'm in eastern Massachusetts on a trip, and I know a westbound Conrail freight has left Worcester. The sky is tricky, but if the sun is out for my shot at the old mill in West Warren, Ma., I'm going to have a screamer with dark sky and bright foliage. If it's cloudy, well.... A cloud moves in and I respond to nature's call. So of course, that's when the train shows up, and the sun comes out just in time for the shot - but I can't get back into position fast enough.

November, 1993. I leave my house to go shoot a track geometry train in my hometown, but when I get there, I discover the camera is still at home. I go home, get the camera, and get back out in time to find the train. But that night, with the morning debacle still fresh in my mind, I leave the camera bag in the car, and the car is broken into and the camera bag stolen. So I still didn't get the shot....

Had several occasions in which I failed to load the film leader properly into the take-up spool, but the above are more memorable fails. Fortunately, the potentially worst time I failed on film loading, I noticed it almost immediately -- it was during a trip to the Cartier, and something just didn't feel right when the film was supposed to be advancing. It cost me only one mediocre shot.

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/15 12:43 by toledopatch.

In the summer of 1980, my father and I traveled to PA to photograph the last gasp of the GG-1 and E44 locos in freight service out of Enola yard. We found a nice spot on a road side hill where I could get great shots. I ran through a full roll of 36 shots  all on the electric locos. I got to about 40 on the shot counter of the camera when I started to get worried. Sure enough I had broken the leader on the roll of film in loading and had been advancing no film during the whole day.

went out for some night video of the Conrail OCS. Had everything framed, heard it coming watched the E`s cruise thru the viewer and never hit the record button.

tom

Friday, took my external mic with me for the video camera while chasing R&N 425.  Mic hadn't worked in the past with the camera but, a test the day before showed good results.  Had the mic on all day and screwed up all the audio. A: Should have brought headphones to listen to audio
B: Since I didn't have headphones shouldn't have risked it with the mic.  

End result: Oh Well!!

Tehachapi-TJ Over & Out.

Just ordered spare batteries for the camera, need I say more?

Just need to keep track of the two battery chargers now.

Recorded the Private car association's train with iPhone and accidentally deleted it

Posted from iPhone

TCnR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just ordered spare batteries for the camera, need
> I say more?
>
> Just need to keep track of the two battery
> chargers now.

Nope I have 2 batteries  + Multiple  SD Cards. Just need to Remember to Clean out &  upload the Data to the computer so i can reuse the cards The more you have the better prepared you are.

Jacob Schnee
Bellevue, OH
https://www.youtube.com/NorthernOhioRailroadAction

Set up video camera to catch two IAIS QJ triple heading with 261 east out of the Quad Cities. Get the shot all framed up and hit record. Engines go by with great sound and smoke plumes. I'm busy snapping away with the film camera. Train passes and I go to stop video only to see I didn't have tripod tight enough and the camera is shooting video of the sky. I got the smoke plumes in the sky though.

Posted from iPhone

Biggest mistake??  Becoming a railfan!  HA! :-)

 

Going out With all of your batteries, only to discoverThat none of them are charged!
SJS

Posted from Android

railrob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the summer of 1980, my father and I traveled to
> PA to photograph the last gasp of the GG-1 and E44
> locos in freight service out of Enola yard. We
> found a nice spot on a road side hill where I
> could get great shots. I ran through a full roll
> of 36 shots  all on the electric locos. I got to
> about 40 on the shot counter of the camera when I
> started to get worried. Sure enough I had broken
> the leader on the roll of film in loading and had
> been advancing no film during the whole day.

I've done that

Posted from iPhone

Funny you post this today , as just yesterday, after waiting and pestering folks here for 2 days about the NS 911 coming on the NYC in NW Ohio, I finally make it up to Archbold, set up a shot with an American flag and fire station as backdrops, shn comes out perfectly, beautifully clean loco comes into view, I snap the shutter - and realize it was still on a 7 second toner from doing a family photo the previous day. So I now have a beautiful shot of pavement, and several earthy words may have been uttered...

Just the most recent, sadly. Still trying to get the N&W shot, as once I had a perfect angle of it splitting the old NKP masts at Miller City only to realize I'd read HU wrong and it wasn't leading, and another time I had it in Wauseon but forgot to reset my shutter from a long exposure the previous night. Too many dead batteries on flashes and remotes to remember, as well as accidentally exposed film whdn I still used my old Pdntax SLR...

Then there are the times I've tried getting to a remote spot on a gravel road only to get almost stuck in muddy ruts (my wife has made clear I'm on my own if that happens, and not sure how I'd tell AAA where I am for a tow!) Or the first time I learned that intermediate red signals aren't absolute, when a few years ago I was a tad close to a ROW falsely thinking I was safe behind a red signal, only to see the train come creeping right through. Thank goodness for restricted speed and my having a decent reputation for common sense with the local crews there!

Come to think of it, maybe the most amazing thing is that I sometimes get decent photos despite myself!

Posted from iPhone

Was out at Greenwich, Ohio back in 2007  with my new Sony camcorder (mini-dvd) set up on a tripod to get pictures new UP deliveries out of Erie.  Had everything set up and backed up to get pictures with my film camera.  Forgot to "weigh" down the tripod...DVD recorder and tripod went the way of the wind.  Needless to say I learned after ONLY one time.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/15 16:18 by Forever-Railfan-45.

Back in the days of film and I was living in Springfield MO I made a pre-dawn journey to a small town in Kansas where after one photo the battery in my camera died. No problem, I had a spare camera, but ooppss, dead battery too. I tried a number of convenience stores around town, including one where the folk inside looked like they had dropped in from the set of Deliverance and who stopped talking the moment I stepped thru the door. Cue the banjo. I rapidly departed and after a couple hours (and a couple trains) the downtown opened (it was that kind of town) I tried the local department store. "Oh yes, we've got you battery right......oh, I sold the last one yesterday!"  I was so disgusted with myself (normally I carried spare batteries) that I just gave up and went home, about 300 miles of driving for nothing.

Recall many times in my haste to get a picture I forget to turn the camera on.  Turn it on and hope for a good shot. 

My family is from Portage PA, while hiking along the mainline in the area of South Fork my uncle and I found a nice perch on the side of a hill that overlooked the Conemaugh Viaduct.  We sat watching and filming trains and after resting up we moved on.  Someone out there has a nice scanner I left on the mountain.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/15 19:21 by Lakota-rail.

As a teenager, being down to my last roll of film and shooting it all on roster shots of CR at the Orangeville engine house in Baltimore.  And after the last shot, of parked engines, having the crew of a helper set invite me onboard to ride with them shoving a coal train through the Baltimore tunnels (on the NEC).  So while the ride was awesome, not one photograph to show.

I took off from work in a driving rain, drove into the city of Fort Wayne, outran the the streamliners return move to Chicago (NKP190, etc.etc), and set up for what was going to be a short set of hurried shots.  Take the first shot from a little too far out, and then the battery goes dead....  I have a spare battery with me, but by the time I can change out the battery, the train is long gone.   A once in a lifetime chance down the drain.

Several years ago, I drove right at 1000 miles  (one way) to Duluth, MN for the museum's RR excursion et al.

Part of the program was a night shoot of their cab unit.  After waiting for the assembled group
to finish, I set up from a slightly different perspective with a pair of Hassys and a 4x5.  Also had
a serious Lumedyne flash.  Waited for the group to finish as the setup I was using took up a
lot of room with multiple tripods and all manner of wires and cable releases and I'd need to
enlist the aid of  one of the good folk there to assist me in focusing and also covering the lenses
between multiple flashes. 

Focusing and setup done, shuttter set, dark slide out of the 4x5, but the flash "ready" light
is not blinking.

Left the flash on "idle" instead of turning it all the way off after charging. 
This to the considerable good-natured amusement of the onlookers.

Now, the switch is taped in the "OFF" position after charging.   (smile)

Be Well,

Tim Colbert  K3HX

 

Setting up along the wrong railroad to photograph a special movement in an unfamiliar city.