Western Railroad Discussion > Monday Meets: Lucky at sundown!

Sometimes my normal ‘hit & run’ style of railfan photography can just rest on the shelf. When the occasion arises and good company is present I will gladly camp out in some photogenic location and let the trains come to us. This past Saturday Mr ‘mg 8711’ & I met up with Topeka TO member ‘lilwes’ down on the transcon at Lebo, KS. And the 3 of us had a banner afternoon telling tall stories & shooting lots of trains. Believe it or not, some of our lies were even true! During our 3 hour episode we were also treated to an amazing variety of panoramic cloud formations, including a magnificent wall of thunderheads in the eastern & southern skies. And the trains were plentiful!

Tucked away in the NW corner of Coffey County, KS exists a rural gravel road that crosses the BNSF Emporia Sub double mainline. Contour Road doesn’t really jump out at you when you first arrive. All you really notice is that the crossing is very near a high-point with the BNSF right-of-way dipping & sagging away in both directions. But as the daylight becomes long in the tooth the ENE ~ WSW angular orientation of this BNSF artery comes into play. Sunsets are fun to work with here, but when you have the added luxury of grandiose cloud detail you kinda-sorta give a nod of thanks to your benefactor. You’re grateful He made you a railfan!

The blindly-lucky, right place/right time meet at sundown (a little sunset glint now & then is good for the soul! :^):

1. BNSF 4166 leads a westbound manifest rolling up on main #2.

2. & 3. The 4166 enters into a stare-down with an eastbound train.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/16 10:28 by santafe199.

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4. 5. & 6. BNSF 6686 is rolling east with a unit grain empty.

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Just one more…

7. We even got lucky capturing both trains’ FREDs saying “howdy-do” to each other...
(7 photos taken August 27, 2016 from the Contour Rd crossing 3 miles west of Lebo, KS)

Thanks for the company. It was a golden afternoon!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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Those are really, really NICE shots, Lance!  You are right --
you really got lucky with not just one, but two trains coming
along right when the light was perfect.  Wow.....VERY nice
work, Lance!

Wow, Very Nice! #4 is really something with just the cylindrical lines of hopper cars showing.

Those pictures remind me why I never appreciated CTC signals.  You can see the train coming and the signal is dark until it passes the signal and it displays red.  Yeah, I know why, but, I still don't like it.  Dadburn it,  when a train is coming let's have a red signal.!.