Steam & Excursion > Time on yours hands? Some more rotary pix

My wife and I are hunkered down at home with way too much time on our hands, so I have been killing time sorting through my C&TS rotary pix.  Since many of you are also hunkered down with too much time, perhaps these pix will help pass some time.  All the pix are from the recent C&TS rotary event, which was remarkable for its good photo ops despite a crowd of 150 people chasing in four buses.  It was really well done by the C&TS, given the many challenges.  And Mother Nature cooperated with fine weather, a mix of sun and a little snow.  The first image is the OY coming out of the trees at Lobato on the first day.  The first day they got as far as Cresco.  The second shot is plowing toward the Coxo crossing below Windy Point.  And finally the third is plowing the deep snow on top of Cumbres pass.  For any one wanting to see more, here is a link to a small Smugmug album:

The Great Rotary Event

Enjoy.

JBWX

---

---

---

Geez, I wish I had gone on that trip. Instead, my wife and I scheduled a trip across Canada on the Canadian. 

Which got cancelled because of the Indian disputes. Grumble grumble. 

John, I'm amazed at the quality and composition of your many shots considering the mob that was present at the event. 
To get preferable position must have been a real chore. And one last point, despite the snow level you've done a wonderful
job of showing a rotary in action. 

Out 

In the beginning my strategy was to walk away from the mass of folks, if they walked right I went left, etc.  Most locations have more than one "sweet" spot, you just had to adjust your composition. I kind of prided myself in being the last off the bus.  And that worked.  But after awhile I found that wasn't really necessary, folks spread out enough you could almost always find an opening even in the middle of the crowd (I always tended to be behind the line).  In a lot of cases I shot over somebody's shoulder. I'd tap them on the shoulder and say please don't move abruptly.  There were only a couple of spots where I got skunked, or more accuately where I ended up taking a shot of the photoline instead of the train.  Attached is my photo from the narrows of the photo line (note the four busses, potty wagon, and ambulance, plus police to control traffic....it was quite the caravan).  Folks were amazingly cooperative, even the prima donnas were cooperative.  And since the rotary moved slowly we had a lot of time to shoot the bull, so it turned into a really nice social occasion.  All in all, and much to my surprise (I almost didn't go because of the size of the crowd), it was one of the best photo shoots I have been on.

JBWX



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/20 19:14 by jbwest.

---

Great shots! You picked 3 of the ones that were my favorites, too. Ours at Lake Lobato are very similar, and I was in the snowshoe group, so Coxo and Cumbres are amongst my favorites of the trip. And as a bonus, I see myself, albeit slightly, in your photo line shot. I was right where the "L" cornered, and that's my backside standing on the shoulder with the tripod leg on the far left.

jbwest Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> <SNIP>  All
> in all, and much to my surprise, it was one
> of the best photo shoots I have been on.

I'll drink to that! I had my reservations about the event as well, from the lack of snow to my concerns as to how many runbys we were going to get, but was blown away by how well everything went. I don't know if it could've been better!
~wko

wko Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ours at Lake Lobato are very
> similar, and I was in the snowshoe group, so Coxo
> and Cumbres are amongst my favorites of the trip.

I think the snowshoe group at Coxo got the money shot of the trip, from what Michael Allen showed me.  I had rented snowshoes in anticipation of doing that trek, but I was doing so well that at age 80 I decided that there was no need to push my luck.  After seeing the results that others got I was sorry that I had not pushed a little harder.  But net net what a great outing.

JBWX

march_hare Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Geez, I wish I had gone on that trip. Instead, my
> wife and I scheduled a trip across Canada on the
> Canadian. 
>
> Which got cancelled because of the Indian
> disputes. Grumble grumble. 

I was lucky.  I booked both the C&TS rotary event and a trip on VIA in late March.  The C&TS event was a big success and at least I was able to get my money back from VIA.

JBWX

Very nice..!!

JB -

Your 2nd photo... "majestic" repeated 1,000 times, wouldn't even come close to describing the beauty of it!

(SP)2472 Don
Manoa Valley, O'ahu

jbwest Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I think the snowshoe group at Coxo got the money
> shot of the trip, from what Michael Allen showed
> me.

I would say that was probably my favorite video of the trip, with a tight race for 2nd between the state line to end day 1 and the final charge through the high drift at Cumbres. I was set up right next to Craig Linn at Coxo, who posted his video on the NGDF. For those who would like to see it, it's available to watch on his site: https://www.riogranderr.com/Proto/Narrow-Gauge/Movies/

>  After seeing the results that others got I
> was sorry that I had not pushed a little harder.
>  But net net what a great outing.

I'm gonna echo 2472Don and agree that the photo at the grade crossing is still a pretty good consolation prize! I wouldn't have wanted to be there for video, but photographically there's nothing wrong with the charge that y'all got for that short bit.

Yes, absolutely great outing!
~wko

wko Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I would say that was probably my favorite video of
> the trip, with a tight race for 2nd between the
> state line to end day 1 and the final charge
> through the high drift at Cumbres. 

My best was at state line, but I posted it earlier (https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,4968357,4968357#4968357) and didn't want to repost for this thread.  Craig's video is stunning so I suspect yours is as well.  My new "favorite" is this  long and narrow shot at Lobato which I'll post as an experiment to see how it looks here.

JBWX

---