Western Railroad Discussion > Down hill on Crocker Fill

In any day when out on an all day railfan chase there comes a point when you're in "down hill" mode. The sun is getting low in the sky, your belly is feeling a bit on the empty side and work is lurking just across the on coming night time darkness. It's almost as ritual as waking up every morning. This past Sunday it was in that down hill mode that I found myself alongside "santafe199" and "Milw_E70" staring into the sunset just north (railroad east) of Matfield Green, KS. It also just so happened not only was our railfan chase on its down hill slope into ending our next train was decending Crocker Fill, a locally known location that is simply, as the name suggests, a fill that carries BNSF's Emporia Sub from the Cottonwood River Valley up enough so it can pass through Kansas' Flint Hills. It was quite impressive watching the train, merely a black two dimensional outline glide across the fill without hardly a struggle, quite the contrast to the westbound train we would shoot a mere 10 minutes later...

1) BNSF 7033 and CREX 1314 are pointing eastbound tank car traffic down hill across Crocker Fill. Ahead lies Bazar, Gladstone, Ellinor, Emporia, and eventually Kansas City. That's not a lens reflection in the clouds, but merely ice crystals reflecting the suns rays, what some call a sun dog.
Matfield Green, KS
May 17th, 2015



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/15 17:32 by mg8711.

---

Very nice photo. Thank you for sharing it with us all!

Chris

Very good work with the editing, and the composition is superb! I haven't looked that close at my shots yet, but I won't be able to get this good.
A+ all the way, pard...

Lance

That's a winner Lucas!

That's a beauty to behold.
JB

NICE pic!!

Great pic in a great place!

Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX

Like it.