Steam & Excursion > No People

After reading Gonut1's post on the Eastern Board where he said, "This is a cough-cough "private location" where I and my sons have watched, videoed, and captured on film and pixels that was invaded by literally hundreds of non-rail fans that needed to have selfies, fueled by social media..." I decided to post this pic of the 4014 with no people evident in the shot other than the crew.  Taken on the Clinton Sub near DeWitt IA on 6/2/2026, Jeff Van Cleve photo, my collection.

mike woodruff
north platte ne

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Mike,

Okay, out in the endless wastelands of America that is, I admit, was easy shot for Jeff Van Cleve! No people!
Try that here in the much more populated northeastern US. The few non "Tree Tunnels" are far and few between. Thus what was a sort of private viewing location for years, due to the incredible social media draw of 4014 became infested with literally hundreds of persons that would never have been there to witness the D&H 175th Anniversary train, the delivery of the then new Acelas. New CSX Bright Future locos from GE in Erie. And a couple of Amtrak Shopper Specials to the Reading Outlet Malls. Then countless Conrail Office Car Specials leading up to the Conrail "Split". then nothing... Crickets...
This was a special place for me and my two sons. Only yards from our home.
 In the 30 years living here the only thing absent was any steam power. The Big Boy is the first since I bought this house. We witnessed the last of the R&N 2102 just before it went into hibernation just weks before we setled here.
Yesterday was special, even if our "private" viewing area was overrun by hundreds of non-railfans, the photos, and videotapes taken over a couple of decades will remain special to me. I'm 80 and won't remain on this planet forever. I am overcoming Cancer at this time, prognosis good. I hope to continue railfanning for another 10-20 years. We'll see how that goes, but I don't think there will be another case of this location being completely overrun by social media crazed people.

Shhh! 4014 does need to return past here to continue it's tour after celebrating the 250th 4th of July in Philadelphia!
Note: I did manage to exclude many of the intruders but not all. Many were finding shade under any available trees, it was 102 F. Nasty but did I mention we were only 200 yards from our comfortable air-conditioned home?

Fun with trains! Keep up the great posts from the great wide open! They are always appreciated.

Gonut



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/26 20:29 by Gonut1.

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As the trip got farther east, the crowds got bigger and more widespread. Here at Barton, NY, a photo line formed well before arrival, and members of the line would calmly go,out and request that late arrivals come back to a nice shady spot and join us. 

Most did, enough so that you could crop out the extras. Hard to believe in modern America, but you can still get a lot done by being polite to people. 

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And hey, it's a public event. Work it right, and the people can be part of the scene. 

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