Western Railroad Discussion > Always expect a train?

Always expect a train?
…or, “any time is train time?”
 
…even during a very brief visit to an unfamiliar area (Madras, Oregon, June 28) with sparse traffic, not knowing what the train schedule is, and with camera in hand to merely grab some shots of a big trestle?  Even then?
 
Because she’s an awesome wife, Mrs. Hank easily agreed to a short detour to this trestle after supper on the way back to our weekend accommodations.  We arrived, I launched the drone (not too high, since the airport is very near), and took a few quick shots.
 
Photo 1: The drone was in the air less than 2 minutes when I heard an unexpected but familiar sound…a train!  It was surprisingly quiet.  (I didn’t realize until later that the headlight of the train is visible in this first photo)  I switched the camera over to video mode and then noticed the train was “just a local” as it started across the trestle. 
 
Yes, I guess I should always expect a train!
 
Photo 2: As the train got out onto the trestle, the edge of a cloud passed in front of the sun and overshadowed the locomotives.  Sigh.
 
Photo 3: The onerous cloud passed right after the locomotives were across the trestle.

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Photos 4 + 5: Once Mrs. Hank realized a train was coming, she jumped out of the car with her camera and took some shots of her own.  Here are two of them.
 
Photo 6: Right after crossing the trestle, the train continued south toward Culver against a wild sky that evolved into a wonderful lightshow throughout the evening.

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Photo 7: After the train passed, I circled back to the trestle to take a few more shots.  This shot looks NW; that’s Mt. Hood in the haze on the horizon at upper left.
 
Photo 8: Looking north.  Want to walk across?  A relative who lives nearby told us she sees frequent foot traffic across this structure.
 
Photo 9: Zoomed out view, looking east.

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Photo 10: After landing the drone and packing up, we took the “Culver Highway” south to see if we could catch up with the train.  Here it is at Metolius doing some switching.  The lead unit (2532) is a GP39-3…not sure what species the trailing unit (2674) is.
 
Photo 11: Here’s Mrs. Hank “in the foaming spirit,” but saying “let’s get out of here!”  She did not like the sound of the juice flowing through those overhead wires!
 
Photo 12: The next evening saw us back in Madras with another dramatic lightshow in progress.  We got rained on a little during dinner, but then the sun came back out and turned the sky orange and purple!
 
Next time I visit this area, I hope I’m following a train!  I’m anxious to try out some other new photo locations I found in the Madras area.
 
Hopmere Hank
 

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GREAT photos !!!!   and to answer your question.....NO, those heights are terrifying to me.   Arlen

I just know it: Someday this is gonna cost me big bucks. But the more I see what drone photography can accomplish, the more "converted" I become. Right now I can only think of a few hundred places between Ellinor & Chelsea, KS where a drone would get some great results. And yikes, that's only a single country (Chase) in the Kansas Flint Hills. (One of these days, Alice... ;^)

Lance/199 

Nice  Mr & Mrs H!

BB

santafe199 Wrote:
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> I just know it: Someday this is gonna cost me big bucks.

I used to think that too, Lance.  So I kept track.  I'm down to $4.32 / flight, or just 34 cents / minute! 
That includes FOUR extra batteries, an iPad mini, and a set of ND/polarizing filters.  That's pretty cheap compared to a lot of hobbies!
You already spend lots of time trackside and have all the photo editing software, right?

From what I've read on some user groups, the average age of drone pilots is pretty high...with a very large percentage in retirement age.
I'm not there yet, but my kids are raised and a certain Grandson LOVES to sit on Grandpa's lap and watch his latest drone train videos!  THAT is priceless!

Hopmere Hank
 

Great photos from a seldom seen location. Passed by there 3 years ago. Absolutely beautiful area.

Posted from Android

HH Wrote:

> The lead unit
> (2532) is a GP39-3…not sure what species the
> trailing unit (2674) is.

The 2674 is also a "GP39-3R" rebuilt from a Santa Fe GP35, hence the gap-toothed appearance where the 36" fan was removed between the two surviving 48's.  The 2532 started life as a BN GP38, a rare example of a non-turbocharged EMD gaining a turbo instead of the other way around.

Great shots!

Thanks for the pics...

HH Wrote:
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> I'm down to $4.32 / flight, or just 34 cents / minute! 

How many flight hours?  The first flight (30 minutes?) seems to be the most expensive, with the cost dropping considerably with each additional flight.

justalurker66 Wrote:
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> HH Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> > I'm down to $4.32 / flight, or just 34 cents / minute! 
>
> How many flight hours?  The first flight (30 minutes?) seems to be the most expensive, with the
> cost dropping considerably with each additional flight.

Yes, the cost drops quickly and drastically at first, then tapers off more gradually.
Useful battery life for a Mavic Air is only around 17 minutes, when they are new!  (I've had longer flights, but those require working against the "auto land" feature!)  After 120 charges, it's more like 15 minutes.  I'm currently at 98.4 hours in the air.
I forgot to mention a few other things included in my quoted costs, like insurance (which I had to use once), extra micro SD cards, and a pair of external hard drives (6TB total) for storage (4k video takes up LOTS of space, as do RAW images!).

Hopmere Hank
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/19 12:14 by HH.